198 replies to this topic

[-Saam-]

It's tricky making wooden coasters with k'nex, but you seem to be doing a fine job! Nice work, those supports look great!

[ForgotToGrowUp]

^^ I think that is just the camera angle. The track work is not final, but I think it is pretty close. I've spent most of my time on the structures.

Here's a shot looking straight down the run.

[ickus305]

FTGU, this is looking excellent. Glad you decided to not cancel this. Looking forward to watching this unfold backwards.

[alpal]

Backwards building! Love it!

[Snake]

Good idea building backwards. I would have never have thought of that!

[rollercoasterfanatic919]

^^ I think that is just the camera angle. The track work is not final, but I think it is pretty close. I've spent most of my time on the structures.

Here's a shot looking straight down the run.

Thanks for the picture, and you're right, it was definitely the angle. Looks great!

[RNB]

I love it so far! Looking very well!

[ForgotToGrowUp]

Made some progress so have an update.

I built the last air time hill and the third turn above the fifth I also did a lot of tweaking on the structures all around to make everything even stiffer and did a little track smoothing but will probably go over it all again once I get close to finishing.

Here is the hill.



POV of entrance to 4th turn after that hill



3rd turn before that hill





Entrance to the 5th turn under the 3rd



Overview of what I have so far.




Really glad I started this over and to build this backwards. I would have been in trouble if I tried to follow my original plans. The third turn is a full granite higher than I planned it originally. I am testing with the train I used on Whirlwind, it hasn't been re-lubed but was stored in a sealed bin. I added a 5th car to the train. Might eventually run 6. Here are few tests, it just makes it over the last turn. I actually had to lower the track in that turn about a 2 cm to make it work. With a little speed entering turn 3 I should be in good shape.

[Jogumpie]

I really like your workplace. Not to mention that coaster that is arising.

[ickus305]

That is looking good. Keep it up!

[Maxlaam]

A very clean build, very nice supports!

[TheRandomGuy]

It looks like you have a lot of speed there. Great job on the track! This whole idea of working backwards was way better than I imagined!

[Snake]

Lovin' the custom table and the coaster.

[rollercoasterfanatic919]

The speed you have is absolutely perfect. Your cars sound good too. I may have to try this building backwards tactic...

[ForgotToGrowUp]

Personally I'd like to see it make that last turn a little faster. I can't lower it any more so I am going to look for places to smooth out the bunny hop run. I really like the speed in the second to last turn. Next step I am going to build the foundation of the lift hill and then the break run and station. I want to get all this infield stuff built before I build the hill on the other side of the oval. If I wait it will be hard to reach. Once I build that stuff the bunny hops are going to be buried so I need to get them perfect now.

I had all the furniture in my living room out to put a new rug in yesterday so I turned my coaster table around while I had the room. Like Jumge X wing the coaster looses a little more speed this way. I know the floor is not perfectly level, Whirlwind worked much better with the table one way than the other. I turned it around for lighting when I shot the videos.

[ForgotToGrowUp]

Hey gang,

Realize it's been a number of weeks since my last update. I haven't had a ton of time to work on my coaster but have been doing a little bit here and there when I can. As I said, I need to complete the infield portions of the coaster before building the next 2 hills (remember working backwards) because it is going to be very hard to get in here once those are built. This is the most complicated part of it all because it involves the mechanicals of the ride and everything is so packed in. Here is what I have, excuse the messy construction site.

This is the pre-lift turn around between the station and the lift hill. In this picture the station will be inside the big turn on the right and the lift on the left.



Here you can see the base of the lift hill (cener) and the hill after the first turn (right) as well as the "brake" run (left).

Because the brake run has to go over the final run of bunny hops and this is such a long circuit I am going to need chain in the brake run to get the train back to the station. I made the rise and fall of that run as gradual as possible so it does not look too much like a hill. I am pretty sure that once the rest of the coaster is built around the brake run it will be barely noticeable. The straight run of green cross ties in the background is where the station will be. They are just prototyped for now, the final station track will use black cross ties and dark grey rods to match the brake run.







This is where the track dives under the brake run lift and big hill.



From inside the "tunnel"



From above



Overview of the 3 passes the circuit will make over that final run.



I don't want the motors to be a focal point of the ride because they are so out of scale with the rest of it. I want to put them inside the base of the lift hill. I used my 2 backwards running motors to create this compact set of 4 electric motors. Because the motors are designed for blue boxes and i am building in granites I had to built a box around the box. Once i am sure about how I want to arrange all the gears I will plant this in the base. This set of motors will drive the lift hill and the brake run. I will use a separate motor for the station. Still trying to figure out the simplest way to turn that motor on to move one train out of the station when the other enters the brake run.

[Jester1960]

Backward is the only way to build a woodie that overlaps itself, thats how I built Hurricane Irene . it sure beats trying to add track under an existing structure. keep up the good work Jeff

[maarten12]

The track work looks beautiful! But how can it be that some of your motors are running backwards? Isn't it just your adapter?

[ForgotToGrowUp]

2 Of them just came that way. 2 of the 8 I have rotate the opposite way. I labeled thm so I don't mx them up unexpectedly. Then I noticed the are a slightly different grey as well.

It did come in handy for this though!

[commando]

Very cool coaster dude. Not a lot of these are built and its nice to see them. It makes me want to build one!