My attempt to redesign the Lego brick and Lego System to make it better...

[henrysunset]

Some of you may know that I've undertaken a "30 day Lego challenge" where I'm trying to build a model or do a project to better understand the Lego system nearly every day for 30 days...  

 

In this project I did some experiments to better understand the relative proportions of the width of a brick to it's height, the width of a stud, the thickness of the wall of a brick and other relevant proportions.  Overall, the system works well, but it is a bit weird. (ex: Why did they decide to make bricks taller than they are wide anyways!?)

 

 

As such, I decided to "redesign" the Lego brick to eliminate some of the quirks of the system while making building techniques which I like easier to achieve (ex: offsetting bricks).  I designed the new bricks in CAD software, and even printed a few on a 3d printer.

 

My 3d-printed bricks based on a new design...

 

In doing so, I discovered some new challenges, but I think the project will be interesting to people on this forum.

 

LINK: http://tomalphin.com/2013/11/lego-challenge-25-redesigning-lego-bricks-tomblox.html

 

Let me know if you think this is interesting, or have further ideas...

 

Sincerely,

---tom

[TheDarkness]

The Lego brick is already an item of perfection, fitting perfectly and..... it is my preciousssssssssss.

No honestly, I am very interested in seeing your results.

[TheOrcKing]

It is interesting how looking at your results so far sheds some light as to why Lego made the design choices they did in a way. Unrelated to this specific project, I enjoyed your stunning rendition of the Escher classic "Waterfall". Nicely captured without the use of image alteration.

[sadowsk1]

People like it for what it is.  Sounds like you are swimming upstream.

[Deez_Brickz]

That image of those 3D printed elements should be posted in any thread where people worry about 3D printing ruining lego investing.

[Sauromosis]

Thanks for posting, I appreciate your creativity.

[Ed Mack]

That image of those 3D printed elements should be posted in any thread where people worry about 3D printing ruining lego investing.

I agree.  It still works pretty well though.