I’ve been a fan of Lego monorail ever since I saw them in the catalogs as a kid. They were well out of my price range then but a couple decades later I started buying up monorail track and motors from eBay. This video is a comparison between the two leading companies 3d printing replacement tracks, 4DBrix and TrixBrix.
@theaninova’s Github page
https://github.com/Theaninova/Brick-Monorail
The Lego Monorail Facebook Group
https://www.facebook.com/groups/752119308524536/
3d printed motor mount
https://www.printables.com/model/131200-lego-monorail-motor
My unlisted video unboxing the TrixBrix track along with a few other parts
https://youtu.be/fAVoeOB0hTA
TrixBrix Monorail page on their website
https://trixbrix.eu/en_US/c/Monorail/79
4DBrix Website
https://www.4dbrix.com/
Paul’s Printing 4DBrix store
https://www.4dbrix.com/market/stores/shop.php?store=00013
Paul’s Printing Etsy store
https://www.etsy.com/shop/PaulsPrintingStore?section_id=48176776
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Music: “Starmachine2000” by Wintergatan
This track can be downloaded for free at www.wintergatan.net
Free License to use this track in your video can be downloaded at www.wintergatan.net
LEGO® is a trademark of the LEGO Group of companies which does not sponsor, authorize or endorse this content
00:00 Intro
04:52 Official Lego track
11:02 TrixBrix track
16:57 4DBrix track
source
Hi I'm the one at 2:50 working on better 3d printed tracks (parametric & GPL-3.0). Few notes on the rails in the video that I noticed:
*TrixBrix*
The *slanted studs* are a 3d printing optimization, effectively cost-cutting. The tracks are printed top side down to the bed without the teeth, to minimize the amount of labor required in removing supports. Because the studs are in mid air, they need a gentle slope to be printable. I tried this myself in a design, but relatively quickly decided that it was not worth it because you lose a ton of clutch power vertically which means that anything but the 2×4 plates will just fall off, and there's play up and down as well. The *pins* are likely a stopgap measure when they noticed that the slanted studs are really unreliable.
The *teeth* are printed separately and glued/welded/friction-fit on. This again is a way to get costs down by eliminating the need for supports, but means that the alignment at the ends of the rail is not going to be great. The overhang on the half straight is probably an artifact of that.
What I don't quite understand is why they chose to round all the edges off – 3d printers are definitely capable of getting them sharper, maybe that was done to get the edges to be consistent between vertical and horizontal edges, since vertical edges can only be as sharp as the nozzle.
The ramps are printed sideways to avoid stairstepping. This means the surface finish between flat and ramped tracks is going to be inconsistent.
The ramps also feature a different side stud design, where the studs are printed separately and then inserted and glued/welded/friction-fit in the track (I don't know why they seem to have done it on both sides). Because they are printed stud up you get a lot better fitment, but because of the small surface area the stud has there can be layer adhesion issues, which is what unfortunately seems to have happened at 15:07 where a stud ended up breaking off.
In general they seem like less perfect/accurate low-cost options.
*4DBrix*
I have printed these before but wasn't super happy with the results.
These tracks are generally a lot more accurate designs and printed in one single piece, but don't print great. The entire track needs to be supported, and that adds labor, time, and thus cost to the end price.
When compared to an original track I did notice some things that we a bit off with the design, somewhere in the range of 0.1-0.3mm, but those kinds of errors are noticeable when you fit them together.
I think the 4DBrix tracks are definitely the higher quality option that I would recommend given that the optimizations that TrixBrix chose to do seem to seriously impact the visual and functional quality.
Both tracks are printed in "high quality" PLA. PLA is not particularly high-quality, in fact when compared to the material that Lego and all injection molded pieces use (ABS) it comes with a range of downsides: It softens at 50-60°C already, and while it's technically stronger than ABS it is also a lot more brittle and inflexible, which I don't know how that impacts the printed studs. It is however much easier to print.
Excellent break down of the old monorail and the new stuff that is available.
Quality content! Monorail seems to have a resurgence lately.
I’m glad that the 3d options are available, I’ve printed myself and it works well. People who have printed know this, but don’t expect Lego quality.
Very useful!! Thanks for sharing man!
does anyone know how to get more then 4 downloads from 4dbrix?
Awesome video, thanks!
Great video!
Thanks
Gonna 3d print some of them someday 😂
woa, not just a nice informative video on Lego Monorail expansion options, but Wintergatan! Some people just have great taste hahaha 😀
The overhang of the Trixbrix is really worrysome if you ask me, the bowing shouldn't happen. You could sand/file it off I guess. Qualitywise is the fallen off stud of Trixbrix also pretty bad. The ramp extensions from 4Dbrix are really useful if you want to pass a Lego train beneath the track as the height of the ramps is based on the height of a monorail train which is way lower than a normal train. I uses this stuff also for the container terminal, really cool! I had the same problems with the extension cars.
Great video!
Happy that monorail is being produced at a decent price( instead of the $20! for yellowed track). Personally, I’m going to wait until mor motor options are available. 🤞trixbrix comes up with one soon