Just finished this marble machine which is made out of maple, a little walnut, canary and blood woods. It was a fun project, took about 2 weeks, and no plans. I did use a CNC to cut the track. It has two lift mechanisms, a big 9" gear and a marble pump to feed marbles to the stair case. Retirement has been a lot of fun so far! You can see a video of it running here:
https://masterwoodcreations.com/marble-machines
That is pretty cool. Welcome.
Thanks,
John
Love those things! Good work.
Awesome work. Thanks for the link to the video.
Very nice work, great detail
Very cool. Would cutting the track without a CNC be feasible? I can't visualize how that would work.
Without a CNC, I suspect a core box bit in a router and then lots of mitering, hand-planing or steam bending would be in order.
If a slot isn’t perfectly formed in the curve, a marble is still going to go, albeit slower.
I forgot: that’s really cool!
Thanks everyone! You could cut the track on a router table as long as you use a template. For the CNC, I can cut 4 straight tracks using a 1/4"d router bit on a board 12" long, leaving enough space in-between to cut out with a bandsaw. As I start deciding how I want this thing to go, I can cut custom curves easily with the CNC. I included 2 screen shots for the cutting of the straight and curvy pieces. The software I use is VCarve.
Kwel! You should send that in and I bet they put it in their newsletter.