Discussion Forum: Thread 307293

 Author: axaday View Messages Posted By axaday
 Posted: Aug 1, 2021 11:37
 Subject: Inventory Change Request for Set 9454-1
 Viewed: 29 times
 Topic: Inventories Requests (Entry)
 Status:Open
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axaday (7301)

Location:  USA, Oklahoma
Member Since Contact Type Status
Jun 28, 2005 Contact Member Seller
Buying Privileges - OKSelling Privileges - OK
Store Closed Store: Axaday
Please make changes to the following inventory:
 
Set No: 9454  Name: Function Set
* 
9454-1 (Inv) Function Set
354 Parts, 1992
Sets: Educational & Dacta: Universal Building Set

* Change 6 Part Light Gray {731c05 Technic, Shock Absorber 6.5L - Normal Spring to 731c06 Technic, Shock Absorber 6.5L - Soft Spring}

Comments from Submitter:
Pic following
 Author: axaday View Messages Posted By axaday
 Posted: Aug 1, 2021 11:41
 Subject: Re: Inventory Change Request for Set 9454-1
 Viewed: 14 times
 Topic: Inventories Requests
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axaday (7301)

Location:  USA, Oklahoma
Member Since Contact Type Status
Jun 28, 2005 Contact Member Seller
Buying Privileges - OKSelling Privileges - OK
Store Closed Store: Axaday
In Inventories Requests, axaday writes:
  Please make changes to the following inventory:
 
Set No: 9454  Name: Function Set
* 
9454-1 (Inv) Function Set
354 Parts, 1992
Sets: Educational & Dacta: Universal Building Set

* Change 6 Part Light Gray {731c05 Technic, Shock Absorber 6.5L - Normal Spring to 731c06 Technic, Shock Absorber 6.5L - Soft Spring}

Comments from Submitter:
Pic following

One of these has more coil than the other, but they both look closer to soft
than normal to me.
 
 Author: Turez View Messages Posted By Turez
 Posted: Aug 1, 2021 12:38
 Subject: Re: Inventory Change Request for Set 9454-1
 Viewed: 21 times
 Topic: Inventories Requests
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Turez (43)

Location:  Germany, Niedersachsen
Member Since Contact Type Status
Sep 18, 2012 Contact Member Seller
Buying Privileges - OKSelling Privileges - OK
Store Closed Store: Zerut
BrickLink Catalog Administrator (?)
In Inventories Requests, axaday writes:
  In Inventories Requests, axaday writes:
  Please make changes to the following inventory:
 
Set No: 9454  Name: Function Set
* 
9454-1 (Inv) Function Set
354 Parts, 1992
Sets: Educational & Dacta: Universal Building Set

* Change 6 Part Light Gray {731c05 Technic, Shock Absorber 6.5L - Normal Spring to 731c06 Technic, Shock Absorber 6.5L - Soft Spring}

Comments from Submitter:
Pic following

One of these has more coil than the other, but they both look closer to soft
than normal to me.

I think such changes are useless as long as we don't recognize all possible
731c* variants in the catalog with proper names.

- There is at least one more spring type which does not have an entry on BL.
- The names on BL are not correct (some "soft" springs are actually harder than
the "normal" ones).
- I have a feeling that it is impossible to tell some of the springs apart by
looking at them. You actually have to measure them to know which is which.

https://news.lugnet.com/technic/?n=16651
 Author: axaday View Messages Posted By axaday
 Posted: Aug 1, 2021 16:21
 Subject: Re: Inventory Change Request for Set 9454-1
 Viewed: 18 times
 Topic: Inventories Requests
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axaday (7301)

Location:  USA, Oklahoma
Member Since Contact Type Status
Jun 28, 2005 Contact Member Seller
Buying Privileges - OKSelling Privileges - OK
Store Closed Store: Axaday
So which direction should we move in?

Is there a time gap between springs that look softer they are? Can we recognize
a thicker gauge spring?

In Inventories Requests, Turez writes:
  In Inventories Requests, axaday writes:
  In Inventories Requests, axaday writes:
  Please make changes to the following inventory:
 
Set No: 9454  Name: Function Set
* 
9454-1 (Inv) Function Set
354 Parts, 1992
Sets: Educational & Dacta: Universal Building Set

* Change 6 Part Light Gray {731c05 Technic, Shock Absorber 6.5L - Normal Spring to 731c06 Technic, Shock Absorber 6.5L - Soft Spring}

Comments from Submitter:
Pic following

One of these has more coil than the other, but they both look closer to soft
than normal to me.

I think such changes are useless as long as we don't recognize all possible
731c* variants in the catalog with proper names.

- There is at least one more spring type which does not have an entry on BL.
- The names on BL are not correct (some "soft" springs are actually harder than
the "normal" ones).
- I have a feeling that it is impossible to tell some of the springs apart by
looking at them. You actually have to measure them to know which is which.

https://news.lugnet.com/technic/?n=16651
 Author: Turez View Messages Posted By Turez
 Posted: Aug 1, 2021 17:04
 Subject: Re: Inventory Change Request for Set 9454-1
 Viewed: 29 times
 Topic: Inventories Requests
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Turez (43)

Location:  Germany, Niedersachsen
Member Since Contact Type Status
Sep 18, 2012 Contact Member Seller
Buying Privileges - OKSelling Privileges - OK
Store Closed Store: Zerut
BrickLink Catalog Administrator (?)
In Inventories Requests, axaday writes:
  So which direction should we move in?

Is there a time gap between springs that look softer they are? Can we recognize
a thicker gauge spring?

Well, I think (but for now this is just my personal opinion) we need to make
the shock absorbers "undetermined" again and start more or less from scratch
with new entries. We should measure as many of them as possible (as shown here:
https://youtu.be/80xO5sZQRKQ ) to get an idea how many entries we need. I would
also like to see the spring stiffness in grams added to the item names as shown
on that image at lugnet.

Of course we can leave out
 
Part No: 731c04  Name: Technic, Shock Absorber 6.5L with Black Piston Rod - Hard Spring, Tight Coils in Middle
* 
731c04 (Inv) Technic, Shock Absorber 6.5L with Black Piston Rod - Hard Spring, Tight Coils in Middle
Parts: Technic, Shock Absorber
as that entry is correct (it may need to be renamed to "very hard", though).

I guess all shock absorbers since 2005 (the light bluish gray ones) have the
same spring and I also believe all springs from the 1980s are the same type as
they always have many turns and are therefore quite easy to recognize. So the
difficult time is ca. 1990-2002.

I found evidence some time ago that
 
Set No: 8865  Name: Test Car
* 
8865-1 (Inv) Test Car
898 Parts, 1988
Sets: Technic: Model: Traffic
which was produced in 1988-1992 came with different shock absorbers as you can
see here:

https://brickshelf.com/gallery/JunkstyleGio/8865/8865_box.jpg
(early version with many turns)

https://brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?i=3048098
(later version (?) with less turns)



  
In Inventories Requests, Turez writes:
  In Inventories Requests, axaday writes:
  In Inventories Requests, axaday writes:
  Please make changes to the following inventory:
 
Set No: 9454  Name: Function Set
* 
9454-1 (Inv) Function Set
354 Parts, 1992
Sets: Educational & Dacta: Universal Building Set

* Change 6 Part Light Gray {731c05 Technic, Shock Absorber 6.5L - Normal Spring to 731c06 Technic, Shock Absorber 6.5L - Soft Spring}

Comments from Submitter:
Pic following

One of these has more coil than the other, but they both look closer to soft
than normal to me.

I think such changes are useless as long as we don't recognize all possible
731c* variants in the catalog with proper names.

- There is at least one more spring type which does not have an entry on BL.
- The names on BL are not correct (some "soft" springs are actually harder than
the "normal" ones).
- I have a feeling that it is impossible to tell some of the springs apart by
looking at them. You actually have to measure them to know which is which.

https://news.lugnet.com/technic/?n=16651
 Author: axaday View Messages Posted By axaday
 Posted: Aug 2, 2021 08:16
 Subject: Re: Inventory Change Request for Set 9454-1
 Viewed: 17 times
 Topic: Inventories Requests
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axaday (7301)

Location:  USA, Oklahoma
Member Since Contact Type Status
Jun 28, 2005 Contact Member Seller
Buying Privileges - OKSelling Privileges - OK
Store Closed Store: Axaday
In Inventories Requests, Turez writes:
  In Inventories Requests, axaday writes:
  So which direction should we move in?

Is there a time gap between springs that look softer they are? Can we recognize
a thicker gauge spring?

Well, I think (but for now this is just my personal opinion) we need to make
the shock absorbers "undetermined" again and start more or less from scratch
with new entries. We should measure as many of them as possible (as shown here:
https://youtu.be/80xO5sZQRKQ ) to get an idea how many entries we need. I would
also like to see the spring stiffness in grams added to the item names as shown
on that image at lugnet.

Of course we can leave out
 
Part No: 731c04  Name: Technic, Shock Absorber 6.5L with Black Piston Rod - Hard Spring, Tight Coils in Middle
* 
731c04 (Inv) Technic, Shock Absorber 6.5L with Black Piston Rod - Hard Spring, Tight Coils in Middle
Parts: Technic, Shock Absorber
as that entry is correct (it may need to be renamed to "very hard", though).

I guess all shock absorbers since 2005 (the light bluish gray ones) have the
same spring and I also believe all springs from the 1980s are the same type as
they always have many turns and are therefore quite easy to recognize. So the
difficult time is ca. 1990-2002.

I found evidence some time ago that
 
Set No: 8865  Name: Test Car
* 
8865-1 (Inv) Test Car
898 Parts, 1988
Sets: Technic: Model: Traffic
which was produced in 1988-1992 came with different shock absorbers as you can
see here:

https://brickshelf.com/gallery/JunkstyleGio/8865/8865_box.jpg
(early version with many turns)

https://brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?i=3048098
(later version (?) with less turns)



  
In Inventories Requests, Turez writes:
  In Inventories Requests, axaday writes:
  In Inventories Requests, axaday writes:
  Please make changes to the following inventory:
 
Set No: 9454  Name: Function Set
* 
9454-1 (Inv) Function Set
354 Parts, 1992
Sets: Educational & Dacta: Universal Building Set

* Change 6 Part Light Gray {731c05 Technic, Shock Absorber 6.5L - Normal Spring to 731c06 Technic, Shock Absorber 6.5L - Soft Spring}

Comments from Submitter:
Pic following

One of these has more coil than the other, but they both look closer to soft
than normal to me.

I think such changes are useless as long as we don't recognize all possible
731c* variants in the catalog with proper names.

- There is at least one more spring type which does not have an entry on BL.
- The names on BL are not correct (some "soft" springs are actually harder than
the "normal" ones).
- I have a feeling that it is impossible to tell some of the springs apart by
looking at them. You actually have to measure them to know which is which.

https://news.lugnet.com/technic/?n=16651

I wish I had paid closer attention when this was first mentioned and frozen things.
Right now the only ones I have left are from this set I just opened. I sold
the ones from 7261 recently and those aren't going to be easy to check again.

But I also feel like this issue is going to be tough one for us. The part is
valuable and must be used to test. Even if we get the sets straightened out,
it will always be hard for customers to know what they are getting because they
can't be sorted visually.
 Author: Turez View Messages Posted By Turez
 Posted: Aug 2, 2021 16:12
 Subject: Re: Inventory Change Request for Set 9454-1
 Viewed: 24 times
 Topic: Inventories Requests
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Turez (43)

Location:  Germany, Niedersachsen
Member Since Contact Type Status
Sep 18, 2012 Contact Member Seller
Buying Privileges - OKSelling Privileges - OK
Store Closed Store: Zerut
BrickLink Catalog Administrator (?)
In Inventories Requests, axaday writes:
  In Inventories Requests, Turez writes:
  In Inventories Requests, axaday writes:
  So which direction should we move in?

Is there a time gap between springs that look softer they are? Can we recognize
a thicker gauge spring?

Well, I think (but for now this is just my personal opinion) we need to make
the shock absorbers "undetermined" again and start more or less from scratch
with new entries. We should measure as many of them as possible (as shown here:
https://youtu.be/80xO5sZQRKQ ) to get an idea how many entries we need. I would
also like to see the spring stiffness in grams added to the item names as shown
on that image at lugnet.

Of course we can leave out
 
Part No: 731c04  Name: Technic, Shock Absorber 6.5L with Black Piston Rod - Hard Spring, Tight Coils in Middle
* 
731c04 (Inv) Technic, Shock Absorber 6.5L with Black Piston Rod - Hard Spring, Tight Coils in Middle
Parts: Technic, Shock Absorber
as that entry is correct (it may need to be renamed to "very hard", though).

I guess all shock absorbers since 2005 (the light bluish gray ones) have the
same spring and I also believe all springs from the 1980s are the same type as
they always have many turns and are therefore quite easy to recognize. So the
difficult time is ca. 1990-2002.

I found evidence some time ago that
 
Set No: 8865  Name: Test Car
* 
8865-1 (Inv) Test Car
898 Parts, 1988
Sets: Technic: Model: Traffic
which was produced in 1988-1992 came with different shock absorbers as you can
see here:

https://brickshelf.com/gallery/JunkstyleGio/8865/8865_box.jpg
(early version with many turns)

https://brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?i=3048098
(later version (?) with less turns)



  
In Inventories Requests, Turez writes:
  In Inventories Requests, axaday writes:
  In Inventories Requests, axaday writes:
  Please make changes to the following inventory:
 
Set No: 9454  Name: Function Set
* 
9454-1 (Inv) Function Set
354 Parts, 1992
Sets: Educational & Dacta: Universal Building Set

* Change 6 Part Light Gray {731c05 Technic, Shock Absorber 6.5L - Normal Spring to 731c06 Technic, Shock Absorber 6.5L - Soft Spring}

Comments from Submitter:
Pic following

One of these has more coil than the other, but they both look closer to soft
than normal to me.

I think such changes are useless as long as we don't recognize all possible
731c* variants in the catalog with proper names.

- There is at least one more spring type which does not have an entry on BL.
- The names on BL are not correct (some "soft" springs are actually harder than
the "normal" ones).
- I have a feeling that it is impossible to tell some of the springs apart by
looking at them. You actually have to measure them to know which is which.

https://news.lugnet.com/technic/?n=16651

I wish I had paid closer attention when this was first mentioned and frozen things.
Right now the only ones I have left are from this set I just opened. I sold
the ones from 7261 recently and those aren't going to be easy to check again.

But I also feel like this issue is going to be tough one for us. The part is
valuable and must be used to test. Even if we get the sets straightened out,
it will always be hard for customers to know what they are getting because they
can't be sorted visually.

Yeah it is definitely going to be a tough one and I don't think we will see
new catalog entries very soon. However, I will try to find more information about
those shock absorbers to be prepared in case we decide to change the entries.
It would be helpful anyway to know how many variants there actually are before
we start to change anything.
 Author: SezaR View Messages Posted By SezaR
 Posted: Aug 5, 2021 17:31
 Subject: Re: Inventory Change Request for Set 9454-1
 Viewed: 19 times
 Topic: Inventories Requests
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SezaR (1376)

Location:  Canada, British Columbia
Member Since Contact Type Status
Jan 15, 2015 Contact Member Seller
Buying Privileges - OKSelling Privileges - OK
Store: Sezar's trains
In Inventories Requests, Turez writes:
  In Inventories Requests, axaday writes:
  In Inventories Requests, axaday writes:
  Please make changes to the following inventory:
 
Set No: 9454  Name: Function Set
* 
9454-1 (Inv) Function Set
354 Parts, 1992
Sets: Educational & Dacta: Universal Building Set

* Change 6 Part Light Gray {731c05 Technic, Shock Absorber 6.5L - Normal Spring to 731c06 Technic, Shock Absorber 6.5L - Soft Spring}

Comments from Submitter:
Pic following

One of these has more coil than the other, but they both look closer to soft
than normal to me.

I think such changes are useless as long as we don't recognize all possible
731c* variants in the catalog with proper names.

- There is at least one more spring type which does not have an entry on BL.
- The names on BL are not correct (some "soft" springs are actually harder than
the "normal" ones).
- I have a feeling that it is impossible to tell some of the springs apart by
looking at them. You actually have to measure them to know which is which.

https://news.lugnet.com/technic/?n=16651

I have parted out one of the dacta ssets and still have its shock absorber. Before
its shock absorbes us and a buyer buy them from me, can I help with this and
how?
 Author: Turez View Messages Posted By Turez
 Posted: Aug 7, 2021 13:09
 Subject: Re: Inventory Change Request for Set 9454-1
 Viewed: 22 times
 Topic: Inventories Requests
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Turez (43)

Location:  Germany, Niedersachsen
Member Since Contact Type Status
Sep 18, 2012 Contact Member Seller
Buying Privileges - OKSelling Privileges - OK
Store Closed Store: Zerut
BrickLink Catalog Administrator (?)
In Inventories Requests, SezaR writes:
  In Inventories Requests, Turez writes:
  In Inventories Requests, axaday writes:
  In Inventories Requests, axaday writes:
  Please make changes to the following inventory:
 
Set No: 9454  Name: Function Set
* 
9454-1 (Inv) Function Set
354 Parts, 1992
Sets: Educational & Dacta: Universal Building Set

* Change 6 Part Light Gray {731c05 Technic, Shock Absorber 6.5L - Normal Spring to 731c06 Technic, Shock Absorber 6.5L - Soft Spring}

Comments from Submitter:
Pic following

One of these has more coil than the other, but they both look closer to soft
than normal to me.

I think such changes are useless as long as we don't recognize all possible
731c* variants in the catalog with proper names.

- There is at least one more spring type which does not have an entry on BL.
- The names on BL are not correct (some "soft" springs are actually harder than
the "normal" ones).
- I have a feeling that it is impossible to tell some of the springs apart by
looking at them. You actually have to measure them to know which is which.

https://news.lugnet.com/technic/?n=16651

I have parted out one of the dacta ssets and still have its shock absorber. Before
its shock absorbes us and a buyer buy them from me, can I help with this and
how?

You could try to find out how much weight is needed for full compression using
a scale:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=80xO5sZQRKQ

I am planning to build a more accurate tool for this (with LEGO, of course),
but using it will probably change the condition of the shock absorbers to "used"
so I'm not sure if you want to wait for that.
 Author: SezaR View Messages Posted By SezaR
 Posted: Aug 7, 2021 17:08
 Subject: Re: Inventory Change Request for Set 9454-1
 Viewed: 19 times
 Topic: Inventories Requests
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SezaR (1376)

Location:  Canada, British Columbia
Member Since Contact Type Status
Jan 15, 2015 Contact Member Seller
Buying Privileges - OKSelling Privileges - OK
Store: Sezar's trains
In Inventories Requests, Turez writes:
  In Inventories Requests, SezaR writes:
  In Inventories Requests, Turez writes:
  In Inventories Requests, axaday writes:
  In Inventories Requests, axaday writes:
  Please make changes to the following inventory:
 
Set No: 9454  Name: Function Set
* 
9454-1 (Inv) Function Set
354 Parts, 1992
Sets: Educational & Dacta: Universal Building Set

* Change 6 Part Light Gray {731c05 Technic, Shock Absorber 6.5L - Normal Spring to 731c06 Technic, Shock Absorber 6.5L - Soft Spring}

Comments from Submitter:
Pic following

One of these has more coil than the other, but they both look closer to soft
than normal to me.

I think such changes are useless as long as we don't recognize all possible
731c* variants in the catalog with proper names.

- There is at least one more spring type which does not have an entry on BL.
- The names on BL are not correct (some "soft" springs are actually harder than
the "normal" ones).
- I have a feeling that it is impossible to tell some of the springs apart by
looking at them. You actually have to measure them to know which is which.

https://news.lugnet.com/technic/?n=16651

I have parted out one of the dacta ssets and still have its shock absorber. Before
its shock absorbes us and a buyer buy them from me, can I help with this and
how?

You could try to find out how much weight is needed for full compression using
a scale:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=80xO5sZQRKQ

I am planning to build a more accurate tool for this (with LEGO, of course),
but using it will probably change the condition of the shock absorbers to "used"
so I'm not sure if you want to wait for that.

I can test one of them and then hide it maliciously from buyers

One question remains: does it have the same amount of resistance if it is new
comparing to if it is used for 5 years? Doesn't it get loose after a while?
Otherwise, why don't I test one that is perfectly similar to the new ones
I have?

P.S. As a buyer, I would buy this part new if it is only tested. The part it
is aanoying is the amount of time it takes to add notes in the description and
explain how and how much it is used...