Ideas for making Lighted SpaceWarp... By Dave Juliano

• Date: Sat, 14 Apr 2001 22:50:40 -0400
  Scott-
  I've had this idea for awhile, but since I am currently 'warpless, I thought I'd through it out to the crowd, see what the response is. I also don't have any drawings yet, but I'll do my best to describe it simply and clearly.
  The Goal- an LED array, or even just a single LED that will turn on when the ball passes.
  The Method- A few.
  1) Simplest: drill a 30awg hole in the rails (one in each rail, at the same point) vertically. Thread a stripped end of 30awg wrapping wire up through the hole (make the wires as long as you want...the longer the bare wire, the longer the LED will be on). I think you get the gist of this by now...but one final thought on this method...what if you heated the bare wire in a flame for a few seconds, and then pressed it into the rail? The idea is to "countersink" it enough so that it's not a clunky junction, but at the same time, high enough to allow good contact with the ball.
  2) More complex- same idea as above, but repeat the process over and over, and mount the LED that's being triggered behind the "switch" over the rail...so from the front, you can see the progress of the ball in the LED's.
  3) Even more complex (well, simpler if you like electronics)- Build a small circuit out of a 555 timer and a decade counter...I can provide the schematic if there's interest. Basically, you'll get the result of #2 above, while only having to mangle the rails as much as #1.
  Ooh, 4) How bout some copper contacts between the rails? Sprung lightly, so the ball completes the circuit, but won't get derailed. lemme know.
  dave
  

Lighting fun By Tony Gonzalez

• Date: Sat, 21 Apr 2001 20:34:09
  Dave, what do you think of very light weight microswitches with a LONG wire for contact? Arcade games use such a switch in which the quarter trips a coin wire. And quarters weight less than the Spacewarp marble.
  For lighting LEDs,. that is a helluva idea. For mine, I use two strings of Christmas low voltage lights with a self designed flashing circuit :)
  House now up for sale. Don, CALL!~!!!!!
  Tony
  

J 10 By Lawrence Edward Nussbaum

• Date: Fri, 30 Mar 2001 11:11:27 -0500
  Scott,
  The J10 is the pivot for the SeeSaw. Well at least that's what I'm using it for...
  Larry
  

Re:J10 By ScottDEE

• Date: 3-31-01 3:11 PM
  That's Great Larry, now that you've pointed it out to me, I checked the Catalog, and it is in there under the seesaw parts list. It is not pictured though. Now if ONLY we could get a copy of instructions showing how the seesaw is put togehter. Thanks.
  

Website By Tim Ellis

• Date: Thu, 29 Mar 2001 19:45:00 -0000
  To Scott Mills,
  I rediscovered spacewarp about two weeks ago, my brother in law found his at his parents house, and he had it partially set up when my wife and I went over to their house. We ended up spending almost three hours playing with it, while our wives were laughing at us.
  I love your web site. I tried to buy a couple sets off e-bay but they always go higher than I am willing to pay, I guess collectors see the attraction to them and try to capitalize off of it. Hey, it's America, whatever.
  Anyways, I figured I could probably put together a set or something resembling it for a lot cheaper, if I could find out where to get them. I just have a few questions, that I couldn't find out from your site.
  1) Can you still buy any of the parts direct from bandai? I assume not, but it would be nice to know for sure.
  2) Do you know of a substitute for the pieces that hold the cross-ties to the support rods? I could conceive of reproducing cross-ties but I can't think of a way to attach them.
  3) Do you think it would just be cheaper/and/or/easier to just drop the money and pick up a set on ebay, or another auction service?
  Sorry to drop such a wordy email on you when I hardly know you, but you must be at least as interested as I am, your the one with the web site! I have a way with obsessing over my hobbies/projects/evil-experiments like this!
  A response direct would be more than welcome, My address (as if it didn't pop up on the heading of anything) is tmoizelvis@hotmail.com Thank you,
  Tim Ellis
  

Re: Website By ScottDEE

• Date: 3-29-01 11:34 PM
  I am all too happy to answer your questions. your first question, unfortunately I have to answer it NO. 2, I haven't thought of any substitute as of yet, but I'm sure that one can eventually be conceived. The best thing I can offer on reproducing parts is to go to a local hobby store and by a plastic casting and molding set. Two sets come to mind off hand, micromark and alumilite. The process is mildly difficult, and can be somewhat expensive, but if you do it right you will most likely save money over Ebay. The only drawback to this idea is, that you have to have the original pieces to cast a mold from in the first place. 3 , it's a rather subjective idea as to whether it is cheaper or not, it certainly is the most CONVENIENT way to obtain a spacewarp set, but it all comes down to how you regard your own time in the matter. Since around the time I started this website, there have been well over 100 seperate bidders on Ebay that I have contacted, and I'm sure that the desire will probably grow for spacewarp as time goes by.I do have several resources available to you, I recommend reading the faq page, it contains LINKS to 2 other spacewarp auctions in Japan. I would also recommend reading the partsource and TIPS pages they contain great ideas for replacing parts with other parts that you CAN stilll BUY. I do tend to obsess with my own hobbies as well, And I have more than a few of them. I love the way this site has come together, It's only taken about 1/2 of my own personal effort to make it the way it is. I hope that it continues to grow as a source for ideas and help. Thank You for Visiting, I hope to hear from you again, real soon.
  

another source for motors By srslug19

• Date: Wed, 28 Mar 2001 02:19:53 -0600
  There is another source for motors that i have recently discovered, i was looking for an old tape plaver around the house but could not find one, then i realized i had a really old VCR, after about 20 minutes of tearing the thing apart, i found TWO motors in the VCR that work off of batteries, i do NOT know if they will run the elevator yet or not because i have lost the gears to it so i am trying to rig up some kind of gear for it so the motor will not be doing all the work. I am pretty sure that they will work though. I will let you know when i find out, i dont have much time to work on it with my job, family, and other activities, but will let you know asap.
  
  Another thing i have found at the local Westlakes ACE Hardware store for track was plastic coated clothes line, the stuff is super hard to work with but comes in several different colors to make a very custom look and if you are patient enough, when you have it all adjusted, it will not go out of allighnment, it is a pretty permanent thing. But looks GREAT.
  

spacewarp web address By Jason Mattox

• Date: Wed, 21 Mar 2001 02:09:11 -0600
  has the address changed at all, cause when i go to add it to my favorites list and then click on it, it wont bring it up, the only place i can bring it up is in my hotmail inbox when i click on the link, any ideas, by the way, AWESOME link, i might have a few ideas to add to it, also, do you have icq?, if so, my icq # is XXXXXXXX, contact me and put "talk about spacewarp" in the request box so i can add you to my contact list.
  thanks
  Jay
  
  

SpaceWarp By Terauchi

• Date: Thu, 22 Mar 2001 08:26:16 +0800
  Good morning it is Terauchi,I ordered an aluminum stick of 5mm. As for this aluminum stick, the inside isn't hollow like a pillar of SpaceWarp If a pillar is hollow, I seem to have turned As for what I ordered it from, length has 1m with an aluminum stick of 5mm outside diameter I can seem to use it with SpaceWarp. In addition, I do an email.
  

RE:SpaceWarp By ScottDEE

• At 6:37 AM 01.3.22
  Is the company you bought it from a company that can ship to the united states?
  

RE:SpaceWarp By Terauchi

• Thu, 22 Mar 2001 15:52:47 +0800
  In the shop which I ordered, there doesn't seem to be overseas dispatch. I purchase it and may send it to Scott. Because I don't understand it yet whether I am usable with SpaceWarp, I conf irm it and do an email
  Follows are addresses of a shop.
  http://www.rc-tkd.co.jp/index.htm
  1m long is 10 of them, and a product price is around 9 dollars.
  Good-bye
  

RE:SpaceWarp By ScottDEE

• Thu, 22 Mar 2001 16:01:35 +0800
  You paid a very good price for those pieces. Unfortunately I can't find them in the united states. The only thing i am able to find is 3/16" which is just slightly too small to use for spacewarp. I am sure if you buy 5MM aluminum it will fit perfectly. If you are interested in shipping to the united states, I am sure there will be lots of people who would like to buy them from you.
  

no Subject By Tony Gonzalez

• Date: Wed, 21 Mar 2001 06:01:15
  Don, was very glad you were able to stop on by. Am hoping that the pictures and video you took of the model can be posted here, to add to the fun. I lost your email once again, main reason I wanted to get in contact with you, job offer at work. Call!
  
  Everyone: as if the picture of the Iron Horse didnt scare you enough, it will get BIGGER. Reason? Am selling my house (actually a mobile home). I figured out a way to move it all in one piece. And for a bigger recreation/entertainment room, I plan to have it run all along the walls with desks and the main section. There are PLANS in the works, gang....
  

elevator motor By Jason Mellard

• Date: Tue, 13 Mar 2001 10:16:23 -0800 (PST)
  Hey Scott, how's it goin? You know, I built this whole coaster now, but my elevator only works sporadically. It will go for maybe a minute, but then it gets worn out. And it can only handle one or two marbles on it at a time. I did extend it higher, but only about 2 1/2". I was wondering if there is a way to get a bigger motor for it with more than 150V? Thanks,
  Jason
  

Re: elevator motor By ScottDEE

• Date: Tue, 13 Mar 2001 23:13:30
  The best suggestion I heard so far was using a motor from a cassette player. Most run at 6V, and they run quieter. I would suggest first making sure its not your belts. I used the original belts on my blackwolf and they sucked crap. I went to the office supply store and got some small thin rubber bands, that were about 1/3 shorter than drive belts. I put those on and now my elevator is flying. I also added a second battery in parallel to increase the power rather than the speed. I had someone write me yesterday, asking about a set that he had gotten in japan that used a worm gear, I thought it was set I, but I couldn't find it in the instructions. He claimed that it made the elevator twice as good. If he contacts me back, I'll search for a worm gear that might work. Did you tell me about using weedwacker line for rail? What brand did you use, what thickness, How much?
  

Re:elevator motor By Jason Mellard

• Date: Wed, 14 Mar 2001 10:27:22 -0800 (PST)
  Thank you very much for the information... I'll give those things a try. The tape player does sound good in that it would also be quieter. I'll replace the belts first, though, and see what that does. I haven't actually tried any weedeater line, but it seems like it might work for the track. I'll have to stop by a hardware store sometime and check it out... Thanks again, Jason.
  

advice By Satanhanx

• Date: Mon, 26 Mar 2001 15:36:24 EST
  I have two black wolf kits now, and I just started working on a layout, here's a tip for you though. Instead of using the belts to drive the lift, try using the gears from a lego set. It seems to go a little faster, but when I used the belts on my old set, it would only work for a minute or two at a time. The lego gears don't have that problem. Just don't use the very small ones, because if you put too many marbles on it, it will break the smaller gears. Lego also has a small motor that works very well too, it takes 4 C batteries, but is much quieter. Hope my advice helps. When I finish my new creation, I'll send you some pics. It won't be nearly as impressive as Tony's, but I'll see what I can do.
  Eric
  

By John Dresty III

• Date: Sun, 11 Mar 2001 16:24:31 -0500
  Hello,
  Just a few things. First I just want to say what a nice site you have. Quite an endeavor! - I was wondering if you knew anything about a certain part I have been trying to get without any luck. It is a motor with a spiral screw like gear on the end instead of the belt wheel. I had one long ago, it came from a japanese kit. It worked better since it directly interacted with the elevator gears rather than through belts. Machining this little part would be very difficult. Basically if you know which sets came with this part that would be great. Thanks.
  - Second. As you know, you can get pipe stock at various hardware stores and such. I discovered some poles also that were too thin to be replacements but which fit INTO the standard poles smoothly. The use of this is that now I was able to reliably extend the height of the elevator by inserting the inner poles inside the large poles. While Bandai did produce pole extenders (N1 or something), they suck beyond belief, and the poles would be very bent and such, which while ok for support poles is unacceptable for the annoyingly tempermental elevator. This way you can have virtually perfectly straight (and stronger) poles now for many feet! However, with the added height comes added work for the already pathetically weak and unstable motor. This can be fixed by putting extra batteries in series which in addition which doubles the speed/force, though this tends to be too fast sometimes. It needs work. Thank you. Good luck.
  John Dresty
  

By Ron Coker

• Date: Fri, 19 Jan 2001 16:44:51 -0600
  Hello. I recently received an e-mail from you regarding your spacewarp site. I just wanted to say that I have been looking for a spacewarp resources site for at least ten years now, and yours has all the information I could ever possibly need. Keep up the good work and thanks a million!!!
  

SpaceWarp By Brennan, Jay

• Date: Thu, 18 Jan 2001 08:40:01 -0500
  Thanks. I had actually been to your site through some net searches. Do you know of anyone who has sets (in good condition) for sale? Thanks
  

hello. By ARAI Saeko

• Fri, 5 Jan 2001 06:20:39 +0900
  Hello.
  I am an owner of Spacewarp set20 and set10, living in Japan. I found your pages via TERAUCHI KENJI's pages. How wonderful your collection is! And I am struck with admiration by your cool ideas. I would like to add your URL on my link page (under construction), if it hurt your feeling, please tell me, I never do it. Thank you.
  
  

spacewarp vote: By Terauchi Kenji

• Because I make a page of a detailed vote method, please wait for a while. I make it during today. The lunch break has been over soon. In addition, I give an email. I made a vote page.
  http://www2.saganet.ne.jp/zoom/spacewarp/tanomi.html
  Thank you for a vote. My name is TERAUCHI KENJI. Japanese all were attached courage to. Because it is the best plan, I think that reprint is near in a current sugge stion plan.
  What this plan occurred to is because it fitted once to have played when it was a primary schoolchild. It was difficult that I obtained the thing which I parted with, but was avai lable somehow once. I am glad that I do it in this way and can talk with foreign one and think. I turn my page into English correspondence at an early date.
  

spacewarp japan zoom By Terauchi Kenji

• Fri, 8 Dec 2000 12:25:54 +0800
  Thank you for a message. It is Japanese Terauchi. I am weak in English, and it wants to be it to a friend. There is "tanomi.COM" in Japanese site. This site does reproductions. I am not good that I don't acquire a vote in a reproduction. I ask for right or wrong, a vote from overseas. It is 80 votes currently. I am good from the following address. main: http://www.tanomi.com/
  

SpaceWarp Web site By Thomas R Bastek

• Fri, 24 Nov 2000 13:38:50 -0500
  Awesome idea dude!
  I think that you should throw on a place where we can load up pictures of our creations, a trading post where we can look for pieces and full sets that we might need, an inventors corner where we can write down how we are replacing parts now that Bandai doesn't sell hem anymore, and a petition site where we can put together a list of e-mail addresses that would like to see Bandai start to reproduce at least spare parts if not the sets in their entirety. Please let me know how the site turns out and where I can find it on the web. Let me know if I can offer up any other suggestions.
  Tommy
  

Impressive initiative! By watson138

• Fri, 24 Nov 2000 10:07:49 -0800
  It is nice to see that someone cares enough about this toy/model to create a website in tribute to it. I just recently pursued this, and now a website goes up only one week after I start hunting for these sets that I remembered from when I was still in high school. On a trip to the Ramses II exhibit in Denver Colorado in 1987, my friend and hotel roommate bought the 20 or 30 set, I can't remember which one it was exactly. He was "on the fence" about whether to buy it or not, and I helped encourage him to buy it. I would have if I had the money, but I didn't at the time. Even then the sets sold for a pretty penny, especially considering the fact that many were sold at fancy gift and hobby/toy shops. I think he paid $30-40 for his. Well, anyway I stayed up until 3 or 4 in the morning that night setting up a track that was great. I loved it. For some reason though, I just kinda forgot about it when we went back home to Nebraska (where you couldn't find one anyway) and never thought much about it after that. Well, a few years ago I began looking for them at flea markets and places like that. No luck! I really didn't think I would ever get the chance to purchase one again. I never really though about checking e-bay until about a week ago when me dad was online (he really likes e-bay) and for some reason I thought about checking for that. I was surprised to see several listings for the item I thought I would never find. I checked toy stores for them numerous times and just assumed they must have quit making them. Now, I have the chance to rediscover something that I only had a brief experience with and I think it is GREAT! On top of that, someone creates a website devoted to this only one week after I saw them offered on e-bay. It is as if there is a mutual interest peaking at the time I just happened to check to see if they were available. Talk about a coincidence! Anyway, I just wanted to write you and tell you how I fell in love with this hobby/interest. I thought you might appreciate hearing about how I became interested in this. How about you? If I get ANYTHING that might help you build on this, I will gladly help you. Thanks, and happy coaster-building to you!
  Brian
  

Looking better every day! By rolling-balls

• Wed, 22 Nov 2000 21:41:12 -0800,
  Hey Scott,
  I checked out the SW web site tonight. You sure are quick about getting the scans up quickly!!! It looks good. Thanks for the credit too. Too bad David MacMillon can't update the Rolling Ball Web Site as often!
  I was going to tell you, that if anyone has instructions, pictures, or whatever, that you can use on your site, but they can't scan them, I will be glad to help out if they want to send them to me, and I will send them back after I scan them.
  I'm also going to talk to a designer at work, and find out if I can scan the pages I did any differently and have them come out clearer and hopefully even smaller in size (k).
  An idea for your site, would be to have some kind of forum where people can ask questions and hopefully others will have answers for them.
  There's a guy at work who has the 40 set spread out all across his shelves in front of his work space. I'm going to ask him next week if I can photograph it, and maybe you can put it up on your site. Which brings me to another idea for yours site... having a section where people can send in pictures of things they have done with their Spacewarps and Blackwolfs.
  I don't know if you are working on the page right now, or if my computer or internet provider is messing up, but I only get "Links To Other SpaceWarp Sites A Japanese Site devoted to SpaceWarp" below the main pictures, and nothing else. Well have a great Turkey Day. Don
  

spacewarp website By Smyth, Kerry

• Wed, 22 Nov 2000 11:00:27 -0500
  Scott,
  Pretty good so far, but why is the "parts" and "tips" link sending me to the same "resources" page? I love that resources page but it just kind of confused me for a second. Maybe if you get enough interest, and you can recreate parts at a low price and of high enough quality, you can almost start making you own line of kits! You'd need a base mold, of course. The reason I say that is because I would probably by tons of those parts if they were for sale somewhere. Let me know what's going on. g
  

By Jon Griffith

• Wed, 22 Nov 2000 00:13:25 -0700
  I have a site in the works that will showcase my spacewarp stuff. Tell me more about how to replicate the parts. I have been looking for a way to do this as well. I have also been looking for substitute parts that would help me build a larger scale coaster with a pinball instead of the little steelie.
  

SpaceWarp Website By James Daly

• Tue, 21 Nov 2000 22:13:44 -0500 (EST)
  That sounds like a good idea, but I am VERY BUSY with school until the semester ends. Even then, I have not touched the spacewarp in years. I have a few tips I learned on my own- like REALLY scratching up the surfaces of the spacewarp ball bearings makes them run faster and climb the hills and loops better. I also have some wierd Ideas for variations on loops and corkscrews not discussed in the instructions.
  Just a few things, How did you find my page, and how many other spacewarp people did you find? Does Bandi still own the patent to spacewarp? (if there is one) I tried to write to Bandi several times telling them of my ideas, and asking them where the company was going with the spacewarp, but I NEVER recieved a reply. I remember watching some rollercoaster show, and I saw one of the rollercoasters designers had build a pretty cool spacewarp. You may want to try and to look around there... glad I'm not the only one!
  James Daly
  

Very Cool! By Don E Clarke

• Tue, 21 Nov 2000 16:39:41 -0800
  It's me again!
  Just saw your SpaceWarp site. It's GREAT! Thanks so much for doing it! And better yet, I see there is a place that I can order rail. How cool is that?!!!!
  Thanks Scott.
  Don