Jessica S.

Making this roller coaster project had its ups and downs. Things like finding the materials and creating a good design was easy. My Dad had most of the tools I needed and materials were not hard to find at Lowe's. Drilling the holes in the base was fun for me because I got to use the drill for the first time. After I glued the wooden dowels into the base, using Gorilla glue, and letting it dry overnight, I began to build the design I had created. It was then that I came across a few problems. The polythene tubing I had bought had a lot of kinks in it and would not let the ballbearing go through in certain places. I tried heating out the kinks with a hair drier but it didn't make much difference. Later on, after letting it sit for a while to relax the tubing it began to do what I wanted it to do. The design had to be changed a little because of sizing and getting the ballbearing through to the end of the roller coaster would have been impossible if I had the second hill. I took out the second hill and made the loop smaller. The way the loop went around needed to be changed so instead of taping it down I had to let one side stick out. After every change I made I tested it three times to make sure it would work and when I eventually found a good design I taped it down. The labeling was not hard and did not take very long. All that was left to do then was to copy the key, and tape it and my name onto the base. Even though making this roller coaster was hard I still had a blast doing it.