DIY LEGO Brick Sorter | I Like To Make Stuff

I prototyped a LEGO Brick Sorter out of plywood, laser-cut acrylic, and some 3d printed parts. This will be a part of a larger LEGO table I'm building in the future, but this mechanism is so cool, come check it out! Check out the Maker Alliance at ilt.ms/join
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DIY LEGO Brick Sorter | I Like To Make Stuff
• DIY LEGO Brick Sorter ...
I Like To Make Stuff
/ iliketomakestuff

[@JonathanRansom]

I think we need one that is like a centrifuge. Have it pulse on and off. This video gets the thoughts going...

[@Iliketomakestuff]

That'd be cool

[@duser]

Omg industrial level lego sorter

[@uhlenbrock15]

I thought that too! Maybe to stay with the vertical bin style, maybe you could have them slide back and forth linearly that way the sorter wouldn't need as much hands on sifting. Either a linear actuator to push/pull the sieves or a dc motor converting to linear motion like a piston and crankshaft. Or an old palm sander on the back to give a good vibration!

[@Shwyne23]

@@uhlenbrock15 or even the simple Version with a DC-Motor and a Zylinder thats mounted a bit off the center.

[@DrunkInPublic]

This comment is why I love iltms fans!

[@dragon6irl]

The only thing about mounting it on the side of a table is, it will be really hard for the pieces to fall through on their own. You need some sort of agitation to shake them up and get them to fall, otherwise they just stack on top of each other and stay at the top.

[@riccardopoetz7100]

when he said that it is going to be atached to a table, i thought he would suspend it with rope, so that the whole thing can be shaked easiliy by hand, that would be my advice.

[@tonypelino180]

I had the same thought. Maybe if it were mounted on a short track it could slide side-to-side? Or pivot about the bottom chute? Love this prototype, I need one badly!

[@davidgerrey4569]

Thank you for showing failures during prototyping. It helps to show the learning process.

[@Itsdirtnaptime]

I love how KZbin creators leave random questions that they don't really need the answer to but makes people make comments for the algorithm. Nice try Lego Man. Not going to trick me into making a comment. But nice videos. I love the idea of Fusion videos to help people learn to use it. I use my 3d printer for great things. I know the common misconception is still that 3d printers are for figurines only. I love when people get to see practical uses. I often think about wanting to show people how to design for practical, household uses. It is channels like this that help people realize they CAN do it themselves. Not relevant, but I have been watching your channel for years.

[@caleba.robinson8451]

But... You commented 😅

[@Itsdirtnaptime]

@@caleba.robinson8451 that was the joke. Besides just an excuse to make any random comment that is not relevant but helps their channel for the KZbin algorithm.

[@SeanHodgins]

Step bits work great on drilling acrylic too because they don't pull the material up. Now making something to sort them by color!

[@DavidLeeKersey]

People have built those using lego and camera vision and AI watch?v=04JkdHEX3Yk

[@Px4164]

oh never sort by color, shape and function is the only way

[@jasonbailey9139]

@@Px4164 depends on if you’re building for function or for art. I’d never sort by color, but I can see why someone might.

[@gorak9000]

I don't see the point of this at all - now your lego is sorted in big pieces, medium pieces, and small pieces?? WTF good does that do??

[@hammerhands58]

I agree. Step bits work great in plastics.

[@dr.rotwang]

Bob, you need to get yourself some plexi point drill bits. They are bits specifically made to drill acrylic, poly carbonate, and other plastics so they don't crack, chip, or chunk out on the back side. They will save you so much time, headache, and frustration when drilling plastics.

[@MapBot11]

This is the same idea behind how grains of sand are separated for measurement in sand casting applications. There is a stack of nesting trays with finer and finer meshes and the tower sits on a vibratory base to shake the entire thing. Each tray has a calibrated weight and it allows you to measure the sand's grain size distribution. I saw you shake the box, maybe think about adding an out of balance motor to vibrate the box?

[@thomasdeschodt3785]

And also shake grader for potatoes

[@Loosehead]

Its how you can buy pea gravel, which doesn't occur naturally in nature without being mixed with bigger stuff.

[@mostlyokay]

Yep, this is a pretty commonplace application in many industrial processes. I studied sieves when I took a Chemical Engineering course at uni!

[@Zarlax]

When drilling acrylic like that, try peck drilling. Just continue to raise/lower the drill. I’ve had better luck with that not lifting/cracking the material. Nice build Bob - need an offset motor or orbital sander to vibrate the parts through so you can just load/sort unattended :-)

[@DanteYewToob]

Instead of painting white, you should look into the really nice finish Alexander Chappel often uses. It has white pigment and mostly combats any yellowing or off colors, but multiple coats will nicely lighten the wood while keeping the grain and everything. It always looks incredible! Definitely worth a look, especially if you’re interested in keeping the cool natural and synthetic look together. I personally love natural wood and synthetic or metal together… usually with odd unnatural color stains to bring the wood to a bit more synthetic look while keeping the natural grain. I like grey and pale white stains combined with iron or steel. That’s my personal favorite.

[@petesquared23]

Thanks for the mention Bob! Appreciate it :) Been a big fan of yours for a long time.

[@Iliketomakestuff]

Hey Pete!! Thanks so much for the inspiration!

[@c.a.g.1977]

Great contraption for smaller piles of LEGO's, but if you have to sift a whole bucket load of bricks then maybe you could make the sorter out of three stackable plastic containers with three different sized holes drilled in the bottoms?

[@unogazzy84]

I had the exact size of this bin 0:30 but it was 3/4 full of only Technic pieces. It took me at least 15 hours spread across two days to sort 120 different technic pieces into 13x5 cm boxes. Totally worth it! There's still a couple of hours of work left but I don't have another sorting cabinett.

[@TheGingerWorkshop]

I feel like there is a joke about putting a square brick in a round hole missing somewhere... And maybe some internal screaming from Giaco watching Bob use that screw driver instead of one he doesnt need lol

[@gudnuf2060]

What you need is a bin that feeds a conveyor which carries the pieces under a camera. A small pick and place arm can then sort the pieces based on size, shape, and color. It would also be useful to sort screws, bolts, nuts, and general hardware

[@ryan736]

Nice! My thought like a “vortex dust collection system”. Attach a shop vac to a bucket that has trays that lift out. Fast clean up by sucking them up and sorting the pieces.

[@ClaudiosCollection]

I love the casual Millenium Falcon sitting under the Lego table 🤣 awesome video as always! Going to try and make this for my niece!

[@DAS-Machina]

They make drill bits for acrylic. The angle on the end is sharper and they work great.

[@int2str]

If you're mounting it to the table, it will be harder to shake and get the pieces unblock. Put a piano hinge on the french cleat when you mount it to the table. Then put a vibration motor to the back with a battery or USB power supply to vibrate the whole thing. That might dramatically imrprove the effectiveness?

[@makaylapayne83]

Re-purpose a dresser and then you’d get the different sizes by pulling out the drawers and it would be storage!

[@Lamefoureyes]

this is a really excellent idea

[@PearlJam2k6]

One thing i'd suggest is mounting a funnel up top, kind of how woodchippers have so that when parts are swept off the table, they dont risk falling off the other sides. The other upgrade i could suggest is a sliding "plate" so that you can shake pieces through without having to take it off the table mount, however it would cause issues with the pivoting system (so maybe replace the pivot entirely with a longer slide plate that you can just remove when the parts are sorted how you had on the cardboard prototype)

[@Brick_Science]

Bob this is amazing I NEED THIS!!

[@Iliketomakestuff]

Excellent!

[@guest_4416]

Brick science??

[@Gertyutz]

I've seen something similar on KZbin for those of us who lack chopsaws, 3-D printers and table saws. Five plastics storage containers are stacked, with the holes drilled in the bottom of each of the top 4 bins.

[@zerog270]

I've been contemplating building a lego sorter as well. But I thought about adding some sort of plug in device that would vibrate and help sift the pieces. Maybe cannibalize one of those cheap hand held back massagers?

[@IIBLANKII]

Id suggest mounting it to the side of your desk/table with a simple drawer slide, or even just a 3d printed dovetail rail. Then you could shake the bucket without having to pick it up...etc.

[@whirledpeaz5758]

Layout and drill the sorting holes in the bottom of nesting storage containers. Then add supports to the inside corners of the lower containers to increase volume. My inspiration from litter box sifter.

[@jek__]

Regarding your curiosity of if it would do what I need it to do, I think not, because I don't really use bricks. Most of the pieces I use are like, bars and gears and fasteners. I suppose it might do a pretty good job splitting the tiny fasteners from the larger components, but for stuff like those 1x15 technic bars I think it would fare quite poorly, as those have the potential to slip through all but the smallest size and also the potential to get caught at the largest size Very cool build though! A hopper at the top might help with casually throwing stuff in. The biggest issue I can see is that shaking was needed to encourage the pieces to go through the sorter, which is not something that can be done easily when its mounted on a table

[@aeislugh]

perhaps complicating it a bit more than you might like...but what about something to maybe...agitate the whole thing about? like, mount it on a limited pivot that would allow it to be shaken back and forth just enough to get the pieces moving. Heck, add an eccentric cam or something so you could just turn a crank to do it lol

[@BrennonBaxter]

Try steep angle diagonal sorting plates that dump left and right alternatively. You might have to adjust your hole size a little but it should be a bit more simplistic for sorting and agitating the pieces. It might even be a bit more fun to watch, you could even make V shaped sorts for a bit more sorting area.

[@WreckDiver99]

Now Bob, show us the best way to STORE sorted Lego. I've seen lots of ideas, but in the end? IMPOSSIBLE. We were up to over 100+ bins of various types (Plano boxes for small buttons, etc., Akro-Mills plastic bins for larger parts, etc.). Yea, just no solid way of doing it. We're at over 50K lego pieces at our house...probably closer to 75K by now, so we have parts EVERY WHERE....LOL

[@Iliketomakestuff]

Next week ;)

[@rachelreams3393]

My collection is probably similar to yours in size. You're right, there's a million ways to approach storage! I have 8-tray Really Useful Boxes towers (on casters), with their 15-compartment scrapbooking dividers in each tray, combined with Bass Pro brand tackle boxes for the small things and minifigs. Other people (like the Bricklink sellers) go all in on Akro-Mills.

[@michaelfenner4189]

I think it might be beneficial to make the whole design wider. That way you can still have the same slim design at the side of a table but you can physically spread the pieces at the top layer across a wider surface area to diminish the bottlenecking.

[@doubledarefan]

Use a scrap of wood to apply hold down pressure right next to the drill bit when you drill the acrylic, while still keeping your fingers away.

[@tom.jacobs]

Wouldn't placing the different layers at an angle be more practical, so gravity will help to create a flow (maybe with doors on the side, so don't need to rotate?). Would make the whole thing taller though..)

[@TomMakeHere]

The gorilla tape to remove the acrylic backing is a fantastic trick. Thanks!

[@woodytheskip1718]

I used to work with injection moulding machinery. And some of the moulds we used produced multiple parts.the simple devices we used to sort them were two long contra rotating rollers placed on a slight downward slope and spaced further apart at the bottom of the slope then the top.we then just placed boxes under the rollers to catch the parts. Maybe an idea for a version 2.0?

[@johnflux1]

That sounds so simple yet genius.

[@mmogamer7749]

How have I not seen any of his videos before? I am subscribed to multiple engineering channels but not seen this one until a lego video is out. Anyways, I would have tried to implement a way to shake the legos to further sift them out. You can do it by hand, so it wont be needed to have a power source.

[@UltimateTechHub]

Hi I'm Mike & I like to watch Bob make Stuff! Great video! I love Legos!

[@nomadcrossfire]

If you run your drill in reverse at the end of your hole you can melt thru the final portion and your piece won't pull up. A 0 rake drill bill is also a good option.

[@Wordsnwood]

Rage slam that dry erase marker!! But yeah, I think the large stacked trays, mounted on a shaker, might be the way to go. Still, trying this helped us learn that, so ... win! And that orange acrylic is noice.

[@purefury702]

Yeah, I was thinking a shaker, and/or you work in a slant into the sieves so that the bricks flow to individual chutes. That way it would be a continuous flow rather than a batch process. You can draw on the aggregate sorting processes in concrete production for ideas.

[@FernandoKugi]

@11:13 If you uses the drill-press in reverse or counter clock, it won't grab the acrylic it in the end...

[@Anaerin]

If you placed the sorting meshes at a (slight) angle, then pieces that didn't go through would slide down and could be funneled out, so there would be no need to stop, change bin, and drop the stragglers on each level.

[@twincities69]

Bob does it again! Another amazing build

[@GeneSimonalle]

So, really this video is all about knolling? NEW ON SCREEN TITLE!!! "They see me knolling!" 🤠🤠❤❤🤣🤣

[@svenhohne2697]

Eeeehm Bob, why didn’t you just make slots to slide in the front, rather than using screws, that way you could slide it up and grap in easily when something gets stuck ...

[@dylanking9144]

Would be cool to add like a rumble pack from an old video game controller to help move the pieces along. Could put the sifter on some rails and then the rumble pack/shaker can move up and down to jostle the pieces through the holes better.

[@GeorgeWMays]

Air jets blowing from the side. Multiple jet velocities. Drop Legos from above. The lighter pieces will be pushed to the other side by the wimpiest jet. The somewhat larger pieces will be blown to the other side by the somewhat more powerful jet. On and on. Only the largest and heaviest pieces make it all the way to the bottom.

[@catgynt9148]

Have you considered adding a bracket on the back or side for your sander to vibrate the contents down? Alternatively, an old computer fan with a nut / bolt through one of the blades makes for a nice vibration source. Interesting video presentation, thanks for sharing this. Wishing you and your family a blessed week. Cheers

[@Dan_Murphy]

The reason it took so long to dry was because it was gloss paint. Use matte paint and gloss clear coat if you want it to be shiny. Clear coat takes way less time to dry than gloss paint, and matte paint also dries really quick.

[@duser]

This is so cool! I think you may need a way to shake this thing back and forth so the lego can get agitated and sifted. My non-maker simple solution: use those drawer rails you used in your pantry. Put them horizontally and use a door knob on either side to shake it? It won't look as good as it does now tho.

[@n3rding]

You should have used an auger with small holes at the input and larger at the output, the rotation will separate out the pieces and fall through to different containers below (sort of like a gold mining trommel )

[@rockaholictom]

To shake the sieve on the side of the table, you could mount it using a drawer slide with a limited throw. That way you can pull it side to side and sort what gets caught on top. Great video Bob!

[@faheemali3550]

i was literally about to say the same thing! drawer slide and all haha

[@richardhaelbach2573]

You could make the pivot way easier. You could extend a rectangular shape on both sides of you your laser cut piece. And drill the hole in the same size like the width of the rectangle

[@insayno9959]

That gorilla tape technique with the protective layer is amazing. Never thought of doing that

[@Brandon_Balentine]

This would be cool to maybe add a vibrating shaker to the side of it. Something like the old vibrating football games. Then maybe you wouldn't have to shake it which would be helpful for leaving it mounted to the table.

[@seansysig]

It needs a vibratory or air mechanism to aid in sorting thru the holes.

[@JakubSkowron]

Hey, make a small DIY wind turbine. Ask "Engineering with Rosie" KZbin channel which general design to choose for a small turbine for your rooftop, and common caveats and what to avoid. It would be great to see something like this being built from scratch. Interesting, useful, environmentally friendly!

[@drubunn2012]

A cool storage bin idea could take inspiration from a lazy susan. Your LEGO sorting device could sit above it, meaning you would just have to rotate the bins underneath too the size you need...

[@arthybrids]

Quick Tip for acrylic drill a pilot hole. Reverse your drill with the hole size you want and melt the plastic instead of drilling it. And cooling with water always helps!

[@stephenwong7465]

lol your lego bins look like our lego bins - we have stacks of them all jumbled up. This is great.

[@packratpirate4154]

Me watching an in depth guide/showcase of an incredibly design gadget for a very specific problem I will never have

[@cjennings1524]

I really appreciate that you left the error in the final edit

[@definitelynotjustasquirrel8319]

In 2005 my father actually built a very similar lego sorting system using the same concept

[@Iwasthinking01]

Love the video. Was wondering if it would work better as a mini dresser, with each drawer having a sifter as the base? That would also store them in the same place.

[@Iwasthinking01]

I guess it's not so good if you have a lot of pieces.

[@user-qw7xy3pj3p]

"did you say le-go, my leg-o?" -Keith Morrison.

[@Photokapi]

I think adding a small motor with an offset rotation on spindle to make it vibrate would make it easier too; you could flip a switch and it would jostle the pieces through without manually shaking the whole container.

[@thebrelon]

You could have drilled the plexiglass before cutting it to shape, would have been less critical from being close to edges

[@JosephCenter]

If you've never seen him, you need to check out the Akiyuki Brick Channel. He does mindblowing Lego contraptions, including automated brick sorters. I think his stuff is right up your alley.

[@Helveteshit]

Hmm, my comment was automatically deleted? O.o My only suggestion would be add a shaker function. Where after a button press, it turns on an electric motor for X-seconds. Three 'fins' on a rotor that moves a dowel/pin up and down within an oval hole with a protective casing around it all. To shake it around a bit. And cut the backside down a bit for a raised edge. To better sort things.

[@ruggedindividual]

I always add a thin trim over the acrylic, as I would for a window screen or glass pane mounted onto a wooden frame. It offers safer installation and stronger finished product. I enjoyed the project. Thanks for sharing it.

[@johnlima2507]

You could also align this with the entire back edge of the table to make more room for more Legos! You could put a support under (one side of) the individual rotating filters to support the weight of tye increased number of Legos

[@ctk5044]

Put a drawer pull behind it and attach the table so that way you can shake it horizontally to get the smaller pieces that bottleneck to fall.

[@chrisbroemel5508]

Using a barrel spinner design might work as well. Like the type used for separating rock and gravel.

[@sapelesteve]

Great work Bob! However, after watching your video, I am really glad that I don't ever have to deal with sorting any LEGO pieces! 😂😂👍👍😉😉

[@DeltaChairlines]

You could probably automate it to sort by color as well with a few design changes and one of the Mindstorms kits with a Color Sensor.

[@kimhuff]

Do you think you'll have the new Lego storage table done soon? I'd like to get the plans for both so we could make it for my grandson for Christmas.

[@Iliketomakestuff]

Next week 👍🏼

[@MrWorth66]

you could angle the filters for a longer filter area in the same cross section. ~40% more area at 45degrees

[@janis31]

Why is this video so good?

You could cut a dado on the sides of the box to slide the acrylic front instead of screwing it.

[@RandomMakingEncounters]

Great project! Rather than screw the plex in, dado a slot and slide a piece in?

[@randallsalyer]

I would have put each layer at an angle long ways with a tray at the side and make the entire thing vibrate. The thing would sort and put into separate containers. Just my 2cents. Great videos and definitely gets me thinking of things I want to start making.

[@JTWoodworks]

Neat idea to have it mount on the end of the table. Also a solid choice to paint it white to make the orange pop

[@JayFolipurba]

I would have taken some boxes that stack on top of each other and modified their bottoms with the right size holes. That way they're sorted and stored in one go

[@TheJtpond]

I wonder if you could soft/spring mount it to the table and then mount a vibration motor to the back. When things start to get clogged, or not fall through, you could flip a switch and jiggle it loose.

[@stuartkorte1642]

Does the dimes, nickels and quarters sort correctly. 😜 Definitely more levels or inserts for different shapes/lengths that can be switched out based on what’s being sorted/resorted. Rectangle instead of circles. A vibrating motor on back wall.

[@JorgeDiazGodyla]

Im going to try to explain myself the best I can cause my mother language is Spanish. So, instead of wiggle it by hand when you mount it on the side of the table, kind of attach it to some springs and put a motor that goes up and down/side to side, so that way it would be automatic and you can do a faster work. I hope I explained myself well.

[@cruduskellies]

I wonder if a person could build a table around the bigger design. So it functions as a table, and a sorter with a large sort area?

[@ihmesekoilua]

Finally something that fits my needs exactly.

[@daydaymarceaux]

You should try a sifter with different sized slots to sort the long skinnies from the chunkys

[@Bloodbound89]

small tip for the drilling acrylic part :D we use a piece of wood with a big hole that the drill head can pass but to hold down the acrylic way better so it doesnt tend to lift and bite /crack

[@AaronAlso]

For all this hard work you could have simply ordered an Official Lego Sort and Store mini-figure head. My daughter has two and they are perfect for travel.

[@CrixJoki]

Much smaller holes and this one would be perfect to sort out beads! :) 💜 that´s something a lot of us beaders could have use for, don´t know how many times I´ve gotten my beads messed up....

[@BenjiSun]

that is really cool. 2 things i'm pondering. would it be effective to have the filter plates work as a trapdoor rather than rotating in the middle? and would it have been easier to make some screwed-in metal trims and just have the plexi slotted in from the top so you can just slide up and remove the plexi for cleaning or repairs easier?

[@gentleben4770]

I wonder how easy a trapdoor would be to reset?

[@BenjiSun]

@@gentleben4770 my thinking would be to use a latch (and a pen spring) to hold in place(like most normal doors), pull latch to drop the trapdoor, turn the door dial(or better yet a L-shaped handle) to reset the latch.

[@aeronbucheger7118]

I love the subtle Lego astronaut tee shirt

[@johnbeeck2540]

"It's only plywood" he says - yeah only $$$$ per sheet! ;-) Love the videos!

[@tilkka_]

Nice wall in the background! Hope you can also bring that to better use for future.

[@kernelsmith]

I wonder if it would be easier, and still do what you need, if you put the acrylic into a dado running down each side and into the funnel part. You would lose a little rigidity of the box so it might rack. I can think of a number of ways to counter that tho

[@nickkropat8857]

its an interesting idea, but I think it could be +1'd by mounting it on springs and adding a mechanism to shake it

[@G33v3s]

One change I would like to try if I were making one would to make the top area a bit deeper so that you can give it a good shake with less risk of spillage. Great project as always, really got my creative juices flowing.

[@kjamison5951]

Standard drill bits have a steep angle when it comes to drilling through acrylics and high impact polystyrene. Regrinding a bit with a shallow angle and keeping it only for plastics, means the bit will not bite into the acrylics so forcefully and the plastic sheet won’t pull up sharply.

[@chrisannesi]

A rumble pack for V2 would be cool and help with sifting.

[@Loosehead]

Hmmm...you seem to have a large space below the bottom filter, that isn't used, and a small space above the top filter, that needs to be as big as possible. Also, I think I would layout the big holes differently. Lastly, when its fixed to the end of the table, how do you shake it?