No matter where you live, this is definitely the most stressful time of the year. Between holidays, politics and possibly even seasonal depression, it’s all just exhausting. Something that’s always helped me is to build something. Fix something. Clean something up. Do something I can see tangible results for. If all else fails, there are always Legos.
YouTuber Matt Denton is working on the ultimate Lego project: a fully functional life-size go-kart made of giant 3D-printed Lego-style bricks. This isn’t just something cool to look at and maybe roll around the house; it’s something you can ride once you’re done that’s capable of speeds up to 30 mph so far.
Denton’s no stranger to giant Lego builds, including a prior version of the go-kart. Yet he originally designed that go-kart for his nephew, who didn’t quite fit—and neither did he. (I can’t say I blame him for wanting to ride it, too.) So, it was back into CAD to figure out how to add length, incorporate a sliding seat and still fit on a 3.5-kilowatt electric motor.
Obviously, this isn’t just an enlarged version of the Lego kit anymore that’s only held together with snapped-together bricks. Because this has to support the weight of full-sized human butts, there are metal pins shoring up various connections between bricks. Bearings also help everything spin smoothly. Then, there’s the disc brakes and a custom-made bucket seat.
Some of these parts were machined for Denton’s project, such as parts for a metal joiner that split the rear axle so the kart could turn. The Royal Marine engineers at HMS Sultan machined that custom metal piece for him. Another 3D-printing enthusiast also printed a longer brick for the chassis bar since Denton’s 3D printer couldn’t print items that long.
The 3D-printed parts need to be cleaned up a bit to remove extra material and be almost as smooth as the Lego parts they’re emulating, too, but that’s no biggie.
Best of all, Denton lists out what tools and materials he uses in his YouTube videos’ descriptions and even published the full plans for the first, smaller giant Lego-kart he built here. Perhaps he’ll do the same once this extra-extra-large version is complete, but in the meantime, we’ll have to watch it all come together.
Unfortunately, Denton declined to adopt any of his viewers so no, he won’t be your dad, but you can follow along with this awesome build on Denton’s YouTube channel here.
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