Wooden Marble Roller Machine


mtairymd

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I saw a picture of marble machine years ago and I finally got around to trying to make my own. I seriously had doubts about getting it working; so I didn’t want to invest money in nice wood. Therefore, besides the dowels, everything you see was made from a scrap 2×4.

As expected, it was a challenge to get mechanism worked out. I had to remake the cup and adjust the pivot point but I eventually got it working as shown in video.

Build Instructions: https://www.instructables.com/id/Wooden-Marble-Roller-Machine/

In Action: https://youtu.be/sel0w0gXGQk

 

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10 hours ago, Brendon_t said:

Yeah without doing the math, there looks to be quite a bit of trial and error fitting. How many attempts to get the pivot hole right?

I only had to move the pivot point once because I wasn't paying attention.  The main issue I had was getting the force correct and the slop out of the pivot joint.  I made the cup larger and added thicker washers which seemed to help.   The video was on the pre-tuned version.  It took a few takes to get clean shots :).  

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4 hours ago, wdwerker said:

Reminds me of the "Drinking Bird " desktop toy.  

I bet accuracy is crucial to get all the parts to work together.

Yes, accuracy/alignment is the key to this machine.  I have one of those drinking birds :)

4 hours ago, mat60 said:

Fun to build I bet. Thanks

Thanks.  Yes, it was a fun project.

5 hours ago, K Cooper said:

That’s pretty cool. Thanks for sharing. 

Thank you

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