The AXIS 4D Coaster Model Construction Forum

[exmouse]

It's a great idea and full credit to you for going for it. But I'd have a few concerns following on from what others have said. Apart from wood possibly having to much firction you would also have an issue with the track flexing. If the track isn't rigid enough the movement will cause the train to loose speed. Like with proper wooden coasters you would need a heck of a lot of support. I've played around with plastic coaster models and the flex in the track has been my undoing.

I'm also not sure how you would manipulate the track to form the inversions. Is wood pliable enough to do this?

If your trains are going to freely rotate why do they need "ears"? I assume you are taking these from the design of a traditioanl 4D coaster but these uprights hold an integral part of the rotating mechanism. As you're not using this type of mechanism you don't need the uprights. Your mouse/rabbit design makes it look like a kiddie coaster to me.

Glad you're taking a year to research and work on this rather than rushing into making the first thing that comes into your head. Good luck.

[Ccron10]

I heard that wood can be flexable if you use water, but if that doesn't work maybe cutting the curves out on a wide sheet of wood would work. To reduce the friction it might be possible to cover the track with metal or sand the track down to a 360 grit sandpaper. By the way I am not going to have the trains look like mice or rabbits, I'll just remove them from the layout of the cars. This weekend I'll try to start the main site plan draw-up.

 

By the way I'm 14. I'll put that on my profile.

 

I'll tell this afternoon in great detail all the little things about and going into the project.

[Ccron10]

Ok, here's the details from the stations to the end break run. NOTE:These notes might be changed over time.

 

*The area in the loading and unloading stations will be on a 1 to 2 degree downward slope to eliminate the use of any motors ( becides the brakes).

 

*The highest point of the ride(or the lift hill) will be 48 inches tall. 1 foot of that will detach from the track because of space issues.

 

*The second highest point will be 21 inces tall because of friction issues.

 

*There will be 8 inversions.

 

* The track will be made of smooth sanded wood, with the possibility of a ring of metal surrounding the track.

 

*There will be 6 max banking points that will be 90 degrees. 2 of them will include a drop, 1 will be an upward rise, and 2 are helixes.

 

* The trains will sit 2 people per car and there will be 2 trains with 4 cars each.

 

*There will be 8 brakes, 2 in the stations, 1 at the base of the lift hill, 1 at the top, 2 on the brake run, and 2 will be for the transfer track section.

 

*The brakes will be battery or electric, if that fails I'll use the rope and pulley technique.

 

*I forgot to add this, but the cars will each feature only 1 set of wheels to make them articulated.

 

Tonight I hope to start drawing a detailed drawing of the site plan, I'll try to post pics of it ASAP.

 

-Chris-

[RRollergod]

Instead of wood I would lay down the extra bucks and use plastruct, but really 4 feet! Your nuts! If you finish this and it works I will hurt myself. Sorry to be so discuraging but me being 13 it was hard enough for me to make my two modles but a 4D!

[Ccron10]

Would 3 ft be good?

[Fallen Heretic]

Power to you for giving this a serious effort. I think there should be more scratchbuilding coaster modelers out there. A few things I would like to add...

 

Wood will have lots friction unless you cover it with thin metal tape. Personaly I aggree that Plastruct would be a better material to use. Less friction and when heated it bends easily. Even dipping it in hot water will let it bend more. With wood you will likely need to use formers or laminating it to get in into shape.

 

It really is worth the extra money to use low friction bearings or wheels, as friction will be your biggest enemy with this.

 

For your braking system, rather than rope you can use control rods like the ones used in RC aircraft. They are wires which move freely in a plastic sheath. They can be bent around corners and still work. They are reliable, and you wont need to use pulleys. You can even hook then up to servos and control them electronically if you really want to. Or even make them operate automatically. Its not as hard to do as it first seems.

 

You only need a double wheel set on the first or last car, not both. The 4d trains use trailered designs so only one car needs to be stablised. The alternative is to have only one wheel set on each car, but have a connection between the first and second car which only rotates, but cant articulate in any other way. This method can limit the tightness of your turns though as it can bind to the track if too tight.

 

Remember to place the 'hitch' as close to centre of the wheelset of the car in front as possible. Hence why the 4d cars look like fighter jets when seperated. Sounds obvious but its easily overlooked.

 

Do everything you can to eliminate as much friction as possible. Right down to lubricating everything.

 

Remember when working out the heights, friction and reletive speeds that although the size scales down, the speed does not. All model coasters look much faster that their real life counterparts. This disappoints some people and they try to slow it down to make it look more real. In fact you want it as fast as it can go to give it a better chance of beating friction forces.

 

Ok, thats all I have for now, the pub beckons.

[Ccron10]

THANK YOU! You gave me a lot of helpful info that I will remind myself of doing on the site plans. Just a question. Can you buy plastruct at a craft or hobby store or do you have to order it?

[RRollergod]

You can get it at any hobby store... it is usually on like a spinning rack.

[Ccron10]

Thank You. I'll look into it as soon as possible.

[Ccron10]

Yersterday I went to the hobby store and got some plastruct to experiment with. I'll put pics up later of the test. I found that running it under hat water for 2 to 3 minute make the plastruct very flexable. With the paint test, I used model paint and woodworking paint. The model paint gave it a very realistic finish and the woodworking paint look dull on it. The last test was how to connect it. I drill some hole into the plastruct and connected them with a metal rod.

[Ccron10]

Here are the results. The only problem with bending this stuff with hot water is that the plastic is softer than before you heated, right now it is still soft.

 

 

 

100th post.

The top is bending it with hot water.

The middle left color is using model paint. The right one is woodworking paint. The bottom one is the connecter experiment.

[RRollergod]

Good results! When I made my model turned out that a toothpick is the perfect size for the hole but can easily break. So good job, but please do not make your turns look like that!

[Ccron10]

Trust me, I wouldn't. Maybe if I made a jig to curve it?

[Ccron10]

This week I'll be going camping so I should get a LOT of work done on this so, see ya' next week.

 

 

Also, so far there are 20 names that could be the name of the coaster. You can still submit a name and have it be the name of the coaster so check out the "Name the Coaster I'm Going to Create" thread. Deadline for new names is November 30, 2006 and voting will end December 31, 2006 and the ride name will be announced on January 1, 2007 New Year's Day!

-Chris-

[leighton]

This is going to be one heck of a project, good luck to you, for choosing one of the hardest coaster types to master.

 

Here is a 1:32 scale section of B&M track I created, to see if I could actually do it. I think it turned out quite well, so now I'm planning to expand to a station/brake run segment.

[Golfie]

Holy... yum.

[Ccron10]

I see you used plastruct on your track model. It looks pretty good, but I recommend adding some paint to the track.

 

 

Over the weekend I've drawn up the stations, the jojo roll and all the way up to the base of the lift. If you can see in the draw up, the lift is going diagonally right meaning that with graph papar being....well... a grid, I had a tough time copying that. Eventually after time it got easier. The lift will sort of look like the lift on Maverick execpt it won't be LIM powered.

 

I still have to do the side view of the station, the jojo roll, and the start on the lift. Whenever I think about a great project I get creative. Here's some pics.

-Chris-

The operating booths and queue lines for each row are even included which is another bonus! That black line along side the queues is the length of the cars.

The station! It will be 15 3/4in. long. The right is the loading station and the left is the unloading station.

It's drawings like this that makes me keep on going nonstop!

I extended the catwalk around the U turn for that brake section before the lift.

Like I said, the lift was kind of at a 20 degree right angle and it was hard.

I sort of made th spine stay straight through the jojo roll, can that be okay?

[Ccron10]

Also! Does anyone have any questions or comments? I would like to here them.

-Chris-

[CP_RULES]

I sort of made th spine stay straight through the jojo roll, can that be okay?

 

Its your coaster, do with it what you please. It doesnt have to be heartlined.

 

Also, I suggest you use a compass to make your turns and such, though it looks nice, the turn does not have a constant radius. I dont know if you meant to do that or not.

[leighton]

I see you used plastruct on your track model. It looks pretty good, but I recommend adding some paint to the track.

 

Nope! It was made from card and paper, As it wasn't inteded to have anything run on it.

 

I do Intend to paint it, but thats when i hae completed a brake section and station.

[Ccron10]

Speaking of brakes, I just thought up a way for a transfer track for the coaster. Maybe right before the transfer track I can have the track flex over to the other track so the storage track doesn't have to move. This may sound confusing but I hope to draw something up to show what I mean.

[Ccron10]

The favorite names list of the coaster naming contest thread has hit 25 and I thought to avoid a long poll list I'd start the voting for the top 6 to enter the finals right now. Dont forget to vote on the "Name the Coaster I'm Creating" thread and remember YOUR VOTE DOES COUNT!!

-Chris-

[Ccron10]

I have good news. I now have the transfer track section done. Below are pics of the whole ride so far and that section. I am also wondering what should I draw next.

Don't eat too much candy or you'll look like this^. HAPPY HALLOWEEN.

I'd also like to add something. Since its Halloween...

Instead of the transfer track itself moving, the track before it will move. It will be made of rubber and it can move between both tracks with arms below it for support.

The transfer track I designed is a little different from real life ones...

I drew the plans up so that each one would connect with another.

What you see now is how big the model will be built.

[kennywood!007]

Your cat is huuuuuuuuuuuuge! lol Anyways. It looks really good, hope it comes together how you want it to!

[Ccron10]

In another topic, satoshi posted that so of you guys want to see the when I'm done.

 

I do plan on putting the model into different shows and fairs and if I'm very lucky, in a park or contest.

 

For all those who live in or near Southern PA they have a better chance on seeing the model at some type of event. But if you live somewhere like out west or out of country you might want to PM me when the time comes when I'm done.

 

After looking through a Christmas Toy store catalog I came across a type of K'nex that lights up so I'm wondering that when I get the thing done I could add a lighting system.