Main towers on Cataclysm finished

I finally got to building the main towers on Cataclysm! All of the elements and lifts will be built onto these towers. There's a new lift under construction that you can see in the picture above. Also, I built a "wall" around the base three red rods high. This is to keep the cats out of the interior of the machine, and it works. :-) I took the batteries out of all of the motors on the large arm lift, since I'm not running the arm anymore during construction of other things. Once I get some crossties I bought from eBay a month ago (which should have already come), I'll be able to complete the large arm lift. All I need to do is add a gate mechanism at the bottom, and the large arm lift will be complete. Hopefully I won't save that part for last, like I did with the ball catcher in Wipe Out's rotating arm lift.

Christmas Wreath

Here's something that will look good around Christmas time: a wreath! This was only built in a day, and it uses 382 pieces, most of which are green rods and green connectors. In addition to the green, there's white rods and connectors for snow, red connectors for berries, a ribbon at the bottom, and more. I made instructions for it if you want to build it; click here for that.

This is an entry into this Knex contest, and I won 1st place! View the instructions for more pictures.

Miter Saw

This is a miter saw that I built in only two days (imagine that!). I built for a contest. The blade spins and can cut paper. The best part about it is that the blade guard lifts up automatically as you push the saw down, just like the real thing. Plus, it's huge, heavy, and uses lots of flexi-rods. :-)


Here's how it works; when you push the saw down, fishing line gets reeled out in the back. A shaft turns, which is geared up so another shaft spins faster. Another strand of fishing line is attached to this shaft. When one strand of fishing line gets pulled out, another gets pulled in at a faster rate. One strand goes through the base and up into the saw, going through many wheels (yes, this was very hard to put through the wheels). There's also rubber bands that help reset everything.

Click here for the official gallery to see all of the pictures!

This is a 1st place contest winner!


Click here to see the official parts list, plus pictures of the saw during deconstruction! You'll be able to see the insides of the saw and the mechanism.

Watch the video here.

Stair Lift

From the original stair lift I used in Wipe Out, I recreated this stair lift. With its improved design, it isn't exactly like the old one. But it's very similar.

I made instructions right here, and the video is here.

Roller Coaster Station V2

This is version 2 of my original coaster station. I made instructions for it right here. It uses Screamin' Serpent cars for the track, and I even made it all metallic colors :).

Roller Coaster Station

I actually built this a long time ago while building the Death Trap. I decided I'd make instructions for it so I would be able to take it apart. It's made out of micro pieces, which I'm not interested in much. Anyway, if you'd like to build it, the instructions are below. Click here for the actual page that the instructions are on.


Knex Roller Coaster Station - More DIY How To Projects

Knex Squirrel Trap

This is just a small project that only took me a night to build. It can catch more than just squirrels, but that's what I named it because I have lots of squirrels where I live. The overall design is based on I_am_Canadian's Guinea Pig Trap. I built that one, then I modified it so it would be able to catch squirrels. I added a top and bottom, heavier door, and it has a different system for closing the door. When weight is added to the floor, the door closes. I used cereal and wafers for the bait. So far no catches, but I plan to set it up tomorrow if the weather is good. Hopefully it will work!

New Lift on Cataclysm Finished

Yes, I haven't been posting much on this blog. But after 3 months of work on the new lift of Cataclysm, it is finally finished! Let's see how it works:

It's made up of an arm that goes up using fishing line. The motor on the end of the arm reels the line in, so it goes up. When a ball comes into the arm's bucket, it pushes a switch on the arm's motor, and that is how it goes up. Easy, right? Wrong. The part of the lift that took the longest to build was the section that makes the arm go back down. When the ball leaves the arm, it goes through the tower and runs into a rod. The red rod is part of a hammer-looking thing. The hammer holds up a lever that when released, one side of the lever pushes a switch on the arm that locks into place, so the arm then descends back to the bottom of the tower, where the switch is unlocked. Then the arm is ready for another ball to come in. Not too hard, but that's not all. the lever that pushed the switch on the arm needs to be pushed up like it was before. For this, another CyberKnex motor is used. After the ball pushed the red rod, it ends up on a platform. This platform is pushed down by the ball's weight, and it pushes a switch on the motor. A small rod turns around and pushes one side of the lever up, making the other side go back down. But if the ball stays on the platform, it won't be going anywhere. So, I built a ball pusher that turns around at the same speed as the rod that resets the lever. When it pushes the ball out, the motor stops, and it will start all over again. The ball pusher and the rod always stop at the same place they were before because they move at the exact same speed.

Whew! That took awhile to type, mostly because I'm a slow typist. If you still don't understand how the lift works, I made another preview video right here.


Well, that's about it. I plan to build a few new lift systems, and improve some existing lifts.

Plans Changed for Cataclysm

The lift system on Cataclysm, which was still under construction, has been demolished for many reasons. Since my last post, when I made a preview video, I made the elevator faster, and I added an anti-rollback system that prevented the elevator from rolling down when it was at the top holding the car. When the car came on the elevator at the bottom, it pushed a switch on the right that prevented the anti-rollback system from clicking (the clicking sound got annoying after awhile). It also pushed a switch on the left, but it had no effect when the elevator was going up. When the car came in at the top, it pushed the left switch so the elevator could go down. Everything seemed to be going as planned, but something happened a little while after I added the anti-rollback system. The car kept on getting stuck when going into and leaving the elevator, and it didn't stop at the same place at the top every time, which was a problem (the car couldn't exit the elevator). It was probably because of the gates, but there was another problem; the elevator itself wasn't level, so the car wouldn't go through the elevator smoothly. It wasn't because of the counterweight because all 4 strands of fishing line were exactly the same length. It wasn't level because the gear that the car turned to lift up the elevator was connected to the gears on the front first; then chain ran from those to the gears in the back.
I took the anti-rollback system off of the elevator to fix the problems, but then the car wasn't able to lift up the elevator at all! The car also had a lot of trouble turning on the track; sometimes it even fell off. So much tinkering with the elevator and car was probably what messed them up. I wish I could have fixed everything, but I've already spent over 2 months building this ball machine, and I can't spend any more time working on this lift system. More pictures of the lift before I demolished it can be viewed here.
In the picture above, you can see both switches to the anti-rollback system. When the switches aren't being pushed, the 3 red gears that the car turns can move one way, but not the other. An orange lever (which is hard to see) locks into one of eight spokes on a white connector, which is attached to the 3 gears that the car turns.
Now that the lift system is apart, I'll have to think of something else. Cataclysm will still have its originally planned design. Unfortunately, I'll probably never be able to build a lift like this again.

Construction on Cataclysm Continues

It's been about 2 months since I started building Cataclysm, and I still haven't finished the lift system yet! The picture below is what it looks like now. So far, the car gets onto the elevator, and it goes up very slowly. A counterweight on the other side (which is tied onto the elevator in 4 places with fishing line) is the exact weight of the elevator. The car only has to lift up its own weight. The whole thing is only powered by one motor, which is on the car. The gates on the elevator (which are under repair) are attached to a lever at the end. When one goes up, the other goes down. The car doesn't go down yet. Click here to see a video of the lift in action.
I still have to do lots of things to get it to work. I have to build the track that the car will exit from the elevator. Somehow, I'll have to find a way for the elevator to stop at the top when the car is exiting.

New Ball Machine Under Construction

After I took Diffusion apart, I decided I would make a new ball machine called Cataclysm. I started building on May 25, 2009. I plan for this ball machine to be my largest yet, and it will have new lift systems. I'm working on a very complex lift system I call an Intermodal Train System (I.T.S). It involves a car that runs on track, similar to the original Knex Roller Coaster. The car will pick up a ball and carry it to the top. Then it will come back down. I finished the car, which uses a CyberKnex motor to power itself. In order to go forward and backward, a ball has to land in a tray, and then a switch on the motor gets pushed down by the tray. When the car reaches the top, a ball will have to land in the other side of the tray, making the car go back to where it started. The car was hard to build because lots of stuff had to be fitted in to a very small space. You can't really see the car in the above image, but that is what the base of the ball machine will look like. I might move towers or add new towers as I'm building since I don't have any plans or drawings (I did sketch out where the towers will be, but not the elements).

I'm currently working on an elevator that will lift the car up and down. It doesn't have its own motor. When the car gets on, a gear on the bottom of it will mesh with a gear on the top of the elevator. The gear on top is connected to four sides, which will have chain running through them. The wheels on the side of the elevator will help it be straight (I might add more as I'm building the elevator shaft). I also have to make a counterweight to make it easier on the car's motor, because it and the elevator are very heavy. Work still has to be done on these lift systems. It will take a very long time to finish this ball machine.