Meccano Anyone??

[carbide_burner]

I dug out my old Meccano set the other day with the in tension of cleaning it up for my son to play with. Actually my son is only one year old, so daddy will play with it in the meantime ;D ;D (easy to convince mommy to fork out some cash for toys if you can convince her that you want to buy it for baby) :big:

I already have ONE MILLION hobbies and TWO MILLION unfinished projects, so lets add one more...

Are any of you guys into Meccano? I was thinking of some nice 'model engineering' projects to enhance the set. One could easily make some nice pulleys and even gears. Power plant? Maybe some small air engine and some gadgets to drive? Plenty possibilities for small projects if one just feels like stuffing around in the workshop!

 

[raggle]

Yep, I've got a pile of that stuff. At present it's mostly in a great battered cardboard box and now I'm wondering how best to package it all for when it is presented to my first grandchild (due December 9th)

Yes, I know he/she won't be quite ready for it then, so I've got at least another 6 months ;D and it won't be till after my demise.

The bits seem to range from about 1930s up to the little French made set "they" gave me for Christmas 2/3 years ago. And everything fits!

Another part of this bequest will be my Juneero and my Prestacon press - anybody else out there got any of those?

Ray

 

[Stan]

Meccano is the greatest gift you can give a boy (girl?). No batteries to fail, no programs to crash and the chance to fully explore the concepts of mechanics. As a child in the 1930s I was fortunate to have a set donated by an older relative who had outgrown it.

 

[Brian Rupnow]

I had a set of Meccano when I was about 10, in 1956 or so. I just loved it. I spent many cold winter evenings setting on the floor in the parlor, where the big box-stove sat, building wonderfull machines. I even remember stripping the guts out of old wind up alarm clocks to power some of my creations. Now I have a flock of small steam engines that I have built in the past year, and I really wish I had my Meccano stuff to build things that my steam engines could power.

 

[tmuir]

Yes I've got a big stash of Meccano.
I currently have half built the 'Octopus' fairground ride which will be powered by one of my steam engines.

 

[Brass_Machine]

Umm... What is/are Meccano? ???

Eric

 

[Brian Rupnow]

Umm... What is/are Meccano? ???

Eric

http://www.usmeccano.com/

 

[ksouers]

Umm... What is/are Meccano? ???

Eric

Eric,
Think Erector Set. Meccano is the original, born in Britain.

 

[Brass_Machine]

Ahh very cool. Thanks guys!

Eric

 

[CrewCab]

I must confess to spending a large part of my childhood building all sorts of wonderful mechanical devices from Meccano .......... good times 8)

CC

 

[rake60]

When I was 10 years old a classmate had a huge Erector Set
complete with motors and lights.

We spent many weekend causing ourselves small puncture wounds
and blood blistered thumbs assembling all kinds of moving, mechanical
art works.

That's something I haven't thought about in decades.

Great memories!

Rick

 

[wareagle]

The infamous Erector Set!! If I had a nickel for every hour I sat and played with mine when I was gorwing up.....

Rick, I seem to remember a few lacterations from that thing myslef!!

 

[jack404]

I remember for years all i wanted was meccano

Christmas, birthdays, meccano until i was 16 or so..

had them for years and made wonderful things until a few years ago

traded the lot for a lathe, and tools and stand and .. a good deal i thought.

miss my meccano eh,

hmm the flea market idea sounds good for when i get home :big:

cheers

Jack

 

[Cedge]

I had the distinct pleasure of doing business, for several years, with a fellow named Lou Bouselli. Lou had the perfect job for a Meccanno lover. He was the guy who was responsible for building Erector displays for all the US toy shows that Meccanno attended. He had an unlimited supply of all the parts, pieces, bells and whistles they made and the sky was pretty much the limit when he set about building a display.

I think he's still around, out on the net, selling antique sets and spare parts, even though he was let go when Meccanno stopped selling in the US a few years back. He couldn't bear working for Brio when they picked up the line. He said the magic was gone once the metal was taken out of the picture and pre-designed kits became the norm.

I got to see a couple of his larger designs, up close and personal. He was quite an artist with those little gears and girders.

Steve

 

[jack404]

good to know

i went to the US when i was a kid it was a meccano dislay there that got me into it in a big way and hundred of hours copying the displays that where in the modeling and hobby magazines og the 60's and 70's here

Thanks again for the background

 

[Maryak]

Thanks for the trip down memory lane, my Meccano set and my chess set were the only things I was allowed to bring to Oz when we emigrated from the UK in 1956.

My son has mine, he's in Spain so not sure if he still has it :'(

 

[carbide_burner]

Pity the stuff is becoming a little hard to come by now, and yes Cedge, your friend is 100% correct in saying that the magic was lost in the pre-designed kits. I was real excited to find Meccano kits in a toy shop not long ago. I opened a box with trembling hands (not that bad really ;D) only to find a plastic radio control car inside with a Meccano body! Total rubbish IMO!

I did however later discover that one do get sets with instructions on how to build various models. They come in three sizes: a 20, 30, 40 & 50 model kits. I have not personally laid eyes on the contents of one of these kits, but it seems like there is a fair amount of stuff inside one can use to construct something (who needs plans?). They also moved to hex socket head cap screws. There's even a cordless screwdriver in the big set! - no more bruised fingers..... children are real babies nowadays.... :

'later!

 

[raggle]

My first Meccano set was a #6 I got for Christmas when I was about 9 or 10. This was followed the next year by a #6a accessory set which turned it into a #7. (I was hopeful the next year ...)

My mentor was my mother. She'd say "go and get your Meccano, let's make something". For the next few days the dining table was out of bounds for food. Can't remember where we ate. With her it would always be some project from the book (excellent instructions in those days) and then she would encourage making modifications, mostly my own, to something that already worked. Then there would be testing to see if the mods worked and if they didn't, why not.

Steady progress over the years produced simple gearboxes (selectable), a working differential, many double wishbone suspension systems for cars. When I look back I am staggered at the complexity.

My present collection certainly conforms to no orderly set produced by Meccano, but as I said earlier even the French made bits are 100% compatible. Nothing wrong with plastic flexible plates and the modern roadwheels are quite exciting (the artillery wheels that came with my set were already 30 years out of date) for the modern kid.

In adult(?) life I've used it to investigate things, rather in the way that CAD can be used, the "what if ..." principle, just for fun. Dynamic geometry in 3D

Oh, and it's allowed indoors by SWMBO too! (mind my dining table)

Ray

 

[rickharris]

Yep, I've got a pile of that stuff. At present it's mostly in a great battered cardboard box and now I'm wondering how best to package it all for when it is presented to my first grandchild (due December 9th)

Ray

Time to make a good wooden work chest for the little engineer - h will always remember you for it.

 

[Andrewinpopayan]

I was lucky at 12 too, I got lots of meccano, all the little plates, wheels, disks, rods, and 1000's of nuts and bolts, a large suitcase full from a school jumble sale for 10/6 (ten and six) for you old brit guys Remeber the brown 10 bob notes? I didn't get any instruction sets, so I just made stuff up. An addition the next year was a Meccano steam engine 8), all yellow and chrome single cylinder spirit burner, I made all sorts of vehicles with it as the power plant


Probably REAL Meccano has been banned by the modern day safety nazis, imagine all the sharp metal parts, screwdrivers etc, enough sharps for a "concerned" adult to call a child welfare agency / SWAT team ;D