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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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if there was ever a time this tag really fit.... =P
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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.
"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.
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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...
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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.
With a top speed of 20MPH, he must get a lot of tailgaters...
well, not the same tailgater twice with that cannon...
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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.
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.
It's adorable. Does he call it Bonaparte?
When someone says, "Any fool can see
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...
Just wait until someone builds a half-scale anti-tank missile.
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Just wait until tomorrow, when they have the story about his neighbor who built five T-34 replicas for the same amount.
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"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!
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.
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.
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).