Marble Machine - Ring Gear Lift - Figure 8 Transfer - Vortex Funnel

[frank3manuel]

Fascinating!

[SebiTimeWaster]

telephone! ... telephone! ... answer the f***ing phone!

[vroup]

@SebiTimeWaster Exactly!!! I want this ringtone as a ringtone!

[RonaldWalters47]

Woodgears.ca has information on marble machines. How to make plywood gears is under “Wooden Machines and Contraptions” also a “Gear Template Generator”. Play around with the gear template generator to find a combination that will work for you.

As far as plans for my marble machine… there weren’t any. Just designed it in my head and built it little by little. There is a construction article at woodgears.ca under “Reader Projects”.

Thanks for the questions. Please subscribe to my channel!

[wselzler]

How does a person get the plan to build one?

[canubelieve]

This is the coolest thing I have ever seen.

[kdc43]

It sorta like a society or a factory, people running around keeping the production gears going.

[StealaMaDrizzle89]

Keep a Blonde occupied for the day....

[rparker069]

good god man make a kit!

[RonaldWalters47]

It is powered by an electric motor. My criteria was, it had to run 24 hours per day for 7 days without a marble escapee before I was satisfied with everything.

[Happyskateboarding]

this is amazing! how long does it work for before stopping?!

[Happyskateboarding]

@Happyskateboarding nevermind, i just read a comment about how its powered by a motor. but hey still amazing

[Yeitunes]

infinito estres ^^

[Razzer1356]

Let's see awesome , great , amazing , cool . Yeah all that and more . Love it .

[Mawerik024]

I'm very high now.

[veproject1]

Excellent work

[jerbearthegr8one]

Sounds like a busy office.

[RonaldWalters47]

The Marble Machine needs to be level to operate properly. It was not always level in the video because it was rotated on a Lazy Susan. The Marble Machine is loaded with Seventy-Five 5/8” steel bearings and the mass transfer (of all those bearings moving around, shifting back and forth) constantly shook the whole thing while it was on the Lazy Susan. On a solid level surface, the Divide By 3 operates perfectly over 95% of the time. Hard to beat 95% reliability in a marble machine.

[cmanmaxwell]

1:52 the balls get stuck on the "divide by 3" area. Can you fix that?

[achrine]

itcan predict the future

[pumkinvine]

That's awesome dude.

[rachaelcabc123]

My son is autistic and loves marble machines. He would soooo geek out over this! Brilliant!

[riquiolux]

Hehehehe...I supposed that, the complexity is evident, yes sir!.... congratulations again for this wonderful piece of tech and art

[riquiolux]

Beautiful....this machine is crazy awesome!.... amazing !!!!!

can i buy this little marvel?...how much?

[RonaldWalters47]

@riquiolux Thank you for your comments. YouTube initially removed your comments as spam. Sorry about that! I’m glad you enjoy watching it. This thing is bigger than you might think. It is 19 inches square, 30 inches tall and weighs over 30 pounds. It is the only one that exists. I worked on it for over 9 months so it would be very expensive even if I wanted to sell it, which I do not (at this time anyway). Best regards!

[Enigma758]

Anyone who dislikes this is an idiot!

[AnTHoNyB1125]

i wanna buy it. how much?

[PublicVIDE0]

wanna make me one?

[PublicVIDE0]

what powers it?

[RonaldWalters47]

@PublicVIDE0 On eBay – Search for: “Brevel Model 703 Small Reduction Gear Motor” sold by “bestboxman”. This is a shaded pole motor 183:1 gear reduction with a 19 RPM shaft speed. Very powerful little motor and much stronger than what was required by this marble machine.

[richardphelan17]

This is a beautiful piece of engineering! Almost entrancing to watch :)

[FEGL2202]

All I've got to say is: wow.

[xXmiomoXx]

Watch out, a creeper could come along and blow the the entire thing.

[1kera]

I can watch this for hours

[EiKanProductions]

Do you have a link to the purchase of the plans for this marvelous toy? This is fantastic! I gotta make one! I gotta make one!

[lifeboy6969]

wonderfull,,,,to me its mechanical model of microcontroller basic functions,,,that runns with clock timers, and intruppts....

[stevenan93]

How long did it take to complete this marvelous contraption?

[RonaldWalters47]

@stevenan93 I worked on this for over 6 months, building one section and debugging it until it worked reliably, then moving on to the next section. The objective was to have zero escapees. I got tired of chasing marbles (bearings) all over the shop.

[wakaphwap]

thumbs up if you could watch this all day...

[lollygoober]

ARE YOU A WIZARD?

[stop4stuff]

What a wonderful mechanism and great craftmanship!

[Boredclub2ndgen]

Hahahahahahahahaha! I LOVE this!

[Gobbledygooks1979]

I want one

[akandesorewa]

This is Great!!

[ccricers]

It's almost like animusic. Just add more instruments!

[Xzycko]

I want one!

[JonasClark]

Absolutely wonderful! I can watch any sort of ball machine for an hour without getting bored. Perhaps someday I'll get around to building one; my biggest hurdle is finding 110v. AC motors with a slow, geared output that has a long shaft.

[RonaldWalters47]

@JonasClark Brevel Model 703 Small Reduction Gear Motor” sold by “bestboxman” on eBay. This is a shaded pole motor 183:1 gear reduction with a 19 RPM shaft speed. Very powerful little motor and much stronger than what was required by this marble machine. I then suggest you attach a small fan blade on the armature shaft to keep it cool. You can use a fan blade from a used computer cooling fan.

[JonasClark]

@RonaldWalters47 Much appreciated! Hoping to eventually build a marble machine that runs around an entire room. Think I'll have to use wooden balls for weight. Normally, I love big, sprawling marble races, but this thing is really special, so compact and with its two very different faces, the amazing cluster of gears and the tightly-choreographed ball races that must be examined closely to 'get' everything. Marvelous machine, sir.

[Darkman0198]

If you have the blueprints to it. You could make a bunch and sell them. =D It'd give people something to do. But I bet that would be a lot of work.

[sucodefeto]

why?????????????

[Dansvidania]

It looks like the steampunk equivalent of a zen fountain...

[JapanForSale]

50LightSabersInAPack has nailed it up there. What else can I say?

[armadillozenith]

a beautiful piece! thanks for the highlighting of individual mechanisms.

[antiussentiment]

is this a working model of the International Monetary Fund (with the ball removal disabled)?

LOL.

[TommyPisera]

Excuse me Mr Ronald, will it blend ?

[TheToddy30]

Lovely machine! Must have taken some real skill to make that. Well done!

[50LightSabersInAPack]

This is flipping awesome!!!

[xqspx]

Amazing!

Respect

[RzrCommander]

imagine flipping that upside down. xD

[Celeblos]

WOW, I'd spend hours watching at that machine!

[ZakkSparxx]

I feel like I'm watching Pee-Wee's Playhouse! :D

[E1craZ4life]

Kinda sounds like a twenties telephone operator office.

[nelgyeoz]

awsome

[popnstart]

I could use one of those as a sound machine to help me sleep. Thanks for posting.

[Jingming2000]

how much is that

[virginiaorganbuilder]

I stand in awe. You are the master.

[ddrmaxman]

One of the better marble machine pieces. Very well made!

[PaulFitzZaland]

This is one of the most beautiful little machines/sculptures I think I've seen. Very nice indeed!

[simonvanthoff]

very nice, I really like the 'nature-look' of it, so to speak. It's also funny, with the phone bells and all. Also your lifting device, with the big gears is very well made. I do not have the right machines to make such gears. My compliments!!

[Nazgul8111]

awesome!

[mjcato1]

I'll buy off u how much

[shabbygujjar]

can anyone make it for me? I'll pay them??

[Jlfarming]

Can you buy them how much ... Soo cool

[twilightvengance]

I'm throwing money at the screen and nothing is happening ):

[dazdown]

So Ron. Name your price!

[robotajo]

Every child must have this stuff.

[TheCrackerBrony]

that is literally one of the coolest things i've EVER seen

[MultiAwe123]

Ladies and gentlemen: The infinity machine :D

[jonnda]

Wow that's neat. For some reason the sound it creates makes me think of noisy, busy office.

[RonaldWalters47]

These things can always be improved. The Marble Machine needs to be level to operate properly. It was not always level in the video because it was rotated on a Lazy Susan. The second problem is the Marble Machine is loaded with Seventy-Five 5/8” steel bearings and the mass transfer (of all those bearings moving around, shifting back and forth) constantly shook the whole thing while it was on the Lazy Susan. On a solid level surface, the Divide By 3 operates perfectly over 95% of the time.

[willyme2]

Divide by 3 can be improved by moving the pivot point further down. It's a balancing act with the counterweight on the left and mass on the right. As it pivots, the counterweight moves closer to the pivot point wrt the horizontal axis - reducing leverage. The mass moves away from the pivot point wrt the horizontal axis - increasing leverage. This provides positive feedback and results in a quicker "flip". Just be sure to minimize the amount of wood used - hollow out the bottom if possible.

[diamony123]

WOW...IF THIS WAS A HEADACHE IT WOULD REAL GET UNDER MY SKIN...I ONLY WONDER HOW MUCH WORK OUR CELLS HAS TO DO....GREAT WORK...BUT THOSE MARBLES GOT TO BE TIRED

[CPTFiXtion]

this is freakin awesome! i wish i had the patience to make one lol

[erimol237]

It´s awesome! I want one!!

[RonaldWalters47]

A lot of people do it just for fun. Dream up an idea and then see if you can make it work. Check out woodgears.ca then go to wooden machines and contraptions and look at the very bottom of that page for some more marble machines.

[Allexxx96Reloaded]

Who does this? is it like a hobby? it's pure awesomeness

[adrigambris]

put a laser on it and its a death machine!!

[theyellowk123]

How much $?

[thegenrl]

keep us updated when the wife files for divorce!

[MarciusJV]

Espetacular!!!

[JaXXonDeViL]

great machine ^^ but if the muchine is running you can´t sleep ^^

[OTTO149x]

My God, I am so jealous. I want one of those. I wish I had it together to make one of those.

[freestyleskierdude]

amazing i love it

[freestyleskierdude]

amazing either you made this great or you bought it for a ton of money

[FlameSyber]

3 people lost there marbles last tusday...

[CelticReject]

Whoever made this could not be human!!!

[formulaformula1133]

i want one!

[andmanaila]

super

[Altimadark]

This is a beautiful machine. I don't care what purpose it serves, it's awesome.

[zenniz1992]

The Romans uses this gear system and marbles to calculate their " taxi " fare.

[RonaldWalters47]

Woodgears.ca has information on marble machines. How to make plywood gears is under “Wooden Machines and Contraptions” also a “Gear Template Generator”. Play around with the gear template generator to find a combination that will work for you.

As far as plans for my marble machine… there weren’t any. Just designed it in my head and built it little by little. There is a construction article under “Reader Projects”.

Thanks for the questions. Please subscribe to my channel!

[GMKBCJI]

@RonaldWalters47

While Matt's "Gear Template Generator" is decent, I needed a much better gear generator. And one that I didn't have to buy. I finally found Inkscape had a function that did most of the job. The only problem was Inkscape's function didn't generate a centered hole.

[47mustang]

Love this one i was in a trance listening to the bells and all the other noises that it makes great build. was wondering where you found plans for the design of the smaller gears.would like to make some gears but have no designs to make something that works let me know thanks

[Organgrinder1010]

Far more sophisticated than a plastic set of Marbleworks! Great work!

[RonaldWalters47]

I glued scrap Baltic Birch into rings and then glued the rings together. I do not have a wood lathe. I sanded the outside diameter with my disc sander and the inside shape with my reciprocating spindle sander and "Eye-Balled" the shape. Try spinning a bearing (marble) around the vortex to see if it needs any changes. You want the rotational speed to be maintained (via decreasing diameter) as the marble falls vertically. When I was satisfied with the shape, I glued on the bottom.

[Donswoodshop]

Ronald - Incredible! You are a craftsman....very nice work! How did you make the flowerpot?

[danomanoi]

love the phone bell. It breaks up the the sound which otherwise would sound like a Japanese Pachinco (sp?) parlor sound.

[TheToanduong]

It's more complicated looking than it needs to be

[buttonNZ]

WANT!

[moalanikai]

Really cool! Lots of action. Those balls looked like they were pushing each other out of the way to get on the ride first. What fun! Great video explaining how everything works, too. Aloha.  Clayton

[BigDH28]

THAT IS AWESOME! AMAZING MACHINE AND A NICE BUILD!

[maseofspades007]

WoWzeez!!! i just zoned out for 4:23 seconds. listening to 'dings' and 'dok dok doks'

[roman3of23]

Wow! Fascinating to watch!

[NXTWolf]

A playground for marbles : )

[ekushin]

beautiful.

[disturbed119]

i wish i was one of those balls

[kinmanyuen]

the balls are anxious to get in line

[SnowMonkVX]

This is one of the better ones I've seen on here. All self contained, electrically powered, moderately sized, Large Marble usage, and several different paths, chosen at random.

This is Really Sweet.

Very Nice.

[vanhoot2234]

thats intense

[cybersquare420]

awesome.

[zooblestyx]

This is a thing of supreme beauty.

[Timberkits]

That is quite beautiful, thank you!!

[TerraShock10]

Its pointless, but that is what I ADORE about this machine. I simply love mechanisms and gears and suchlike.

[RonaldWalters47]

On eBay – Search for: “Brevel Model 703 Small Reduction Gear Motor” sold by “bestboxman”. This is a shaded pole motor 183:1 gear reduction with a 19 RPM shaft speed. Very powerful little motor and much stronger than what was required by this marble machine. I then suggest you attach a small fan blade on the armature shaft to keep it cool. You can use a fan blade from a used computer cooling fan.

[skrumbah]

What did you use for the motor?

[RonaldWalters47]

Sorry, I don’t have plans. I think most Marble Machines are singular constructions built on the bench without plans. So much of it is about trial and error and fine-tuning to get everything working at the same time.

Please subscribe to my channel and ask your friends to do the same.

[bluesmanhell]

Hello, great machine, do you have plans for it to sell ?

[brutussmithicus]

genius  :-D

[RonaldWalters47]

Matthias Wandel has a gear template generator for sale and I think (not sure) it will give you a file which is usable with your CNC program. Check out his website woodgears.caxxx (remove the xxx). Baltic Birch Plywood is really good to work with… lots of plies, nearly zero voids and very flat. All of the gears here are ½” Baltic Birch. Smaller gears could be made with ¼” Baltic Birch.

Thank you for your questions.

Please tell your friends about my Channel and ask them to subscribe.

[Nashblackcat]

This reminds me of the fun stuff I had and did as a kid. I have a small CNC now 7x7 and would love to hear your ideas on how to get started with small things.

[RonaldWalters47]

Thank you for your comments.

These take a considerable amount of time to design, build and debug before you have a finished product. I worked on this thing for over 6 months, never intending to sell one. It would be a very expensive item.

The best way is to come up with your own ideas (something new and different) and then build it and make it work. That’s the challenge and the fun part.

Please tell your friends about my Channel and ask them to “Subscribe” as well.

[UnderbellyNZ]

Wow. Magnificent. Incredible work. Also, I want one. how much?

[Sully800]

This is beautiful! Very artfully put together. Your lifting mechanism is a amazing, and most of your down routes are very nice as well!

[RonaldWalters47]

Use a core box bit to route the marble track in straight wood. Try a 15-deg left cut, 15-deg right cut with 15-deg blade tilt.

Aligning the top outside corner and front face of each piece results in a downward curving spiral. Glue together subassemblies of 3 or 4 wedges. Glue the subassemblies together. Wood dowel in the center helps keep it straight. Dremel tool to grind and sand the marble track smooth.

This was my first spiral attempt. Make the first one. You’ll do better next time.

[TomKaren1994]

How did you construct the spiral? GREAT WORK!

[SinjinMcCloud]

Awesome. I want one. :-P

[MrSharps1874]

Have seen machine personnelly , awesome work.

[aerovuelolibre]

Exelente trabajo!!!!!

Saludos desde Argentina

[Cementer100]

Ingenuis

[RonaldWalters47]

I had the idea about using ring gears for the lifting mechanism. Then I worked out the transfer (and timing) between the two ring gears. Next, I had to figure out what to do with 7000 bearings per hour

Thank you for your questions and comments.

Please tell your friends about my channel.

[Synthetic11]

That would take a lot of time to design and build. I would guess many changes to different challenges along the way....

[melder46]

Great work of art!

[kbayern]

Wow. Beautiful.

... filp-flops ... divide-by-12... hmmmmmm, gives me ideas....