How to find all the Legos needed for the LWB

The NIST Journal Article on the Lego Watt Balance (LWB) has a helpful parts list with the serial number and quantity of each Lego piece. See Appendix A below for a list compiled from the article. However, this is my first Lego project! I do not think Legos had been invented when I was growing up. We had stuff like Lincoln Logs, Tinkertoys, and Erector Sets back then. Therefore I do not have tubs of Legos in the closet like most kids and their parents have to start a project like the LWB. This page is designed for folks like me who are starting from Lego ground zero.

MY SEARCH FOR LEGOS:

• 1. PLAN A: Find a kid who has lots of Legos
  Before I started the project, all the kids I knew had buckets of Legos, and I assumed that they would love to help me measure the Planck Constant. But no way was anyone interested. Not one. Wonder why? Hmmm. So on to Plan B.

• 2. PLAN B: Buy all the Legos from LEGO.COM
  The simplest way to get Logos is to go to Lego.com and order them online. However, that was way too expensive for me! So on to Plan C

• 3. PLAN C: Buy Legos from eBay.com
  eBay.com has lots of Legos, new and used. But I found that no one vendor had a large assortment comparable to the NIST parts list, and most vendors had a $3 or $4 shipping fee that made them less economical than I had hoped. So on to Plan D. Note, I did use eBay.com for most of the Legos that I added to the project beyond the NIST design.

• 4. PLAN D: Buy Legos from Bricklink.com
  There are a number of web stores that are like eBay but specialize in Legos. Bricklink.com looks to me to be one of the largest, and I checked into buying the NIST Lego parts list there. It seems that it is possible to submit a parts list and get bids from multiple vendors, but the process seemed to be more complicated than I wanted to learn how to do. If you want to pursue this plan, there is an XML parts file in Appendix B below. On to Plan E

• 5. PLAN E: Hire a Lego expert to find all the LEGO parts from the most economical sources
  This is what I ended up doing. I went on fiverr.com, one of the web sites that finds people to help you do tasks, and searched for a Lego expert, and then hired them to find all the parts from economical sources like Bricklink.com, order them, inspect them, and then send them to me. I was happy to not have to spend any more time on procuring Legos and concentrate on building my LWB. Many thanks to kiwikid333 on fiverr.com for all the help!

COST
My duplicate of the 2015 NIST LWB Lego parts cost me about $100 from kiwikid333 at Fiverr.com. Note that I have since bought more Lego parts for my LWB modifications and their cost will be covered in later pages where I discuss the modifications in detail.

Brick 2x4 #300101 75quantity
Brick 2x8 #6033776 75quantity
Brick 1x2 with cross hole #4233487 6quantity
T-Beam 3x3 w/hole #4552347 2quantity
Technic Brick 1x2 #370026 18quantity
Technic Brick 1x4 #4211441 66quantity
Technic Brick 1x5 Thin #32017 4quantity
Plate 8x8 #4210802 9quantity
Plate 1x2 #4211398 14quantity
Plate 1x4 #4211445 3quantity
Plate 2x3 #4211396 6quantity
Cross Axle 2M w/ Groove #4109810 8quantity
Cross Axle 3M #4211815 2quantity
Cross Axle 5M #4211639 6quantity
Cross Axle 8M #370726 8quantity
Bush for Cross Axle #4211622 14quantity
1/2 Bush for Cross Axle #4211573 32quantity
Double Bush 3M #4560175 4quantity
Roof Tile 2x2/45 deg Inv. #366026 2quantity
Roof Tile 2x3/25 deg #4211106 6quantity
Roof Tile 2X3/25 deg Inv. #374726 4quantity
Connector Peg W. Friction 3M #4514553 8quantity
Connector Peg/Cross Axle #4666579 6quantity
Catch w. Cross Hole #4107081 8quantity
Flat Tile 2x4 #4560178 2quantity
Hinge 1x2 Lower Part #383101 6quantity
Hinge 1x2 Upper Part #6011456 6quantity
Double Conical Wheel Z12 1M #4177431 4quantity
Angle Element, 180 Degrees [2] #4107783 2quantity
Technic Beam 1 x 4 x 0.5 with Boss #2825 / 32006 6quantity
Technic Beam 2 Beam w/ Angled Ball Joint #50923 / 59141 2quantity
Wedge Belt Wheel #2786 / 4185 4quantity
Gear with 8 Teeth (Narrow) #3647 2quantity
Universal Joint #61903 2quantity

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