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The DIY Tank

Posted by samzenpus on from the but-how-much-is-the-insurance dept.

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.

26 of 334 comments (clear)

  1. whatcouldpossiblygowrong? by deander2 · · Score: 5, Funny

    if there was ever a time this tag really fit.... =P

    --
    http://kered.org
  2. $ Dollars by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Is that $10,000 dollars as opposed to $10,000 donuts or !10,000 dollars, or what?

    1. Re:$ Dollars by tehniobium · · Score: 5, Funny

      The $ indicates that the 10,000 dollars is a php variable.

      --
      No kitty, this is my pot pie!
  3. Interesting by Z00L00K · · Score: 5, Funny
    To see what the parking place attendants will say when you park it.

    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.
    1. Re:Interesting by name*censored* · · Score: 5, Funny

      Just make up some fake diplomatic immunity plates for it. No-one's going to believe a parking inspector who tells people "I couldn't ticket the panzer because of Iraqi Diplomatic Immunity".

      --
      Commodore64_love: I don't comprehend people who're so frightened of death that they'll bankrupt themselves to stay alive
  4. panzer tank ??? by C0vardeAn0nim0 · · Score: 5, Funny

    "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 ?
    1. Re:panzer tank ??? by MightyYar · · Score: 5, Funny

      I find it interesting that someone who uses zeros as a substitute for the letter "O" in their nickname would be such a stickler when it comes to proper language usage. :)

      --
      W..w..W - Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo.
    2. Re:panzer tank ??? by coyote_oww · · Score: 5, Informative
      IIRC, the Panther was the PzKw V, Tiger was PzKw VI. The confusion is reasonable though, since the Tiger was actually deployed first (again IIRC). This model seems to be based on the Tiger.

      Visually, the Panther and Tiger are striking different. The Panther has sloping front armor, the Tiger has a thicker unsloped front plate - not quite as sophisticated, a more brute-force approach to armoring a tank.

      Also, as I recall, "Panzer" can be taken colloquially to mean "tank", but the full name of the machine is revealing "PanzerKamphWagen" - which literally translates as "armored fight(ing) vehicle".

      I knew all that SL/ASL would come in handy someday!

    3. Re:panzer tank ??? by Keith_Beef · · Score: 5, Informative

      I believe that use of the word "Panzer" is a an abbreviation for "Panzerkampfwagen", which roughly means "armoured assault vehicle".

    4. Re:panzer tank ??? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      Panzer is German for panther.

      This is like complaining that "sherman tank" is redundant, cause, like, you know, everyone knows that a sherman is a tank.

      Excuse me while I finish my decaf coffee and turn off my cell phone before I get into my BMW automobile and drive on the interstate highway.

    5. Re:panzer tank ??? by lunartik · · Score: 5, Interesting

      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.
    6. Re:panzer tank ??? by cyxxon · · Score: 5, Informative

      Err, no. I am german, and it is clearly Panzer = Tank. While, say, a piece of a medieval plate armor that goes to the chest can be called Brustpanzer (with brust = chest), and the word Panzerung means armor, the word Panzer itself just plain and simple means tank. Caveat: I do not know what the correct military bureaucrat term is for that, since they tend to have a word no one outside of the military uses, but in general german that is what it means.

  5. Sane police by schwit1 · · Score: 5, Insightful
    "(Police) came and they just told us to head back home, but they were also laughing at it because they had never seen anything like that before."


    It's refreshing to read about police who aren't trying to taser everything that fails to conform.

    1. Re:Sane police by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      Would YOU try to taser a guy driving a tank?

    2. Re:Sane police by Charlton+Heston · · Score: 5, Funny

      It's not bullshit, it's the truth. I'm Charlton Heston, I'm dead, and I would not lie to you.

      --
      Get your stinking paws off me you damn dirty ape
  6. MPG? Straight line! by apachetoolbox · · Score: 5, Funny

    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.

  7. Gentlemen by AndGodSed · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Hats off.

    There goes a truly great future engineer...

    --

    Seven Days with Ubuntu Unity

  8. I went to high school with this kid by usul294 · · Score: 5, Informative

    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.

  9. Re:Can't wait to see... by daeley · · Score: 5, Funny

    Someone driving one of these and talking on a cell phone.

    Myself, I can't wait to be driving one of these and see someone else talking on a cell phone. ;)

    --
    I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhauser gate.
  10. Re:Tiger I by bellers · · Score: 5, Funny

    No one cares, tank-nerd.

    --
    This space for rent.
  11. Not complete until... by MiniMike · · Score: 5, Funny

    I would not consider this project complete until he finds a German midget to drive it...

  12. Oh sure, he's hot shit NOW by elrous0 · · Score: 5, Funny

    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.
  13. Re:Slashdot is getting slow by MiniMike · · Score: 5, Funny

    Just wait until tomorrow, when they have the story about his neighbor who built five T-34 replicas for the same amount.

  14. Re:Slashdot is getting slow by morgan_greywolf · · Score: 5, Funny

    I prefer it when Slashdot gets these things before any other organization...keeps us l33t :) Huh? What's Slashdot got to do with being l33t?! I'm afraid I can't parse that sentence.

    --
    My blog
  15. Alarm system by honestmonkey · · Score: 5, Funny

    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.
  16. It's the weight that causes road damage. by oddaddresstrap · · Score: 5, Informative

    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).