Welcome to my blog!

On this blog you'll find all of my Knex creations! Here I'll have my models, plus updates of any major projects. I made this blog in June 2009, when I began construction on Cataclysm.

I'm on lots of other websites besides this one. Here's some links:

The Knex Forum: here I upload all of the images of my models. Go to my profile to see my albums, groups, etc.

Instructables: I'm most active on this site. Here's my profile. Here I upload instructions for lots of my projects. You'll also find slide shows, videos, and more.

Youtube: here's where I upload my videos. Go to my channel to watch them!

Make sure to follow this blog for updates on my models!


Thursday, July 30, 2009

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.




1 comment:

  1. That's insanely cool! We'd love to have a vide of this featured on K'nex Innovation.

    ReplyDelete