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Has Anyone ever built a working rollercoaster model??


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I built a working model of Superman The escape for my 8th grade science fair project. I spent close to a year on it and I am still always having to close it for maintence. I can upload pics and explain it better if someone wants me to. Heres the plain info of it.

Linear Launch: About 8 ft.

Slope: About 3 ft

Vertical tower: about 6-7 ft.

It is powered by 24 volts.

And yes I have been shocked pretty bad while working on it

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Well, I tried to take a on-ride video of it Didn't work too well. So I don't know how intense it is. Can't be any worse than the real one. This is how it works:

 

I made about 48 or so electromagnets and placed them in the middle of the linear wooden track. The Power is connected to the right metal rail. Under the car there is a peice of metal that scrapes/slides on the right rail and the wires under the car hit a peice of metal that is connected to that electromagnet which gives that magnet power for a split second to launch the car foward. Timing was a key factor. I had to make sure that the regular magnets that were attached under the car were just right infront of the electromagnets that were on the track. I also had to make my own control panel to launch the car,give the rest of the track power, have a meter showing that the coaster has full power. I also had a fuse in the panel. So the car gets speed and it hits the slope and the vertical tower. It goes very close to the top and even makes a roar sound as it goes up the tower and down it again. Just like the real S:TE the electromagnets also serve as the brakes. I hold down the power button to have the power run through the right rail once again and activate about 1/4 electromagnets to slow the car down so it can return at a safe speed. I even built his fortress of Solitude.

The project costed about $400.00 .

Man hours: Over 300

Money spent on Starbucks: I think we found out it was close to $150.00!!!

The longest we spent working on it straight was about 28 hours.

Any questions or comments? I will have pics on the site sometime tommorow.

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I built a working model of Superman The escape for my 8th grade science fair project. I spent close to a year on it and I am still always having to close it for maintence. I can upload pics and explain it better if someone wants me to. Heres the plain info of it.

Linear Launch: About 8 ft.

Slope: About 3 ft

Vertical tower: about 6-7 ft.

It is powered by 24 volts.

And yes I have been shocked pretty bad while working on it

 

I was going to do that for my eight grade science fair! I ran into too many problems though

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^ Yes, I will have pictures of the track when I get home tommorow. I'll try to get a movie if the thing is operating Like the real one it's got an attitude about getting about and going to work in the morning Infact it acts much like a "real" coaster. This is its operating time-line.

February 17, 2004 :Superman opens!

April-September, 2004: SBNO

November - Present: Superman remains operating every so often but needs to be worked on almost every other day.

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Well getting the "right" parts for the ride was a struggle. Since Home Depot dosen't sell Build your own Superman kits. We got the supplies a little bit at a time. These were our main problems:

1) Since the car has a peice of metal that slides across the metal that is wired up to the magents it sticks out about half an inch on the bottom of the car. It snaged on the support structure when it hit the slope!! So we had to buy this woobly plastic rail thing so when the car hits the slope it runs on the plastic rails and dosen't snag on the supports on the slope.

 

2) We always needed more power! We thought one 12 volt car battery could do it..and it dose not! We needed to get more power to it! Sounds easy right! Just plug in another car battery and there you go. Well there was so much power running through the rails that the metal that slides on the rail would arc and burn and stick to the rail! So the rails got all dirty and sticky! So I had to find the perfect balance of power.

 

3) (this one is kinda funny now)> After spending a good 4 hours on making the outside of the car it was perfect it looked just like supermans car! So it was time to paint it! So I started to paint it and the paint ate my car! So my perfect superman car turned into a pile of blubby foam

 

4) The first thing that had to be made was the car's frame and wireing system. We went through about 4 prototypes before we got a car thay was okay. (weight,structure, and a few other things prevented the other cars to run on Superman)

 

Those are the big ones.

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How did you build the track? Just wondering-does it have two sides?

 

First off no, it's only one side. I wanted it to be a dual track like the real one but just the one track alone costed about $400.00. The middle of the track (where the magnets are) is made out of just plain wood. (Painted silver) The rails are metal.

Some of this probably sounds confusing but it will make a lot more sense once I get some pictures posted.

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^ Some stores do sell coaster building kits. But none so far are of very good value. I can't build a coaster with K'nex or something and watch the train go through the loop pulling what would be 8 g's and enjoy watching it.

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Whenever we get the time, (When my bro's actually away from the TV) and when I'm actually not on the computer, we're going to attempt to build an S&S tower (Working) out of his erector set. If that plan fails, we'll probably build a booster (ferriswheel like ride that's on steroids)

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Make sure it doesn't get snagged... it could rip your whole thing apart with that much Kinetic energy.

LOL, no kidding. If I did do something like that I would have to build a shaft for the rubberband so there would be no chance of it getting snagged on anything.

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