m00se

Added the stairs as a final touch: The minifigs refused to stay seated during the ride, so other pictures will be without them. I've looked for alternatives to the buckets that would be more minifig-friendly, but in the end I decided to keep them. How it looks from the bottom: The mechanism is pretty straightforward: the motor drives the center part, the gear that makes the actuator go up or down. The wheel itself gets it movement from the 12-tooth gear that runs against the inside of the yellow arc (top left in the following picture): An earlier version had a more complicated gearbox allowing me to choose between different speeds. The problem was however that I really needed maximum torque as the centerpiece consisting of the two yellow wheels creates quite a lot of friction, so I ended up with a simplified but better working version. Without the wheel: In action:

I did try that first, but came up short regarding the yellow connectors.

Just a quick suggestion: you can use MS Paint (or similar raster based drawing program) to convert a circle into LEGO studs. The curve you need seems to have a radius of around 30 studs, so you draw a circle of 60*60, zoom in, and the pixels tell you exactly what you need to build.

I loved reading your review, Jim. The crane looks great, but personally I find the lack of a proper B-model a disgrace. It actually goes against the philosophy of Lego that you can make anything out of a set (well, especially if that set contains more than 4000 pieces). Even if the B-model would only contain about half of the pieces as the A-model, it would have been way better than trying to use them all and ending up with a copy of the A-model.

Well spotted, that this indeed is made from 42055 parts. I've restarted building Technic about half a year ago when I bought this set. I'm still having lots of fun with it, so I haven't really had the urge yet to buy other sets (although the new Rough Terrain Crane looks nice...). Only downside of using the 42055 to build a funfair/themepark ride is the lack of fancy color in most of the part.

Finished the wheel and the floor. It's starting to look more like a ride now. I do realize my camera is not up to modern standards; please excuse me for that.

I'm trying with free flowing seats just like the ride has in real life; however the rotational speed won't be high enough to really make them swing far outward. Thanks for the suggestion about the rotational part of the Rough Terrain Crane. It does seem to be a more stable solution. I don't think I have the right parts to do something similar however.

Hi everyone This is my first post, but I've been following the Technic forum for a few months since I started to picked up Lego Technic again (after a 12 year hiatus). The themepark attraction I've been working on is lousely based on a Reverchon Explorer. In the middle of the ride an actuator makes the wheel go upward, but also lets it tilt. This tilting mechanism also turns, but not at the same speed as the wheel, creating a "dancing like" movement. The "wheel" has not been made yet, so the beams and two buckets you see here on top of the ride are just for testing purposes: With the actuator raised: Next up will be making the wheel which will add a lot of weight, so I hope it will still work smoothly. I'm very well aware my Technic building capabilities are not even close to those of some of the geniuses around here, but I still decided to post as I hope your feedback would help me to improve my skills.