Update: June 15

Casings?

No.......

These! : http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v175/Dragster420/4040.jpg

LOL - yes. Anchor bolts.

I still like footer rods. Reminds me of pretzels.

Man, did you see the red hose in that picture? Clearly, this amounts to a 500ft inverted coaster with a top hat. ;) I think I covered all of the rumors from different threads.

Nice udpdate.

Coastern3rd said:
^no, but the ones in the foreground of this photo are. They are square and you can see that the concrete has a worn look.

http://www.pointbuzz.com/Gallery.aspx?i=4061

Makes me wonder more when I look at that picture, because it just makes you think, they must be keeping that station. Maybe they are using those supports for the train to pull out slowly kinda the way Magnum does before it actually goes up the hill.

TTD 120mph said:

e x i t english said:
LOL at "footer rods" :D

If you cover them with salt could you eat them like pretzels?

I think rebar is the word you're looking for.

By the way I charge by the letter ;)

LOL
I was thinking rebar but rebar is just what the footer frame is made up frame. The word was anchor bolts......I think.:P

These: http://www.pointbuzz.com/Gallery.aspx?i=4040

Close, Since the rods do not have a head, either socket head or hex head they are not "bolts". The proper term would be threaded rod stock, my guess would be a 1 1/2" - 8 thread size.

So they thread them some time before the supports are erected?

Shawn

I also wonder about those square footers. I've heard so many theories about them. Actually, the whole project is facinating. This is really the first large scale CP project that us people who aren't "in the know" have been able to follow from the beginning.

TTD 120mph said:
So they thread them some time before the supports are erected?

Yes, threaded rod stock normally comes in 10' sections when bought from a supplier and are cut to length by the consumer.

In this case due to the large amount of stock needed that seem to be the same length the consumer probably had the steel company pre-cut the stock for a nominal fee.

Those rods will be threaded (if they are not already) using a threading die when they are ready to put the supports up. Then the supports will be fitted, and the nuts torqued down to the specified amount. After this they will cut the extra of that bar off to either make it flush with the top of the nut or leave an inch extra on, depending on how they want to do it. (im not sure what the practice has been on intamins last few) Then they will mark a black line down the nut and on to the support creatign one continuous line. This way, if a nut works itself loose due to vibration of the support or whatnot, maintenence will easily be able to see that the nut has slipped during one of their visual checks of the ride and it will be torqued back down to the correct tightness. Thats the support process in a nutshell.

The rods are threaded, if you look here http://www.pointbuzz.com/gallery.aspx?i=3978 you can see the bolts that are attached. I cant find the picture but I know I took one of a pile of the anchor rods before they were set in concrete and they have bolts on both the top and bottom of the rod. Steve, do you think they will still cut them again and rethread them? I was wondering if anyone saw them do that same thing on MF? Either way it is pretty cool to watch the construction process.... By the end we should all be able to build our own coasters.... ;)

Here is a better picture of the anchors with the bolts still threaded on:

http://www.pointbuzz.com/Gallery.aspx?i=3358 *** Edited 6/20/2006 3:36:27 AM UTC by Aaron_toledo***

I am %99 sure that they will not use those crappy old undersized footers for any part of a new multi million dollar coaster. Go and take a look at them in person, not very impressive.

The square footers you have pictured do not look like they will be for the ride. They are completely different than all the other footers. Either for a sign, or a photo spot, or maybe for a path or somethign for maintenence. They look alot like the old white water footings coming out of the station actually. The bars, if theyre already threaded (which it seems they are) will be sufficiently threaded to the final length saving the time it would take to thread every single one. Those bars are likely threaded down half of the part that you see sticking out. For things like these where you dont know what the exact final length will end up needing to be (depending on how deep the footer is, how deep the bar is placed into the footer and other factors) the bars will be made longer than needed to make sure they will get the job done. It is much better to have it long and trim it, than to have it too short and have to bust apart and repour an entire footer. The reason they trim them is twofold. 1 to keep it safe, youd rather have someone fall on a larger nut than a skinnier threaded bar sticking straight up, and 2 for asthetics. It just looks better that way. Here are the best pictures i could find from Dragster's construction showing that the rods were trimmed down.

Before: (note the room between the supports and the footers and the distance the nuts will have to be tightened down) http://www.pointbuzz.com/Gallery.aspx?i=1569

After: (note how just a very tiny bit of the threaded rod is sticking out the top) http://www.pointbuzz.com/Gallery.aspx?i=1067

The rods are threaded as shipped to the site. I don't even know how they'd go about creating threads on bar stock in the field. Its not like you can do this with a chisel and a hammer, for crying out loud.

It is quite simple you just use a threading die. Its a round cylinder that has carbide, or hardened tool steel teeth on the inside. You place it on the top and turn it down the bar with a long handle. The theeth bite into the outside of the bar and are arranged so both the metal chips can fall out and that the teeth follow the spiral pattern. But yes i think weve already established that these rods are already threaded so why worry about it? http://www.lonestaronline.com/fullsize_thumbs1/834271540.jpg