Brickley's
Words

Going through some old stuff, and found some recordings of bands I used to play in, and thought it‘d be cool to digitise them. They were on old 1/8″ cassette tapes (remember those?), and I just happen to have a USB cassette capture thingo, so away I went. And here’s the result. Don’t expect too much – these were recorded live, and cassettes aren’t known for their wide frequency response, or longevity. But it’s good toknow these recordings won’t be lost forever.

This one is an original song by “Pirates”, called “Tough Guys”, Written by the singer/guitarist Sam Bester. According to the label on the cassette, it was recorded on 26th January, 1990. No venue information was on the label, but I’m guessing it was probably at the “Doctor Syntax” hotel on Sandy Bay Rd, Sandy Bay.

.

Yet another bridge

Here is another bridge I built a while ago. It’s been used quite a few times on M>ltc layouts, and I decided it was time for it to retire.

It’s quite a simple one, and really follows on from my last Cable Stayed Bridge, using similar techniques, but with a much different result. The most interesting attribute is that it is mounted directly on the floor, removing the need for any lowered table.

The main support is a hollow 4×4 stud tower, encasing a 2×2 stud technic rod. At appropriate places along the length, technic pins attach to 1×1 technic bricks, which are held in the outer casing. Because LEGO is not 100% perfect, this actually results in the technic rod being under tension, and thus makes the tower very strong while allowing it to flex, similar to pre-stressed concrete.

The deck sections are basically the same as the previous version, except the cable attachment points were moved to the centre. The deck does flex quite noticeably when trains cross, but there hasn’t been any failure.

Anyway, for those interested, there’s some more photos in my flickr account.

Ukulele in LEGO bricks

Realising I’ve never owned a uke, I decided I’d try to make one. But instead of using wood, like any normal person, I decided to use LEGO bricks. Of course, there were some challenges.
Read the rest of this entry »

Well, after a crane mishap while packing up after Brickvention 2011, I decided not to re-build the CC-2800. There was way too much damage, and it had been together for too long anyway. I never got to raise the full 5 metre boom, but I did manage to get a pic at BV with approx. 4.2 metre boom.

Here is a photo of the crane as it currently is, after phase I sorting. I omitted the tracks & slew ring from this pic, as I have kept them together for a possible future project. I didn’t get any pics of the collapse, but it probably looked a bit like this:

Fast Tube by Casper

Another new crane. Built in a couple of hours using only parts from set 8288, read more about it here.