Mechanical LEGO Brick Sorting Factory
Channel: LEGO Technics Rule
Date: 2022-08-25

This LEGO machine solves one of my ailments that I have been dealing with for ages now. It can sort LEGO bricks COMPLETELY AUTOMATICALLY, at least 2x bricks. The bricks are dumped into a hopper, separated into individual bricks, then pushed over a platform with holes varying in length. The bricks then fall into the one that matches their length.

This machine may look very simple, but the amount of work that went into designing, building and testing this thing was enormous. The main challenge I faced when building this machine was how the bricks are actually sorted. I went through one mechanisms using wheels that feed the bricks along with varying distances between the wheels, similar to Akiyuki's axle sorter. I also went through a mechanism that pushed the bricks along above varying lengths of horizontal gaps. 
See second mechanism here: https://imgur.com/xSAzqBq

These mechanisms failed in one way(s) or another, so I eventually settled on pushing the bricks vertically across a table with holes that vary in length. This resulted in a 100% reliability if everything else worked correctly, such as the separator only releasing one brick at a time, not multiple.

Timestamps:
0:00 — Intro
0:25 — Showcase
1:27 — Results
1:33 — The Elevator / Pusher
1:55 — Conveyor
2:09 — Separator
2:35 — Separator Lever Activator
2:48 — The Sorter
2:58 — The Beating Heart of the Entire Thing
3:54 — But what's the ratchet for?
4:39 — The final resting place for the bricks
4:53 — Outro