My Challenge to Make a Marble Run Machine - Honey Dipper

I added a new component to my marble run machine. I want to say that I made it, but actually, my husband made it. I just attached it to the board.
My husband named it the Honey Dipper because it looks like the head of a honey dipper.  It's a cylinder with a spiral groove dug around it. The balls can roll inside the groove.

 

 

Making spiral grooves with a CNC router is quite challenging. I've never tried, but I gave up.
It was also challenging for my husband because he used a new part of the CNC for the first time. The result was excellent. It was done so well that it was hard to believe it was the very first time.
Here's the honey Dipper. It's hung from the bracket, so when the ball comes, it swings a little. 

Looking back on each function of the marble run machine I made, nothing looks similar. I intentionally did it because it would be fun to have various functions. Until today, I could think of design ideas, but it's getting more difficult to think of new functions. I don't want to use a similar design; if so, I have to think of something new. Then, the more I made, the more I ran out of options.

That said, this has happened before, but I've somehow managed it. I believe in my own ability to think of new ideas.
I'm sure I'll come up with something else.

Simple But Fun, "Pop-Up Pirate"

I suddenly remembered a toy that I bought about ten years ago. It is a long-selling toy in Japan called "Pop-Up Pirate", the famous toy maker of Takara Tomy's products. It has been sold since 1975. It is a simple toy, yet it can be enjoyed even by adults.

The components are a pirate head, a barrel and four coloured swords in total 24. To begin with, you insert the pirate's head into the top of the barrel hole and then rotate it as you want. That is all the settings done.

Each player chooses their favourite colour sword and then inserts it into one of the narrow holes on the barrel. Each player takes a turn, sticking their sword into the barrel. The player loses if the head pops out of the barrel when the sword is stabbed.

This game is so much fun for adults and kids. In Japan, it can be used to determine who does a penalty game or if only one person cannot eat something delicious. For example, there are three pieces of cake and one cookie. You can decide in this game who cannot have a delicious cake. On such an occasion, Pop-Up Pirate would be a blast, and everybody's heart would be pounding.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JExT4hGEs2U

Amazingly, such a simple toy can get people so excited. I also wondered how the mechanism works inside. I googled and found some videos explaining the mechanism. I was impressed to watch that. It was a simple mechanism. I respect people who can think of these things.

"Pop-Up Pirate" has all the elements I aim to make: simple mechanism, random movement, and making people have fun. For most people, this is just a toy, yet for me, it is special.

 https://www.amazon.com.au/TOMY-T7028A1-Pop-Up-Pirate/dp/B00000JICB/ref=sr_1_5

A Tiny Eraser Crumb Cleaner

Everyone has something that they cannot get enough of.
In my case, I love mechanical things, and I cannot help watching gears and linkages. To me, there was one thing I wanted for a long time. It was an eraser crumb cleaner. I saw it somewhere in Japan long ago. Since then, I wanted it. This product is undoubtedly my favourite among the items I bought in Japan this time.
Here it is.

Going to Japan this time was the best opportunity to get it.
However, even when I was in Japan, I could not find it in shops, so I searched it on the internet. I found a lot on the internet even though I could not find any at retail shops.

It is a tiny toy-like tool made with plastic. It costs about six dollars.
As it is even that small, it is well-made, and I am impressed.

On one side of the car, there are two tiny gears. As the rear tyres rotate, the smallest gear rotates and transmits power to the larger gear. The larger gear is connected to a zigzag bar. Two tiny brooms are linked to the bar, moving back and forth as the bar rotates. The movement is smooth, and it looks fun to watch.

I am not sure who invented it. At least, I guess that I saw it more than 15 or 20 years ago. It may not be very practical, but I love the idea of it.
I can only make something with timber, so making tiny things like this car is not easy. I wonder if I could someday make a small mechanical toy like this car.

Japan After 12 and A Half Years

I was travelling to Japan earlier this month and returned to Australia recently. It was my first time in Japan in 12 and a half years.

Shinjuku, Tokyo

Since I hadn't been to Japan for a long time, I felt like I was in a time machine because the scenery I had gotten used to had changed dramatically. Buildings I knew had gone and been replaced by new ones. Unbelievably, I was lost when I went to a railway station that I should have known well.

Tokyo had many foreign tourists because it was the right time to see cherry blossoms. 

 

While in Japan, I caught up with my friends and cousins and had wonderful times. 

 

 

 

It was a great pleasure to have authentic sushi without mayonnaise, fried prawns and chicken, or cream cheese.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here are the pictures of cherry blossoms around the moat of the Imperial Palace.

 

Around the moat of Imperial Palace

I had a place to visit this time. It was the Taro Okamoto Memorial Museum.

https://taro-okamoto.or.jp/en/

 

Taro Okamoto 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tar%C5%8D_Okamoto

 

 

 

I also wanted to visit the Yayoi Kusama Museum, but I did not know I should have booked beforehand, so I could not go. If you want to see it, do not forget to book online. 

 

Yayoi Kusama Museum

https://yayoikusamamuseum.jp/en/home/



 

 

 

 

 

I visited the Marunouchi district, just next to the imperial palace.

It is the biggest financial district in Japan, and the scenery has changed here, too. I remember many stone buildings, but now they are replaced by glass-surface buildings.

I am interested in buildings and visited the State Guest House Akasaka Palace. It was amazingly gorgeous. However, pictures are not allowed inside the palace. This place is worth a visit, but you should book. Security is very tight, and there are airport-like luggage checks.

https://www.geihinkan.go.jp/en/akasaka/

 

I accidentally saw a huge marble run machine at the National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation. There was no particularly new mechanism, but I was overwhelmed by the sheer enormity.

https://www.miraikan.jst.go.jp/en/

 

I lived in Yokohama long ago. It has a harbour, and in the old days, when people couldn't travel by plane, they used to go abroad by passenger ship from here. Now, Yokohama is one of the most popular tourist areas. 

Yokohama

For puzzle lovers, there is one place you should remember. It is called HANDS, and its former name was Tokyu Hands.

 

As seen from the shop's motto 'Let's get excited with your hands', it is a fun shop for people who like to make things. I think the shop lost its previous appeal a little. The economic recession might have had an impact. 

 

However, HANDS is still a fun place for me. There are many kits, tools, and materials to make marble-run machines. 

 

Oh, yes, marble run machine. It has been a long time since I stopped making it, and it is time to start producing it again. It will probably take a long time to complete, but please look forward to it.

I Know It's Not Scientific, But ...

Haven't you ever experienced something that doesn't make total sense? For example, you remember putting your mobile phone on the bench in the kitchen and later finding it in the living room. Your memory might be mistaken, or there might be another possibility.

As a science lover, I don't believe in unscientific phenomena. However, that idea sometimes wavers when I experience something that I cannot figure out directly.

I've experienced something strange long ago.
It was the night I was alone at home. My parents were at the hospital where my grandfather was admitted because they got a call that his condition had changed. I didn't know at the time that my grandfather's life was in danger, and I watched the TV at home. The house I lived in was my grandfather's before. He'd lived there for a long time but moved to a new house a few years ago. The house had a back door in the kitchen. It was convenient rather than the front door, so only family members used it.

I was in the living room that night and heard somebody knock on the back door. It was 21:50; I didn't expect a visitor. I was surprised and answered, "Who is it?" Nobody answered. It was very strange. I didn't open the door and stood there for about tens of seconds with caution. Nothing happened then, so I went back to the living room.

Three or four minutes later, I heard the knocking again.

Knock knock ...

I was scared and went to my room on the upper floor. I didn't think it was related to theft or criminal activity because there was a police station just in front of the house, and police officers were always there. It wasn't a good location for thefts; to begin with, crime rates were low. I was curious about what had happened, but unknowingly, I fell asleep.

My parents were at the dining table the following day when I got up. Then they told me that my grandfather passed away last night. It was 21:50.

21:50!

When I heard the time, I was astonished. At precisely the same time, someone knocked on the back door. I was very sure that I listened to the hitting two times. Then, what were they? I went outside the back door to see if any tree branches were spreading toward it. There was nothing around to hit the door. Like a detective, I walked around the door, and there was nothing.

I told myself, "It cannot be! There must have been some reason."
I considered a lot but couldn't find any reason for hearing the sound. If so, there's only one left; it's my mistake. It wasn't easy to be convinced, but I had to admit this. I now think the knocking was my illusion.

These kinds of stories are relatively common around me. Is Japan a treasure trove of such stories? Of course, some people believe in ghosts while others do not.
I want to know how scientists can convince themselves if they experience such a thing.

I would rather believe my grandfather visited me to say "hello." That would make for a more dreamy story. 

Thank you for reading this post to the end, which didn't turn out to be a dream-filled, genial story.