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.

Comments

paintball!

[ILuvRamen]

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.

Ultimate Paintball game!

[dick johnson]

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!

Alvis Scorpion

[Kupfernigk]

If you want armor that is stronger than plywood and a little more performance, consider an Alvis Scorpion. Available in street legal form, max speed 45mph, and with the governor removed can achieve over 70. The interior space is limited, it's a bit noisy, but you could use it to shunt a Hummer until it fitted into a pickup, and would probably only need to touch up the paint a bit.

BTW can anybody tell me the actual engine (and gearbox) used on the Kettering version?

Another Tank Builder

[Anonymous Coward]

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

Re:Interesting

[AgentPaper]

Well, even if it were full size it'd still be smaller than any of the "Ford F-Off" (tm Achromatic1978) giant-sized trucks and SUVs that you're apt to see people driving in Flint. (The Panzer was about a foot shorter than a Suburban/Yukon XL/Escalade ESV.)

I don't think the meter maids would complain so much as the road commission. Treads aren't nice to asphalt, and Michigan already has the worst-maintained roads in the nation...

Re:panzer tank ???

[lunartik]

Only $2000? I'm all about building one.

He probably could make some of the money back by selling the plans. An ad for "Build Your Own Mini-Tank!" in the back of Popular Mechanics might actually be the most legit kit ever advertised there.

Re:Sane police

[Anonymous Coward]

for the record, the engine is diesel, therefore, tons of torque. you put your arm in front of it, it will BREAK IT OFF!! hell, put anything in front of it, and this tank will go through or over it, short of the object in front of it being a multiple feet high and thick concrete wall. Also, this is not opinion, as i am one of Will's fraternity bros, helped him with ideas for it, and helped build it... I know this tank about as well as anyone, short of Will and a few others who have worked on it as much or more than I have.

Re:Sane police

[Sloppy]

When the reporter asks witnesses why they didn't call the cops right away, they're very likely to say "It didn't sound like a gun." What they really mean is "It didn't sound like a movie gun."

As a clueless, street-naive person, I can totally understand that. Last July 3rd, I was standing outside a bar when some asshole started shooting (roughly) in the direction of a crowd I was in. In the first second, I couldn't figure out why so many people were diving for the pavement. I mean, it was just someone across the street playing with firecrackers, right? Sheesh, what a bunch of panicky wim-- then I heard the bullets whizzing by and realized what was happening and ducked behind a car. Aha, so that's what gunshots sounds like. :-)

Re:Sane police

[hey!]

Never underestimate the power of adrenaline mixed with testosterone. When that guy stole that tank in San Diego and went on a rampage crushing cars and knocking down utility poles, a cop jumped up on the tank and shot him.

And you thought Dirty Harry was tough cop, that guy's street cred must be off scale. You feel lucky today punk? You do? OK, then I'll just have to call in my partner here, WHO SINGLE HANDEDLY STOPPED A FRIGGEN TANK WITH A 9mm PISTOL.

Re:panzer tank ???

[MsGeek]

Watch the video. All he needs to do is temporarily affix the "slow moving vehicle" triangle to the back of the mini-Panzer and he is good to go. Basically what he built is a tractor with rubber tracks and an air cannon.

The ultimate in fahrvergnuegen. Outstanding.

WTF is amazing

[squirrelrock]

and yes, those are his initials. go figure.

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.