Building: Brick Separator

Saving your teeth and nails

Article by Didier Enjary based on an original idea by Philippe “Philo” Hurbain

 

 

You probably know this strange part. With its two studs, there is no doubt this is a LEGO part, but what it is intended for ? Is it a deep sea diver flipper? or a dinosaur foot? No, its original use is as a brick remover!

In some configurations, parts are pretty hard to remove. Kids will use their teeth and scratch the surface of bricks and plates. Adults are no less dangerous as they use metal tools leaving the worst traces in the plastic.

Brick separator use is quite simple, you stack it on the part to remove, and then you push down the handle so the part is pulled up.

You can also use the brick separator from the top like this :

 

 

Taking apart two identical small plates is another specific situation you can solve combining the previous uses with two brick separators.

The brick separator works very well on small parts but you have to be cautious with larger plates (4x8) and you may even damage the largest ones (6x10).

 

A less known use of the brick separator is as a tile remover. The way the brick separator works on tile is different. It does not draw out the parts from the top with the help of studs but it lifts the tile off with help of the groove.The last thing to not about the brick separator is that while it works on plates, bricks, tiles (including tiles with grille), it does not work on jumper plates  (1x2 plate with 1 stud on top) due to their offseted stud.

Link:
http://www.philohome.com/remover/remover9.htm

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