Sunday, February 06, 2011

Wooden marble machine with pretty ring gear lift

I spotted this last week over at the excellent blog called Spiel und Kunst mit Mechanik.

This beautiful machine made by Roland Waters is well-document in the video shown here. The number of different mechanisms packed into such small space is extraordinary. The gear-based ring elevator is amazing, as is the rate of feed.

From the YouTube description:
This is intended to be an awkward, overly complicated mechanism for the sole purpose of entertainment and to make noise in the process. People seem to enjoy watching gears turn and marbles running around in circles making noise. There are 16 gears hand-cut from 1/2" Baltic Birch plywood driven by an electric gear reduction motor.

Here's the original post from Spiel und Kunst mit Mechanik.


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2 Comments:

Anonymous Falk Keuten said...

Oh,thanks for the kindly appreciation. I will do my best for new interesting finds !
Greets Falk

February 6, 2011 at 2:08 PM  
Blogger Jordon Ong said...

Actually there are more lifts, so why don't read about them all?
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Lifts of a marble

Let's go through the lifts of a marble machine. Here are some of the more common lifts
Helix lift. Also known as the 'professional' lift, it is an Archimedes screw that lift marbles instead of water. A spiral lift and a pole in between, it can lift marbles easily if turned the right direction! Most people attach a motor to the bottom.
Chain Lift. Not so popular, chain lifts are very much like the bicycle chain - two gears stretching one chain, with a force turning the gear. However, unlike the bicycle chain, some chain units have hooks to lift those marbles!
Circle lift. Not so good, it lift marbles in holes in a circle. The holes are drilled downwards and the top half of the lift is covered! when it reaches the top, the marble just drop down onto the track!
Here are more of the less common ones.
Stair lift. Really, nice to watch! the steps slope towards the next step! There are two pairs of stairs. One inside the other. One pair goes up and down while the other stay still.
Pump lift. Well, the pump lift is a hollow tube and a mechanism that pushes it up. First, the mechanism block the bottom hole of the tube and let the marbles fall down a hole in the mechanism. second, the mechanism move to the tube and pushes the marble up the tube and move back to the track end.
Lift. a bit like the stair lift, I'll show you how it operates. There are two sections of the lift, really symmetrical. When the marble is let into the lift, one section rise up and tip the marble into the other section. The other section does the same. Read more at http://marblemmachines.blogspot.com/ !

February 8, 2011 at 6:24 AM  

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