Help, building a one man gate?

[TwoWheelTony]

I spent a lot of time looking over the B & B gates at the track this weekend and noticed that for $625 bones you do not get that much. Construction seemed a little lacking, welds were quite poor, and the materials used were not heavy-duty. So I spent a few hours on Monday building another Stumpy gate with ET. Overall am very happy with the gate, the mech works as expected and ET has already picked up balancing a bit better (the point) all for around $50.00. Now I want to add a ABA/UCI cadence system to gate. I found the small box B & B was selling for $600.00 from the manufacturer for $325.00 http://www.cartessa.com/AGC4PFLY.pdf. If I buy this box I will still need a magnetic release mechanism for the gate. So to the question finally. Does anyone have experience with building or working with a magnetic release? Oh, ET won his class on Sunday and placed 2nd on Saturday.

[joker75]

I don't know if he is on here, but Mickey Vreins has put some magnetic releases together for pretty cheap. Look for him at Rad Canyon or look him up on facebook. I'm sure he would be more than happy to help.

[TwoWheelTony]

Here is a photo of the Stumpy gate ET and I built. Should have electronics and magnet figured out soon.



Tony

[billyschuler]

when you guys get it dialed in with the release and cadence, let me know id like to get one ...

[TwoWheelTony]

New iteration:

To mount the magnet I built a mechanical arm that should take some weight off the magnetic release. Also, I got the TARA unit today. The build and finish are impressive for $325.00, it seems like they put some work into it. Waiting on the electromagnet from Mcmaster-Carr. I think I am going to weld up a final gate and just consider this a prototype.

[TwoWheelTony]

After some playing around I realized that I bought the wrong magnet. I need at least 300 lbs. to hod the gate. Works good now but need to have it hold if you hit it hard (OTB). I bought a welder a few days ago and have started learning something new. I am going to buy some raw materials next week and start welding up the next version. Here are a few pics.

http://gallery.me.com/tonysams/100003/Gate%20video
http://gallery.me.com/tonysams/100003/Magnet
http://gallery.me.com/tonysams/100003/Gate%20down


Tony

[scauley]

Tony,

What magnet did you end up using? Where did you get it? What magnet did you have issues with? I've been looking at the 5698K216 180 lb. round magnet from McMaster-Carr. That would probably be ok for my nine year old, but I'm 200 lbs. Any details you can offer from your experience would be welcomed.

Thanks!
Shane