21 replies to this topic

[YolosweggLord]

Due to a long and exhausting move, I was stuck in a hotel for the past 2 months. Now that I'm in my new house (San Antonio, by the way) I finally have time for K'nex. The great thing about this house is that my bedroom has an annex attached to it, which the previous owner used for a comic book collection. It's the perfect size for medium-large scale k'nex builds, though, so under its new ownership this room has become the K'nex room.

I've been working on this coaster for the better part of the past 3 days. The launch will be weight powered, with a gear reduction connecting the weight to the catch car's pulley system. The catch car's pulley system is fully rigged with fishing line, but I need to get more fishing line before I can rig up the weight's pulley system. And yes, the weight launch is directly inspired by X7123M3-256's weight-powered launch coaster, right down to the top hat tower used as a weight shaft. So much for originality.

Anyways, here are some pics:

The layout so far:
 IMG_0035.JPG   147.13KB   5 downloads

First turn, Intimidator 305-style:
 IMG_0036.JPG   160.5KB   6 downloads

Top hat! Sideways?
 IMG_0037.JPG   180.17KB   1 downloads

I love this pullout... stupid sideways pictures.
 IMG_0038.JPG   156.19KB   1 downloads

Ejector airtime!
 IMG_0039.JPG   191.74KB   0 downloads

The catch car:
 IMG_0040.JPG   160.73KB   2 downloads

My cars, which are all several years old, seem to be surprisingly good for their age, especially considering they aren't weighted/lubed. They really fly over the ejector hill. Maybe because they're in a train. Either way, I'm planning on ordering 6 or so new cars from the K'nex website just to make sure they're at peak performance. I'll still be using only 4 cars pert train, though.

Thanks for checking this out! Leave a comment telling me what you think!

Edited by YolosweggLord, 24 June 2017 - 10:06 PM.

[Muzz135]

I really like the look of this! Love how smooth the turnaround looks, and the way it flows perfectly into the ejector hill. Only thing I would be concerned about is the speed loss the comes with a large turn. Hopefully it still lets you have a decent layout length.

[CW5X]

That long turnaround is life. The top hat tower looks like a mix between Hypersonic XLC and Dodonpa in shape but it all looks great nonetheless.

[X7123M3-256]

The track is really smooth but I'd say that turn is a bit too heavily banked. I know it's taken at high speed, but for a 4G turn you should be banked close to 75 degrees. Yours looks more like 90, which means riders would  feel 1G of lateral force in addition to the positive Gs from the turn. Other than that, I think it looks very good.

[FrIeDeGgS]

Looks really nice so far! I love seeing VV launch coasters and always wanted to make one myself but could never make a good launch, but its nice to see you've made one that works. I hope that thing flies through because that turn, while it looks beatiful, will kill a lot of speed. Only thing I see wrong is there's a straight spot in the middle of the pullout of the top hat.

The track is really smooth but I'd say that turn is a bit too heavily banked. I know it's taken at high speed, but for a 4G turn you should be banked close to 75 degrees. Yours looks more like 90, which means riders would feel 1G of lateral force in addition to the positive Gs from the turn. Other than that, I think it looks very good.

That is unfortunately a limitation of VV track. Since the track isn't like SS where you have the cross ties and tubing and can make a turn of whatever radius you would want, you either have a 90 degree turn, or use the turn pieces, which are quite small (especially when banked) and dont allow you to make huge turns like this. Nothing he can really do, if only they made turn pieces with a larger radius. :/

Edited by FrIeDeGgS, 05 June 2017 - 11:00 AM.

[YolosweggLord]

I really like the look of this! Love how smooth the turnaround looks, and the way it flows perfectly into the ejector hill. Only thing I would be concerned about is the speed loss the comes with a large turn. Hopefully it still lets you have a decent layout length.

Thanks! The train still flies over the ejector at a decent speed, even though the cars are all at least 3 years old and aren't weighted/lubed. I'm planning on ordering 6 new cars from the k'nex website anyways, at which point I imagine I'll have plenty of speed.

That long turnaround is life. The top hat tower looks like a mix between Hypersonic XLC and Dodonpa in shape but it all looks great nonetheless.

The top hat was in fact inspired by S&S air thrust coasters; Top hats on Intamin accelerators seem to always have a 90*(or 270*) twist on the ascent or descent, but I liked the look of S&S top hats directly in line with the launch. So this is what came out of it.

The track is really smooth but I'd say that turn is a bit too heavily banked. I know it's taken at high speed, but for a 4G turn you should be banked close to 75 degrees. Yours looks more like 90, which means riders would feel 1G of lateral force in addition to the positive Gs from the turn. Other than that, I think it looks very good.

Thanks for the feedback. Unfortunately the banking isn't something I can fix because...

That is unfortunately a limitation of VV track... you either have a 90 degree turn, or use the turn pieces, which are quite small (especially when banked) and dont allow you to make huge turns like this.

Friedeggs hit it spot-on. I would probably be building this with SS if I had the pieces; I have the track from ~2 RR sets, but only 1 RR car, 1 pair of boosters, and no stardard-size chain or red gears.

Looks really nice so far! I love seeing VV launch coasters and always wanted to make one myself but could never make a good launch, but its nice to see you've made one that works. I hope that thing flies through because that turn, while it looks beatiful, will kill a lot of speed. Only thing I see wrong is there's a straight spot in the middle of the pullout of the top hat.

As I just mentioned, I seem to have a surprisingly low amount of speed loss here even with unmodified cars. And thanks for pointing out the straight spot, it looks fine up close but when you take a step back the flat bit becomes apparent. I've also noticed a bit of a sharp bend where I switched from green flexis to micro rods as a spine; I'll have to fix that too.

Edited by YolosweggLord, 05 June 2017 - 12:18 PM.

[X7123M3-256]

That is unfortunately a limitation of VV track. Since the track isn't like SS where you have the cross ties and tubing and can make a turn of whatever radius you would want, you either have a 90 degree turn, or use the turn pieces, which are quite small (especially when banked) and dont allow you to make huge turns like this. Nothing he can really do, if only they made turn pieces with a larger radius.

 

That's a shame, I always wondered why so many VV models had this issue. It always looks odd to me.

[TEDDSTER]

Dang dude, this looks awesome! This makes me really want to build with VV right now. Can't wait to see more! Good Luck with the rest of the coaster!

[G Force]

Looks nice Yolo, shaping and scale is pretty much perfect.

 

Supports look good too, except perhaps the section you showed in the 5th picture.  I think it could use some more supporting, just to be on the safe side when it comes to speed.

[YolosweggLord]

Quick update:
I haven't done much, because I've run out of micro red rods. I'm planning on ordering more pieces, including 6 new cars to hopefully get a much better performance out of them.

I added another turn:
 IMG_0045.JPG   212.46KB   0 downloads

And I changed the color scheme of the top hat structure. I've officially become g r a n i t e c r a z y.
 IMG_0046.JPG   183.94KB   0 downloads

Here's a bonus pic of the layout so far:
 IMG_0047.JPG   141.1KB   0 downloads

I've also worked on general smoothening and optimizing the layout for mimnimum speed loss. I seem to be losing more speed than I initially thought on the first turn, but certain minor adjustments seem to affect the speed quite a bit. I also fixed the straight part on the first pullout that friedeggs pointed out, and I fixed the transition from flexis to micro spine using one of those micro snowflake connectors with a standard-sized hole in it. The second turn, especialy the transition into it, still has some issues which need to be addressed.

In the meantime, I've been thinking about giving the coaster a sci-fi theme. I'm not revealing all my thoughts so far, but the yellow rings you can see on the top of the top hat structure are going to be part of the theming.

[OddlyCreative]

Will it be theming Like Gatekeeper?

[SCM]

I think you would benefit from a larger pull-in for the tophat and also eliminating as much vertical track as possible, as real life top hats aren't exactly vertical, shown here; 

Having perfectly vertical track can cause speed loss because the wheels of the car will smash against the track once the track is no longer vertical. That's why no coaster ever has something that is purely straight down. 

[BGTKing]

Good job so far! Sprawling turns look good on the micro sets.

[Batwing]

Wonderful job so far! Lovely to see a new micro coaster going up - such a rarity these days. It's like Dodonpa and Intimidator 305 had a lovechild together!

SCM makes a good point about the pull-in for the top hat. Also, by reducing its angle, you'll accentuate the steepness of the main drop and its pullout.

 

If you to model the shaping based on a real coaster, this one's probably a good shout since it enters the top hat head on: https://rcdb.com/3466.htm#p=16042

Keep up the excellent work!

[YolosweggLord]

Thanks for the tips on the tophat! I'll try to rework it soon, but I'm not sure how much I'll be able to get done. It looks like this would require me to have the launch end further from the tophat than it is now to have room for a less steep ascent, and worst comes to worst I might have to add a half-length track segment to the launch to get the turn positioned properly.

[YolosweggLord]

Ok, I have some pretty bad news concerning the use of red rods in this coaster.
As I stated before, I've used up my entire collection of micro red rods. My dad still hasn't ordered the extra parts I need from K'nex, even though this was supposed to be my birthday gift from over a month ago. And now there's some stupid rule where I'm not allowed to 'monopolize' the K'nex and, anything that's been up for over a week is suddenly free game for my brother to take pieces from.
My brother, who doesn't give a flying fuck about my coaster, frequently destroyed parts of the coaster on a daily basis. He wouldn't actually take any pieces, he'd just disconnect a bunch of rods and leave me to fix it. And because of this stupid 1-week rule, he can just claim that he "needs the pieces I'm using" and I'm powerless from stopping him, even though he's not actually taking pieces from the coaster. Yesterday he decided that he was just going to start building a coaster himself, using as many red rods as possible just to piss me off. Instead of just using a lattice of blue rods like he normally does, he's making a lattice of red rods which doesn't actually make the structure any weaker of stronger than a lattice of blue rods would. And I'm powerless to stop him.
At this point, the first turn is missing a bunch of pieces, and so it's oddly mishapen and very unstable. I don't know what to do at this point, I've tried convincing him to just wait until I have the pieces he needs, but he's such an asshole that he won't listen to anything I say. Right now I'm incredibly frustrated and I don't know what to do, I can't do a damn thing to stop him from destroying the coaster.

Edited by YolosweggLord, 29 June 2017 - 12:08 PM.

[FrIeDeGgS]

Wow, that's a damn shame. Is this an immature older brother or something? Maybe you could try convincing your parents to buy him a few sets of K'nex for just him to use, and in return not steal any of your pieces?

[SCM]

Yeah I agree with FrIeDeGgS... except for the last part. Even if some new sets are bought just for him, I can definitely see your brother continuing the destruction anyway. That 'one week rule' is complete bullshit. Seven days is not enough to make a good quality coaster and film it. The time frame is even too short for a 9-day buildoff contest. 

I understand how they think you're "monopolizing" the knex... but for f*ck's sake, that doesn't justify him destroying your coaster. (Sorry for the harsh language, staff, but seeing some dickhead get away with wrongdoing because those in power allow it just pisses me off.) So now what could have been a great VV coaster is ruined because of some asshole brother guarded by an unreasonably short time rule. Does he even honor the one week rule? 

[YolosweggLord]

I'm starting to think maybe I shouldn't have posted that. I was quite frustrated at the time and wanted to vent, but I think it was writing of me to bring my family arguments into this. Since I know you're wondering, he's 12, and we share the knex, so just buying him a few separate sets wouldn't work. I think I've got him to leave it alone now, so as soon as I get the pieces I need I'll be able to finish the layout.

In brighter news, I've finished the coaster's station. In the end I went with a flattish roof rather than a slanted one like I wanted, but it still captures the look I wanted.

 IMG_0058.JPG   173.06KB   0 downloads
The front of the station, with the queue ramp visible.

 IMG_0059.JPG   150.78KB   0 downloads
The side with the coaster entry point. To the left will be the final brake run and, next to it, the exit ramp. Also, you can see the elongated octagonal roof thingy with windows.

 IMG_0060.JPG   209.45KB   0 downloads
The back and other side of the station.

 IMG_0061.JPG   187.57KB   0 downloads
The roof comes off quite easily to access the inside of the station.

This station robbed me of pretty much all my snowflakes and black/green rods. In fact I left a bit of the wall out underneath the queue ramp to access the chain underneath if needed. The coaster doesn't actually make it all the way around the U-turn to the launch track, though this allows me to connect the catch car manually.

[YolosweggLord]

Unfortunately, I'm taking the coaster down. I still haven't gotten the pieces I wanted to, and it looks like I won't be able to get them for a while. At least, not until I get a job (which I've been trying to since the start of summer) and start handling my own money. I want to try something else, but I'm torn between a few different ideas of varying complexity/size.