Empire State Building as you may or may not have seen it before

mbalbritton

mbalbritton

#@$%!
Joined
Mar 22, 2005
Location
Lakeland, FL
approx. 19' tall and made from about 200K LEGO bricks. The guy in the teal shirt stands about 6'2" and he's the one that built it in 650 hours. This one is going to LEGOLAND New York.

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Awesome. Do they employ machinist there? My son graduates in a year......
 
I loved Legos as a kid but I think I'd have tapped out around the 20th floor on that one!
 
Question. Are the blocks bonded and glued permanently? I always hated dropping my creations as a kid...planting firecrackers in them was a different story.
 
WARRIORWELDING said:
Question. Are the blocks bonded and glued permanently? I always hated dropping my creations as a kid...planting firecrackers in them was a different story.
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Related - is there an internal structure that is not Lego? E.g. hidden structural beams etc?

Also - is the 650 hours construction time, or the whole project? I assume there is a good deal of CAD planning, and then some crazy complex method of organizing parts/getting prepared for build so it can go in a sane fashion... not how most of us did it w/ a giant bin of random parts to dig through.
 
We do use a solution to bind the bricks at the molecular level. But not allowed to talk about it. You can however use MEK to do the same. But you better act fast and not put he wrong part in the wrong place. It melts the ABS plastic together.

as for internal, the models are hollow with LEGO bracing. For models over 4’ we do have SS structures. For this it’s a 4x4 post running up the middle.

for sculptures like say a dragon or animal, there is a skeleton made of SS.

We do have a full machine shop here too. Certified welders, machinist, draftsman, electricians. For the models themselves ww design them in LEGO proprietary software. Basically a 3D CAD software that has all of the LEGO parts built into the program.

As well the builders go through some extensive training on build techniques to ensure it’s built strong and safe.
 
MEK is nasty stuff. I generally avoid it whenever possible.

Are you at liberty to say anything about the setup process to prepare for build? How to get organized etc?
Like, OK you have a CAD model. Then order 200,000 parts.... so now hundreds of thousands of parts show up. How does one organize that and prepare for a 4 months long build project with so many pieces, so you can find what you need at the right time? The logistics of this seem baffling to me.
Or, I assume the project must be broken into stages, with batches of parts coming as each one winds down. I guess it's like any other construction management project, just on a different scale.

I'm an idea guy. Not so good at planning stuff, lol.

Also, I'm assuming a build like this must be a team of constructors. Rough math says ~300 block per hour average, or ~50 clicks per minute, working straight w/o any coffee time, ass scracthing or moving a ladder around.
 
mbalbritton said:
We do use a solution to bind the bricks at the molecular level. But not allowed to talk about it. You can however use MEK to do the same. But you better act fast and not put he wrong part in the wrong place. It melts the ABS plastic together.

as for internal, the models are hollow with LEGO bracing. For models over 4’ we do have SS structures. For this it’s a 4x4 post running up the middle.

for sculptures like say a dragon or animal, there is a skeleton made of SS.

We do have a full machine shop here too. Certified welders, machinist, draftsman, electricians. For the models themselves ww design them in LEGO proprietary software. Basically a 3D CAD software that has all of the LEGO parts built into the program.

As well the builders go through some extensive training on build techniques to ensure it’s built strong and safe.
Click to expand...
I just got more jealous of that whole process.....welding, machining, and building bricks. Talk about a phenomenal kid at heart place to be.
 
If you're dealing with 200k or more blocks, do you have to worry about slight color variations due to different manufacturing lots, and mix lots as you assemble layers? Or are they mostly consistent?
 
WARRIORWELDING said:
I just got more jealous of that whole process.....welding, machining, and building bricks. Talk about a phenomenal kid at heart place to be.
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No crap.
If I had any talent as a designer, could stand the heat in Florida, and enjoyed riding wheelies on sport bikes as a past time instead of wheeling, I'd say we team up and go down for a job...but...not single, hate heat, hate flat land, and my time on sport bikes is past
 
@CasterTroy single, hate heat, hate flat land, and my time on sport bikes is past
Summed it up nicely.
 
So how do you ship something like that? Does it come apart in sections that are not bonded, or does it stay in one piece?

Very cool, and I’m glad you shared it!
 
Do you need any engineer-turned-salesmen types? I know a guy...

I'll just echo that this brings out the kid in any technical types, but you still get the adult challenge of overcoming quality and logistics issues.

Shipping-wise, I don't imagine it would hold up to shipping in the horizontal position unless you crated it with an expanding foam type packing. Never mind it would be a lot more expensive to ship in one piece. I imagine it breaks down into two main sections with a "topper" so it can be shipped upright via truck. I have no idea if that's accurate, but it was a fun thought exercise...
 
RatLabGuy said:
MEK is nasty stuff. I generally avoid it whenever possible.

Are you at liberty to say anything about the setup process to prepare for build? How to get organized etc?
Like, OK you have a CAD model. Then order 200,000 parts.... so now hundreds of thousands of parts show up. How does one organize that and prepare for a 4 months long build project with so many pieces, so you can find what you need at the right time? The logistics of this seem baffling to me.
Or, I assume the project must be broken into stages, with batches of parts coming as each one winds down. I guess it's like any other construction management project, just on a different scale.

I'm an idea guy. Not so good at planning stuff, lol.

Also, I'm assuming a build like this must be a team of constructors. Rough math says ~300 block per hour average, or ~50 clicks per minute, working straight w/o any coffee time, ass scracthing or moving a ladder around.
Click to expand...

Planning is my thing! Take into consideration that I can have a production delivery schedule of 6 months and it can take upwards of 4 months to get orders from LEGO, there is a good bit of for site and planning ahead. We keep quite an inventory on hand. Can't say how much, but suffice it to say... A LOT!

When a location for a new park is selected, a designer goes on a research trip to determine what building from the area will be represented. At that time a good ballpark can be determined of what colors we will need., and what volume. that takes care of any large qty orders that will be needed. Then as the project is being designed, a BOM for each model is created and checked against inventory as it's built to confirm parts availability or if we need to place smaller orders or do inter-shop transfers from our 3 other production facilities (Malaysia, England, Germany)

When a build starts, there are weekly requests for the parts needed on the floor. these go to my warehouse on site, they pull it and have it ready for the builders. We also keep a production floor stock that they can pull from and my Inventory guys keep stocked daily.

Some models are team builds, but most are individuals. Depends on the footprint. too small of a footprint and they just get in the way of each other. There are times when we're under a crunch that different sections can be built simultaneously at different desk.

Nice job on the estimate, 300 bricks per hour is a good target including ass scratching time for an experienced and dedicated builder. the average is probably more in the lines of 250.


kaiser715 said:
If you're dealing with 200k or more blocks, do you have to worry about slight color variations due to different manufacturing lots, and mix lots as you assemble layers? Or are they mostly consistent?
Click to expand...
Absolutely, there are color variations from different batches of LEGO. But they will also UV Fade at different rates. It's crazy to see how brutal the Sun and weather is on this.



77GreenMachine said:
So how do you ship something like that? Does it come apart in sections that are not bonded, or does it stay in one piece?

Very cool, and I’m glad you shared it!
Click to expand...
Yes, if you look closely you'll see segments. We try to stick to sections no more than about 4' tall. For shipping, each section is palatalized, wrapped in cloth and strapped down and everything goes by dedicated truck and each pallet is screwed to the floor of the truck. Never LTL!!! that building is valued at about $30K.
 
Do you ever have to get a factory to make a custom run of bricks to make something work out? Custom color, shape, length, etc??
 
kaiser715 said:
Do you ever have to get a factory to make a custom run of bricks to make something work out? Custom color, shape, length, etc??
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Nope. We do not use any brick that you can not buy from LEGO. Even when LEGO discontinues a part, we have to remove it from inventory.

BRUISER said:
are people allowed to take tours of your facility?
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at my discretion.

superman27344 said:
Now this wasnt a kit right? This guy actually designed it and built it just using blocks that he had to find and figure out correct?
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correct. Look up LEGO software call LEGO Brick Builder and LEGO Digital Designer. You too can design like the professionals!
 
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