Compact marble machine

The creator of this enchanting "compact marble machine" claimed to have created it in four hours. It reminds me a bit of the Eames' solar powered Do Nothing Machine from 1958. (Via Cynical-C)

[#1 posted by dragonfrog, June 24, 2009 8:50 AM]

four hours? Wow - I'm not gifted with tools and such, but I can see that taking me maybe four days...

[#2 posted by Pantograph, June 24, 2009 8:50 AM]

That staircase pushing the marbles up is the greatest thing ever. Except for... No. Greatest Thing Ever.

[#3 posted by eattrn, June 24, 2009 8:54 AM]

Reminds me of that old mouse trap game.

[#4 posted by Takuan, June 24, 2009 8:59 AM]

yeah, love the staircase. Not an intuitive crank use, brilliant!

[#5 posted by bbonyx, June 24, 2009 9:32 AM]

Makes me want to go dig out my Cuboro sets.

[#6 posted by thatbob, June 24, 2009 9:34 AM]

Let's show some love to George Rhoads, who has been building this kind of thing on a monumental scale in malls and children's hospitals for pretty much my entire life.

[#7 posted by SidFudd, June 24, 2009 9:38 AM]

Okay, I'm going slightly bonkers here - how many marbles are in the machine?

I estimate 16 seconds for one marble to make a complete circuit around the machine. In 16 seconds I see 9 marbles pass a given point. Anyone get a different value?

[#8 posted by twig, June 24, 2009 9:52 AM]

There is a version of this thing in the Logan Airport in Boston.

It's huge.

[#9 posted by Tedsville, June 24, 2009 10:05 AM]

Im no sceptic, but seriously, my ARSE he did that in 4 hours - unless he already had all the parts pre-made. Bending that wire into exact shape? milling the dowl and balsa wood? building up the gearing mechanism? theres no way in hell all that could be done in four hours unless he had the help of several people and decent workshop.

That's not to say it's not totally awesome though - which it is...

[#10 posted by SamSam, June 24, 2009 10:05 AM]

@ Sinfudd:

I get eight. The only marbles that are occluded at any time are in the arms of the cross. There is always one marble in any arm between the entry point and exit point of the cross. If I freeze the model at a point, I see:

1 marble going down the chute,
1 marble waiting to go in the cross,
2 occluded marbles inside the cross,
1 marble about to get on the stairs,
3 marbles on the stairs.

= 8

If I look at the very first frame of the video, I see:

3 marbles waiting to go in the cross,
2 marbles in the cross (one occluded, one just about to exit)
1 marble about to get on the stairs,
2 marbles on the stairs.

= 8

[#11 posted by Anonymous, June 24, 2009 10:05 AM]

There's another huge (+40ft) one at Boston's Museum of Science.

I guess, Boston loves these things.

[#12 posted by russtolium, June 24, 2009 10:14 AM]

So great. Now if he painted little business suits on the marbles it would double as a social statement!

[#13 posted by hoffmanbike, June 24, 2009 10:43 AM]

nother one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ConskK5uMMY&feature=player_embedded

[#14 posted by pspinrad, June 24, 2009 10:50 AM]

+1 for thinking that staircase is brilliant-- I've never seen that before!

[#15 posted by IamInnocent, June 24, 2009 10:52 AM]

Maybe four hours plus all the time learning, observing, building other models, reflecting on the results; the getting the workshop ready and the materials handy...

The ingenious crankshaft elevator, the perfectly holed, angled and synchronized cross elevator, the very well tuned feeding mechanism: all that doesn't just happens.

[#16 posted by Purly, June 24, 2009 10:58 AM]

World's most pointless machine: http://wimp.com/pointlessmachine/

[#17 posted by Purly, June 24, 2009 11:00 AM]

Sort of reminds me of a roller coaster... FOR MARBLES!

[#18 posted by knodi, June 24, 2009 11:56 AM]

I had a "build your own marble rollercoaster" kit in elementary school, about 20 years ago. All the parts were snap-out plastic, and it had all of these components except the clever "tilt the ball holder once the arm is in position" gizmo.

I'm not saying this guy isn't clever or skilled; but all of the components are really well known in the marble roller coaster community (yes, there is one).

PS - I second the "4 hrs my arse", unless he means "assembled", which isn't THAT big a cop out...

[#19 posted by Anonymous, June 24, 2009 2:10 PM]

I can do a good painting in four hours, but I've made a thousand ones kind of like it already.

[#20 posted by Anonymous, June 24, 2009 3:10 PM]

Very good, but can it make chocolate biscuits.

[#21 posted by Aurich, June 24, 2009 6:01 PM]

I would absolutely buy a commercial version of that design, I can only guess how much time I would spend just watching that alternating staircase elevator.

[#22 posted by axl456, June 24, 2009 7:03 PM]

hypnotic

[#23 posted by frenchtoastkiss, June 24, 2009 8:55 PM]

So like... this is perpetual motion right?

[#24 posted by kaiza, June 24, 2009 8:57 PM]

I came across this toy in Japan earlier in the year - apparently it's a reissue of a much older version:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spacewarp_(toy)

Also:
http://www.marcdatabase.com/~lemur/rb-rolling-ball.html

[#25 posted by kaiza, June 24, 2009 9:05 PM]

Oops didn't mean to imply the original video was a toy you could buy (sorry to get your hopes up!).

To make up for it though, I will give you a link to this:

http://www.dealextreme.com/search.dx/search.spacerail

where you can buy the Spacewarp knock-off version for $65... delivered worldwide.

[#26 posted by Anonymous, July 14, 2009 2:55 PM]

Impressive that the track portion is as smooth and precisely spaced as it is, and it shows no movement as the ball goes by.

I'd like to see the techniques used to craft such a construct.