Sorting 2 Metric Tons of Lego

[FrgMstr]

Got two metric tons of Legos in your garage? I know there are some of our readers that just might as pointed out by this [H] Lego thread. (HardForum login and subscription required.) However this guy literally bought enough Lego bricks to fill his garage then had to figure out a way to sort all of those. It seems that fake Lego, discolored Lego, damaged Lego, and dirty Lego are issues during resale. So after I typed "dirty Lego" for this news post, I had to do a search. This link is NSFW.

Check out the video.

By the time it was done a regular garage was stacked top-to-bottom with crates and boxes of Lego. Sorting this manually was never going to work, some trial bits were sorted and by my reckoning it would take several life times to get that all organized.

Computer skills to the rescue! A first proof of concept was built of - what else - Lego. This was hacked together with some python code and a bunch of hardware to handle the parts. After playing around with that for a while it appeared there were several basic problems that needed to be solved, some obvious, some not so obvious.

 

[hlfbkd420]

My kids have about 50 pounds of Lego.. Sorting sucks... Takes several hours/days.... Then afterwards, the 3 year old just dumps the boxes out on the floor.. Rinse/repeat.

 

[sfsuphysics]

well maybe sorting wouldn't be so much of an issue if you wouldn't stop hording you god damn legos by slapping huge price tags on tiny little packages of them.

But seriously what did I watch in that 24 seconds of video? a slow roll down a conveyor belt and then air blowing it off another conveyor belt?

 

[Z3r0k3wl]

Would you say you have sorted 50 pounds of LEGOs for total of 88 days?

 

[Galvin]

Lego should start selling lego sorters, looks like there could be demand for such a product

 

[Trimlock]

My kid wrecks all of his lego set's weeks after he put it together because hes more interested in making stuff out of the lego bricks.

It all goes into one big pile, I had to laugh when my wife offered to help him sort his legos, she brought up bags and everything. A few hours later all they did was put the people in one pile and called it a day.

 

[FrgMstr]

My kid wrecks all of his lego set's weeks after he put it together because hes more interested in making stuff out of the lego bricks.

It all goes into one big pile, I had to laugh when my wife offered to help him sort his legos, she brought up bags and everything. A few hours later all they did was put the people in one pile and called it a day.

That made me LOL and I am not even a "Lego guy."