Project 360 K'nex Ball Machine

K'nex Ball Machine from 2010-2011.
My Magnum Opus.
Word.

Music by Prokofiev - Symphony no.6 in E-flat minor, op.111 - 1. Allegro moderato
Edited by Bernhard Fasenfest
Filmed by David Jaz Meyers
Photography by Yuto Watanabe

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• k'nex
• knex
• ball
• machine
• tower
• contraption
• building
• structure
• complex
• rube
• goldberg
• nerd
• geek
• trainman
• darthtrainman
• tylinski
• collegepleaseloveme

[austron]

What was the transmission I saw at 6:40? What causes it to switch gears?

[Trainman2000]

@austron The ball hits the little switch right before. It switches back by another thing which I forgot to include (but would happen if the ball had taken the other path right after the spiral at 8:34)

[cmlprd]

Does this actually work as a continuous process? I ask because I noticed some shots were of a grey ball, red and white ball, and some of a red ball, with the obvious implication that this is stitched together from multiple runs. Indeed, it even looks like the same shots were used a number of times at different points in the video.

[Trainman2000]

@cmlprd Astute observation. The machine was incredibly finicky (even more so during filming) and so we did splice a lot of it together. My goal for my next machine is for it to be able to run continuously. Always.

[ACDC5968]

Great showman ship

[Sorunome]

Trainman is building? O.o This looks cool anyways!

[keggore1]

good machine but i would never crush my kne'x so many pieces could break

[Knexfoof]

WAT. Trainman is BACK. Come back to ibles man we miss you.

[MrWapenv]

great job!

[95martb]

Very well done! I've started building a ball machine as big as this one. Good work on the new elements!

[madmatthew1]

9:34 :(

[austron]

@Trainman2000 A ball-operated transmission? Genius! I've been gradually sucked into the trap of computer control, but I still find it way more impressive when people find ways to do things 100% mechanically. Awesome video.