Build Your Own Roller Coaster 329
Usquebaugh submitted this link to a guy who built his own roller coaster. The guy builds grain elevators for a living and - let me take a wild, city-slicker guess - they probably use some sort of rail system for transporting grain, so.... Update: 03/14 14:29 GMT by M : We overran the bandwidth limit on his webpage - sorry buddy! From the comments below I see a mirror and another mirror.
Not gonna ride that one (Score:2, Funny)
Wheat beer is rare (Score:2, Offtopic)
Ignoring that the vast majority of beer is made of barley...
Having once brewed beer up from raw malt (and malting the grain is a long and painful process in itself) I'd be more worried out for a man who lives near a liquor store.
Re:Wheat beer is rare (Score:2)
But to say "beer is made of wheat" is like saying "Computers are made by apple".. a computer may be made by apple.. but in a random sample you're unlikely to see one.
"wheat beer" is a bit of a technical stretch of the term beer by many standards.. (for all that it's good)
An analogy (may not be apt) (Score:2, Insightful)
I like roller coasters, don't get me wrong, but if I want the thrill of riding one of my own design, I simulate it. Much like I don't build my own planes and fly them for real--I just fire up MSFS2002 and release some tensions flying those jumbo jets filled with co-workers into the ground.
Aren't you happy some do, though? (Score:2, Insightful)
With your attitude there was no reason to climb down from trees. Really.
Re:Aren't you happy some do, though? (Score:2, Insightful)
The best inventions aren't came up in stuffy "invent rooms" in government labs or corporation research projects... It's the people who actually do certain jobs day in and day out. After becoming experienced, they have an insight nobody else (other than friends in the field) can have.
And to compare, Linux was a hack job. Linus needed less restrictions on the source code. He started to hack away at the kernel, substituting things he thought was better.. In the end, look what he has built. He wasn't a lofty computer science professor or likewise, he was a student who thought he knew of a better way of implementing his OWN kernel.
guns... (Score:3, Informative)
Their website is here [metalstorm.com].
it's an electronic round ignition system that lets them stack lots of rounds in each barrel and lots of barrels together and then fire them in a way it won't just all blow up.
but the effect isn't all that different from a claymore mine.
I'm pretty sure they advertise a potential 1,000,000 rounds a minute (as opposed to your seconds), and have built "proof of concept" but not the actual 1,000,000 round a minute "guns".
Not to demean metal storm's work, or the other points you made, just wanted to clear it up a little.
They certainly are Australian.
Re:guns... (Score:2)
Re:guns... (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:An analogy (may not be apt) (Score:1)
Re:An analogy (may not be apt) (Score:2, Funny)
Suscribtions on slashdot get a whole new meaning
Re:An analogy (may not be apt) (Score:2)
Well, looking at the pictures... (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Well, looking at the pictures... (Score:5, Informative)
the rust you see is called 'flash rust'. Once you've welded any two pieces of steel together you grind down the welds to a nice flat surface. well that's if you want it to look nice, or it's part of some crazy redneck homebrew roller-coaster. Once the steel has been ground nice and flat, it's very prone to 'flash' rusting, where a very very thin layer of rust forms over the exposed parts. See, most steel is painted or coated or has already had it's surface treated in some way. even the heat from the steel's fabrication process can 'cure' the outter layer of steel to slow (not stop, but slow) rust a little. But newly ground steel loves to soak up O2 and rust, esp. if you are using water to cool the welds so the whole frame doesn't warp from heat.
This article reminds me of one of my favorite jokes ever:
What's the last thing a redneck says before he dies?
Hey, everyone, watch this!
(I'm a bit of a redneck, and as such, I relise that most rednecks laugh at redneck humor. Please laugh too, and don't worry about my being offensive)
Re:Well, looking at the pictures... (Score:2, Redundant)
Gone in a blue flash (Score:1)
The government built rollercoaster (Score:1, Funny)
It goes up and down more often than the Orient Express.
How long before ... (Score:4, Funny)
What a way to go though
Re:How long before ... (Score:1)
Too late, I think he already spawned a youngin'
Oh no !!! (Score:2)
http://www.negative-g.0catch.com/BlueFlash/Februa
Somebody call Child Protective Services !
Re:How long before ... (Score:2)
God forbid people build anything... (Score:2)
People build CRASH DURBY CARS.. and live a long..
People build there own homes, and live a long...
What the heck does this have anything to do with showing up on Darwin awards? He knows how to weld, he obviously understands metalargy and well, anyone can do this.
Now if it was done by some hackers running linux that stole there daddy's blowtorch and used cutupp computer cases and garbage cans, then yes, that could possibly be a death trap.
but people do alot of things on there own, this one is just a cool ass roller coaster. I'd be the coolest kid on the block, err farm, if my dad did this.
But hey, we built a treehouse 15 feet off the ground and did other things that weren't totally safe or professional.
but thats life'
OK.....quick (Score:1)
He obvoiusly has wwwwaaayyy to much time on his hands.
This guy has nuts! (Score:1)
(Look closely!)
um, i'll sit this one out. (Score:1, Funny)
now, roller coasters are a different beast. spilled brains.
something tells me this is a field best left to engineers...
Re:um, i'll sit this one out. (Score:1)
Re:um, i'll sit this one out. (Score:2)
Grain elevators dont exactly "spill corn".
If they break, you get mini-hiroshima.
This guys... (Score:1)
that thing goes upside down!?! (Score:1)
no way! (Score:1)
anyone notice his phone number is on the last page? Wonder how many phone calls he'll get from slashdot?
Car Seat and Floor Jack (Score:1)
yeah neat do you remember Hanna-Barbera Days? (Score:1, Insightful)
Friends worked at their facilities.
Ever since sony via paramount owned the kings island facilities, well it was just never as fun as it was during the hanna-barbera days.
Last time i stopped by that place some lame construction company that our construction company has a long standing feud with, had build some jive ass area51ish roller coaster. I never bother to ride it, as the fact of its creation was an insult upon my intelligence, not to mention over 10years of reverse engineering toys not created in the open and commercial markets.
So next time you would like to start a topic that deals with roller coasters, if you would care to fly at over 1000mph underground from nyc to la, then just ask until such time stop posting usless information.
Else my dear friends this Scooby Doo master scribe will bet its cache of gold upon you name the bet.
Zai Jian
Jon Sable, Freelance a First Comics Pirate Jest'n Jive
Homemade roller coasters (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Homemade roller coasters (Score:5, Interesting)
Perhaps this is the link [insidethevault.com] you were referring to.
Re:Homemade roller coasters (Score:2)
Call me old-fashioned, but I've always considered perhaps the most important aspect of a roller coaster "working" is in its ability to not fling passengers to their doom.
I just imagine some engineer unveiling a new coaster where people are constantly shrieking and falling at the top of the loop-de-loop, and his boss pats him on the back and says, "Good job, Jenkins. It got all the way around the track this time!"
Looks Cool! (Score:4, Funny)
Cool idea (Score:2)
No Rails (Score:5, Informative)
Actually rails aren't used to transport grain at all. We use augers to do that task. An auger is basically a sheet metal tub with a long stationary screw inside it. The bottom end is placed on one location where the grain is poured into. The screw inside rotates slowly and pulls the grain up the tub to the top where it just spills out into the top of a silo.
Pneumatic Blowlines (Score:5, Informative)
And once it moves from the Elevator to the flour mill (a good number are built side by side for a very good reason :-) and passes through cleaning and tempering, it all starts moving through pneumatic blowlines.
And for longer distance moving under the elevators, ya got drag conveyors to move it, and elevator legs to move it upwards.
Nice to meet someone else who's been stuck doing Industrial Automation for Grain Elevators :-) (I've done *WAY* too many of them!)
Re:Pneumatic Blowlines (Score:2, Funny)
Actually no, I've never done any one that. I happen to be a farmer in Southern GA. We used to grow allot of cotton, sorgum (I can never spell that right), and corn for feed. Then we went full-scale into hogs untill the market hit rock-bottom in '87 and hasn't come up since. Now we raise horses almost exclusively in addition to my job doing network engineering.
Not everyone who uses grep and vi doesn't chew tobacco. :^)
Re:Pneumatic Blowlines (Score:2)
Not everyone who uses grep and vi doesn't chew tobacco. :^)
ROTFLMAO! Ok, well, didn't expect to hear THAT! I'm a Kansas country boy (literally) who became a computer programmer. Guess I'm not the only farmboy to move on to computers - however, I'll pass on the vi and chew. I prefer Emacs or notepad and smoking :-)
Re:Pneumatic Blowlines (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Pneumatic Blowlines (Score:2)
Re:Pneumatic Blowlines (Score:2)
Re:Pneumatic Blowlines (Score:2)
Oh, you're definitely not the only one - I still do a fair bit of technology work for my dad and his farm just outside DeSoto (yes, there are still parts of Johnson County that have arable land) - This weekend, I'm going to finish setting up a greenhouse temperature monitoring system using Dallas Semiconductor sensors and RRDTool. Probably going to expand the LAN while I'm there, too.
There are more and more areas where agriculture and technology converge, and geeks like us with the unique background in both are in a good position to take advantage of that situation.
For the record, chewing is fscking nasty.
Re:Pneumatic Blowlines (Score:2)
FarmDot (Score:2)
This is great! (Score:2)
I can build my own backyard amusements!
Seriously, though, I've seen and heard of plenty of fun side jobs done with welding- My girlfriends neighbor built himself a 1/8 (ride-able) scale steam locamotive (yes, really steam powered) and in my home town, some one has a large metal dragon in their front yard.
A little ingenuity, a lot of time, and a bunch of mild steel.... nothing you can't do
The Best Quote from the Site (Score:2, Funny)
Read it for yourself here [0catch.com].
Maintenance (Score:5, Interesting)
The big difference between his ride and coaster parks that make the parks safer? They have mandatory ride inspections every morning before opening. Plus I believe they are also required to do a full inch-by-inch examination at least once a year. Probably before opening in the spring.
New section (Score:2)
It should be called WICBTHT (of Wow, I can't believe they hacked it!, in analogy to that Simpsons program [geocities.com])
I slashdotted his site. (Score:5, Funny)
I saw page 1.
I saw page 2.
I clicked on the link to page 3 and got this:
This site has exceeded its limit of 3 Gigabytes of transfer for the month. You may buy extra Gigabytes of transfer by logging in to the user menu and choosing "upgrade". Thank you, 0catch.com
Re:I slashdotted his site. (Score:3)
One more victim (Score:5, Interesting)
Perhaps
Over his limit (Score:5, Funny)
And I was SURE that his roller coaster was going to be the first thing to go down. Oh well.
Re:Over his limit (Score:2)
Re:Over his limit (Score:2)
Better yet, he could use the money to buy a season pass to Six Flags or other park...
Re:Over his limit (Score:3, Interesting)
Kintanon
Re:Over his limit (Score:2)
Re:Over his limit (Score:2)
Yeah, if you're dense enough to think that the site is just that page. There's a link down at the bottom for more pictures... there are actually 5-10 pages of pictures with 3-5 pictures on each page w/ descriptions. Much smarter to do it that way than put it all on one page, especially considering there are no thumbnails.
-Erik
Re:Over his limit (Score:2)
Kintanon
Re:Over his limit (Score:2)
When someone builds their own roller coaster, do you honestly really expect them to have the time (and skills) to build a really polished website?
(And what you saw was a page, not a site. A site is a collection of pages.)
Not everyone with hobbies also has the skills to color coordinate. The page works, the links aren't broken, and frankly, it -exists-. What more do you want?
Re:Over his limit (Score:2)
Y'know, something non-blinding.
I'm not expecting a work of creative genius, but if you don't have the skills to make a spectacular website, just make a readable one. Please.
Kintanon
Bandwith Exceeded (Score:2, Interesting)
I've seen something like this before only not as advance, there was just a single drop and turn of the side of a building, but it was even more shoddily built. These crazy guys were dropping down it in a little in box with wheels and it ended by crashing into hay barrels. Hydrolic brakes would be nice
You're going to trust this guy? (joke) (Score:5, Funny)
I can just see it now:
"You've currently run out of track for this roller coaster. You may purchase new track by screaming bloody murder at the top of your lungs."
different weight (Score:3, Interesting)
This guy has carefully designed the coaster so that you have just enough momentum to reach the bottom of the lift and hook on to the chain, so you don't have to ever get off and push.
I would think that if (god forbid) a small child were to ride, the difference in friction and wind resistance would leave him with quite a bit of velocity still at the end of the ride. If the vehicle were heavier, it wouldn't make much difference right?
Re:different weight (Score:2)
I'm sure there's a physicist here who can clear this up...
I thought about that, but it seems that the weight of the passenger wouldn't have any direct impact. You lose as much potential energy going downhill as you gain going uphill.
The real difference as I see it is that the wind resistance (due to size) and the friction on the wheels (due to mass) are what change depending on the passenger. On this coaster, the passenger is a larger percentage of the total vehicle (on both counts), so it means these factors have a much greater impact than they would on a large coaster.
Re:different weight (Score:2)
If you hit a billiard ball so that it takes on a lot of spin, what happens to the friction between the ball and the table relative to if you had hit the ball with the same velocity (minus that which induced the spin)?
mirror (Score:5, Informative)
How to build your own (simulated) roller coaster. (Score:5, Interesting)
Download Scream Machines (http://screammachinesgame.com) or No Limits (You have to buy it, http://nolimitscoaster.com)
Then visit my site, and find over 2000 coasters created by other people.
Zero Catch web hosting??? (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Zero Catch web hosting??? (Score:2)
Blue Flash Pictures on Negative-g.net (Score:5, Informative)
Should just ask for hosting (Score:4, Interesting)
Well, I'm really interested in seeing where this goes. Will slashdotters pay up? Can the slashdot effect work in reverse?
I'm also interested if anyone has ever attempted legal action for slashdot-like effects. Its bound to come up.
Re:Should just ask for hosting (Score:2)
Re:Should just ask for hosting (Score:2)
I was thinking that the fact that p2p software is primarily useful for searching for one specific file as being one of the major reasons why it has yet to grow beyond being a "piracy tool", yet it seems to have a lot more potential.
Pay? (Score:2)
Will be interesting to see who actually contributes, please post back and let us know
Tomorrow's Headlines (Score:2, Funny)
"Poor webmaster purchases new T3 connection and computers after mystery donations appear via paypal!"
Re:Blue Flash Pictures on Negative-g.net (Score:2, Insightful)
Howzabout slashdot caches the page for subscribers, kinda like google? That would solve the problem nicely.
Re:Clever Scam (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Clever Scam (Score:3, Insightful)
Although you'll have a tough time finding someone to pay for more bandwidth, I've seen several people who have offered to temporarily host copies of your site. If you take someone up on that offer, it would at least resolve your short-term crunch. Pay for a little more bandwidth, but have your main site redirect people to the mirror.
As for people taking your site down in April, I wouldn't worry about it. Slashdotters don't have that kind of an attention span. After a week, this article will have been forgotten.
Those who do return in April are probably genuinely interested in coasters and your site, so don't be too quick to dismiss them.
No harm in asking (Score:2)
ANOTHER MIRROR!!: (Score:3, Informative)
Got this from someone else's mirror.. i tried to get the actuall page, but mozilla cache's funny and I lost the pictures.
Kenny
Slashdot is a floating party of doom (Score:5, Funny)
I don't know what Hitchhiker book Douglas Adams wrote it in - but there was this floating party that literally floated above a planet, causing all sorts of havoc. Whenever it needs supplies, the party would raid some poor country, take all their booze, then float away.
Slashdot is so like that. Its a floating party that hijacks poor websites, kills them, then moves on to other unsuspecting fools
To that - I can only say -
Drinks on the house
Re:Slashdot is a floating party of doom (Score:2)
/nick digital-locust-547211
All your data are belong to us.
Floating Parties.... (Score:2)
The cool part was that they would use "stepping disks" (very much like Star Trek transporters) to enter into the crowd, steal a couple of items, and then get out before the police could get things under control. There were government attempts to control this behavior, but these were "professional" thieves that hacked the global transporter system. (Larry Niven even described some problems with transporter machines being found in every livingroom... I digress here though.)
I agree that Slashdot is quite a bit like this floating party that zaps information providers.
There are times, however, when this kind of behavior is useful. The DeCSS mess was one of those cases where I knew it would be important to spread the word on Slashdot and make sure that copies got to everybody and their cyberpet.
Safety inspections (Score:2, Insightful)
Slashdot Subscriptions (Score:2)
On a side note, I can't believe suggestion that Katz stories should only be available to subscribers was considered flamebait. I was just joking. I mean, I think it would be great if I woke up in the morning and was no longer able to view Katz's well thought out commentaries. ;-)
Seriously though, I wish Slashdot would hurry up and accept subscription payment via something other than paypal.
You killed him (Score:2)
This guy must be really mad, now
Cubicle farm toy (Score:2)
Thank you (Score:4, Funny)
Re:all in good fun... (Score:2, Funny)
DOS? (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Elaborate HOAX! No way to complete last loop! (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Elaborate HOAX! No way to complete last loop! (Score:2, Informative)
In this case: mg = mv^2 / r
The equations for centripetal acceleration and conservation of energy show that for a frictionless track, the initial height above the top of the loop must be exactly half the radius of the loop to achieve zero-G.
So for this track, with 20ft. drop and a 5ft. diameter loop, you have height = 2 * loop_radius, so you have 4 times the energy needed to achieve zero-G for a fricionless track.
Even if the coaster looses 75% of it's energy due to friction by the time it reaches the loop's apex, the rider will still feel zero-G and the coaster will work.
The amount of energy dissipated due to non-rigidity of the track is hard to calculate, but isn't of necessity that huge. If the wheels this is suspended on are well lubricated I don't see why this wouldn't work quite well.
Just in case you want to do the math...
Re:Ummmm, Slow news night? (Score:2)
I stick to my original story - it was unsafe and certainly pointless to post on slashdot about.
Hell, I have friends that DO design roller coasters and they cringed when I told them that story.
consider this... (Score:2)
P.S. Send the guy a few bux, we trashed his site.
Re:Well... look on the bright side.... (Score:2)
a) It's a hack, nerds love hacks.
b) He built it himself, nerds love doing things themselves that other people pay for.
c) If you don't think rollercoasters are cool then I'll cry for you tonite as I try to sleep.
d) nerds love cool stuff
Re:Thumbs up! (Score:2)
Re:Located in Vincennes, Indiana (Score:2)
Yeah. This is actually south of Vincennes on Highway 41 heading south towards Evansville. It is visible from the the highway (so you don't have to traipse through the guy's yard).
I see it all the time when I travel from East-Central Indiana to Evansville to visit family. The pictures don't do it justice.