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Subject: 
Looking for Technic suggestions ...
Newsgroups: 
lugnet.technic
Date: 
Tue, 28 Oct 2003 22:20:58 GMT
Viewed: 
1019 times
  
I am wading into the pool of Technic experts in hopes one of you can offer
me a good suggestion to a problem I am having.  I don't do much with Technic
but for our last (NCLTC) train show I decided I wanted to make an amusement
park.  I had built a crude merry-go-round a number of years ago and was
never real happy with it but never did much about it either.

For this show I decided to rebuild the merry-go-round and add a few more
rides.  Space and time dictated what I could get done before the show and I
ended up with four moving rides - a new merry-go-round, a ferris wheel, a
rotating swing, and an octopus-like ride.

Having done very little Technic work I was pretty happy with all of them,
particularly the Octopus ride as the arms move up and down while the whole
turns.  All three of the rotating rides are based on the Technic turn table
element (http://guide.lugnet.com/partsref/search.cgi?q=2855).  I am driving
all three with the 9V motor with gear reduction (from the ZNAP sets).  It
took me lots of fiddling around with various gear combinations to get the
turn tables to spin the at speed I wanted.  I didn't want them too fast
because it makes them hard to look at and things tend to fly off.  My design
goal was for all of the rides to run continuously for the duration of the
GATS show and for the most part, they did.

Gallery (after moderation):
http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=61387

Some deep links (Warning - these pictures are big):

Amusement Park:
http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/mpw/Amusement-Park/100_0375.jpg
Octopus Ride:
http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/mpw/Amusement-Park/dscn0635.jpg
Merry-Go-Round:
http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/mpw/Amusement-Park/dscn0636.jpg
Swings:  http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/mpw/Amusement-Park/dscn0638.jpg
Ferris Wheel:
http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/mpw/Amusement-Park/dscn0637.jpg


I had a problem with the Octopus ride, the weight and design seems to put
more load on the the system than and of the others and by the middle of the
show on Sunday, it was slipping to the point where I disconnected the power
for the remained of the show.

Fundamentally I think my drive system is flawed and I am looking to the
Technic experts for suggestions on how one should drive a turntable.
Originally I was going to use a worm gear but for some reason, I rejected
that idea (which now I think is probably the correct solution) and instead
drove the turn tables with this part:
http://guide.lugnet.com/partsref/search.cgi?q=6589

I could never get the spacing to line up exactly as I wanted it, I always
seemed to be about half a stud off but it worked when I was building it and
seemed to hold up okay so that is what I went with.  I never ran it for six
hours straight while I was building it.  Essentially the shaft from the
motor goes through a series of gears to slow it down before connecting to
the bevel gear which turns the turn table.

So the question - is there a recommended method of driving a turn table?  I
am trying to keep all of the gearing under the base structure I have built
up (three bricks + one plate, same height as the 9V motor attached to the
baseplate with two 1x2 plates).

Thanks,

Mike


--
Mike Walsh - mike_walsh at mindspring.com
http://www.ncltc.cc - North Carolina LEGO Train Club
http://www.carolinatrainbuilders.com - Carolina Train Builders
http://www.bricklink.com/store.asp?p=mpw - CTB/Brick Depot



Message has 5 Replies:
  Re: Looking for Technic suggestions ...
 
(...) [snip] (...) Hi Mike, Nice models. I would not have chosen to drive the turntable with a 12 tooth beveled gear. The teeth on the 12T are so small compared to the teeth on the turntable. I would guess that the gear wore out and you no longer (...) (21 years ago, 29-Oct-03, to lugnet.technic)
  Re: Looking for Technic suggestions ...
 
(...) For what you're doing I'd use a worm gear, because it will take up the least amount of space. The ride will turn kind of slowly, but that's what you want, right? Try a test with the worm gear attached directly to a motor and then to your (...) (21 years ago, 29-Oct-03, to lugnet.technic, FTX)
  Re: Looking for Technic suggestions ...
 
In lugnet.technic, Mike Walsh wrote: <<snip>> (...) A worm gear has it's benefits. It makes a great deal of gear reduction in a small space and it can't be backdriven due to the friction in it. The weak points of it is mainly; It has a lot of (...) (21 years ago, 29-Oct-03, to lugnet.technic)
  Re: Looking for Technic suggestions ...
 
(...) I really like the octopus Mike, using string to move the arms is a great idea. The technic turntable is a godsend for things like this, when I was young I always wanted to make octupus type rides but could never get them quite right since (...) (21 years ago, 29-Oct-03, to lugnet.technic)
  Re: Looking for Technic suggestions ...
 
(...) Mike, These look like some really nice rides! You might also want to take a look at some of the amusement park rides that have been designed by various NELUG members. In particular, Joe Comeau has built an Octopus and a merry-go-round that you (...) (21 years ago, 29-Oct-03, to lugnet.technic)

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