How Much Weight Can LEGO Lift?

[@Theretrogamerman]

Can we get a moment of silence for all the gears sacrificed for this video?

[@ZackRToler]

Darn grubs

[@FnMadsuby]

Yes 🥲

[@carleyshark]

But can it lift my spirits

[@ElliotsLegoCreations]

No.

[@nerfgodbigguy1405]

Now THAT'S the real question😔

[@jacobmcnulty4706]

Unfortunately nothing can lift that

[@Waterdog37]

Sorry bro, no it cant

[@ball_sack6969]

no😢

[@MoonFlux]

That moment when Lego can lift better then you can.

[@Achedb0b1]

*than : )

[@360WakaWaka]

First of all, through simple machines, anything is possible so jot that down

[@fishy2584]

Then that's just sad every adult human should be able to easily lift 35kg

[@Eddiee757]

you cant lift 35kg?

[@EnzoDiscoveryMoonLight23]

35kg is 77lbs for any other American, also yeah you can’t lift 77lbs?

[@in1]

Nice tests, didn't expect it to be able to lift so much! With the scissor/parallelogram design you'll also have to consider the starting height: the lever of the mechanism is the vertical distance between actuator/string and joint, which obviously increases the higher it gets. So, the extended form of a scissor can lift up to 5x more than the retrachted one.

[@BuilditwithBricks]

Thanks for the comment! I was aware of the lever but i wanted to see how much it could lift from its fully ‘closed’ state. Balance was difficult on this one - unlike lifting a car with a scissor jack where the car has other points of contact with the ground to keep it stable, the unrestrained weights slid everywhere!

[@alessiomasciandaro1022]

​@@BuilditwithBricksdo you have instructions for the last one shown in the vid?

[@Doodle_BobHasAPencil]

the fact that the majority of the lego community is probably one of the smartest is kinda interesting

[@Zorro9129]

These designs are incredible! You're a real engineer. Seems to me the weak point is always going to be the gears in the end, because the plastic teeth fail very easily under heavy load.

[@BuilditwithBricks]

Thanks for the support! Yes gearing is tricky - I’ve got more than a few damaged gears gathering in my broken parts bin!

[@KneppaH]

You can add more in parallel but after that the axles become the weakest point and it will twist itself apart.

[@bramweinreder2346]

Would it be more robust with worm wheels? More friction, but at least they translate much less force the other way (if anything).

[@Take5JLW]

Always wondered what lego with solid steel parts would equate to after watching these parts break so easily

[@bobthegamingtaco6073]

There's something similar out there called Erector sets (i know, that name is kinda 💀)

[@Take5JLW]

@@bobthegamingtaco6073 Did actually have one at one point. I think it was a bicycle?

[@moss2309]

3:33 "Upgrade". Men's reaction: "Hell yeah 😎💪"

[@physicsmathstutor5408]

stop stealing chipmunks

[@Godzilla_The_King-l4m]

​@@physicsmathstutor5408 😂

[@user-jm8sy5ox2j]

So one of the best lift tables you can buy for machine shops and whatnot has 4 long verticle threaded shafts in the corners and what is effectively a large nut attached to the moving surface of the table. For low torque applied to the threaded shafts, you can lift massive amounts of weight on the table. You could easily replicate this with a long lego axle and worm gears lined up on it, attach some gear reduction to the bottom of each axle, then chain it all to one motor. With a proper table design, which shouldn't be that difficult, you could have lifted significantly more weight than a normal rack and pinion setup like this video used.

[@JordanBeagle]

I love to see how the failure point changes from improvement to improvement

[@adonisengineering5508]

Professional definition of an improvement: This time it did not break in the same way.

[@Sauriermann]

"Give me enough Legos, and I will move the world.” -Archimedes

[@angeltensey]

Quick answer: as much as you want as long as you have proper gear ratio. And we are not even touching hydraulics yet.

[@devoncampbell3607]

Up until the plastic breaks

[@PoweredUP_]

​@@devoncampbell3607add more plastic

[@E2..]

​​@@PoweredUP_At some point you will run out of lego...

[@britishneko3906]

​@@E2.. make more

[@E2..]

@@britishneko3906 When the weight keeps increasing as some point, we will reach a limit where we can only make enough lego to replace the pieces that go bad with age, even assuming that the building process for the lift takes no time and you could swap pieces out without breaking the structure

[@IMPERATOR4]

one motor can lift a ton, if the construction is reinforced enough, the problem is... time.. you will have to wait A LOT!

[@BuilditwithBricks]

Very true! Also hard to make plastic LEGO pieces take the torque required when geared in such a way!

[@Clawed..]

Give me a lever long enough and a fulcrum on which to place it, and I shall move the world. Archimedes

[@xxhellspawnedxx]

Cool experiment! The best power/holding would probably be with worm gears driving gear racks on the lifting platform, as these have more "teeth" in contact with the weight carrying portion of the device at any one time.

[@derrickmiles5240]

What's funny is that he used the scissor jack design, when that's usually paired with a bolt tightening mechanism, not dissimilar in principle to a worm gear.

[@_XRMissie]

Worm gears would have horrendous friction and would need grease. Pulleys or planetary gearboxes are probably the way to go imho

[@robster7787]

You need to do a part 2 because as someone that has done this before, you can lift much heavier than what you did AND with less parts. Utilize more gear racks and gear Turntables in your build. Multiple Turntables handles distribution load much better than single axels.

[@screentimer]

do it then

[@micnoozm78]

For the Americans, that's 78.2 lbs. wow!

[@terrancekalina332]

What is

[@TWITCH307]

For the Brits. That 2 whole buckets of tooth plaque.

[@plywood55]

​@@TWITCH307 Ахахахахаха

[@cmdrratzass7305]

Arrrrghh… this is torture. Torturing the bricks and the engineer within me. Repeatedly fixing the symptoms, but never treating the underlying problems that caused them in first place. And those poor gears! They did not deserve this! 😭 Very cool video, but it kinda grinds my gears. Pun intended.

[@lucaslugao]

Exactly! Such poor engineering!

[@kyucumbear]

Oh no. Damaged parts in a stress test. How could this happen?

[@JordanBeagle]

It would be cool if you compared the mass of the lifts themselves versus how much they can lift

[@Mattmanwow]

This guy has a degree in lego civil engineering.

[@jackradzelovage6961]

good video. just had to say tho, as someone who spends a lot of time figuring out how to optimize the strength of drivetrains and suspension systems for the insane forces they can see during extreme operation, some of these connections and joints hurt my whole brain

[@legendarylegodude11]

You know to give up when LEGO can lift more than you can bench

[@drivernephi5587]

I know if you put in more than a week or 2 you can lift way more than 80 pounds

[@bonovoxel7527]

I'm no engineer of sort but I've seen some major flaws in the pulley system, ofc it failed splitting the gears which is what I didn't notice at first. That thing is bending, and the torque needed to start the pull is higher than from 50% on. It all spreads trough the structure, and imo it gonna crack it after splitting the gearbox at 2:00 and before consuming the wire against brick's corners. You apparently need a stronger chassis, its kinda disappointing that the main point of failure there are bricks connection and not power or simply the ABS the material itself. I enjoy all these experiments video tho! :)

[@GadgetTherapy]

The time and effort that goes into these Builds, and the engineering knowledge is brilliant.

[@BuilditwithBricks]

I appreciate the kind comment! Thanks!

[@DNHarris]

Now Lego no longer needs to feel left-out when people ask, "Do you even lift, legbro?"

[@omegaandromeda6368]

Nice i like Those Upgrade steps you Show in this Video

[@BuilditwithBricks]

Ah thanks! Glad you enjoyed!

[@Mattthetatt]

That is a cool scissor lift :)

[@BuilditwithBricks]

Thanks!

[@NWPhillyWX]

i like how it slowly just gets more and more ridiculous

[@timrussell3327]

This is awesome! Best yet!

[@BuilditwithBricks]

Thanks!

[@jtgamer108]

I'm waiting until a car jack made of Legos can lift a full-scale car without breaking

[@natepellegrino7974]

*Me Applauding* i am impressed, putting up that much weight is pretty cool to see. Good job!!!!

[@JBBrickman]

When I saw the thumbnail, I thought it was gonna be able to lift a car for some reason, honestly I’m surprised it doesn’t Legos are pretty strong

[@FrostmoonPlayz]

almost 80 pounds!?!? Madman! This is awesome! XD fr tho just imagine you're one of the little lego dudes and you have to work on that thing if it breaks down.

[@bennett454]

This is the best Lego technic lift ever 🎉😂❤!!!!!!!

[@BuilditwithBricks]

Thanks for the comment and support!

[@bennett454]

@@BuilditwithBricks OMG OMG 😱 IS THIS REALITY HAPPENING THE PERSON THAT STARTED THIS SHOW IS REPLYING TO MY COMMENT?

[@bennett454]

@@BuilditwithBricks 😱😱😱

[@xlZENlx]

The last one reminds me of how strong a bottle jack style-jack is.

[@lonelyboat2291]

Amazing video, i can see you put time and effort into making these marvellous machines 👏 subscribed!

[@BuilditwithBricks]

Thanks very much! I appreciate the support!

[@dakotadennett6979]

Damn I’ll use that as a jack stand this weekend thanks for the safety hack!

[@Userwsh-gg]

As this amazing video demonstrates, Lego is stronger than me😂

[@micke3035]

It's also a question of how much lift height you want, a lever system could of course lift a huge amount without putting stress on gears and stuff but only travel a short distance in height.

[@mackpackable]

Give me a lever long enough and a fulcrum on which to place it, and I shall move the world.

[@MrBossmoss17]

The first two iterations are like watching my grandmother do weightlifting... 😅

[@falkez1514]

bruh the second upgrade hit me like old minecraft survival videos: "Hey guys, so I did a little mining off camera" - proceeds to show giant diamond castle

[@TACTICALOCTOPUS]

I'm a grown man and I appreciate this content

[@lordraven1991]

I don't know if you will see this, or if it will be relevant or not, but a few years ago I watched a guy lift a concrete road barrier using only Lego by building one hell of a block and tackle crane set up. It needed a few metal axels and by the end most of the supports that the axels spun in were destroyed, but he did manage to lift it an inch or so off the ground.

[@BuilditwithBricks]

Hey thanks for the comment! I’ve made a video on pulling a car with block and tackle - no metal axles though! That video you mention sounds interesting! What people can achieve with LEGO is amazing!

[@grigoreguzun5374]

This person is really inteligent to build this machine 👏👏👏

[@Aejaky]

"But can it lift my spirits" yes, of course it can, it's lego

[@call_me_mado5987]

The problems isn't the motors, it's the gears, they slip too much.

[@constantscreaming]

Absolutely hysterical to me to see the plastic literally bending and every time it still goes up the little caption just goes ‘pass! 😄’

[@FireEyes9]

Lego can lift my bodyweight when I step on a Lego brick 😢

[@malangqu]

Lego man: There! There he is! The one torturing innocent Lego bricks! 😱😱😱

[@Zhade_12]

3:32 That indeed is an upgrade.

[@BuilderBasti]

So, theoretically, Lego (or any Technic system) could lift insane amounts of weight, if the mechanism is durable and geared down enough, in practice it'll take way more patience than anyone would ever have to build such a thing

[@laurenlead]

I highly recommend you get some 3x19 frames, they would’ve helped so much in all of these designs!

[@JordanBeagle]

3:30 Now this one's a beast!

[@JordanBeagle]

4:05 Looks like you need a counter weight on that other side

[@TantalumPolytope]

More like some gears in the base that keep it balanced. That'd be more stable.

[@shadowcobragaming5364]

You should take all of your broken gears, and melt them down into either other new Lego parts or sell them as some kind of merch (Lego-engineering themed trinkets and such)!

[@inanismailov]

When i see little machines like this struggle to lift weight that is cake for nearly any human over the age of 7, i am immediately more impressed with our anatomy and how a similar sized body part (arm) can lift 10x the weight

[@earlgrey2130]

Yeah try lifting 35kgs at 7.. good luck with that

[@unpaidintern5331]

what about trying the last design with worm gears instead of gears?

[@mike-v6r6n]

whats the weight in freedom

[@pjbeatzz6147]

bro got creative with the weights at the end xD

[@Philyshark7]

What about worm gears to lift the heavy weight?

[@Solestial_dusk]

This damn lego probably stronger than me

[@IceMan-wj4wg]

Metal gears and axles would be interesting to see here

[@sylnz97]

some strong ass lego

[@twillems2285]

have you considered using worm gears in combination with linear tracks?

[@BuilditwithBricks]

Yes - great suggestion! I had always planned to do a follow-up video for this at some point in the future, testing new ideas - keep an eye out!

[@laawedreteip]

My record was 65 kg but it can be much higher dont slow down your motors do everything with the cable

[@aaronnewton7024]

Now I'm wondering if gearing down + worm gear and rack would reduce some of the gear slippage 🤔 need to go buy me a load of technic to find out 😂

[@BuilditwithBricks]

Hi, thanks for the comment! Yep, Lego gears down really easily but the extra torque puts a lot of pressure on the plastic components...

[@aaronnewton7024]

@BuilditwithBricks yeah I can imagine! I lost many a gear tooth when I was younger trying to make lego do things it was never designed for 🤣

[@donatotedesco2134]

Im really impressed i didn't thought lego could lift so much. Awesome engineering and design 👍 could you do a maybe a yt short where you try the last Design just doubled? So 4 motors and 4 sets of gears and a higher gear ratio. If the fragile plastic is the problem then the solution might be distribute the weight on even more gears? I got really curious and was already anticipating a bit that you would push the limits even more after i was surprised that often :D you might remember as well another youtuber (i forgot the name) who used gears and axles made of some kind of metal that would help a lot but it wont be legos but im sure it could also lift even up to 50kg with your clever engineering

[@Real-VA-Choco-Goat]

Now think of how much it could lift if you rigged up four of the final version into one thing.

[@audreyscherer6905]

Can you try to directly connect a motor to a linear actuor a couple of time pls?

[@maxmarrero-sb5ej]

Remembers my childhood, i was also a "mad scientist". 😂

[@TrenchAnimation]

The lego every month before gains: “Can you spot me?”

[@shredthecable8883]

The second design has a cardinal flaw making it less effective than it is. You spun the gears the wrong way causing the strings to bend over the frame at almost 90°. Due to the tension they are under it will cause a lot of friction resulting in loss of lifting capabilty.

[@FrankDaBank25]

You should do the weights in different units of measurement so it's easier for some of us to have an idea of the actual weight.

[@CorganKelm]

If you just gear it down low enough, you can lift any amount of weight you want it just takes more time to do so

[@kingofherdaz]

Unless the materials break. Newton's laws-action reaction. If the force required to lift the load (greater than the mass times gravity) is greater than the yield strength of the material (ABS in the case of LEGO) then the material (axles and/or gears) will deform rather than lift the load.

[@SukhrajsinghThind]

Try it with an compression system

[@-.-l8838]

makes me happy during shroom trip so it works

[@fythers6273]

you should do like a 1:1000 gear ratio

[@BuilditwithBricks]

I do feel like there is a part two to come at some stage..

[@k_the_v]

Needs XL motors and at least 4x gears per stage to spread the load, not 2x.

[@collinwarrick1785]

This was really helpful! Do you share your designs/parts lists?

[@JustAPersonWhoComments]

5:00 is too funny Can it lift a tungsten cube though?

[@Niaktru]

Everyday we get closer to legos phasing out other technology

[@walterbryan1798]

Whoa! That’s a lot of weight!

[@RandomContent57]

The cracking on the first actuator hurt 😢

[@amyshaw893]

It would be easier to get a better grasp on its maximum capacity if you put it on a scale, and above it you have something really heavy that it definitely cant move. Then crank it until it wont go any further and subtract the starting number on the scale, thats it's maximum capacity

[@ShOxCooking]

Don’t the large motors have more torque than the medium ones?

[@rollsterw]

Do you have instructions? i would really love to build all

[@lucca5840]

I feel like the tests done with the scissor jack are not completely accurate since you were putting force on it with your hand. For a clean controlled data it would have to be unchanged by external factors.

[@AAK672]

Cool scissor lift

[@mikesprigg5495]

Bre make some direct drive worm gear thing.. geared tf down

[@Agirman]

Bro had to go to the outside weights!

[@eryczakpl2337]

When you run out of weights and start adding random stuff 😆

[@HoboTheMan]

Not the point of the video but, can someone tell me the name of that dumbell? Brand or whatever.

[@Eddy002]

How much weight is this in freedom units? 🇺🇸

[@blackthunderty]

So i can build a carjack with enough Legos

[@Kaw-rasu]

where do you even get these kinds of legos? must be expensive too

[@BuilditwithBricks]

Mainly from Bricklink!

[@ericbillingsley7885]

"it is just a small upgrade" *the upgrade:*

[@olivervanschayk4007]

I wish this video just kept going

[@uwezopp6168]

what about snake gear lift??

[@bvoyelr]

What's that, like 6 AA batteries and less than a kilo of Legos lifting a 9 year old? That's actually mind bending to think a kid could stand on that last one and it would support his weight at all without collapsing, much less be able proactively lift him up.

[@BuilditwithBricks]

I was surprised at the lift/weight ratio too. I think there is probably room for improvement with a greater lift possible. Stay tuned for part 2 at some future point! Thanks for watching!

[@JamariusJackson-yg5ui]

Need to use worm gear boxes

[@Dave-McRae]

Maybe one day we will see lego lifting car. 😛

[@xpghard4055]

Czy tym lewarkiem mozna rozpychać płot graniczny?