Full Size Lego Harpsichord

[MaryAnn]

I don't know if this has made the rounds yet:
http://www.henrylim.org/Harpsichord.html

MA

[Chuck(G)]

Boy, the description is full of this kind of statement:

The end result is as resonant as LEGO will get

Which really makes one want to ask "Why?"

I guess the builder can now move on to a Popsicle stick piano...

[Leland]

Which really makes one want to ask "Why?"

Why not? LEGOs rock, anyway.

What blows my mind is that it really is playable, with well over 300 lbs of tension. Not bad at all for a bunch of plastic bricks.

[Chuck(G)]

What blows my mind is that it really is playable, with well over 300 lbs of tension. Not bad at all for a bunch of plastic bricks.

...except that it's not just a bunch of plastic bricks. It's a bunch of special shapes (Technic) and lots of glue. He might as well have melted the Legos down and cast them into the shapes that he needed.

I think it's more remarkable that you can basically take some trees, a couple of animals and some rocks and build the real thing, don't you?

[Leland]

Wow, such cynicism. Forget that I even commented.

I can't understand why someone would hate an effort like that. Ridiculous.

[Ames0325]

Has anybody besides me been brave enough to listen to the MP3 sample file yet?

yeah it sounds terrible. I think my computer keyboard is more musical.

Amy

[Chuck(G)]

Wow, such cynicism. Forget that I even commented.

I can't understand why someone would hate an effort like that. Ridiculous.

I don't hate it, honest--I just don't see the point of it.

That a craftsman can start with a pile of lumber and some wire and produce a high-quality musical instrument is more remarkable to me than building one out of lego blocks.

Besides, I'm more of an Erector set person.

[Leland]

Why not build something just for the fun of it?

Some of you guys take this music thing way too seriously.

[Shockwave]

I've seen some crazy lego creations but that harpsichord mystifies me. That thing just required too much labor and money for the sound it makes. A lego bass clarinet would probably work better.

Unfortunately, cheating is sometimes required when you push legos to their limits. The best thing I ever built was a lego steam engine with two vertical double acting cylinders. It would run with stock legos for the cylinders, but occasionally a piston (a 4x4 plate) would hang and the engine would self destruct. To solve that, I carefully filed down the cylinder walls to make them smooth and lined the inside with packing tape. I then also took the drastic step of supergluing the pistons and valves onto their shafts. With those modifications and some Pledge for lubrication, I could run the engine with a vacuum cleaner and get it up over 1500 rpm with so much torque I couldnt even slow down the flywheel shaft by grabbing it with my fingers. I thought about making a steam powered vacuum pump from lego (basically just a nozzle) so the engine would actually run on steam power, but by that time I had dropped the engine and didnt feel like putting it back together.

-Eric

[Daryl Fletcher]

[Daryl Fletcher]

I thought about making a steam powered vacuum pump from lego (basically just a nozzle) so the engine would actually run on steam power.

I've seen some really neat things that people have done with Lego trains, but I never considered the possibility of running live steam. How would you keep it from melting?

There is a very active Lego train club in Atlanta. I see their displays sometimes at shopping malls, model train shows, etc. They even have a Big Chicken.

[Matt G]

Why not build something just for the fun of it?

Some of you guys take this music thing way too seriously.

Cynics...

They know the price of everything and the value of nothing.

If we want to get on the topic of practicality, why did we every go to the moon? Most of the information gathered from going there could have been done staying right here on earth.

People like legos, and people like to build things with them. Yeah, maybe a little glue was needed. Whatever. A lot of folks say, "Why the ____ do you sit around and play in a band with 30lbs of brass sitting in your lap, when you could be sitting out here listening and drinking beer?"

Thanks for passing along the link MaryAnn.

[TexTuba]

I like it. That takes a ton of patience and skill. So it sounds bad. Oh well...bottom line he wanted to build one and he did. More power to him. I miss legos...









Ralph

[Lew]

I didn't see the pricetag anywhere. Anyone know what it cost him to build?

In the end though, all he has is an expensive harpsichord made of plastic that sounds bad.

He could have used the money to buy a decent kit and built the real thing.

It seems to me that a quote from Jurrasic Park (the first one) is appropriate - appropriately paraphrased:

"You guys are so busy thinking about whether you can do something that you don't think about whether you should."

His wife must be very tolerant - mine would go nuts if I spent that kind of money on a instrument that sounds so bad.

If he had wanted an instrument that played well he could have made or bought one. The point is that it is made of Legos, not what it sounds like. It's his money and time, and it he clearly thought it to be worth it. I say more power to him.

[CJ Krause]

***

[Shockwave]

I've seen some really neat things that people have done with Lego trains, but I never considered the possibility of running live steam. How would you keep it from melting?

To power my engine with steam would be rather indirect and the steam wouldnt enter the engine. Instead I would build a steam ejector, a kind of vacuum pump with no moving parts. A jet of steam would be positioned near the exit of a specially shaped duct made of legos, drawing air through the engine to make it run. Since the steam wouldn't contact any legos and the duct has no mechanical function, melting shouldnt be a problem. This isn't very efficient, but it's the best way I can think of to power a lego engine with fire. The engine is too large for use in a locomotive, but I'm sure it could move a ship along nicely.

I found on the internet not long ago some pictures and a video clip of a "live steam" lego Heisler locomotive. It had two lego pneumatic cylinders in the v configuration driving the wheels via gears. Lego train track has very sharp bends so the geared mountain logging locomotives like the Heisler and Shay are the best options. I bought some lego pneumatics with the aim of building an engine, but they have very high friction and many people have already built engines that way. One fellow in europe has even made a v8 engine using the pneumatic cylinders. Making a steam engine with ordinary legos is much more fun (and more powerful).

-Eric

[Chuck(G)]

I like it. That takes a ton of patience and skill. So it sounds bad. Oh well...bottom line he wanted to build one and he did. More power to him. I miss legos...
Ralph

Sometimes we all do strange things. After I built my first computer in 1975, I built a harpsichord in my living room (I still have it). After I finished (a year later), the place was a disaster area, so I moved.

At the same time I was doing the harpsichord, a friend was building an airplane in his apartment. He had to lower it out of his balcony piecemeal. His carpeting was filled with bits of metal and oil. He's lucky his landlord didn't sue him.

[Doug@GT]

I thought about making a steam powered vacuum pump from lego (basically just a nozzle) so the engine would actually run on steam power.

I've seen some really neat things that people have done with Lego trains, but I never considered the possibility of running live steam. How would you keep it from melting?

There is a very active Lego train club in Atlanta. I see their displays sometimes at shopping malls, model train shows, etc. They even have a Big Chicken.

That's really neat. I'm gonna try to build one sometime.

Doug "who was born not far from the big chicken and who's brother passes it everyday on the way to work"

[Leland]

A lot of folks say, "Why the ____ do you sit around and play in a band with 30lbs of brass sitting in your lap, when you could be sitting out here listening and drinking beer?"

Wait a minute...

(pondering the past twenty years...)