What the heck is Dan building?

[Dan]

I figure it’s high time jump on the bandwagon and start my own “What the heck…” thread. Though we’re currently in the midst of Febrovery, I’ve been working on a monorail MOC since mid last month that’s finally far enough to call “done”. This started as a little messing around while I took a break from sorting and spiraled into a full blown project.

A quick little rocket led to a quick little satellite which planted seeds of a larger, longer rocket hauling car build. The rocket hauler clearly needed an engine so I started on that, iterated a few times, got sidetracked building a flatcar, and finally returned to finish the engine.

So without further ado I present to you my Ice Planet Monorail:

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[Benjamin C Good]

Sweet, you can never have too many ‘What the heck’ threads.

Nice monorail, does it really drive? Does the motor struggle with all that weight?

[Dan]

Thanks! It is fully operational on flat loops, haven’t tested it on hills yet. The engine struggles a bit around turns given the number of bogies (8 total, I’ll probably scale back to just 5 if I run it at shows). They create a lot of friction through curves as they simple slide along the central rack. Exacerbating the issue is the fact I have three pairs mounted on 2×8 Technic plates which looks awesome at the cost of binding up quicker.

So it’s functional, but just. The motor is mounted on a pair of gimbals under the rear of the engine.

[Tom Frost]

Nice! Looks really cool Dan! I really like the design of the rocket and launcher car. I need to get around to staring one of these threads too…

[LegoDude]

Great seasonal look. The use of snow as a prop is great. Maybe tomorrow you can post the ice planet version!

[Rich Millich]

I am still digging that plow up front. Good shaping + nice texture greeble.

[Dan]

@tfdesigns Thanks! The rocket actually started it all. And yes, there’s a satellite squeezed inside! 😁 More detailed pictures are available on my newly created blog. Posting more than one Febrovery pic is hard enough on the forums!

@legodude Thank you! I just wish the deer hadn’t kicked up so much snow haha! Taking Lego outside rarely happened as a kid (afraid to lose pieces!), but lately it’s happened more often – just makes for some cool shots!

@zaximillian Digging? Plow?? Pun intended?! I thought attaching it might be hard, but that V seems to fit perfectly on an eight stud base (I didn’t do the math)

[Dan]

I’ve been busy making maple syrup, so not much build time since Febrovery ended.

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[Greg Schubert]

How many gallons of tree sap do you need to make a gallon of syrup?

[Dan]

It depends on a few factors, but the average is 40gal sap/1gal syrup. I’m closer a 65:1 ratio since I’ve got a red maple in the mix (sugar maples have higher sugar concentrations in their sap).

[LegoDude]

Our Friend’s son in Erie does also make syrup. Lines everywhere running to a pool and they ended up building a pressure boiler shack. Quite the set up. Are you this complex?

[Dan]

We’re not that fancy (yet). I tapped three trees this year, though we’ve got a couple more that may be big enough.

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