LEGO Technic Cam & Follower Build Instructions

I am a lover of LEGO, and I bought a book, The LEGO Power Functions Idea Book by Yoshihito Isogawa last fall.

Initially, I thought I'd use the book to build with my daughter and nephews. However, I soon realized that even though my daughter and nephews are advanced LEGO builders for their age, they were still having some problems building the more sophisticated machines and mechanism because there were only a few photos accompanying each build.

So, I decided to put together these step-by-step building process for my nephews who live farther away than I like. So, this was the genesis for Building my way through a LEGO Power Functions Book section in my blog.

I'm going to build the machines and mechanisms that are visually interesting, and I'm going to skip around the book. So, I will note the page # as well as the build # in the book on each blog.

Today, I'm going to build a cam mechanism.

So, what is a cam?

A cam is a rotating machine, which transfers a oscillating or reciprocating motion to another part known as a follower. A really good example of a cam is a car engine.

So, LEt's GO!

Step 1: Parts Needed

To run your finished mechanism, you need LEGO power functions kit which sells for ~$30.

The Cam and Follower parts are all LEGO Technic parts. A while back, I bought a tub of Technic parts, and I was lucky enough to get a lot of different parts.