Happy new year!

Remember back in the summer when I posted a lot of questions about welding
up a frame for a halloween prop? Well, here are a few pics of what was
accomplished by the time halloween rolled around. I did all of this with a
$100 AC buzz box and a lot of cursing. Santa just delivered a Thermalarc
185TSW and a turnpro 7x12 bandsaw, so maybe there will be a little less
cursing eventually. (Santa, you forgot the damn argon bottle!).

Anyway, here are the pics:

It is a fully automated 2 seater halloween ride we built to run in our
garage (rather large garage). This past year it worked, but we didn't have
much time (read like 1 day) for decorating. NEXT year though...

http://www.skyko.com/halloween/doomb...uggyMoving.jpg

In this pic you can see an unwired but fully welded base (notice how black
paint makes everyone a good welder):

http://www.skyko.com/halloween/doombuggy/doombase1.JPG

A little more wiring:

http://www.skyko.com/halloween/doombuggy/doombase2.JPG

Top swivel plate mounted (yes, the top section with the passengers can
rotate independently of the base, so you can be traveling foward while
viewing sideways, or even rotate your view as you move along the path.)

http://www.skyko.com/halloween/doombuggy/doombase3.JPG

And here is a very short video of me looking very dorky riding in the
doombuggy. The method of linefollowing (5 sensors on a UHMW plastic pad
mounted to a small linear slide that rides along the ground and registers
the black line on white) will be changed this year to machine vision using a
video camera.

http://www.skyko.com/halloween/doombuggy/Doombuggy.wmv


I am sure I will have many many questions about my 185TSW. Thanks for all
your tips last year during my buzz box woes.

Rick