[Matt Denton] was inspired by [James Bruton]’s scaled up LEGO and decided to create his own giant LEGO project. He found a classic model that he wanted to scale up. 1985’s Technic Go-Kart (set #1972) contained 98 pieces and seemed manageable.
He wanted to create something his 8yo nephew [Ruben] could sit in, but had to rule out a fully kid-sized go-kart. It had also to be (at least somewhat) economical with regards to plastic and printing time. [Matt] settled on sizing the largest piece—the 2×8 plate—to fit diagonally on the 11”x11” bed of his Lulzbot Taz5.
It took 168 hours to print all 98 parts (some of them in a series of smaller pieces), 5 kilos total of filament at mostly 20% infill. The resulting car can be assembled and disassembled just like LEGO—no glue! The rack and pinion steering actually works and the Ninjaflex-tired wheels roll as one would expect. So, pretty much the same as the real model only five times bigger. The only non-LEGO components are threaded rods down the middle of his cross axles as well as the hose, just Neoprene hosing from a hardware store.
[Matt] is well-known to Hackaday readers, being one of the original BB-8 builders as well as co-creator of the Mantis walking robot. He’ll be on hand this weekend in Maker Faire Hannover to share this project, Mantis, and others.
um maybe 5 timed bigger in each direction (125 times larger)
Scale refers to equally increasing dimensions in all 3 axis, hence we say 5 x scale. You are referring to volume, 125 x volume.
That is super cool, expecially the giant steering rack and tyres
Brilliant!
Now where’s the motor :)
He’s perpetual motion machine pictured in Part 1 of the build.
Honey, I blew up the LEGO Technic Go-Kart. With Wayne Szalinski (Rick Moranis). Coming to theatres summer 2018.
1++
I wonder how many nozzles it took. From what I understand those don’t last forever right?
While it is true that nozzles don’t last forever, I doubt this took more than one. In my experience, I’ve had to change the nozzle on my printer once or twice a year, depending on what filaments I use.
Now this is a good use of a 3D printer.
Now that is one awesome project!
Cool but THE BIGGEST WASTE OF MONEY EVER
Yeah, he should have given the money to your mother for birth control. Partypooper.
Not so sure.. I think he might be able to sell it for more than what the materials cost, so then it becomes just a waste of time ;)
Oh my GLOB!!! If Lego doesn’t start making a bunch of stuff like this for kids to build when they go to the theme park, then they are dumb. I would love to build stuff out of giant lego kits. They have the money to do it and could make a kids fantasies come true.