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

Marble Machine (definition: A Do-Nothing or Rube Goldberg Type Machine)

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 ½" Baltic Birch plywood driven by an electric gear reduction motor.

Category:

Howto & Style

Tags:

• marble
• machine
• wood
• gear
• gears
• planetary
• drive
• scrollsaw
• scroll
• saw
• mechanical
• contraption
• Rube
• Goldberg
• do-nothing
• how
• to
• make
• divide-by-3
• flip-flop
• zig-zag
• dump-o-matic
• spiral
• xylophone
• ring-gear
• gear-lift
• figure-8
• transfer
• vortex

[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!

[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.

[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.

[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!

[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.

[50LightSabersInAPack]

This is flipping awesome!!!

[stevenan93]

How long did it take to complete this marvelous contraption?

[rasputozen]

I hope one day to make the saddest marble machine in the world. Along with clicks and kachings it will also play the theme to Schindler's List on a xylophone. I'll post it when I'm done.

[vroup]

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

[frank3manuel]

Fascinating!

[SebiTimeWaster]

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

[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!