Building Marble Machine 2

Building Marble Machine 2

I hadn't actually planned on building a second marble machine, but in March 2000 I had an idea for building a better marble elevating device, plus I had enough time on my hand to actually build a machine using this principle. And this is the machine I built...

What inspired me to play with building a marble machine again was the idea for a marble elevating wheel, which would be very unlikely to jam.

 

Skipping on down...

Power source

Originally I was planning on motorizing this machine, just like Marble Machine 1. Experimenting with just the big wheels, I realized that with a smaller gear on the drive shaft, it would be just the right speed for hand cranking. This marble machine is very efficient, so it's fun to crank and surprisingly easy given how loud the machine is. Also, a hand crank adds a neat interactive element to the machine. Whenever I show it to people, they very much enjoy cranking it, and keep on cranking it. Its just so much fun and so fascinating to watch the chaos of marbles tumbling and falling. It holds kids attention for a long time, even though it's not that interactive a toy. 34 second video of marble machine 2 in action: The sound of Marble Machine 2. (160k mp3) Related links: More pictures of marble machine 2. Marble Machines Insane contraptions Woodgears.ca - my woodworking website To my Home page

Go there and see All of the Pics and read how he built it...
http://www.sentex.net/~mwandel/marbles/machine2.html

Don