Best Of Making N scale bumper cars (dodgems)

[Packer]

Gees man, that is really nice.

[up1950s]

Peteski, what a gem!!! Wish I had you do my dodgem cars. Hopefully you will sell or trade 

I have a unique method of making Dodgem, or bumper car, behave more like they do in real like. However, I had done mine in Z and maybe it wouldn't do for N scale. Take a look at the gear configuration here  https://picasaweb.google.com/112872467246725114560/DodgemMech  I just realized that I ended up putting the rod on the SIDE of the car instead of the back end 

I have yet to finish mine because I wanted to make a different structure above and swap the cars out. This is for a layout I started back a year ago.

What else do you have up your sleeve?? 

Wow , now Z scale , and a attractive way to make them do the waltz .

[peteski]

Thank you all for the praises and comments.  I had fun making them!  I edited the initial post to show a photo of a prototype on which I loosely based my models.  Now to answer some of the questions and comments:

Zox

What did you use to scribe the plexiglass? It's a pretty hard material, yet you created some good, solid grooves--that's difficult to do with multiple knife passes without the knife skittering off-course, but they look too narrow to have been done with a rotary tool.

I first rolled the edge of #11 blade around the car several times to establish the line around the car.  Then I used a very sharp stainless steel scriber (bought many years ago from an electronic tools supplier) to carefully deepen the groove.  The scriber looks like a long needle mounted in a stainless steel handle.  Those scribers are used as tools for reworking electronic circuit boards.

I did the same for the front grille. I first very lightly scribed the lines then repeatedly scribed over them to deepen the grooves.

jimmo

Are you going to sell them in 12-packs?

LOL, I wasn't planning on it.  But I suppose if someone needs few of them cast...

Lemosteam

Peteski, once again you amaze.  But where are the LED's in the headlights? 

Don't be peeved- I see only one missing detail.  In those rides there was usually a curved, springy piece of strip stock that acted as a contact for the powered screen ceiling and carried the current to the motor, but I know these are going to be basically hidden, but I also know your penchant for detail.

I would pay money to watch you make something.

Don't worry John, I won't get peeved about getting constructive criticism.    I know about the pickup shoes on top of the poles. I chose not to model them as the top of those poles will not be visible unless you use a dental mirror to examine the celling of the rink.   If it is not visible, Im not going to model it. 

As for your last comment - maybe you're onto something: I should consider selling videos of my modeling efforts (and we both know what type of "modeling" I'm talking about).   

Alaska Railroader

Peteski, what a gem!!! Wish I had you do my dodgem cars. Hopefully you will sell or trade 

I have a unique method of making Dodgem, or bumper car, behave more like they do in real like. However, I had done mine in Z and maybe it wouldn't do for N scale. Take a look at the gear configuration here  https://picasaweb.google.com/112872467246725114560/DodgemMech  I just realized that I ended up putting the rod on the SIDE of the car instead of the back end 

I have yet to finish mine because I wanted to make a different structure above and swap the cars out. This is for a layout I started back a year ago.

What else do you have up your sleeve??

Karin, I love your ingenious drive system!  It looks like it will nicely simulate the random movements of the real cars.   Very clever! I think it would work in N scale too.  Hey, just becasue my dodgems are static now it doesn't mean that some day I won't animate them...

What's up my sleeve? Many ideas, but not enough free time. 

pnolan48

I think, once you start on stuff this small, you develop your own techniques (and vision aids).  The photo etch steering wheels just blow me away.

That is very true about the techniques and vision aids!
I do photoetching but it is a bit of a pain. If you look at the etched fret, it wasn't etched evenly. I just floated the brass sheet on the surface of the etchant (and kept it at around 100 degrees F to speed up the process). Even then, it took over 1.5 hours to etch this 0.005" brass sheet.  I could have done double-sided etching but that would complicated the process even more.  But for such one-of jobs, it isn't worth to have a commercial etched do those for me.


I design the artwork in Corel Draw and print it using my Alps printer onto a transparency. As you can see, besides the steering wheels, I etched parts for another project I started back in June, 2012.

LN2800

My optic nerves are hurting just thinking about trying to make that casting master.  And doing the brush-painting, for that matter.

Oh, without lots of bright workbench illumination and magnifiers (from Optivisor to a dissecting stereo-microscope) I would not have been able to make this model. To paint the seat and floor I used a Microbrush http://www.microbrush.com/hobby/products/microbrush/benefits.asp and for painting the headlights and grille I used a regular 000 size brush and Testors chrome silver paint (under a microscope of course). 

GimpLizard

Amusement rides are not my cup-of-tea, but I am amazed at the contours, and smoothness, of the body. I might be able to get one side to look... not so bad. But to get the other side to match, would be impossible. How did you manage to pull it off so perfectly, Peteski?

I should have taken more photos but I was really trying to rush this project through.


To supplement the photos, here are some quick sketches of how I shaped the car.
First, using a really fine razor saw ( http://umm-usa.com/onlinestore/product_info.php?cPath=21_28&products_id=35 ) to cut the opening where the driver gets in. That is step 1 in the drawing. Then in step 2 I drew the plan-view shape of the car on the top surface and filed the sides until I matched the drawn outline (shown in step 3).  Then next few steps (Not shown) were to gently file the rear end into a curved shape and file a slope of the hood then round the hood's sides.  If examined carefully, the car is not perfectly symmetrical, but it is good enough for me. 


I have contemplated either illuminating the headlights (using 0.020" plastic fiber optics) or animating them, but due to the limited time I had to get these finished, Roland and I decided to model them static, depicting them moment of the riders just entering the rink.




Here is a night shot...


...and the overall photo of this part of the carnival midway.

The complete carnival will be on display as the part of the Northeast N-Trak layout in the BLC building. If you are attending the Amherst show this weekend, come over and see it in person. I'll be at the show on Saturday but I'll probably be our shopping. But Roland will be there both days.

[peteski]

Gee wizz those came out great .

 What mill do you have ?
 Are you going to arrange for FUD clones sans the wheel , rider , and wire ?
 Would those be shipped on a flat or gon unboxed ?

I have Sherline lathe and mill.  Great little machines!
No need for FUD (and Bestine)  since I can just cast them directly myself. I could have tried to design them in SketchUp then have them printed by Shapeways, but I would have missed the next weekend's show deadline.  I also suspect that they would have looked rougher than my hand-made version.

I know that you are just kidding, but I really don't know who those would have been shipped by rail.  I suspect that they would have been shipped in some sort of enclosure (not out in the open). I'll have to ask Roland if he knows (he does all the research). 

[GimpLizard]

"If examined carefully, the car is not perfectly symmetrical..."

Sorry. Can't inspect them that closely. My calipers only go to 3 decimal places. 

[Kentuckian]

That was my favorite ride at Camden Park in Huntington, WV!  Nicely done.  This ride may be the reason I became a traffic engineer . . .

[Nato]

             Wozzers! Peteski,Dodgem Cars as we use to call them when I was a kid,the cars at the two amusement parks in my area had grills like 1946-47 Dodge Cars. Onea first ride was usually to just drive around in circles and hope you didn'y get wham-o-d. The entire scene looks wonderful,wish Ididn't live out West and could come to the show to view in person. Nate Goodman (Nato). Salt Lake, Utah.

[peteski]

Would those be shipped on a flat or gon unboxed ?

Roland told me that they were transported in enclosed trailers to protect them from damage. Just like the merry-go-round horses.

[peteski]

Lemosteam asked me  in this post:

how did you prevent bubbles both when mixing the silicone and pouring it in the example above?  I REALLY struggle with this.  it is not as simple as what you show, at least from my experience-  I get very frustrated trying to get bubbles out.

John,  The specifications for the Smooth-On OOMO  RTV rubber (which I used to make this mold) state that vacuum degassing is not required, but I still vacuum the rubber after mixing it.  I picked up a small GAST diaphragm vacuum pump (model DAA) on eBay few years ago. and that is what I use to degas my resin and RTV rubber.

But also when I pour it over the master pattern I do it very slowly, around the master, allowing the resin to flow around it or into the depressions or holes in the master. Only after the master is completely coated with at least a thin coating of the liquid RTV, I start filling the rest of the mold quicker.  Sometimes when I see a bubble in the thinly-coated master I put it in vacuum before filling the rest of the mold.

[DeltaBravo]

I know I am late to the party here, but these are super impressive! Love the lighting in the building as well.

Nice work!

[peteski]

I know I am late to the party here, but these are super impressive! Love the lighting in the building as well.

Nice work!

Thanks DeltaBravo!  We displayed the carnival (it is on an NTRAK module) at a train show at the New York State Exhibition grounds in Syracuse couple weekends ago and we got a lot of positive comments there too.

[Lemosteam]

I know I am late to the party here, but these are super impressive! Love the lighting in the building as well.

Nice work!

Yes, but are they POWERED?  HMMMM @peteski 

Seems to me the old vibrating football field method could be employed here....

[peteski]

Yes, but are they POWERED?  HMMMM @peteski 

Seems to me the old vibrating football field method could be employed here....

That would probably work (assuming that the brass pole doesn't make top-heavy and tip while vibrating), but that ain't happening now.  Besides not wanting to rip everything apart, the arena has a roof on it and it is not really visible well enough to make this worth the trouble.  If the arena was placed right in the front of the module I might consider animating the cars.