Set 10245 Santa's Workshop.
Santa's sleigh and reindeer are a bit too static for my liking.
Let's bring them to life!
This is an upgrade to the version I built last year.
I improved the drive system and added four more reindeer.
Each of these crank shafts drives the galloping motion of a pair of reindeer.
These are the central drive shafts that transfer power between the crank shafts.
It's extremely important that they spin freely. It's quite easy to push the gears on too tightly.
Let's start assembling the frame of the base, connecting all the drive components.
Here you can see how power is transferred
Four sets of crank shafts for the eight reindeer.
Time to build the motor mount and transmission components.
I'm using a Power Functions M-Motor with a worm gear to gear it down.
The sleigh rests on a hinged platform, so that it can rock up and down.
This cam shaft drives the sleigh motion.
This transmits power from the motor to the drive systems.
Let's put them all together.
The sleigh is geared down 2 to 1.
It completes 1 cycle for every 2 full gallops of the reindeer.
Time to start adding the 'snow'.
Mostly just basic slopes, with some curved slopes to add some variation.
Now for the top of the snow, and some ice.
I tried to hide the gearing as best as I could.
While still having a really low profile base.
Time to add Santa and the reindeer!
Each reindeer is connected to the crank shaft via its front legs.
Adding some reins.
And four more reindeer.
We need Rudolph.
The rear legs just rest on the snow tiles,
and slide back and forth.
Building instructions will be available at jkbrickworks.com
Thanks for watching!