Big Build: Ferris Wheel -- One step at a time!

Yesterday, I began another massive build. One of my friends on Facebook tagged me in a photo of a giant Ferris Wheel. (You see, I get tagged in all sorts of cool K'nex stuff because, well... because I love knex and enjoy building with them!) So, I decided I would take on a similar build. I will attempt to post updates every now and again so you can see how I am progressing!

Here are the two sides to the inner circle of the Ferris wheel. In order to hold up a wheel that is over 5 or 6 feet tall, you need to start with a good center. Each side is comprised of three white connectors with 8 green/black tiny rods, 8 orange/brown connectors, and with 8 grey/black/orange long rods per white connector (24 of each piece per Ferris wheel side). I used greys for one connector, blacks for another, and oranges for the third so you could sort of get an idea of what was going on. The outer ring here is made from 48 navy connectors and 48 green rods per side (because I lack sorely in white connectors, I often use navy ones instead).

I connected the long rods to every other navy connector, and the inner ring was somewhat contorted due to the differing angles of the rods. Once I snapped a grey rod into every other pair of navys, though, it straightened out. The red connectors and rods (and green rods) just ensure a little more stability.

It did take me several tries to get this right, but it seems like a good infrastructure.

All in all, I estimate that the very innermost ring of the Ferris wheel is about 700 pieces.