Making The Marble Run Machine - 1

I had been struggling with the idea of the marble run. As I have written in the blog on January 2022, I was planning to add an optical illusion. I still have not given up on the idea. However, before I started making the optical illusion, I thought I should decide on the design of the first part of the marble run. It is a lifting structure of the starting point of the marble run.

 

 

I wanted to make a giant marble run, which meant I needed to make a structure that could lift tiny balls efficiently from the bottom to the top of the marble run. There are several common types of systems to raise the balls; a rotating disk with holes, two staircases moving up and down, a rotating spiral rod, a method of moving a rod with weights and making a ball fly. I wanted to use a new idea, but what I thought of was not good enough to lift the balls from the lower place to the top. Therefore, I have decided to use a chain. I believe a chain is one of the most efficient and easiest methods to lift the ball.

Having said that, I have never made a chain and knew nothing about chains. Luckily, I have an excellent person to ask. Juno used to make racing bikes at work long ago, so he knows about chains. I drew some pictures of chains that I believed could work, and he advised me. I drew gears to carry the chain too. I made sure whether those chains and gears worked well. Here is the picture that I drew.

What I was afraid of the most of was the chain coming off the gears. With the advice of Juno, I drew one of two parts of the chains wider. The light-coloured rectangular part should not have to have that width, but it is made wider to be secured.

 

The most time-consuming part of making a chain is making each link. It is a lot of work to make them by hand. So, I made data using 3D software and read the data with CamBam CNC software. For this kind of job, the CNC router is a perfect machine.

Juno showed me several off-cuts. I have chosen two timbers; one is Silver Ash, and the other was not certain, but probably Utile or Queensland Maple. If there was no use for the off-cuts, I thought I could have cut those links as much as I could. Maybe I could make use of them. Then, what I got were so many links! I was going to make one chain, but eventually, I could make two chains.

These pictures below show connecting each link. I glued cut bamboo barbecue skewers with glue. This work was quite fun. Looking at the chain that is getting longer is pleasant. 

 

Here they are. These are the chains I have made this time. They seem to work well.

 

This was only just the beginning of making the marble run. I am going to design the next step. I will write about the work as it progresses.
See you next time!