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Looks do-able, but make sure that you have the room to build it. Like I suggested for my own coaster, make the basis of the track out of strong wood (2x4ish), then smooth it out with a few layers of plywood strips on top. Use 2x4ish wood again for the supports, and piece stuu together with screws and stuff...

 

As for Wildcat, I need suggestions for the lift device. Anyone?

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Oh I have a question how do you get and make the rails for the coaster?

 

You dont NEED rails. They just make the ride a bit smoother....

 

 

*points at question about wheel arrangements and the bunny hill*

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  • 2 weeks later...
Oh I have a question how do you get and make the rails for the coaster?

 

From what I've seen, it's definitely something that needs to be learned from experience and trial and error. But, in a nutshell,, it's just layers of wood, bent around the curvature of rises and falls. Using small pieces will help relive stress. Layered 4-5 times, staggered (covering each gap in a pattern), so that the wood can flex with the weight of the train.

 

On turns, the same thing is done, except each piece is cut to fit in diagonally, to get a rough shape of the turn. Then the excess wood is cut out, smoothly, to get a somewhat smooth radius turn.

 

The top layers are done the same way, however the wood is placed 2" outwards to create a lip (I think that it could be scaled down a bit, but it all depends on what size wheels you use). These layers need to be the most precise, and need the most amount of nails because these are what the running, guide, and upstop wheels run on. The top, inside lip, and under the lip should be layered with steel or graphite for friction management. This will also help the track in that the raw steel wheels aren't bouncing on the wood itself, thus it won't splinter.

 

Each rail should be done at the same time, going back and fourth so you don't lose the gauge. Keeping the gauge measurement in check simply consists of a bar, or piece of wood, cut to the lenght of the gauge, and held in between each rail too keep they the right distance apart. This has to be done a second time with a narrower bar for the top layers. I've heard that the level of tolerance/industry standard in gauging is 1/16th of an inch, but for a backyard type ride, I don't think everything needs to as precise (but don't slack off when doing it, you don't want your ride to tear itself up the first time around, or worse, after a few times around with you on it).

 

Just try it, and keep at it. It looks to be one of those things that the more you do it, the 'easier' it is.

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  • 11 months later...
Jeremy Reid's Backyard Coaster and Blue Flash are probably the two most famous backyard coasters. A person was making a backyard roller coaster on thrillnetwork, but I don't know what happened to it.

 

But for us "old timers", we all know THE most famous one of all. Anyone else here remember Kim's coaster. (I think it was called the Termite) It was a woodie that had no "lift", and dropped off the back of his house.

 

Sadly, there was a party demolishing the ride, covered in ACE News way back when, and he replaced it with THIS.

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look at this one he even has a pump to blast water at the end! http://freizeitparkweb.de/cgi-bin/dcf/dcboard.cgi?az=read_count&om=520&forum=DCForumID21

 

Sound like a water toboggan and they got soaked from cold water Ahh!

 

Ok, I think about the Herschell Mad Mouse at J's Amusement Park? I want a offer to Michael for the Mad Mouse then bring it to my backyard.

 

Thanks, Larry

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I know this doesn't really count, but I recently met a major Hollywood effects makeup/prosthetics artist (Rick Baker) and he has his own tiny dark-ride-style haunted house installed at his workshop. He had it done for a big Halloween party one year, and he wound up keeping it.

 

He made me go in alone-- it was cheesy, but I was still screaming! I'd love to have my own haunted house.

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^^I imagine Rick Baker's would've been pretty damn cool.

 

I still remember the "Lost Dutchman Mine" at the long-defunct Frontier Village in San Jose--well, one part of it, at least. The big finale was a huge skeleton miner with a dynamite plunger. Boom! That would be one cool prop to have on your front lawn for Halloween.

 

Thought that was the neatest thing ever; then again, I was eight years old at the time.

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  • 3 weeks later...

that thing looks crazy, wow but with its theming it makes it look a lot better

i wish my parents would let me make a roller coaster in my backyard yeah well there is a bull dozer in my front yard and some other stuff for redoing the front of the house hmmm i still wish yeah

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I'm going to start working on Project wildcat again, but I have a few questions first off:

 

1)How do those first gen boomerang lifts work? I'm thinking of doing something like that for the back spike.

 

2) Can I safely include a bunny hill in the ride using only top wheels, and a bigger wheel on the underside, grasping to the two main rails?

 

As for the layout, it depends on question 2. I plan on making the basis of it two verticle spikes, with some trick track in the middle. Depending on how gravity works, I might make the trick track into a curving hill, resulting in a S shaped layout. Also, I'd like to make the front spike past-verticle, but I dont think thats possible unless I modify the carriage with a set of undertrack wheels.

 

As for the actual track, I'm thinking use 2x4s and such for the base of the track, then cover it with a few layers of plywood to smooth things out. The verticle spikes will come out by linking the track pieces up at a constant rate of 18 degrees per increment. (It should take 5 segments to get it smoothly from horizontal to verticle.)

 

So whats up with project Wildcat?

 

Ive been watching this thread for a while and I'm glad to see its returned.

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I'm honestly clueless right now I'm toying around with a few possiblilities, including, but not limited to:

 

1) Focus first on buying a steel drum to play some gigs and help raise funds that way.

2) Possiblity that I won't move back home after college, thus making it useless to build something THERE.

3) On a similar note, concidering the lack of time I have at home.

 

As for the coaster itself, I constantly research construction, the physics, and possible layouts for Project: Wildcat. It's just a matter of deciding how I want to go about this...

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