Chairlift

When in need of height,

using the Bygglek boxes works like a charm.

Modified (again) the mountain station such

that it can now simply be put on top of the box.

Thanks to everyone who voted for the Chairlift.

Getting halfway "to the top" already feels like victory to me.

But "the more you get, the more you want",

so let's try and bring it to "the next station".

MOCed my own MOC??

Is automatically raising the safety bars possible?

Well, this is how I managed it.

One of the difficult things was the proper gearing. Going too fast and the minifigs would complain. Going too slow and they'd be bored. Initially, I tried a worm gear, but that didn't give a very smooth motion.

So, I had to resort to three pairs of gears for the downgearing. How to make that fit inside the motor station? This is how I managed to do that.

Finally, I added the knob gear to trigger the periodic blinking of the warning light.

One of the working things besides the chairlift is the turnstile.

Making a video of that is rather difficult, since my fingers would obscure almost the whole thing.

So, I kept it at an animation ;-)

I got several comments like "It's a nice build, but would it be a nice set?"

I've tried to improve that. The mountain is replaced by a motor station underneath the top wheel and the lower station floor plate has been replaced with a smaller (less square) plate.

Furthermore, I've tried to make the rest more subtle also:

I hope you like it!

Again, thank you all for supporting this!

Besides transporting minifigs, the chairlift is capable of transporting balls.

Enjoy my chairlift converted to a working GBC.

Since this project is my first attempt to use Bricklink studio, I've been experimenting a bit with the rendering options (which I like a lot).

I hope you like this video of the Chairlift being (dis)assembled!

Thank you all for supporting this!

When I started this ideas project, I already had some ideas for updating.

However, that didn't include what most comments hinted at.

Two comments stood out: "Mountain", and "Winter village".

So, I focused on that. I added a mountain, and a winter themed version.

In order to keep the number of bricks within limits - the mountain is rather 'brick hungry',

I reduced the number of chairs. Besides reducing the brick count directly, it also reduces the

required height for the mountain (the cable needs a certain angle to connect to the smaller wheels).

Total brick count is now 2140 pieces.

The use of the mountain is optional.

The mountain station can still be put on any elevated surface.

Switching between the summer and the winter themes means replacing decorative parts only.

Well, that is, if you consider the minifig torsos decorative parts. They might disagree ;-)

To automate the chair lift, simply connect a motor to the free axle going through the bottom of the mountain station (it's red in the picture below). Switching between automated and manual control (only needed if a motor is connected) is done by removing the middle (idler) gear (also red in the picture) in the mountain station.

Besides these changes, I also strengthened the stations holding the big wheels, as well as the connection between those stations and the bases. The liftarms going through the bases are now connected to the bottom plate (see picture). This prevents the stations to wobble when manually operating the lift.