Rolling ball sculpture - #56 detail of spiral

[TViPx]

Anyone else notice it skips 0:11?

[PinMinCentral]

Do you have anything for under 300 $ ? i am looking into these beautiful desings....

[TheFatdemon2]

imagine if this was a roller coaster

[TamoanBoy]

dont they use these in gumball machines?

[motleymdg]

@TamoanBoy Something like this, yes. But not nearly as nice and smooth. In the future I will be building Coin-op machines, no gumballs though. Too messy, and the gumballs are not very round - so the tracks have to be overly simplified.

[DudeGuyShow]

@motleymdg Lol just put a marble in there and make it drop the same kind of gumball when its at the end of its run :P

[TheSprice17]

NICEEEE!!!! please check out my rube goldbergs and sub

[InfroLife]

It's an ancient Collider

[xjessr0bins0n]

is this in the philadelphia airport next to baggage claim?

[memorial19]

they should make a bigger version..a marble bigger than your fist..and everything is bigger..

[zunitproductions]

IM with you matthew

[matthew11174]

i really want to make these, but im only 13, and i dont have the time or money to make one :(

[terryeddyterry]

@matthew11174 so am i

[cptnsmelly]

I wonder if it would be possible to curve the end piece up to the top again so that it uses the spiral as momentum and just keeps going. I mean, you'd obviously have to take into account the forces of friction, gravity, and wind resistance, but I think it'd be possible to keep it going for quite some time.... It'd be a cool experiment to try.

[motleymdg]

The marble just loses too much energy on it's way down, especially on something that's 3ft tall. BUT...I have seen where someone used the energy of the marble when it reaches the botton of the run to release another marble at the top. With a long row of marbles queued up you could keep it going for 30 minutes or more... : )

[ymidt]

awesome work! looks like much fun, and I'd like to try to make one. seems to be heavy guage copper ground wire. how do you get the wire curves so smooth?

thanks,

-- David

[motleymdg]

I use 1/8" stainless steel wire, TIG welded. All curves are bent by hand - except for the tight spirals as on the helical lift.

[ymidt]

ah, you're way too advanced for my starting point! I'm going to try with heavy copper wire first. If I really get into this I guess I'll have an excuse to learn welding...

[motleymdg]

Try my "how to" on my website to get you started. rollingballsculpture (dot) com/HTM-RBS.htm

[rejoycement]

i use a soldering iron, is that ok?

[hswc2121]

hows that an illusion?

[motleymdg]

An illusion? No, I never said that. It is very real.

[lightninghurricane20]

There is a video I watched before this and it was kind of the same. It said that was an illusion. (It was just sideways) >_>

[av8rtrb]

I love the effect of all those marbles going down the spiral at once!