This amusement park ride is known in various parts of the world as the Scrambler, Twist, Twister, Cyclone, Sizzler, Merry Mixer, Grasscutter, or Cha Cha. In my part of the world (California) I’ve always seen it called the Scrambler. Wikipedia has more information about this ride under its various guises.
I built this model for the 2009 Bay Area Maker Faire where it was a part of BayLUG‘s largest ever public exhibit.
The operating mechanism is similar to the real thing – a central axle drives the whole mechanism, and rubber tires attached to each arm’s driveshaft transfer that motion to the ends of each of the three main arms, where a 90 degree gear causes the 4 cars to spin around.
See all the photos and a video on flickr (slide show).
I saw this on display at BrickCON 2010 in Seattle. I’ve looked through your blog for a method to purchase this creation from you, and I saw you hadn’t worked out a selling method yet. I was wondering if you have since found a method that works best for you? I am very interested in purchasing this set or instructions/guide on how to build one. Are you interested?
I haven’t made a CAD file (from which instructions can be made) for the Scrambler yet, but I appreciate your interest. I’ll work on it and get back to you shortly.