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The DIY Tank
Will Foster, a Kettering University student, has built his own half sized Panzer tank. It took Will 2 years and around $10,000 to build his mini-tank and he says the process has been "a lot of trial and error...I'd buy a $200 part that didn't work, then go to a $300 part that didn't work before finding a $50 part that did." The tank is about as big as a small car, and can reach speeds of around 20 mph with its three-cylinder diesel engine. It runs on treads, has a cannon powered by compressed air from a scuba tank and parks wherever the hell it wants.
... will you be my research advisor?
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Watch him gayly romp through Poland, Czechoslovakia and France!
"Flyin' in just a sweet place,
Never been known to fail..."
if there was ever a time this tag really fit.... =P
http://kered.org
Is that $10,000 dollars as opposed to $10,000 donuts or !10,000 dollars, or what?
Also interesting to see what they will write on the parking ticket...
If builders built buildings the way programmers wrote programs, then the first woodpecker would destroy civilization.
G4's "Attack of the Show" already had this story last week.
:)
I prefer it when Slashdot gets these things before any other organization...keeps us l33t
-- Posted from my parent's basement
"panzer tank" ??? where did this come from ? the redundant department of redundancy ? panzer already is german for "tank".
you either say "german tank" or "german panzer", but "panzer tank"??? sheesh.
What ? Me, worry ?
http://blog.mlive.com/flintjournal/newsnow/2008/04/post_moto_kid_death_story_here.html
Note the last part. The Flint Journal must be extremely confident in how road-safe this tank is.
This is my sig. There are many others like it, but this one is mine.
It's refreshing to read about police who aren't trying to taser everything that fails to conform.
Someone driving one of these and talking on a cell phone.
At first I thought about the MPG it gets. Then I though it doesn't matter when you can just go in a straight line. Buildings-shmildings.
Hats off.
There goes a truly great future engineer...
Seven Days with Ubuntu Unity
It appears he modeled it after the Tiger I. I'd love to see if he got the road wheels properly replicated - the "Tiger" in Saving Private Ryan was built on a T-34 chassis and was well... lame. The only war movie I've seen w/ properly depicted tanks was "Iron Cross" in the 70's which used actual T-34 even though it was a T-34/85 which did not see service until 1944 and the movie was set in late '43 during the retreat from Kerch.
i see the "420" on the turret. i wonder if that's Hitler's Birthday, or something else?
I've heard of "shotgunning", but that's ridiculous!!!
With a top speed of 20MPH, he must get a lot of tailgaters...
well, not the same tailgater twice with that cannon...
A Human Right
And now all the bullies that took this geek's lunch money as a kid will run in fear - as the geek now has a tank.
Paintball simulated warfare? Check.
Has a tank? Check.
Must be a terrorist.
Seriously though, this makes me proud to be from Michigan. :-)
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According to TFA, it shoots Red Bull cans.
Liberation through overpriced syrupy caffeinated beverages! Bet Rommel never thought of that.
Give a man a fish and you have fed him for today. Teach a man to fish, and he'll say "WHERE'S MY FISH, YOU IDIOT?"
This guy's been doing things like that for awhile. He and I went to the same high school for 2 years. He loved making stuff by hand and engineering things. He had this humongous truck, probably bigger than that tank that he constantly added stuff to. Will liked to bounce some of his crazy ideas off of us, potato guns and the like. Alot of crazy prank ideas too. I'm glad to see that he's still at it.
Now those little tanks will demand equal rights...
It's adorable. Does he call it Bonaparte?
When someone says, "Any fool can see
That is so insane and useless that is kind of cool!
Dick cheney will buy it and use it for duck hunting with a bunch of dems.
You thought you looked awesome in that golf shirt and pimped out golf cart on the back nine? Wait till your friends see how you roll with a mini panzer!
Mind if I play through? *adjusts turret* Of course you don't.
"Quote me as saying I was mis-quoted." -Groucho Marx
In case you didn't catch it, he built it all for paintball! THAT'S AWESOME! For $2000 total that's not bad if someone were to built another one. Although call me crazy but with gas prices, I'd wanna build a more fuel efficient pod racer instead lol. Btw I love where he says all you gotta do is put a slow moving vehicle sign on it or an orange triangle and it's technically a tractor.
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I would not consider this project complete until he finds a German midget to drive it...
This kid has a gold mine at his hands!
If he could mass produce this and modify the cannon a bit, he has the makings of the ultimate Paintball game.
The heck with these light-infantry paint ball games! I wanna be Patton!
- dj
Just wait until someone builds a half-scale anti-tank missile.
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
Those who ignore history are doomed to repeat it.
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I imagine the cops wouldn't be as kind here (or any major metro city) as they were in Flint.
"http: // blog.mlive.com/ flintjournal /newsnow/2008/04/ post_moto_kid_death_story_here.html"
"post moto kid death story here" ?!?
I'm thinking that there must be a "part two" to this tale!
"It is from their foes, not their friends, that cities learn the lesson of building high walls." - Aristophanes
If one person forgets how to build the weapons of war, it doesn't mean that their enemies will do so as well.
While high morals are good, they need to be tempered with realism.
The word "panzer" in English is a class noun that denotes a general type of tank, specifically German, usually of the WWII era.
Words in different languages mean different things, even if the sounds are the same, and even if the word is borrowed into another language. You're not insightful for your observation - you're ignorant of language and linguistics.
If he was really doing it properly he'd have made a Panzer Bike instead...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LvDrQVkZBTA
Deleted
no I didn't rtfa, but what *real* college student has $10k sitting around to spend on ANYTHING.
seriously.
Now all you need is to automate the thing so you can operate it by remote control through a laptop. Make the user interface on the laptop look just like a computer game. Then sit back and watch what happens when someone thinks it is a computer game!!! Bwaaahaahahahahahahahahaha!!!
McCain/Palin '08. Now THAT's hope and change!
Not a suprise such a pusilanimous view came from an "Anonymous Coward".
You should pay homage to the great weapons of war as the engineering marvels they are. Most of civilizations advancements came from developments associated with war. Don't try to deny that a fundamental of human nature is the ingrained desire to fuck up someone elses shit.
Instead of trying to pretend humans aren't advanced apes with a history of violence, remember that if you are standing with your head in the clouds thinking about "researching sustainable, peaceful communities", your feet are still on the backs of people that were beaten down.
What kind of boring, paranoid fucks call the cops when they see this? They should want to run outside and check it out. People who call the cops on a kid like this are the same small number of people who still approve of Bush's job as "president". Don't people know that creative problem solvers and tinkerers like this are the ones who actually make the world a better place?
Run and catch, run and catch, the lamb is caught in the blackberry patch.
1. How noisy it is in there with a running diesel engine nearby and plywood shell?
2. Is it tough enough go off-road?
http://www.maxineudall.com/2010/02/should-economists-be-sued-for-malpractice.html
BTW can anybody tell me the actual engine (and gearbox) used on the Kettering version?
From scarped cliff or quarried stone she cries "A thousand types are gone, I care for nothing, no not one."
creatively search youtub and you will find an Ozzy with a 50+ part how-to video on building a 2/5ths scale M-60 tank. I think its:
http://www.youtube.com/profile_videos?user=Gizmo4t&p=r
The first thing I thought of when seeing him climb out of it, is that he needs to put in a car alarm. I was half-expecting it at one point. Drive up in a tank, climb out, point the remote at it and "Bee-boop".
Everything you know is wrong, Just forget the words and sing along.
Am I the first brother to RTFA? Will is a Theta Xi, one of the original (if not the first, sorry pledge trainer) fraternity founded for engineering students.
If Slashdot were chemistry it would look like this:Cadaverine
I thought this was a Warcraft post at first. damn deceptive titles.
...will it blend?!
Seriously...so they said $10,000 dollars...big deal! Are you from the Department of Redundancy Department?
"Know but never fear the consequences of your actions."
A retired Australian engineer has built a 2/5 scale Sherman tank, and is working on a 2/5 scale M-60 tank. He has many videos on YouTube explaining the entire process:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hlUbZhsxcWI
The rest of us can go ahead and buy the $20k Badonkadonk Land Cruiser mini Star Wars version of this on Amazon(!).
But hey, it has an optional flamethrower! Nice!
Of course I didn't RTFA.
Is my sarcasm sarcasm detector functioning properly? Anyone else having problems?
You must be new here. The sport of pointing out redundancies, errors, and speling mistakes is a wonderful sport, like NASCAR.
More Twoson than Cupertino
If one person forgets how to build the weapons of war, it doesn't mean that their enemies will do so as well.
Oh come on. Name a single country with any interest in an invasion of US soil. Just one.
Even 9/11 was just a single day's worth of attack after five decades of the US deliberately picking fights with every random third world country with a small tin of resources she can think of.
When I ran a support business in Boston, I met a guy who called out aiming coordinates to the folks who ran the guns on U.S. warships in World War II. (I don't know the exact and title.) He was positioned in the South Pacific still clearly shook up about it. I recall him saying that every time he saw someone driving a Mitsubishi car he'd have to control himself. (Mitsubishi made the engines in many of the Japanese planes, or so he thought.)
I don't want to see the look on some poor guy's face if he sees this damn thing rolling down the street. He might just crap his pants.
If Nalgene water bottles are outlawed, only outlaws will have Nalgene water bottles.
Either way you say it, girls look at you and say, "Dork."
Oh, yeah, it's not easy to pad these out to 120 characters.
In todays "Post 911" society BS,..
I'm surprised SWAT didn't show up and kill the kid for being a "Terrorist".
Well yes, war in the conventional sense doesn't really happen anymore. But I was just saying that the idea that we should give up violence in all of our media and go run off to be peaceloving beatnicks isn't terribly intelligent.
It's not a tank, it's a friggin' plywood box on treads, with a nerf gun attached to it. I mean, ok, it seems like a fun project, but the guy didn't really do anything special here. It's easy to build a tracked vehicle, and sticking a big green plywood box on it is even easier. It's also pretty pointless. If you're going to build a tank, at least incorporate a bit of armour in it. Otherwise, what's the point?
Maybe he's a Pascal programmer and he meant 10000 hexadecimal dollars (65536 decimal dollars).
Support Right To Repair Legislation.
http://dict.leo.org/ende?lp=ende&lang=de&searchLoc=0&cmpType=relaxed§Hdr=on&spellToler=on&search=panzer&relink=on
Und für Deutsche:
http://de.wiktionary.org/wiki/Panzer
"Beispiele: [1] Durch ihren Panzer sind die Gürteltiere gut vor Feinden geschützt."
For all non-German speakers: Parent is wrong, his parent is right.
I don't believe that a "country" will be the cause of the next major "continental US" battle. It is more likely to be relatively small group of American people who demand a change of direction, but are unsatisfied by the results of the electoral system.
The media has shown us recently and on numerous occasions that one person with dedication and access to a small cache of weapons can dramatically affect the lives of thousands. Sure, there are logistical issues [like coordinating 100,000 zealots across the country], but movements have been known to be effective on occasion... In the unlikely event that something like this does happen, it's unlikely that there will be tanks involved.
That's what I call right to bear arms.
Go ahead asshole... cut me off.... I DARE you to!
Damn. You know, I thought that article said he was an engineering student. Remind me not to use any of his bridges.
With reasonable men I will reason; with humane men I will plead; but to tyrants I will give no quarter. -- William Lloyd
It's the only way to be sure.
"Quantity has a quality all its own" - Joseph Stalin
...well maybe that's a bit harsh. It's a cool project, but not unique by any means - I've heard of a few people building replica tanks and the like for airsoft and paintball. If you haven't heard of the former, it's way more fun than paintball and also crosses over with reanactment/milsim - players at most skirmishes use modern replicas (I've got a H&K G36C, and hopefully my new P226 will have arrived by the time I get back from work!) but there's also an active WWII element which I've been wanting to get involved with.
Weaseling out of things is important to learn. It's what separates us from the animals... except the weasel."
It's so small, so dinky.... that's it, it's a dink-tank!
Kwisatz Haderach
Sell the spice to CHOAM
This Mahdi took Shaddam's Throne
Until small furry rodents eat through his armor plating? I personally think this guy did a better job. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marvin_Heemeyer
The greatest right given is the right to be wrong...
Amazon has everything!
http://www.amazon.com/JL421-Badonkadonk-Land-Cruiser-Tank/dp/B00067F1CE
Maybe the reason none show any interest is that it'd be the equivalent to looking to mug mike tyson when there's an 80 year old granny a hundred miles closer?
Part of the reason nobody looks to invade us is that we would be able to resist it so successfully.
Though I'll note that this doesn't mean that I don't think that our foreign relations/actions could use a healthy dose of honor and respect.
I don't read AC A human right
Of all the tanks of WWII why not a US Sherman tank.
Sherman tank does have so many curves so it would make a pain to duplicate neatly:
http://www.military-collections.com/Planes%20of%20Fame%20photos/ShermanTank.jpg
Panzer does have more flat areas so it would be easier to make:
http://www.worldwar2aces.com/tiger-tank/tiger-tank-images/tiger-tank-25.jpg
However someone else beat him to building a drivable tank (sans the shooter) for his son last year:
http://blog.wired.com/geekdad/2007/04/driveable_scale.html
And this smaller verison of a Panzer in the UK:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/technology/technology.html?in_page_id=1965&in_article_id=485191
I built a 1:32 scale model tank in 1980 that shot BB's. Much fun when in high school and college.
Maybe the reason none show any interest is that it'd be the equivalent to looking to mug mike tyson when there's an 80 year old granny a hundred miles closer?
No. Try again. Name a single country with any interest in an invasion of US soil.
The main reason why there aren't any to name: invasion is immensely costly and impractical, particularly when the population to be taken over isn't willing (or at least ambivalent). All the neighbours of the US, who might at a long stretch otherwise be candidates, understand this.
US home soil is as secure as Canada's, Australia's and New Zealand's; and each spend far far less on defence. However, it's not because of any military deterrence.
I just hope he keeps it off my lawn.
US home soil is as secure as Canada's, Australia's and New Zealand's; and each spend far far less on defence. However, it's not because of any military deterrence.
Arguably part of this is that due to friendship and partnership with the USA anybody looking to invade them would have to deal with the US military as well.
Put an army into Canada and it wouldn't be long until they ran into a US army heading towards them.
Same with Australia, NZ, etc... Though our navy would be the first there.
Of course, I view international politics much like relations in a primitive tribe.
I don't read AC A human right
Can't wait to see someone driving one of these and talking on a cell phone.
It will probably be something close to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3vESIVemfG8
about that truck. we have to lift the shorter girls into it. literally. they cant reach the seats. i love it.
the whole thing came about with what we thought was a joke. Will asked one of us, If i were to start making a model of this tank, would you help me? (in ref to a hotwheels size model). So we said yeah, sure, whatever. And he comes home after class the next day with 2"x4"'s, 4"x4"'s, 8'x10' sheets of 1/4" and 1/2" plywood and starts working on it. And we were like, wow, he's actually serious. So we went outside and started helping. 4 hours later, we had a full frame.
if { x = x && x/x = 1 }, let {x = 0}, then { 0/0 = 1 }, but { 0/0 != 1 }, so { x != x }, goto your_head_asplode
The treads appear to be smooth and since his tank isn't heavy like a real, armored tank, it's not likely to do much damage. In the video, it appears to grind the pavement slightly when he spins in place.
The treads look to be about a foot wide and there's at least five feet of contact on each side. That would give him around 1440 square inches of contact area. If his tank weighs a ton (the "armor" is plywood, after all), it is exerting less than 1.4 psi (about half what a person does).
The video would be perfect if at the end he triggered an alarm after closing the hatch.
Beep beep.
^[:wq!
ahem
you can have my violent video games when you pry them from my cold, dead hands.
Prime UID Club
Check this guy out, he puts up how to videos and has a 2:5 scale sherman.
http://www.youtube.com/user/Gizmo4t
I was a guest living at Theta Xi and helped out on the tank. I will be posting all the pictures of the tank as it progressed once i deem that my sever can handle the abuse. lol
I'd love to see the look on the cashier's face when he pulls around to the first window to pick up his Big Mac with fries and a drink.
You know the Zero, the iconic Japanese fighter plane? Its full name is "Mitsubishi A6M", with the Zero bit coming from the Imperial Navy's designation (and not, as I mistakenly believed for a while, from a Mitsubishi part number). Mitsubishi, like a number of the largest firms in Japanese, used to be a zaibatsu (think sort of a megaconglomerate of businesses which the government propped up during the rapid industrialization in the late 19th and early 20th centuries). Almost all of the zaibatsu were heavily involved in war production, as was almost any American company of any size for the duration of the war.
Mitsubishi Heavy Industries is still one of Japan's leading armaments makers, incidentally. I live a few miles from one of their fighter plane factories. Its related to Mitsubishi Motors, which is probably the company most Westerners think about when they think Mitsubishi. Other companies in the group do banking, insurance, nuclear power plant construction, food services, etc etc.
Help poke pirates in the eyepatch, arr.
You're right, that one word does nicely describe you and your post. Thanks for contributing.
http://www.commandojurre.nl/
It's no big deal some of my best friends are M$ certified engineers
Oh come on. Name a single country with any interest in an invasion of US soil. Just one.
Just you wait till the plans to make automobiles run on recycled fat people are complete *insert evil laugh here*
People replying to my sig annoy me. That's why I change it all the time.
and she finds him endearing?!?
Foster's predilection for tinkering -- his 1986 Chevy Silverado was rescued from a junkyard and now has a 10-inch lift and 37-inch wheels -- is endearing to girlfriend Heidi Clark, a recent Kettering graduate who has also helped problem solve and build the tank.
The La Brea Tar Pits. (the the tar tar pits)
The cost of that cleanup, of course, will be borne by taxpayers, not industry.
Maybe so, but I am amused that you found it necessary to reply in an ad hominem fashion.
It should stop paintballs.
The cost of that cleanup, of course, will be borne by taxpayers, not industry.