More Makittoy

 Hi

For a while I have been experimenting with the Makit construction set (with posts here, and here, ) and now I'm happy to provide some more information on it.  

Firstly, in the pics above, I've made some visual representations of the 2 compatible principles governing the lengths of Makittoy rods, as described in Pic 1.

Secondly, I've scanned the makittoy documentation I have and the full (yes battered!) version is now available here. Happy Makitting!

 

 One of the features of Makittoy is that is has 2 rod diameters which are colour coded. Brown rods are slit at the ends which creates a little spring - they stick into the wheels or joiners which have holes which are all the same diameter. Red rods have a slightly smaller diameter and normally slide or spin in the joiner holes. There is another option with the red rods and that is to use a steel bushing with them - that turns the sliding fit into a press fit so that the joiners can also be stuck fast to the red rod. 

The Makit rods aren't elaborately transformed but are at least mildly processed - one is painted red and the other has slits in the end - so it takes at least some effort to "forge" the Makit parts, even if you start with the right diameter rod.  

In engineering terms the Makit system is Hole Basis , with fixed hole sizes and variable shafts. In a set of parts I designed recently (here)  , the fit is shaft based with a constant diameter shaft used.