Pick a brick cup quantities?

MorkMan

 Does anyone know how many one by one bricks would fit into a large pick a brick cup? I'm also trying to find out how many one by two plates would fit into a large take a brick cup. I'm doing a large MOC and I'm trying to figure out the best price/way. 

Bumblepants

A lot depends on how much patience and time you have to assemble the parts into tight stacks that fill every possible crevice. Can't recall an exact number but I got enough 1x4s and 1x2s to finish the top two floors of my Market Street remix in one large cup.

MorkMan

@Bumblepants Was that a hundred of each? Quantity?

Bumblepants

Hard to say, I just stacked them on each other in columns. 1x4s in the middle and 1x2s around the sides. I always stick tiny tiles or plates in the gaps too. It was a year ago so it is fuzzy. I do recall seeing a blog or a post here maybe where someone calculated how much would fit but the goal was to determine if small or large cups were better.

Jody

I got 150 2x4 plates stacked together into the cup, and I probably only used 40%-50% of the cup. 

Jody

Taking it further and doing some math-
a 1x1 brick is about .036 cubic inches each. (.312x.312x.375)
I do not know the actual volume of a PAB cub, but it seems similar to a 32oz fountain soda cup.
There are .554 fluid ounces in a cubic inch.
32oz/.554=57.76 cubic inches
57.76/.036=1604
Now take away at least 15% for dead space between bricks and you get 1363 bricks roughly.

That is for a 32 oz cup...if you find out the actual PAB volume, you can input t hat number into the formula and figure it out.

CCC

169 2x4s, so 1352 1x1s if you place them really carefully.

MorkMan

Thanks everyone.  I am going to use 1200 1x1 bricks as my estimate. This way I will have leftovers. 

Jody

CCC said:

169 2x4s, so 1352 1x1s if you place them really carefully.

Wow, my math actually worked!

CCC

Yeah, very close! I imagine stacking 11,s will be very tedious though. I once did it for 2*4 and 2*2s and it took a while.

monkeyhanger

I stuck 4x1 bricks together in 15 block high "strips" to fit in a large PAB cup recently and some of the parents of kids in the shop (Metrocentre) looked at what I was doing as if I was some kind of nutter.

Some parent allowed their kid to scoop out 3 handfuls of "eye" tile pieces all over the floor and didn't even tell the kid off as a shop employee went and got a dustpan and brush to clean the mess up. Little b'stard!

MorkMan

Thanks everyone. The savings is already there with the dip and scoop method. If I spend a lot of time in the store it will cost me more since my kids will want me to buy them sets!

Astrobricks

^Go without kids :-)

madforLEGO

I stopped trying to stack once the PaB Gift boxes stopped. Not really worth it to try to stack square brick into round cups for me.. Maybe if I was getting the small cups... nah, not even then.

MorkMan

Astrobricks said:

^Go without kids :-)

 That doesn't happen. 

MaffyD

To reinforce @Astrobricks comment, I get nothing done in a Lego Store when my children are around. They think I'm buying for them, for some reason!? :-)

Kevin_Hyatt

I wouldn't bother stacking 1x1 bricks or 1x2 plates. It would take forever and with them being small anyway you'd get tons in just scooping and shaking.

nexander

Get kids to do the stacking (their small hands are good at it) while you browse and fill the cup. Lets be honest, free labour is the reason we had kids!

masterX244

Kevin_Hyatt said:

I wouldn't bother stacking 1x1 bricks or 1x2 plates. It would take forever and with them being small anyway you'd get tons in just scooping and shaking.

i knwo that fun of squeezing parts into a given volume due to my unsorted parts box.. its 105% filled and only works with shaking after it got searched thru...