I was just reminded of my Magnificent Mesmerizing Magnetic Modular Marble Madness blog (was that really four years ago?).
The thing that reminded me of the aforementioned blog was looking at the video of the Marble Machine at Philadelphia Airport.
The problem with YouTube is that one video leads to another. For example, the first video lead me to a related Audio Kinetic Sculpture offering in which the rolling balls trigger a cornucopia of sounds.
I’ve long wanted to build my own marble mechanism, but I didn’t know where to start. Also, given a choice, rather than build the 10-foot-square behemoth of my dreams, it would probably be more practical to work on a tabletop construction.
It was while looking at the video links sent to me by my chum Rick Curl—as documented in my earlier World’s Simplest Electric Train blog—that my eye was caught by a How to Make a STEEL MARBLE TRACK with Basic Tools—Step-by-Step Guide video.
In turn, this led me to the Making a WIND-UP Marble Machine video by the same author, my new hero, Daniel de Bruin.
The awesome thing about these machines is that you are limited only by your imagination, and I’ve got a GREAT imagination (I often imagine that I’m clever, handsome, and witty, for example, and that’s not something most people find easy to do).
Also, there are myriad ideas to be found on the interweb. For example, Ed’s Choice Rolling Ball Sculpture sparked lots of ideas in my now overheating noggin.
I think I’d prefer to use colored glass marbles rather than steel ball bearings but… I could be tempted each way. Also, in the same way that the Audio Kinetic Sculpture above generated sounds, we could also get the rolling balls to trigger multi-colored light-emitting diodes (LEDs).
The world truly is our lobster (or crustacean of your choice). I think the trick would be to adopt a modular approach at first—building short runs and curves and special effects—and then melding them all together (making modifications and adding extra bits as required) to create a super-cool desktop rolling ball artifact.
One thing that would be rather cool would be to collaborate over the interweb with a group of like-minded folks, each of us conceiving cunning concepts and creating corresponding constructions, with everyone sharing their plans and videos.
What say you? Would you be interested in being part of such a collaboration? Also, are you aware of any related YouTube videos you’d care to share with the rest of us?
Those marble machines are beautiful, fascinating, and fun to watch, but they serve no useful purpose. Look here: https://youtu.be/IvUU8joBb1Q for an interesting marble machine that plays music. Note that the video is old, and there are more recent iterations of Wintergatan’s Marble Machine”. When you build your marble machine I challenge you to have it do something useful.
I always loved Wintergatan’s Marble Machines — but I really would like to build something like the mechanisms in Animusic’s Pipe Dreams https://youtu.be/HmoUSSVSV7I?si=_BdiroklWhP644l5
Note that Intel actually build a small version of this: https://youtu.be/E4hjx3_A-cw?si=5dLpEqGaLqPIWEZZ&t=70
OK- You’ve done it again. I’m down another rabbit hole. It’s not technically “marbles”, and it is animated rather than real, but my previous link reminded me of this oldie: https://youtu.be/hyCIpKAIFyo
I was working through your comments in order — I just posted a link in my earlier comment to a re-rendered 4K video of this masterpiece.
Well, get to it Max! We expect a video of a working model this time next week!!
Hi David — imagine if you and I lived next to each other — we could build one of these while our wives hung out together.
https://visit.houseofmarbles.com/
O-M-G I want to go!!!
The restaurant is nice too and the glassworks is worth a visit. Bovey Tracey is a pleasant Devon town. Next time you are in the U.K.!
Like there’s any chance my mom will let me out of her sight LOL
I just found this brilliant offering: https://youtu.be/PDZaQDJoz0Q?si=Dsm1A0GHb1WAUNIA
Here’s another one https://youtu.be/Lu-cDx74rQE?si=arBV6MD1FeW2kNnn
Would you be interested in being part of such a collaboration?
To paraphrase Yogi Berra, exclude me in!
As my first retirement project I worked on an antique clock, changing the gubbins (as little as possible) to make it run as accurately as a modern wristwatch. I wrote about it here
https://circuitcellar.com/research-design-hub/projects/antique-clock-accuracy-project-reloaded/
Once finished I looked around for another project. Years ago, my cousin had a gravitram (aka marble run) clock, where the time was displayed by balls on 4 beams, the number of balls representing each digit of the time. I thought I should make a gravitram clock, although there would be way more electronics than balancing, since I doubt my abilities for such mechanical delicacies. I intend to get steel balls running inside transparent PETG tubing. It is possible to bend the tubing with a heat gun (with some care) although I am still some time away from attempting this.
My first stage was to figure out how to raise a ball about 18″ into the air. For some reason I eschewed the traditional approaches like a long threaded rod or a form of Ferris wheel. Originally I wanted a rail gun to launch the ball, but I quickly gave up and looked at a long stroke solenoid. There is a short move on Dropbox (https://bit.ly/4an5eNZ ) of its operation (I think you must be registered with Dropbox to view). The arrangement would not launch the ball high enough.
So I looked for an alternative. Since I worked on the specs of the Canadarm 2 (the robotic arm on the ISS) and there is a great “coolness” factor for my grandchilren, I proceeded withacquiring the largest robotic arm I could find.
This link (https://bit.ly/4an4rwy ) shows my proof of concept. I am not convinced of the repeatability when power is cycled and crashing into obstacles, which happens frequently in development.. As you will see at the end some balls were dropped, although there were many better test runs. If nothing else my grandkids (6 and 3.5 years old) had a whale of a time feeding the balls into the tube.
I am moving onto the next step which means rebuilding into the final model (I hope). It’s going slowly as I make different parts in #D printing and laser cutting at my local makerspace.
I joined the masses and I am building the controller with an Arduino Zero especially since it has an on-board debugger. I also wrote about that (https://circuitcellar.com/research-design-hub/basics-of-design/evaluation-of-debugger-on-arduino-ide-v2-0-4/ ). Never a great fan of the Arduino, I am becoming less enamoured as the project progresses especially since Arduino does not appear to be putting any effort in correcting the issues with the debugger..
A few weeks ago I took my grandchildren to the Ontario Science Centre where they have a gravitram looking and sounding a lot like the one at PHL airport. Distributed around the device are several points where balls end up at the end of the run. Kids of all ages can raise the balls and then launch them on their way.
The gravitram is away from the exhibits, next to one of the cafeterias.Between screaming kids (including my granddaughter’s meltdown) and the bongs and clangs of the machine it was hardly a place to sit down and unwind. After running after the kids for 3 hours, I was too tired to snap photos. Next time.
Incidentally, this is a movie of a kind of gravitram clock. Taken at the British Museum.https://bit.ly/3Ts73T2