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Knex Rollercoasters!

Danzibarr said:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6GefiOZUxWY[/youtube]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ev0ZynmrzGQ[/youtube]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_UI3SaEZPmM[/youtube]

**** me... That Top Scan is actually amazing... I want one for my uni house! :lol:
 
Here's the Top Scan pulled down behind the fully functioning R/C Scania;

molden5.jpg


It was made by Michael Molden, he and John Molden have a huge collection of (amazing!) Meccano rides. Obviously including the Wild mouse and Top Scan as well as a massive ferris wheel, Twist, Drop tower, Miami, Break dance, Top spin and even more!!

Pic of the Twist;

n753233274_1130843_9684.jpg


The eXtreme was made by Roger Thorpe and Steve & Barry Wilcox who did it primarily as an engineering experiment to see just what could be done with Meccano, and are now going on to their second project.

Good stuff!
 
That Meccano stuff is crazy, really impressive. On Knex coasters I had one which had a vertical lift hill then did loads of inversions and insane stuff afterwards. It was just a standard model one though, I tried making my own, but didn't really have enough track for it.
 
Drool, i want one,

Lol as a kid i tried and FAILED at creating rides or rollercoasters out of anything, now i just dont have the time, In allot of ways this is very sad but we all know secretly that its soooooo cool, As i said im too busy riding the real thing to bother with a recreation, and when youve spent a year building your Top Buzz model can you get in it and have a ride? I think Not.
 
rollerdude said:
As RollerCoasterFanatic stated, I have built k'nex coasters. I have stopped now, but here are some of my best when I did make them:

Diggin the Coaster Dynamix invert in the background of the first video. I was considering buying one for a while but opted out because of the price. What was putting it together and running it like?
 
Things I've learnt from reading this topic....

1) A-Kid's room is far too tidy for that of a teenager. Still, I guess there's no room for clothes in amongst the awesome array of models and electronics
2) The carpet at Will's house is EPIC! No wonder Willy's stopped drinking. I wouldn't want to look at that with a hangover either.
3) Meccano > K'nex
4) You lot don't know you're born. K'nex? Pah! Try building stuff with sticklebricks. Especially ones where all the corner prongs have been chewed off

Quick question. I've only seen one of these K'nex coasters in the flesh once. It was at a school to help teach the kids physics (clearly a straight out of the box kit, and obviously still very new and hardly used. It also seemed to have been assembled by 'responsible' adults). It was really flimsy and kept falling apart. When the track was in one piece, the car rarely made it all the way round without at least maiming a few passengers. Are they all like that?
 
^ Haha, 'tis rather tidy and I like to keep it that way as it looks horrible if I don't! :D

My TTD/Stealth alike one likes to rip peoples heads off every so oftern if you get the elastic band on wrong. My 3 are fairly flimsy at the high points. They wobble violently. Its all down to how much they are supported really, which with mine I had to cut down on to make the room still pratical for moving around. 9 times out of 10 they make it around the course though.

But back in 2006 when I put up Hawk Screw there were a lot of problems. Chain snaps, motors going wrong, valleying, bits snapping when the train passed. Took about a year of trial and error to get it reliable! Which is probally the main reason I'm reluctant to loose the things as they were a pain to get running right! Thats also why its themed with the buildings, music, lights; to make it look more presentable in the current times.

LOVED sticklebricks when I was younger! :--D
 
ClipTheApex: CoasterDynamix is actually a pretty easy set to work with. The supports are sturdy and the entire set is realistic. The only drawback is snapping the tubing to the crossties, which hurts your fingers after a while.

Nic: The kit models are usually slow and poorly designed. The models that I built and models that are still built today are extremely sturdy and very smooth. They also hold their speed quite well due to lubrication and added weight.
 
Wow, all I can say is that these all look amazing, and some of them are so big!
 
I used to have the ferris wheel Knex, and the Rocket Roller coaster, unforcunalty, I lost most of the peices to build the rides, DAMN, they we're god damn awesome aswell :cry:
 
i Own the serpent knex coaster it's a small simple kit with instructions and a loop :p the one in the video all seem to have been made from multiple kits due to the amount of track used but they are pretty sick and i ve tried to make a custom one of my own but the physics behind the larger ones is too difficult :(
 
This is OLD news but...

K'nex have brought out a new type of coaster that uses micro k'nex so unfortuently the old stuff is not on sale anymore! :?

After buying a few sets myself here's my verdict...

good

-The track is flexible so you can mould the track into different elements easily
-Making switch tracks is easy
-Because the micro stuff is smaller, the coasters are more compact
-You can make many different models
-they are quick to build
-You can buy a special 'pov car'
-Easier to build
-you can use elastic bands to launch the car!!!!

However...that's about it!

bad

-The car doesn't have enough momentum to make it up a peice of track 1/3rd of the initial drop, meaning it's difficult to make replicas of real rides
-Because the track is sooo flexible the track often comes off the track and you must clip it on again
-If a peice of track is moulded into a corner, it will retain it's shape after it is used
-Helix's completely drain momentum!
-The micro K'nex is sooo light that your creation is often wobbly and weak
-Some of the sets don't even work!
-Chain lift is a pain

...and there's more!

It is worth buying one set just to try it out though and they are (fairly) cheap

Useful links:

Tallest knex coaster ever!(old stuff)-http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F5V5Dpz_SNk
Knex coaster youtube channel-http://www.youtube.com/user/BBaller347-I will upload my creations when I get an account!
Knex.com-http://www.knex.com/Thrill_Rides/
 
I still make KNEX coasters...........but don't put them on youtube.

Two Questions about them:

1. Do any of you use the new KNEX microparts and track? I prefer the old big parts and track.

2. How large of trains do you use? And do you use anything to add weight to the cars. For example, in these videos there are lots of hills on the coasters, and from my experience the car can only clear a hill half the size of the prior hill. Any advice?
 
bizarrofan10 said:
I still make KNEX coasters...........but don't put them on youtube.

Two Questions about them:

1. Do any of you use the new KNEX microparts and track? I prefer the old big parts and track.

2. How large of trains do you use? And do you use anything to add weight to the cars. For example, in these videos there are lots of hills on the coasters, and from my experience the car can only clear a hill half the size of the prior hill. Any advice?

I haven't used used the old track design so I can't really say which is better but I imagine the old stuff would be better since there are many problems with the new micro coasters (as I stated in my previous post)...so, yeah, I use the micro stuff...

There is a way to join the cars together somehow but I haven't tried it since both of the cars I have are different. Actually from my experience the heavier car doesn't work as well as the lighter car....

The way to build micro coasters is to make a coaster that's always going downwards...

They weren't my videos by the way...and I will upload my coasters when I get a you tube account!!! cool)


If you go onto K'nex.com then you'll find some new models...all of which look rubbish!! For example there's the rippin rocket 2 coaster which doesn't do the original any justice at all!!!It's basically a launch coaster with a really deformed and intense hill before a loop that's about 5 times smaller than the hill and a tight helix. :shock: :shock: :shock:
 
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