My First Challenge - The Lathe

I have been away from making marble runs for a long time, and it is time to start again. 

I made a little part shaped like a trumpet. The function is to catch a ball that jumps out of the looped rail. (I have written about the looped rail in the previous blog post: https://puzzlesense.blogspot.com/2023/02/my-challenge-to-make-marble-run-machine_21.html)

The looped rail looks like a roller coaster, and it is pretty fun to look at. Making a shape-like trumpet requires the use of a lathe.

Well, I wondered what to do. I have never used the lathe to curb wood, so I watched some YouTube videos and learnt how to use it. My husband, Juno, found nice timber. It was New Guinea Walnut. He cut it to a length of about 10 cm (3.9 in) and cut off every four edges, and made it an octagon bar. It was because it should have been many jobs to cut square timber into a cylinder shape.

Juno and I made sure again how to fix the timber on the lathe by watching YouTube videos. Then, set the tool rest, wear the face mask, and we are ready to curb.

In conclusion, it was not as difficult as I imagined. People who are professionals in using lathes might think my way of curbing was not good, but I was happy with the result; at least I could curb the timber in the shape I wanted with no injury.

Here it is, the ball catcher!
I like the grain; it is beautiful.

The next step should be fixing the ball catcher onto the marble run machine board, yet I still need to design the rail connecting with the catcher.
Even though I could not fix the ball catcher to the marble run machine, I could not wait to see catching jumping balls. Therefore, I held the ball catcher with my hand and tried.

Here is the video. It looks good.

All right, let's design the rails after the balls go through the ball catcher.