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.
Wednesday, November 25, 2009
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.
Saturday, November 21, 2009
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 :).
Saturday, November 14, 2009
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 Roller Coaster Station - More DIY How To Projects
Friday, November 13, 2009
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!
Friday, October 16, 2009
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 th
e 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.
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 th
e 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.
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.
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.
Saturday, July 11, 2009
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.
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