21 replies to this topic

[LaMbChOpZ]

**Sorry if this is in the wrong category.**

I'm going to be making a K'Nex coaster for a school event in May. I would like to have different colored track/crossties than my friend so our coasters can be distinctly unique. I'll need approx 300 crossties in all. I was considering this idea, but I don't want to spray paint them, unless that's my only option. I know these parts have been circulating around, but I was looking for ones in a different color than RR yellow, SS green, and black. Preferably a blue or a dark yellow would be preferred (they're our school colors), but any non-normal color would be helpful. Different colored tubing would also be great to have. Worse comes to worse, it's with my normal track.

I've looked on Ebay and can't seem to have any luck finding anything along the lines of what I need, so I though SSC would be able to help. I've seen them on ebay from one particular seller, but he's sold all of them. I'd need these by the latest April, so I need to get started on finding them now.

[ArrowFanBoy]

You could dye them, like people do with coasterdynamix, of course, you might find that too labor-intensive. If you would like, I can try and find a link to the website for the best plastic dye that the people on the coasterdynamix forums use.

[LaMbChOpZ]

It would be something to try, but if I modify my parts I'd probably want them to go back to the yellow. It's worth a shot, so if you find it that's great. If it does turn out to be irreversible, I might just have to spray paint all of them.

[Snake]

You could take acrylic paint and put it in a spray bottle and spray them. Then when you are done
you can soak them in water and it should peel off.

This guy expains it. skip to 6:09
http://www.lizard-la...nner-video.html

[LaMbChOpZ]

Thanks, now I just have to go buy acrylic paint. I don't want to paint any of my parts until I know for certain that it is 100% impossible to purchase the parts I need for my coaster.

[pkiknex25]

I know whatever kit had the blue crossties is discontinued. Ickus gave the official item number and the search on Knex.com returned a different kit with the same number.

[LaMbChOpZ]

I know whatever kit had the blue crossties is discontinued. Ickus gave the official item number and the search on Knex.com returned a different kit with the same number.

I had a good feeling they were. Well I guess I might just test out spray-painting them and hoping that it's possible to get it off. I'm not going to be able to do that until the weekend however. Just out of curiosity, but is the orange tubing from the Original K'Nex coaster compatible with the Screamin' Serpent? I feel like it isn't....

[Turtle Man 24]

No, it's not compatible with SS.

[LaMbChOpZ]

Hmm, well I guess if I can't find some pre-colored tubing, I'll have to either go with what I have (red) or dye it a different color, since I have a pretty good amount of red tubing. As for the crossties, I might have to spray pain those.

[pkiknex25]

You could spend a bunch money on a few Loopin Lizards and its yellow tubing.

[Kool Coaster Kid]

I remember a while back, bigbuilder posted a tutorial about changing the color of knex. You should check it out!

[LaMbChOpZ]

You could spend a bunch money on a few Loopin Lizards and its yellow tubing.

I have maybe $100, if that. I'm making a boomerang coaster, but my scale is kind of big. I'm estimating to need about 8 feet of track total. I am looking for it, but there's nothing on ebay.

Spoiler

Heeeeeeey Ickus! I see ya got a lot of extra track

I remember a while back, bigbuilder posted a tutorial about changing the color of knex. You should check it out!

I remember seeing that too, specifically about tubing. I'm going to find it and see if I'll be able to do it. EDIT: I can't find it, but if you can, that'd be great.

[Blackkitty]

http://www.sscoaster...0x-better-4837/

SHABAM.

This is olddddd. I don't think anyone ever tried it but I was always interested in trying it. You would have to cut their tubing perfectly, but if you did, you would get new colors and slightly thicker tubing!

[LaMbChOpZ]

Hmm, I'll look into this as well. I see the difficulty of this, and it looks like it'll be pretty expensive depending on how long my CotA coaster is. $31 for 20 meters, sounds resonable. I'm just afraid I'd cut it poorly and have messed up track. I might be able to get my Industrial Materials teacher to help me do it. He might know a good way to do it with some of the many machines he has available (band saw, lazer engraver, etc radial arm saw).

I'll look into this as well. Who knows, could be better than SS tubing for all we know! I might order a small amount of it first, maybe a foot, if that, and try it and see how it goes.

[Blackkitty]

^!!!!!!!!!!

All that snooping goes to good!
If you guys have an Industrial Materials teacher, that is perfect for the job! Please see if this will work!

[ickus305]

^^^ Sorry Lamb I am short on yellow tubing as it is

http://www.sscoaster...0x-better-4837/

SHABAM.

This is olddddd. I don't think anyone ever tried it but I was always interested in trying it. You would have to cut their tubing perfectly, but if you did, you would get new colors and slightly thicker tubing!

Damn, someone has already brought this up. I looked at doing this for NF (I can get black (My dad uses it for work sometimes)) The first time I did it, I only made a single slit and it made horrible bumps in the track at each cross-tie. I now have a parallel exacto knife set-up (I use it model building typically), but I was looking to make a jig to be able to accurately cut the tubing and actually remove an amount of material similar to what K'nex® removes from their tubing.

I would look around for some cheaper tubing, it is definitely out there since it is used commercially, also K'nex® uses SAE measurements, so it should be really easy to find the right size for yourself.

[Jogumpie]

That $31 for 20 meter deal is way over the top for K'NEX coasters. Let's be optimistic and say the price dropped down to $25. Then for $100 you get 80 meters, which can cover 40m (131ft) or 27m (88ft) depending on double or triple tubing. That's quite the investment for not that long a distance.

[LaMbChOpZ]

^^ I had a feeling that would happen.
^ I agree.

Worse comes to worse, I can always purchase some more SS tubing, then dye it from there. I do know someone here on SSC has a tutorial for changing the color of tubing, but I can't find it.

[ickus305]

umm, some notes about colouring changing.

In my early thought processing about colour coding my coasters I wanted to change the colours of cross ties and tubing and such. Using information from a lot of sources, I tried several methods.

I have used about 20 different types of paint (even acetone based permanent plastic paints), All of when chip or crack on K'nex®. From what I can tell, either from the type of plastic being used, or the release from the mold there is a weird outside on the parts, which does not allow penetration of the paints. The train cars are really the only things I have been able to "melt" with the acetone, and they are a different type of plastic then the parts.
Also if you paint, you would have to paint after you have everything set-up, because if you paint before hand, the clipping of the pieces and etc will not work very well, because you will have filled the grooves and etc.(check out the K'nex® facebook where they build the massive grave digger, and you will see the Neon green pipes that they built, they where white and yellow, and then they painted them after they were built).

The second option is to dye the parts. Dying causes two problems. It almost always take heat to dye the plastic (RIT dye, available at W-mart) is the most common plastic dying technique I know of (there are other ways but I think all take heat to truly work well.) this heating can cause deformations, and will make the part shrink fractionally(not too big a problem as long as it does not twist). Second, the dying will cause the parts to become more brittle, heating and cooling plastics will cause them to becoming less flexible and also much more brittle.
Also, this is not a problem but something to consider, lighter colours work much better for changing the colour then darker colours.


I am all for experimentation, but I wanted to help by letting you know some of the issues I have come across in previous trials.

[LaMbChOpZ]

^OK thanks. This helps a whole lot. I was planning on coloring them before I build the coaster, but after thinking a bit about it and seeing what you said, it's not a good idea.

EDIT: Found it!

http://www.sscoaster...eing-knex-9731/


However, this doesn't seem to be very effective, as the tubing shrinks and does other strange things, so I'm looking into Vinyl dye which is made for soft plastics. The side effects to humans doesn't look very promising however.

EDIT: So I've found this. Perfect colors for what I need.
http://www.amazon.co...29340942&sr=1-5

http://www.amazon.co...29340942&sr=1-4