Sorting

[Tom a.k.a. eastawat]

In preparation for a large Technic project I'm planning, I decided to take stock of all my Technic and what better way to do it than by sorting it all!


There were some surprises, such as the number of clothes-hanger pieces I've got, and that there are loads of parts I can't begin to describe by name, and how much soup I apparently eat.

[John]

I found some old technic, possibly a crane -wheels and pneumatic and piping and beams(with holes) ,when this is all over I'll bring them to a meet up, well sorted though

[Tom a.k.a. eastawat]

Hmmm, a pneumatic crane... was it this by an chance? An old favourite of mine!

[John]

The tyres just slide in and are bigger ,mostly yellow colour prompting crane guess but lots of pieces.the recycling centre yielded train track on another occasion, I always check when I go there but not frequently enough. I always see dumped LEGO ,some i rescue some I issue last rites

[Patrick]

In preparation for a large Technic project I'm planning, I decided to take stock of all my Technic and what better way to do it than by sorting it all!
There were some surprises, such as the number of clothes-hanger pieces I've got, and that there are loads of parts I can't begin to describe by name, and how much soup I apparently eat.

That's some impressive sorting and Cully & Sully will be happy too!

The tyres just slide in and are bigger ,mostly yellow colour prompting crane guess but lots of pieces.the recycling centre yielded train track on another occasion, I always check when I go there but not frequently enough. I always see dumped LEGO ,some i rescue some I issue last rites

I can't believe that people dump Lego!  They could at least give it to a charity shop.  I often ask when I pass one but the never have any :(

[Aidan]

Anyone have suggestions on sorting. Bought several bulk buys from people who's kids grew out of lego.

But sorting the loose blocks is a major pain.

[John]

I wouldn't pay for a mess ,the 2 mega finds i got took a lot of time and still not sorted . 1 lot had lots of instructions and now I've loads of built sets to offload. Between the two I've a Kwik-e-mart and Simpson house and heaps besides. Kid lego = missing bits, chewed bits and possibly playdoh or scribbled on bricks plus stickers put on skew ways. Only plus was i made sets I'd never have otherwise made

[Tom a.k.a. eastawat]

I'm doing a lot of sorting at the moment, not that I'd say I have any tips. I bought a 15kg lot on adverts.ie a couple of weeks ago, first time I've ever done that, it was just too good a deal to refuse. So far I've cleaned and sorted nearly all the bricks, panels and plates, but still have to do windows, doors, tiles, vehicle parts, Technic parts, baseplates, weird oversized parts and "miscellaneous". I used up every empty container in the house sorting it into those broad categories at the start before cleaning. Also yet to be sorted: a few parts that will need extra cleaning work with an old toothbrush to get glitter and chocolate off them. Not looking forward to that.

Cleaning it is annoying, mainly because it takes so long to dry. I put everything into a big box, run it under the bath tap with a bit of washing up liquid, slosh it around, drain it (with difficulty) and rinse. Then I've got two towels laid out on the floor and I just spread it all out on those. After two days of letting it air dry I start sorting. It takes me about 2-3 hours to thoroughly sort two towels worth of Lego by type. Most of it's going into ziplock bags that I've saved from past Bricklink orders, although I'm now almost out of them and only have the really tiny ones. I go around by type, starting with the large pieces that are easier to pick out. I clear a space to put piles and do all the 1x2x5s, 1x1x5s, 1x16s down to anything over 1x8 so I've got about 6 piles, then when I've got all of them I bag them and start on another set of types e.g. 2x10 down to 2x2. I think trying to sort all types at once would just mean you have too many open bags on the go at once.

Inevitably I find ones I've missed though and have to go back. For some reason I seem to have 1x2x2-brick-blindness, thought I got them all early on and every 5 minutes for the rest of the evening I would find another one. Either that or they're breeding, which would be no bad thing!

Occasionally I find non-Lego, but I caught most of it in the pre-clean rough sorting, and very little has come out in my detailed sorting. Got about a small margarine tub's worth of non Lego.

But I really enjoy the sorting, it's like Christmas has come early whenever I get through a big freezer bag that's full of something really useful like 1x12 plates!

[John]

A conveyer belt is what you need. Were there any discernable sets in that lot and you missed a trick with chocolate advent calendar style in the bricks

[Aidan]

Thanks. The pouring out is probably the way to go. I have done it where einsorted colours from black and grey and then just find I'm still at square one.

Think might invest in some more small box storage units and just piur it out.

Must do the clean u mentioned as herself won't help me unless it's perfectly clean 

[David]

When cleaning big lots I throw the parts in the bath and with warm water use clothes hand washing powder as I find it the best enzyme for eating away dirt. That said, large plates I usually accompany it by a good scrub with a dedicated Lego nail brush. Even without the nail brush your nails end up glowing white after about 30 seconds (added bonus?)

[Aidan]

So update for anyone interested. I'm sorting into colours from big lot and getting rid of megablock. Horrified by how many.

Then gonna wash them and then sort into individual pieces from there is the current plan.

[John]

Were there instructions or hints at what they wrre or is it to amass a volume of bricks for  a MOC

[John]

Every so often i find a part of a set I know is incomplete and go through finding parts for other missing set pieces ,as I don't have anything sorted bar colour in Ziploc bags but assembled mater ,eyes sore from going through stuff to complete him, only missing a flat 2x1 tile, maybe a meet up at Tom's should be our next venue????!!!???

[Tom a.k.a. eastawat]

:D :D :D
My sorting has improved a lot in the last couple of months, I can find any tile in seconds John!

These days the soup boxes are all gone too, thankfully.