# Modular Marble Machine



## greasemonkeyredneck (Aug 14, 2010)

*The Pump*

Today I started on a new marble machine. While doing the first three machines, I have gotten multiple questions through my email about what goes into these type machines. Well, so far, all of them I've done have been other's designs, the one I'm starting as well. However, I do tweak some things and do design changes as I see fit. That is all part of the fun. 
Since I start getting questions after posting any of the machines though, I decided I wanted to do a daily blog on the build of this new one. I can't promise anything, but I will try my best to post every day that I work on it. In the case that I can't, I will take photos so I can catch up as soon as possible. So here we go.

The newest project is called a modular marble machine. It is a very interesting design because the elements of it are not fixed. After it is done, the final user can move pieces and build different designs by stacking blocks. It's much like a child's building block toys, but only cut and designed to allow marbles to move over, around, and through the pieces. 
Before I get started, if anyone would like to read more about the machine, by the man who designed it, Matthius Wandell, here is a link the machine on his website. While you're there though, if you haven't seen his site before, check out some more of his designs. This will be the sixth project I have done based on his designs, and I must say, he designs some amazing things.

While working on something like this, I don't think it is written in stone to make the various parts in any particular order. So I usually work on whatever I feel like working on during a particular day. For this one, I decided I wanted to build the part of it that is most interesting to me, the pump.
As I said before, this machine is modular in design. You arrange the blocks to build any number of designs, limited only by ones imagination. To get the marbles started though, there is a hand crank operated pump that catches the marbles and "pumps" them up to the top, to be released upon the built tracks. I have now build machines with escapement mechanisms and gear lifts, but now something that operated like a pump, so this mechanism interested me greatly.
















Here is the pump assembly. It is an open ended box. Inside is a crank shaft made from stiff wire that moved a slider back and forth, while at the same time moves a piston up and down. This grabs a marble from one hole, transfers it to the other hole, where it pushes up on the marble before it. Later, we will be building a shaft in which this pump will stack the marbles upwards for a steady stream of marbles on the tracks.

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Here are photos of the actions of the pump.
There will be a feed trough that feeds a steady stream of marbles to the hole you see the marble in in this photo.








As you turn the crank, the piston will lower as the slider move towards the other hole, carrying the marble with it.








The marble comes out the other hole and the slider and piston move to catch the next marble from the first hole.








It catches the next marble same as the first.








Brings it under and over to the ejection hole.








And pushes the first marble upwards.

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All of this will become more clear as we progress through the rest of the machine. 
If you're impatient and want to see a better idea of it now though, here is a video made by Mr. Wandell about the building of the pump. The video is close to twenty four minutes long, but it is worth watching if you are really interested in seeing exactly how the pump's inner workings operate.


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## sras (Oct 31, 2009)

greasemonkeyredneck said:


> *The Pump*
> 
> Today I started on a new marble machine. While doing the first three machines, I have gotten multiple questions through my email about what goes into these type machines. Well, so far, all of them I've done have been other's designs, the one I'm starting as well. However, I do tweak some things and do design changes as I see fit. That is all part of the fun.
> Since I start getting questions after posting any of the machines though, I decided I wanted to do a daily blog on the build of this new one. I can't promise anything, but I will try my best to post every day that I work on it. In the case that I can't, I will take photos so I can catch up as soon as possible. So here we go.
> ...


This should be a fun build to watch!


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## Momcanfixit (Sep 19, 2012)

greasemonkeyredneck said:


> *The Pump*
> 
> Today I started on a new marble machine. While doing the first three machines, I have gotten multiple questions through my email about what goes into these type machines. Well, so far, all of them I've done have been other's designs, the one I'm starting as well. However, I do tweak some things and do design changes as I see fit. That is all part of the fun.
> Since I start getting questions after posting any of the machines though, I decided I wanted to do a daily blog on the build of this new one. I can't promise anything, but I will try my best to post every day that I work on it. In the case that I can't, I will take photos so I can catch up as soon as possible. So here we go.
> ...


Very cool. I love watching those marble machines in action, but don't think I'd have the patience to build one.


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## greasemonkeyredneck (Aug 14, 2010)

greasemonkeyredneck said:


> *The Pump*
> 
> Today I started on a new marble machine. While doing the first three machines, I have gotten multiple questions through my email about what goes into these type machines. Well, so far, all of them I've done have been other's designs, the one I'm starting as well. However, I do tweak some things and do design changes as I see fit. That is all part of the fun.
> Since I start getting questions after posting any of the machines though, I decided I wanted to do a daily blog on the build of this new one. I can't promise anything, but I will try my best to post every day that I work on it. In the case that I can't, I will take photos so I can catch up as soon as possible. So here we go.
> ...


Thanks Steve. I hope you keep up with the build. I am trying to make sure to post every day I work on it.

Sandra, it's like any other wood working project, one cut at a time. This will make the fourth marble machine I've built, but I don't think these take nearly as much patience as some of my scroll work projects, so I think I can handle them.


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## superdav721 (Aug 16, 2010)

greasemonkeyredneck said:


> *The Pump*
> 
> Today I started on a new marble machine. While doing the first three machines, I have gotten multiple questions through my email about what goes into these type machines. Well, so far, all of them I've done have been other's designs, the one I'm starting as well. However, I do tweak some things and do design changes as I see fit. That is all part of the fun.
> Since I start getting questions after posting any of the machines though, I decided I wanted to do a daily blog on the build of this new one. I can't promise anything, but I will try my best to post every day that I work on it. In the case that I can't, I will take photos so I can catch up as soon as possible. So here we go.
> ...


Your a Marble Mad Scientist.
Keep em coming.


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## gfadvm (Jan 13, 2011)

greasemonkeyredneck said:


> *The Pump*
> 
> Today I started on a new marble machine. While doing the first three machines, I have gotten multiple questions through my email about what goes into these type machines. Well, so far, all of them I've done have been other's designs, the one I'm starting as well. However, I do tweak some things and do design changes as I see fit. That is all part of the fun.
> Since I start getting questions after posting any of the machines though, I decided I wanted to do a daily blog on the build of this new one. I can't promise anything, but I will try my best to post every day that I work on it. In the case that I can't, I will take photos so I can catch up as soon as possible. So here we go.
> ...


Keep em comin. I'll be watchin! I just can't visualize stuff like you can.


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## DIYaholic (Jan 28, 2011)

greasemonkeyredneck said:


> *The Pump*
> 
> Today I started on a new marble machine. While doing the first three machines, I have gotten multiple questions through my email about what goes into these type machines. Well, so far, all of them I've done have been other's designs, the one I'm starting as well. However, I do tweak some things and do design changes as I see fit. That is all part of the fun.
> Since I start getting questions after posting any of the machines though, I decided I wanted to do a daily blog on the build of this new one. I can't promise anything, but I will try my best to post every day that I work on it. In the case that I can't, I will take photos so I can catch up as soon as possible. So here we go.
> ...


Yippie!!!
I get to watch William play with his balls, err marbles!!!


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## boxcarmarty (Dec 9, 2011)

greasemonkeyredneck said:


> *The Pump*
> 
> Today I started on a new marble machine. While doing the first three machines, I have gotten multiple questions through my email about what goes into these type machines. Well, so far, all of them I've done have been other's designs, the one I'm starting as well. However, I do tweak some things and do design changes as I see fit. That is all part of the fun.
> Since I start getting questions after posting any of the machines though, I decided I wanted to do a daily blog on the build of this new one. I can't promise anything, but I will try my best to post every day that I work on it. In the case that I can't, I will take photos so I can catch up as soon as possible. So here we go.
> ...


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## grizzman (May 10, 2009)

greasemonkeyredneck said:


> *The Pump*
> 
> Today I started on a new marble machine. While doing the first three machines, I have gotten multiple questions through my email about what goes into these type machines. Well, so far, all of them I've done have been other's designs, the one I'm starting as well. However, I do tweak some things and do design changes as I see fit. That is all part of the fun.
> Since I start getting questions after posting any of the machines though, I decided I wanted to do a daily blog on the build of this new one. I can't promise anything, but I will try my best to post every day that I work on it. In the case that I can't, I will take photos so I can catch up as soon as possible. So here we go.
> ...


alright william, this will be a real joy to watch, its so nice to be able to shift around with different parts of wood working, scroll work one week, lathe work the next and now a marble machine…never gets boring does it..i have all the confidence you will do well on this…


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## greasemonkeyredneck (Aug 14, 2010)

greasemonkeyredneck said:


> *The Pump*
> 
> Today I started on a new marble machine. While doing the first three machines, I have gotten multiple questions through my email about what goes into these type machines. Well, so far, all of them I've done have been other's designs, the one I'm starting as well. However, I do tweak some things and do design changes as I see fit. That is all part of the fun.
> Since I start getting questions after posting any of the machines though, I decided I wanted to do a daily blog on the build of this new one. I can't promise anything, but I will try my best to post every day that I work on it. In the case that I can't, I will take photos so I can catch up as soon as possible. So here we go.
> ...


Thank you all.
I hope you all enjoy seeing the build up of this one. I think it will be a lot of fun when it is done because this one is meant to be played with and rearranged at will. All the others, you just put the marbles in and let them go. They are fun too, but I believe this one will be more interactive and more fun overall.
Matthius Wandell, as always, has some of the most complete plans I've ever seen. If you've ever looked at any of his plans, he leaves nothing out. If you have any questions any what so ever, if you look in the plans packet, the answer is in there somewhere.
I have looked over the plans at length, and of course I already found a few things I wish to tweak. That's normal though. I'm never satisfied with building these things exactly according to plan. If I did they'd be just like anyone elses. I like mine to be unique in some kind of way.
Anyway, I hope you all enjoy it. I haven't been doing too well since our trip to Georgia. Today was the first full day I've had in the shop since returning. I hope I have some more good days so I can make some progress here. I get anxious when working on projects like this one.


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## greasemonkeyredneck (Aug 14, 2010)

greasemonkeyredneck said:


> *The Pump*
> 
> Today I started on a new marble machine. While doing the first three machines, I have gotten multiple questions through my email about what goes into these type machines. Well, so far, all of them I've done have been other's designs, the one I'm starting as well. However, I do tweak some things and do design changes as I see fit. That is all part of the fun.
> Since I start getting questions after posting any of the machines though, I decided I wanted to do a daily blog on the build of this new one. I can't promise anything, but I will try my best to post every day that I work on it. In the case that I can't, I will take photos so I can catch up as soon as possible. So here we go.
> ...


Grizz, one of the reasons I like marble machines is they pull on all sorts of skill sets.
This one I'm building now for example will make use of the table saw, drill press, lathe, scroll saw band saw. I get to use all the toy, uh tools, when I'm building something like this.


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## oldnovice (Mar 7, 2009)

greasemonkeyredneck said:


> *The Pump*
> 
> Today I started on a new marble machine. While doing the first three machines, I have gotten multiple questions through my email about what goes into these type machines. Well, so far, all of them I've done have been other's designs, the one I'm starting as well. However, I do tweak some things and do design changes as I see fit. That is all part of the fun.
> Since I start getting questions after posting any of the machines though, I decided I wanted to do a daily blog on the build of this new one. I can't promise anything, but I will try my best to post every day that I work on it. In the case that I can't, I will take photos so I can catch up as soon as possible. So here we go.
> ...


*Very interesting!*

A number of years ago, when I was still working in a high tech lab, we built a marble machine that sorted marbles by size and color so this machine really struck my fancy! And, since I now have grand kids guess what?


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## alba (Jul 31, 2010)

greasemonkeyredneck said:


> *The Pump*
> 
> Today I started on a new marble machine. While doing the first three machines, I have gotten multiple questions through my email about what goes into these type machines. Well, so far, all of them I've done have been other's designs, the one I'm starting as well. However, I do tweak some things and do design changes as I see fit. That is all part of the fun.
> Since I start getting questions after posting any of the machines though, I decided I wanted to do a daily blog on the build of this new one. I can't promise anything, but I will try my best to post every day that I work on it. In the case that I can't, I will take photos so I can catch up as soon as possible. So here we go.
> ...


William the Jolly Rouges are busy building one
So we will all be following.

Jamie


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## greasemonkeyredneck (Aug 14, 2010)

greasemonkeyredneck said:


> *The Pump*
> 
> Today I started on a new marble machine. While doing the first three machines, I have gotten multiple questions through my email about what goes into these type machines. Well, so far, all of them I've done have been other's designs, the one I'm starting as well. However, I do tweak some things and do design changes as I see fit. That is all part of the fun.
> Since I start getting questions after posting any of the machines though, I decided I wanted to do a daily blog on the build of this new one. I can't promise anything, but I will try my best to post every day that I work on it. In the case that I can't, I will take photos so I can catch up as soon as possible. So here we go.
> ...


Thank you all very much.

OldNovice, this one would be a perfect design for the grandchildren.


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## stefang (Apr 9, 2009)

greasemonkeyredneck said:


> *The Pump*
> 
> Today I started on a new marble machine. While doing the first three machines, I have gotten multiple questions through my email about what goes into these type machines. Well, so far, all of them I've done have been other's designs, the one I'm starting as well. However, I do tweak some things and do design changes as I see fit. That is all part of the fun.
> Since I start getting questions after posting any of the machines though, I decided I wanted to do a daily blog on the build of this new one. I can't promise anything, but I will try my best to post every day that I work on it. In the case that I can't, I will take photos so I can catch up as soon as possible. So here we go.
> ...


I lost all my marbles a long time ago William, but it will be interesting to see what you do with yours. The pump looks very cleverly designed.


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## greasemonkeyredneck (Aug 14, 2010)

greasemonkeyredneck said:


> *The Pump*
> 
> Today I started on a new marble machine. While doing the first three machines, I have gotten multiple questions through my email about what goes into these type machines. Well, so far, all of them I've done have been other's designs, the one I'm starting as well. However, I do tweak some things and do design changes as I see fit. That is all part of the fun.
> Since I start getting questions after posting any of the machines though, I decided I wanted to do a daily blog on the build of this new one. I can't promise anything, but I will try my best to post every day that I work on it. In the case that I can't, I will take photos so I can catch up as soon as possible. So here we go.
> ...


Thanks Stefang.
After building the elevator mechanism today I ran into a problem with the pump.
I'll talk more about it in the next installment, which I'll get typed up after my dinner.


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## Kentuk55 (Sep 21, 2010)

greasemonkeyredneck said:


> *The Pump*
> 
> Today I started on a new marble machine. While doing the first three machines, I have gotten multiple questions through my email about what goes into these type machines. Well, so far, all of them I've done have been other's designs, the one I'm starting as well. However, I do tweak some things and do design changes as I see fit. That is all part of the fun.
> Since I start getting questions after posting any of the machines though, I decided I wanted to do a daily blog on the build of this new one. I can't promise anything, but I will try my best to post every day that I work on it. In the case that I can't, I will take photos so I can catch up as soon as possible. So here we go.
> ...


Amazing engineering


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## greasemonkeyredneck (Aug 14, 2010)

greasemonkeyredneck said:


> *The Pump*
> 
> Today I started on a new marble machine. While doing the first three machines, I have gotten multiple questions through my email about what goes into these type machines. Well, so far, all of them I've done have been other's designs, the one I'm starting as well. However, I do tweak some things and do design changes as I see fit. That is all part of the fun.
> Since I start getting questions after posting any of the machines though, I decided I wanted to do a daily blog on the build of this new one. I can't promise anything, but I will try my best to post every day that I work on it. In the case that I can't, I will take photos so I can catch up as soon as possible. So here we go.
> ...


Thank you Roger, but I can't take the credit for that.
Matthius Wandell is the designer of this neat machine.


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## a1Jim (Aug 9, 2008)

greasemonkeyredneck said:


> *The Pump*
> 
> Today I started on a new marble machine. While doing the first three machines, I have gotten multiple questions through my email about what goes into these type machines. Well, so far, all of them I've done have been other's designs, the one I'm starting as well. However, I do tweak some things and do design changes as I see fit. That is all part of the fun.
> Since I start getting questions after posting any of the machines though, I decided I wanted to do a daily blog on the build of this new one. I can't promise anything, but I will try my best to post every day that I work on it. In the case that I can't, I will take photos so I can catch up as soon as possible. So here we go.
> ...


Looks like a fun project.


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## greasemonkeyredneck (Aug 14, 2010)

greasemonkeyredneck said:


> *The Pump*
> 
> Today I started on a new marble machine. While doing the first three machines, I have gotten multiple questions through my email about what goes into these type machines. Well, so far, all of them I've done have been other's designs, the one I'm starting as well. However, I do tweak some things and do design changes as I see fit. That is all part of the fun.
> Since I start getting questions after posting any of the machines though, I decided I wanted to do a daily blog on the build of this new one. I can't promise anything, but I will try my best to post every day that I work on it. In the case that I can't, I will take photos so I can catch up as soon as possible. So here we go.
> ...


Thank you Jim.
This is my fourth marble machine build and they have all been loads of fun.


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## greasemonkeyredneck (Aug 14, 2010)

*The Elevator Column*









Yesterday we built the pump to handle pushing the marbles, but now we need to get them on some kind of upward mobility. Marble machines work from gravity and momentum keeping the marbles moving through it's course. So they have to start high. So today I built the elevator column. In this first photo, you see the elevator column sitting beside the pump.








I took a closer shot so you can see that we added pins to the top of the pump that line up with holes on the bottom of the elevator column. This assures the elevator gets placed in the exact location every time. If it did not, there is a good chance that marbles could get hung up. 
Speaking of things getting hung up, after I built the elevator it was time to test the pump and elevator assembly. I test each and every part as it's built. Besides being fun, it is a necessity. It is best to catch any problems exactly as they arise instead of later having to isolate a single problem within a conglomerate of parts.

I realized I had a problem with the pump. It worked fine yesterday while feeding one marble at a time. Now though, with the elevator in place, I was able to try feeding a steady stream of marbles by setting up a temporary trough. It would take one marble fine, then would catch the next marble between the piston and lower part of the cover hole and jam up instantly. That just would not do. So I investigated the issue.
What I determined was that the piston was dropping down just a hair too low, allowing following marbles to drop down into the hole on top of the piston before the slider had a chance to move the assembly aside. This was like throwing a monkey wrench into a gear assembly. It simply caught in the sum of parts and jammed.
I thought about scrapping the pump and starting over. Before doing so though, I took a coffee break and thought of an easier solution. I used a micrometer and measured the difference between the marble at it's lowest point and the top of the slider assembly, and determined that it was only an eighth of an inch difference. So I sliced off an eight inch section of three quarter inch dowel on my table saw sled and carefully glued it in place flush with the bottom of the slider assembly. 
Of course this required another extended coffee break while I waited for the glue to set up. I wasn't sure how it would work and kept thinking of an old saying I remembered from the Emergency Broadcast System, "this is a test, this is only a test". That scares me. I think I'm showing my age too much remembering these things and my kids haven't a clue what I'm talking about when I say things like that.

After the glue dried though, luckily, this fixed the issue and I could move on. We were cooking with grease now. Then I wasted about an hour just playing with the whole assembly. No, I don't play. It's testing. Yea, that's the ticket, testing.








So here is the whole assembly of the pump with the elevator column attached. As I showed with the pins earlier, the elevator column is removable. The reason for this is that later, when everything is done, the machine breaks down for all the parts to be stored in the base. 








At the top of the elevator column is a turnout that directs the flow of marbles outwards, or inwards in this case, toward the base that all this will reside in. As the marbles reach the top and are pushed outward, the shape of this piece, along with the metal rod you see in the center of it, helps direct the marbles where they need to go.








Here was part of the "testing" process. I like how you can actually see the marbles as they rise through the elevator column.








Here is a closer view of it.

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I got a message yesterday with a question about my using plywood on this machine and about the species of other wood I've been using. 
Some people who know me or read my blogs know that I have a hatred for plywood. Whenever possible, I use nothing but solid wood. However, as much as I hate to admit it, plywood does have it's place. In some situations, such as the ones you'll see during the construction of this project, the stability of plywood just can't be matched with solid wood. Solid wood moves with weather changes. It doesn't matter what it may be sealed with. That movement is always present.
For example, you'll notice the base mount on the elevator column and the top and bottom of the pump are plywood. This is a critical area where the placement of the parts always have to be perfectly the same as they were designed to be. In cases such as this, plywood allows the possibility to make it and rest assured that the wood will not move enough to make that future joining of parts a problem.
You'll see me using a variety of woods in this project, as I like to do in a lot of my projects. So far, except for the plywood, all the wood I've used has been sycamore. I chose it because it is a very stable wood for these moving parts. While it is not as stable as plywood, it has less movement with weather changes than some other wood choices I've tried in the past. 
I will try to remember to state the species of woods I'm using in future installments of this build.


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## alba (Jul 31, 2010)

greasemonkeyredneck said:


> *The Elevator Column*
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Thanks William, I was looking out hardwood off-cuts for Gordon's Marble run
I'm now looking at the plans and it makes sense to use plywood in certain
places. He is using the same plans as you.
What is the average marble diameter in the US of A?
Jamie


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## Momcanfixit (Sep 19, 2012)

greasemonkeyredneck said:


> *The Elevator Column*
> 
> 
> 
> ...


I'm watching this blog with interest. My 8 year old has shown interest in the shop and I think a marble machine (very simple one, may be just the type of project to do with him). Thanks for posting this.


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## greasemonkeyredneck (Aug 14, 2010)

greasemonkeyredneck said:


> *The Elevator Column*
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Jamie, the marbles I'm using come from the dollar store. They are supposed to be 5/8". That is what the plans call for too. However, I drill a 5/8" hole in a piece of wood and test every single marble for size. A lot of them are oversized and will cause issues for marble machines. You see, if built right, all marble machines are built so that the tolerances are kind of tight according to which marble you're using. You can use looser tolerances, but the looser things are, the more marbles you'll have flying all over the place. 
Out of a bag of fifty marbles, usually about 30 to 35 marbles are usable for a mcahine. I have young boys and they get the ones that are oversized.

For the wood, you could use any kind of wood actually. The box it sits in, certain other parts, and such could all be made of plywood if one wanted. I would suggest hard wood for the slider in the pump, the elevator, and the feed chute. After that though, if one wanted, the rest of the machine, the blocks and such, could be made from any type of wood. You could actually use the cheapest wood you can find at the local hardware store or lumber yard. Myself, I usually like using harder woods I have around the shop though. Our locally cheap wood is pine and splinters too easily. The only time I like using it is if I'm constructing something like a wall.


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## greasemonkeyredneck (Aug 14, 2010)

greasemonkeyredneck said:


> *The Elevator Column*
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Sandra, this is my fourth machine. I always have extra parts left over from them though. Sometimes I mess up on something, or sometimes on some of the machines I make up extra chute material just in case and don't need it all. 
Anyway, my boys always take the extra material and make contraptions at the shop or in their bedrooms to run their marbles on.
If you want to build one for an eight year old though, this one would be perfect. Later you'll see that the machine is made up of building block type pieces that can be built up and arranged, and rearranged over and over again, any way a child (or child at heart) could possibly want.


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## greasemonkeyredneck (Aug 14, 2010)

greasemonkeyredneck said:


> *The Elevator Column*
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Sandra, here's another idea.
My kids are old enough not to need it, but
When my grandchildren get old enough to start learning math, I'm planning on building them some of these.
I think it'd be a fun way for kids to get interested in math.


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## JL7 (Apr 13, 2010)

greasemonkeyredneck said:


> *The Elevator Column*
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Marble mania 16 has begun….....carry on…


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## DIYaholic (Jan 28, 2011)

greasemonkeyredneck said:


> *The Elevator Column*
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Looks like your marbles are pulling a "George & Louise Jefferson".....
& are "Movin' On Up"!!!


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## greasemonkeyredneck (Aug 14, 2010)

greasemonkeyredneck said:


> *The Elevator Column*
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Thanks Jeff and Randy for coming to take a look.


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## alba (Jul 31, 2010)

greasemonkeyredneck said:


> *The Elevator Column*
> 
> 
> 
> ...


That adding machine looks very interesting
Jamie


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## greasemonkeyredneck (Aug 14, 2010)

greasemonkeyredneck said:


> *The Elevator Column*
> 
> 
> 
> ...


I think so too Jamie.
One day, I'll wind up building one.


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## Kreegan (Jul 10, 2012)

greasemonkeyredneck said:


> *The Elevator Column*
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Looking good, William. You have a talent for these things.


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## greasemonkeyredneck (Aug 14, 2010)

greasemonkeyredneck said:


> *The Elevator Column*
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Thank you Rich.
In the process of doing all this on the marble machine, in the next couple of day, I want to make a few glueups of pen blanks too. I was thinking today, some of the harder to glue up ones that I've been having issues with because of my impatience, I can glue one part at a time and have plenty of time for it to dry while I work on the marble machine.


----------



## stefang (Apr 9, 2009)

greasemonkeyredneck said:


> *The Elevator Column*
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Interesting build William and I liked the adding machine too. Now if you can just figure out how to make a marble powered car engine.


----------



## greasemonkeyredneck (Aug 14, 2010)

greasemonkeyredneck said:


> *The Elevator Column*
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Thank you Stefang.
I don't know about a marble powered car, but I have often thought of building a wooden car. There are many examples out there, but I have a few ideas of my own.


----------



## alba (Jul 31, 2010)

greasemonkeyredneck said:


> *The Elevator Column*
> 
> 
> 
> ...


William,
you would like a Morgan then









Great cars William but I would need a Lotto win

Jamie


----------



## greasemonkeyredneck (Aug 14, 2010)

greasemonkeyredneck said:


> *The Elevator Column*
> 
> 
> 
> ...


I'd love to have a link to that build you are showing in that photo Jamie.
I am seriously interested in wooden cars.
I don't actually plan on ever building one, but I think they are neat.
Have you seen the one they call Splinter? It's a high performance car build of layers of wooden veneer. It was started by some college students and finished years after they finished school. I could hunt down the link of you'd like to see it when I get back online this evening.


----------



## alba (Jul 31, 2010)

greasemonkeyredneck said:


> *The Elevator Column*
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Here it is William
http://www.morgan-motor.co.uk/

I knew a fisherman in Umkomass on the Natal coast who had a 2 yr old Toyota pick up
that the rust had eaten alive. He just got some Marine plywood and built a frame and
chassis to put all the bits on. his only complaint was that it was a bit light.
This was pre digital days so I may have an old photo.

Jamie


----------



## greasemonkeyredneck (Aug 14, 2010)

greasemonkeyredneck said:


> *The Elevator Column*
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Thanks Jamie.
I just came to the house to take some medicine and get a piece of toast to take it with. I will check out the morgan car this evening.
I've never had a complete wooden car, but there are three different trucks I've owned in the past that I built wooden beds on. That's the common answer here in Mississippi if your truck bed wears out. It's cheaper to build a wooden one than to find a used replacement metal one, and they usually last longer if you build them right.


----------



## superdav721 (Aug 16, 2010)

greasemonkeyredneck said:


> *The Elevator Column*
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Well this will be one way to keep up with your marbles.


----------



## greasemonkeyredneck (Aug 14, 2010)

greasemonkeyredneck said:


> *The Elevator Column*
> 
> 
> 
> ...


The marbles for the machine?
Yes, this will keep up with them very well.
The marbles as in my sense?
Lost that long time ago.


----------



## superdav721 (Aug 16, 2010)

greasemonkeyredneck said:


> *The Elevator Column*
> 
> 
> 
> ...


The second one.


----------



## greasemonkeyredneck (Aug 14, 2010)

*The Base*

If you seen the pump and elevator column I've spent the last couple of days making, then I'm sure you already know that we now need a base to start building this thing upon. So that's what I decided to start on today.
I spent quite a bit of time debating this morning on what wood to use. I definitely did not want to use plywood for the sides. I took into consideration weight and strength. Whatever I chose though also had to be something I had in sizes that were wide and long enough to work. I finally decided to stick with my old standby, cottonwood. 
Cottonwood is strong, yet light. The only problem I have is, if I looked at the nicest pieces, they are kind of plain, and I wanted to use something with some character. 








So I got into my "ugly stack". Let me explain. I separate my cottonwood as I come to it. In one stack is perfect material for large work such as cabinetry. These are straight grain, plain looking, pretty wood. If I'm working on something smaller though that I want character in, I have an ugly stack. This is a stack I've made with pieces that have crooked grain, burl material, off color strips glued in, and other deficiencies that make them unsuitable for larger work. For small work though, these ugly pieces, in my opinion, provide the most interesting looks to them.
A good example is the board in this photo, in front; the one I chose for the front of the base. It has burl type material in it. It is situated on the board so that it would look terrible on something larger, but I think it'll look very nice for the front of the base once it's finished.
The next problem I had came when I looked at the plans for the base. The plans call for rabbet joints with splines that will later help hold the plates inside of it. This would work just fine, but I just simply do not like rabbeted joints. In my opinion they are as ugly as butt joints and I use something else when I can get away with it.








So I figured it was time to pull out the Stumpy Nubs Box Joint Machine again. 








I love this machine. I makes some beautiful, strong, and accurate joints.








Then, just put some glue in between the fingers, clamp all corners tight, double check just to be sure, and you've got an easy to square box.








In order to allow the elevator column to sit flush with the back of the base, you have to inset the pump assembly into the back of the base. The easiest way to do this in my opinion is a spiral bit in a palm router.








Then the center of that inset has to be removed to allow the slider in the pump assembly room to move in and out. It extends out almost flush with the outside of the back of the box. You could drill some holes and use a chisel to remove this material. To me though, it's easier just to put it on the scroll saw and remove it.
If you look closely you may notice I have removed more material than necessary. It will not harm the function of the machine, and it is on the back, so I'm leaving it. However, I thought I'd tell you the reason there is more removed than I originally intended. This was one of those cases where I should have marked my work before starting. I thought I'd eyeball it. This turned out not to be such a good idea. I cut right past where I needed to over to the far side of the recess area. I was almost completely done cutting when I realized what I'd done. 








The recess allows the elevator column to be properly positioned against the back while still having room for a functioning pump.








The cutout allows the slider to come out far enough from the pump to be functional.








The bottom of the base is made of plywood. This allows me to use a solid piece for the bottom. I don't have anything in solid wood large enough for that. For stability I did not want to use glued up material for the bottom.
The bottom is attached with glue and eighteen gauge brad nails. 
The bottom has a thirty degree angled bevel cut on all four sides of it. This makes it easier to pick up the whole unit to move from one place to another.








The pump assembly is screwed to the bottom of the base. If you remember, the elevator column is lined up with pins on top of the pump. Between the pins, the back, and the supports we will later put under the bottom of it, the elevator is assured to be in the proper orientation when the machine is in use.


----------



## DIYaholic (Jan 28, 2011)

greasemonkeyredneck said:


> *The Base*
> 
> If you seen the pump and elevator column I've spent the last couple of days making, then I'm sure you already know that we now need a base to start building this thing upon. So that's what I decided to start on today.
> I spent quite a bit of time debating this morning on what wood to use. I definitely did not want to use plywood for the sides. I took into consideration weight and strength. Whatever I chose though also had to be something I had in sizes that were wide and long enough to work. I finally decided to stick with my old standby, cottonwood.
> ...


Great progress there!

The "extra" wood removed was an engineering redesign, to lighten the weight. Yeah, that's it!!!


----------



## JL7 (Apr 13, 2010)

greasemonkeyredneck said:


> *The Base*
> 
> If you seen the pump and elevator column I've spent the last couple of days making, then I'm sure you already know that we now need a base to start building this thing upon. So that's what I decided to start on today.
> I spent quite a bit of time debating this morning on what wood to use. I definitely did not want to use plywood for the sides. I took into consideration weight and strength. Whatever I chose though also had to be something I had in sizes that were wide and long enough to work. I finally decided to stick with my old standby, cottonwood.
> ...


Very cool…..I have an ugly stack too…..I go there first if I can…..fun build!


----------



## greasemonkeyredneck (Aug 14, 2010)

greasemonkeyredneck said:


> *The Base*
> 
> If you seen the pump and elevator column I've spent the last couple of days making, then I'm sure you already know that we now need a base to start building this thing upon. So that's what I decided to start on today.
> I spent quite a bit of time debating this morning on what wood to use. I definitely did not want to use plywood for the sides. I took into consideration weight and strength. Whatever I chose though also had to be something I had in sizes that were wide and long enough to work. I finally decided to stick with my old standby, cottonwood.
> ...


Thanks guys.
Jeff, I thought I was the only one who preferred the ugly stack to the prettier stuff for certain projects. I have wood in my shop that some would consider firewood. I'll find uses for it all one day. Each saved piece is just waiting it's turn to be part of a project.


----------



## Momcanfixit (Sep 19, 2012)

greasemonkeyredneck said:


> *The Base*
> 
> If you seen the pump and elevator column I've spent the last couple of days making, then I'm sure you already know that we now need a base to start building this thing upon. So that's what I decided to start on today.
> I spent quite a bit of time debating this morning on what wood to use. I definitely did not want to use plywood for the sides. I took into consideration weight and strength. Whatever I chose though also had to be something I had in sizes that were wide and long enough to work. I finally decided to stick with my old standby, cottonwood.
> ...


Looks like you got in some productive shop time. It's taking shape.


----------



## greasemonkeyredneck (Aug 14, 2010)

greasemonkeyredneck said:


> *The Base*
> 
> If you seen the pump and elevator column I've spent the last couple of days making, then I'm sure you already know that we now need a base to start building this thing upon. So that's what I decided to start on today.
> I spent quite a bit of time debating this morning on what wood to use. I definitely did not want to use plywood for the sides. I took into consideration weight and strength. Whatever I chose though also had to be something I had in sizes that were wide and long enough to work. I finally decided to stick with my old standby, cottonwood.
> ...


It's going as good as can be expected lately. 
I've been having some high pain days, so I haven't been moving as fast as I'd like to on this project, but it's coming along.


----------



## Kentuk55 (Sep 21, 2010)

greasemonkeyredneck said:


> *The Base*
> 
> If you seen the pump and elevator column I've spent the last couple of days making, then I'm sure you already know that we now need a base to start building this thing upon. So that's what I decided to start on today.
> I spent quite a bit of time debating this morning on what wood to use. I definitely did not want to use plywood for the sides. I took into consideration weight and strength. Whatever I chose though also had to be something I had in sizes that were wide and long enough to work. I finally decided to stick with my old standby, cottonwood.
> ...


Your box joints will truly never come apart.. I hope you get to feelin better. You've got plenty more projects to build.


----------



## scrollingmom (Aug 27, 2011)

greasemonkeyredneck said:


> *The Base*
> 
> If you seen the pump and elevator column I've spent the last couple of days making, then I'm sure you already know that we now need a base to start building this thing upon. So that's what I decided to start on today.
> I spent quite a bit of time debating this morning on what wood to use. I definitely did not want to use plywood for the sides. I took into consideration weight and strength. Whatever I chose though also had to be something I had in sizes that were wide and long enough to work. I finally decided to stick with my old standby, cottonwood.
> ...


Very cool. I can't wait to see it finished.


----------



## Doe (Aug 26, 2010)

greasemonkeyredneck said:


> *The Base*
> 
> If you seen the pump and elevator column I've spent the last couple of days making, then I'm sure you already know that we now need a base to start building this thing upon. So that's what I decided to start on today.
> I spent quite a bit of time debating this morning on what wood to use. I definitely did not want to use plywood for the sides. I took into consideration weight and strength. Whatever I chose though also had to be something I had in sizes that were wide and long enough to work. I finally decided to stick with my old standby, cottonwood.
> ...


That looks huge! How big is it? I'm not sure I understand everything exactly, but thanks for the detail and pictures.
Interesting that what you call ugly is what I call pretty. . . the front board in the first picture I call downright beautiful.


----------



## greasemonkeyredneck (Aug 14, 2010)

greasemonkeyredneck said:


> *The Base*
> 
> If you seen the pump and elevator column I've spent the last couple of days making, then I'm sure you already know that we now need a base to start building this thing upon. So that's what I decided to start on today.
> I spent quite a bit of time debating this morning on what wood to use. I definitely did not want to use plywood for the sides. I took into consideration weight and strength. Whatever I chose though also had to be something I had in sizes that were wide and long enough to work. I finally decided to stick with my old standby, cottonwood.
> ...


Thank you Roger and Kelly.

Doe, it is 15.5cm tall and 42×52cm. 
And I don't think the wood is ugly at all. I call it my ugly stack because it is off of larger pieces that may look ugly as a whole on large work. For smaller stuff though, the character, to me anyhow, is absolutely beautiful.


----------



## greasemonkeyredneck (Aug 14, 2010)

*Base Plates*

Yesterday I built the base. Inside the base there will be plates with holes in a grid patterns. With this grid of holes on these plates, it will be possible to place marbles in the holes, place pieces with holes in the bottom of them on top of the marbles, locking things together so nothing moves. It is with this type of system upon which everything else will be possible to build.








First thing today I had to place corner pieces and a tab on the inside of the front for the plates to sit on.








Next I built the feed ramp. This is just an angled ramp that feeds into the top of the marble pump. When building different scenarios with the building block like pieces, the end paths will have to always end feed into the marble feed ramp in the center.








Then pieces of plywood are cut to fit on each side of the feed ramp. 
I used plywood here for flatness. Anything other than flat here will cause problems later as the pieces are built up in height. 








I had to test all the marbles. The marbles are supposed to be five eighths an inch in diameter. However, not all the marbles are the exact correct size. So, to weed out the larger, misshaped, and otherwise unusable marbles, you test them. I drill a five eighths inch hole through a piece of wood. If a marble fits, even snugly like you see in this photo, then it will work in the machine without causing problems.








Here is an example of a marble that is unusable. It is too large to fit through the hole. Therefore, it will be too large for the machine parts and will hang up in places, causing inevitable jams.








With the marbles tested, and the bad ones weeded out, that gave me my first opportunity to truly test the whole feed and pump assembly as a complete unit. So far, everything seems to be working as it should.








Then for those holes I talked about earlier. Using light pencil lines that can be sanded off later, I marked off a grid for the holes. Then I bored them deep enough into the plates that a marble will sit just a hair over halfway down in the hole. The roughly half of the marble that will stick above the plate will interlock with parts that will go on top of this.


----------



## DIYaholic (Jan 28, 2011)

greasemonkeyredneck said:


> *Base Plates*
> 
> Yesterday I built the base. Inside the base there will be plates with holes in a grid patterns. With this grid of holes on these plates, it will be possible to place marbles in the holes, place pieces with holes in the bottom of them on top of the marbles, locking things together so nothing moves. It is with this type of system upon which everything else will be possible to build.
> 
> ...


Nice progress.

The interlocking is kinda like Legos for marbles.
Anxiously awaiting to see the "modular" pieces!!!


----------



## toeachhisown (Eddie) (Mar 30, 2011)

greasemonkeyredneck said:


> *Base Plates*
> 
> Yesterday I built the base. Inside the base there will be plates with holes in a grid patterns. With this grid of holes on these plates, it will be possible to place marbles in the holes, place pieces with holes in the bottom of them on top of the marbles, locking things together so nothing moves. It is with this type of system upon which everything else will be possible to build.
> 
> ...


William you got it coming together ,that is a lot of holes there ,great pics and instruction too ,thats a lot of folgers coffee there


----------



## greasemonkeyredneck (Aug 14, 2010)

greasemonkeyredneck said:


> *Base Plates*
> 
> Yesterday I built the base. Inside the base there will be plates with holes in a grid patterns. With this grid of holes on these plates, it will be possible to place marbles in the holes, place pieces with holes in the bottom of them on top of the marbles, locking things together so nothing moves. It is with this type of system upon which everything else will be possible to build.
> 
> ...


Thanks ya'll.
Yes Randy, it's a similar idea to legos. It'll lock things together nicely, but still allow pieces to be arranged differently if need be without the marbles. The arrangment of the pieces on this will be limited only by one's imagination.
Eddie, I use coffee containers for everything under the sun. I've built up enough that I keep extras stored up. I'm in the process now of switching to the plastic ones like you see in some of the photos. The metal ones I have from a long time ago are starting to rust. I go through about three to four large containers of coffee a month.


----------



## grizzman (May 10, 2009)

greasemonkeyredneck said:


> *Base Plates*
> 
> Yesterday I built the base. Inside the base there will be plates with holes in a grid patterns. With this grid of holes on these plates, it will be possible to place marbles in the holes, place pieces with holes in the bottom of them on top of the marbles, locking things together so nothing moves. It is with this type of system upon which everything else will be possible to build.
> 
> ...


well now we know where all the caffeine is…you might be worth something dead william…lol…..this is really looking cool…so are you doing any pens at all, or are you focused on this…..


----------



## stefang (Apr 9, 2009)

greasemonkeyredneck said:


> *Base Plates*
> 
> Yesterday I built the base. Inside the base there will be plates with holes in a grid patterns. With this grid of holes on these plates, it will be possible to place marbles in the holes, place pieces with holes in the bottom of them on top of the marbles, locking things together so nothing moves. It is with this type of system upon which everything else will be possible to build.
> 
> ...


Looks like a mean machine William.


----------



## greasemonkeyredneck (Aug 14, 2010)

greasemonkeyredneck said:


> *Base Plates*
> 
> Yesterday I built the base. Inside the base there will be plates with holes in a grid patterns. With this grid of holes on these plates, it will be possible to place marbles in the holes, place pieces with holes in the bottom of them on top of the marbles, locking things together so nothing moves. It is with this type of system upon which everything else will be possible to build.
> 
> ...


Thank you Stefang. It's a neat design that will look better once it all comes together.

Grizz, my intention was to do glueups on pens while I take breaks and such so I'd have blanks ready to go when I finish this project. However, I've been having pain issues a lot and my break times have involved nothing but sitting on my butt and griping at myself for not sitting down and taking a break sooner. So no, I haven't done any pens. 
The good news on that front is, I do have more pen kits. I ordered more of the slimline pen kits. They are cheap enough for me to continue to learn with. I'm sticking with the cheap kits until I am confident enough in my techniques and abilities in that area for anything more expensive. I seen some pens in the projects sectsion by Roger with the bullet bodies and bolt action click assembly though that sure make me think twice about spending my light bill money on pen kits.


----------



## Kentuk55 (Sep 21, 2010)

greasemonkeyredneck said:


> *Base Plates*
> 
> Yesterday I built the base. Inside the base there will be plates with holes in a grid patterns. With this grid of holes on these plates, it will be possible to place marbles in the holes, place pieces with holes in the bottom of them on top of the marbles, locking things together so nothing moves. It is with this type of system upon which everything else will be possible to build.
> 
> ...


Oh, man…..... If I only had half the marbles that you have here William, I'd be in good shape. This build is comin along nicely


----------



## greasemonkeyredneck (Aug 14, 2010)

greasemonkeyredneck said:


> *Base Plates*
> 
> Yesterday I built the base. Inside the base there will be plates with holes in a grid patterns. With this grid of holes on these plates, it will be possible to place marbles in the holes, place pieces with holes in the bottom of them on top of the marbles, locking things together so nothing moves. It is with this type of system upon which everything else will be possible to build.
> 
> ...


Thank you Roger.
It's coming along, slowly but surely.


----------



## greasemonkeyredneck (Aug 14, 2010)

*The Crank*

If you've been keeping up, we are just about ready to start building the actual pieces to make a marble run. The only thing we have left is a crank handle to operate the pump assembly.








To attach a shaft to the pump, running to the outside of the base box, we are using a half inch dowel. That dowel has a hole drilled the same size as the metal shaft. Then the dowel is split with a band saw down the middle of that hole. This slips over the shaft.
Next we have to pinch the dowel down onto the shaft. To do that we take a block of wood and drill a half inch hole through it. Then we drill and countersink four holes for screws. Then we split the block right down the middle of the half inch hole. Next, drill the hole larger on the countersunk side, just large enough for the four screws to pass through cleanly without catching threads. We want the screws to pull this top piece to the other one. So the threads do not need to catch that piece at all or it won't tighten.
After all that is done, and the screws are in the block to hold it together, slip the block onto the metal shaft. Put the wooden dowel through the side of the box and slip it over the metal shaft. Now pull the block back over the wooden dowel and tighten it down, pinching the dowel down onto the metal shaft.
This all creates a good enough fit to turn the pump rod. Now, if something jams up enough to completely stop the pump, this clamping system will slip. That is on purpose. You'd rather the rod connection slip than for a jam to destroy some part of the pump, or anything else. A jam is unlikely as long as we do everything else correctly, but you never know. It's better to be safe than sorry.








Now this part is not actually necessary, but I thought the outside of the box looked too plain. So I decided to add a dress up piece with an arrow cut out with the scroll saw. I made this out of a piece of walnut for a nice contrast to the color of the box.








Next, in my opinion, there was just too much play in the wooden dowel shaft as it came through the side of the box, so I added a block to the inside to give it more stability.








Then I made the crank from a piece of sapelle. The crank handle is made out of mystery wood. It is a piece of wood that a friend sent me for pen blanks that I have yet to properly identify, so I'm calling it mystery wood for now. 
The reason I used a pen blank for that part is that I just needed a small piece of wood to turn for a crank handle, and this piece looked good to me next to the walnut and sapelle. All the dowels I have are softwood, mostly pine. I did not want to use pine for the crank handle, so I turned a piece for it on the lathe.








Now everything for a functioning feed system and base is finally complete. We can now start on actually building pieces.


----------



## DIYaholic (Jan 28, 2011)

greasemonkeyredneck said:


> *The Crank*
> 
> If you've been keeping up, we are just about ready to start building the actual pieces to make a marble run. The only thing we have left is a crank handle to operate the pump assembly.
> 
> ...


The foundation is set! May the build commence.

I like the addition of the "stabalizing block" for the crank/shaft, along with the crank handle direction indicator!!!


----------



## greasemonkeyredneck (Aug 14, 2010)

greasemonkeyredneck said:


> *The Crank*
> 
> If you've been keeping up, we are just about ready to start building the actual pieces to make a marble run. The only thing we have left is a crank handle to operate the pump assembly.
> 
> ...


Thanks Randy. 
When are you going to build a marble machine?


----------



## StumpyNubs (Sep 25, 2010)

greasemonkeyredneck said:


> *The Crank*
> 
> If you've been keeping up, we are just about ready to start building the actual pieces to make a marble run. The only thing we have left is a crank handle to operate the pump assembly.
> 
> ...


You sure know your way around a marble machine! When it's done can I have it? I promise to never lose my marbles! 

You'd better keep it, I probably WILL lose my marbles.


----------



## DIYaholic (Jan 28, 2011)

greasemonkeyredneck said:


> *The Crank*
> 
> If you've been keeping up, we are just about ready to start building the actual pieces to make a marble run. The only thing we have left is a crank handle to operate the pump assembly.
> 
> ...


I can'tz be buildinating a marble machine….
I ain't gotz no marbles!!! No, I didn't lose my marbles….
I never had any!!!


----------



## superdav721 (Aug 16, 2010)

greasemonkeyredneck said:


> *The Crank*
> 
> If you've been keeping up, we are just about ready to start building the actual pieces to make a marble run. The only thing we have left is a crank handle to operate the pump assembly.
> 
> ...


Its getting bigger.
Mouse trap the game comes to mind.
looking good William


----------



## gfadvm (Jan 13, 2011)

greasemonkeyredneck said:


> *The Crank*
> 
> If you've been keeping up, we are just about ready to start building the actual pieces to make a marble run. The only thing we have left is a crank handle to operate the pump assembly.
> 
> ...


William, Your creations just amaze me! I was lost when you posted the pump! But I'll be following along as your stuff always turns out to be fascinating. I had Hell getting my candy machine to work! Think I'd best stick to boxes.


----------



## greasemonkeyredneck (Aug 14, 2010)

greasemonkeyredneck said:


> *The Crank*
> 
> If you've been keeping up, we are just about ready to start building the actual pieces to make a marble run. The only thing we have left is a crank handle to operate the pump assembly.
> 
> ...


Thanks guys.

Stumps, you should check out the base installment. I used a machine designed by some guy named Stumps.

Randy, YOU CAN DEW IT!

Dave, it isn't mouse trap quality yet, but wait until I'm done and it may just be comparable.

Andy, these marble machines are definately only for someone who likes testing, testing, retesting, and then doing over and testing some more. Hey, maybe I have lost my marbles.


----------



## grizzman (May 10, 2009)

greasemonkeyredneck said:


> *The Crank*
> 
> If you've been keeping up, we are just about ready to start building the actual pieces to make a marble run. The only thing we have left is a crank handle to operate the pump assembly.
> 
> ...


its looking really good william, im always intrigued with these marble machines..now if we could only identify that darn piece of wood…lol…grizz


----------



## greasemonkeyredneck (Aug 14, 2010)

greasemonkeyredneck said:


> *The Crank*
> 
> If you've been keeping up, we are just about ready to start building the actual pieces to make a marble run. The only thing we have left is a crank handle to operate the pump assembly.
> 
> ...


No worries Grizz, it isn't one of the blanks you sent. These came from another friend from up north.
I was looking earlier, I now have about fifty to sixty marble run track pieces to make and about as many spacer blocks. So I still have my work cut out for me. Just saying that I think makes me want to go to bed.


----------



## JL7 (Apr 13, 2010)

greasemonkeyredneck said:


> *The Crank*
> 
> If you've been keeping up, we are just about ready to start building the actual pieces to make a marble run. The only thing we have left is a crank handle to operate the pump assembly.
> 
> ...


You keep cranking it up! Looking good as always…..how many more marbles do you have left to lose?? I'd think you'd be out by now…..


----------



## greasemonkeyredneck (Aug 14, 2010)

greasemonkeyredneck said:


> *The Crank*
> 
> If you've been keeping up, we are just about ready to start building the actual pieces to make a marble run. The only thing we have left is a crank handle to operate the pump assembly.
> 
> ...


I've got a few trick, eh marbles, up my sleeve.
This is the fourth one I'm working on now.
All have been closely tied to someone else's plans.
I plan on my fifth being a creation of my own design.
Thanks Jeff.


----------



## alba (Jul 31, 2010)

greasemonkeyredneck said:


> *The Crank*
> 
> If you've been keeping up, we are just about ready to start building the actual pieces to make a marble run. The only thing we have left is a crank handle to operate the pump assembly.
> 
> ...


William is is coming along really nicely
The pen blank is sensible as you need a good strong piece
Your arrow idea must be shown to the designer, I can imagine
that the wrong direction could mess up some bits.
This is definitely the machine to let you try out new designs on.
Jamie


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## stefang (Apr 9, 2009)

greasemonkeyredneck said:


> *The Crank*
> 
> If you've been keeping up, we are just about ready to start building the actual pieces to make a marble run. The only thing we have left is a crank handle to operate the pump assembly.
> 
> ...


Looking good!


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## greasemonkeyredneck (Aug 14, 2010)

greasemonkeyredneck said:


> *The Crank*
> 
> If you've been keeping up, we are just about ready to start building the actual pieces to make a marble run. The only thing we have left is a crank handle to operate the pump assembly.
> 
> ...


Thank you Stefang.

Jamie, actually, turning the crank the wrong way won't hurt anything. It would just back the marbles up into the feed chute. I think the arrow was a nice touch though.
Thank you. I'm glad everyone likes it.

I feel I'm boring sometimes giving all the details of a project such as this. I decided to do a detailed blog about it because, with the last three marble machines, I've gotten contant questions from people regarding if they're hard to do, how much time it takes, and such. They aren'y hard at all. They do require a lot of patience though, and they are extremely time consuming.

Thank you all for taking the time to read all my rambling ons about the build of things such as this though. I appreciate the fact that someone takes the time out of their day to do that.


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## Kentuk55 (Sep 21, 2010)

greasemonkeyredneck said:


> *The Crank*
> 
> If you've been keeping up, we are just about ready to start building the actual pieces to make a marble run. The only thing we have left is a crank handle to operate the pump assembly.
> 
> ...


Yes, the arrow is a nice touch.


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## toeachhisown (Eddie) (Mar 30, 2011)

greasemonkeyredneck said:


> *The Crank*
> 
> If you've been keeping up, we are just about ready to start building the actual pieces to make a marble run. The only thing we have left is a crank handle to operate the pump assembly.
> 
> ...


William you got me wanting to make one now ,as soon as i get these chairs out of the way ,its looks to be a test of patience for me ,look foward to seeing the build


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## DIYaholic (Jan 28, 2011)

greasemonkeyredneck said:


> *The Crank*
> 
> If you've been keeping up, we are just about ready to start building the actual pieces to make a marble run. The only thing we have left is a crank handle to operate the pump assembly.
> 
> ...


William,
It is a pleasure to read your ramblings. You have a unique writing style that keeps the stories interesting. Pointing out all the little details, in a virtual way brings us into your shop as if looking over your shoulder.

Not only that, reading your posts makes it feel ow so real, that I forget I don't have a real life!!!

Keep on keeping on….


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## greasemonkeyredneck (Aug 14, 2010)

greasemonkeyredneck said:


> *The Crank*
> 
> If you've been keeping up, we are just about ready to start building the actual pieces to make a marble run. The only thing we have left is a crank handle to operate the pump assembly.
> 
> ...


Thank you all.

I am afraid I got nothing done today on the marble machine.
My older sons came to visit today. 
Since I am to a point that I need precision, 
and I can't concentrate to get that precision with all the visiting going on,
I decided to take advantage of the extra hands and do something else I've been wanting to do.

There's a few things that have been bothering me about my shop.
Certain things that I placed in certain places weren't working out for me.
They were messing with my "flow" when I'm trying to do something.
So today my boys helped me get a lot of rearranging and reorganizing done. 
I am so much happier with my shop now.
It looks like I need to do a new shop tour update soon.

So, with that, and I have a full plate tomorrow,
It'll be Monday at the earliest before there will be anymore work done on the marble machine.

Thank you all so much for your interest.


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## greasemonkeyredneck (Aug 14, 2010)

*Riser Blocks*

In my previous post, I admitted to being sidetracked most of the week. I have gotten some work done on the marble machine, but it is a spot in the project where it is kind of pointless to post much because the work is kind of boring and mundane. 
The parts I am working on are called riser blocks. 
These are simply block, like children's building blocks, that stack on top of one another and interlock using marbles. It is upon this system of stacked blocks that track sections will later be made to sit on top of.








Here is the bulk of the higher blocks. I know it doesn't look like much, but this is extremely time consuming. There are a certain number of each style of block to accommodate building a variety of layouts. Some are just square blocks of different heights. Some are step blocks that are rectangular with one side higher than the other. However, every block has the same measured grid pattern holes drilled on top and bottom. This allows them to be interlocked using marbles.
All blocks have several things in common though. All are 3.2cm in width. This corresponds with the same measured grid pattern throughout the design, including the base plates. All holes are on the same 3.2cm spacing and 1.6cm from the edges to allow stacking and interlocking without interference. The height of the blocks are all set in units of 2cm. For example, one set of step blocks are two and three unit steps, which are 4cm on one step and 6cm on the other step. This will correspond with a 2cm height of the track pieces and allow easy transition of marbles through track systems. 








I was able to get the flat stock cut, but my back made me call it a day before I started on the holes in them today.
In this photo though, you can see the tools I'm using to accomplish the accurate drilling of the holes. I use a marking gauge set at 1.6cm to mark lines on the pieces. The same gauge is then used from the ends to mark the holes closest to the edge. I use extra cut test pieces to get the depth of the holes, which have to be around 8mm to keep the marbles holding things tight enough. I mark and drill holes in my test pieces and check them with the depth gauge that is hard to see between the tape measure and marking gauges. To make sure I get the forstner bit drilling perfectly where I want it to, I punch a divot in each spot using the awl you see closest to the blocks in the photo. 
When I finish these blocks, they will be single unit (2cm) planks that go from two hole strips, adding one hole at a time, all the way up to six hole strips. The large square you see are planks that will have twelve hole grid patterns on them.

.

If anyone doesn't understand how all these work together, don't fret. For now they just look like a bunch of wood with holes in them. When all is done though, it will make perfect sense. I promise a video at that time to demonstrate it all.


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## gfadvm (Jan 13, 2011)

greasemonkeyredneck said:


> *Riser Blocks*
> 
> In my previous post, I admitted to being sidetracked most of the week. I have gotten some work done on the marble machine, but it is a spot in the project where it is kind of pointless to post much because the work is kind of boring and mundane.
> The parts I am working on are called riser blocks.
> ...


I'm still lost but following along with great anticipation. And now you're a metric thinker!


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## greasemonkeyredneck (Aug 14, 2010)

greasemonkeyredneck said:


> *Riser Blocks*
> 
> In my previous post, I admitted to being sidetracked most of the week. I have gotten some work done on the marble machine, but it is a spot in the project where it is kind of pointless to post much because the work is kind of boring and mundane.
> The parts I am working on are called riser blocks.
> ...


Thanks for following along Andy. I think it'll all come together and make sense in the end. The purpose of this blog though really was to show just what goes into these marble machines (a LOT).
As for the metric, the plans I'm basing this on are designed by Matthius Wandell. He is in Canada and uses the metric system. I am more accustomed to inch measurements. I have no problem with themetric system in general. 
The biggest issue I've had using it is that I can't find a good metric tape measure. The one I have has to be turned upside down to read metric. So every time I work on a project in metric, it takes me a bit to get back used to flipping the tape. It's kind of embarrasing until you figure out the tape measure. For example, there's a HUGE different in, say, 59cm and 59 inches. 
On another note, if I had proper measuring tools, and plans and such in metric, I think I'd prefer it over inches. Standard American measuring system requires fractional measurements that are crazy on things such as this with requires small precise parts. It is almost impossible to accurately cut a thirty secondths measurement of anything. However, the metric system is simply in tenths. For example, using the same 59 number, a plan may say 59mm. It is simple to move the decimal over and know instantly that the correct measurement is 5cm9mm.


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## DIYaholic (Jan 28, 2011)

greasemonkeyredneck said:


> *Riser Blocks*
> 
> In my previous post, I admitted to being sidetracked most of the week. I have gotten some work done on the marble machine, but it is a spot in the project where it is kind of pointless to post much because the work is kind of boring and mundane.
> The parts I am working on are called riser blocks.
> ...


Lego of my eggo!!!
These look like assorted sized & shaped Lego pieces, with marbles for removable nubs….

I too, would probably be more comfortable utilizing metric measurements. The math really is MUCH easier. Well, at least for this simpleton!!!

Eagerly awaiting further progress!!!


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## greasemonkeyredneck (Aug 14, 2010)

greasemonkeyredneck said:


> *Riser Blocks*
> 
> In my previous post, I admitted to being sidetracked most of the week. I have gotten some work done on the marble machine, but it is a spot in the project where it is kind of pointless to post much because the work is kind of boring and mundane.
> The parts I am working on are called riser blocks.
> ...


Thanks Randy.
Next I have to drill all the holes in the pieces I showed in that last photo. That'll take at least a half day or so to mark the layout and drill.
After that, I can finally move on to making track pieces.


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## toeachhisown (Eddie) (Mar 30, 2011)

greasemonkeyredneck said:


> *Riser Blocks*
> 
> In my previous post, I admitted to being sidetracked most of the week. I have gotten some work done on the marble machine, but it is a spot in the project where it is kind of pointless to post much because the work is kind of boring and mundane.
> The parts I am working on are called riser blocks.
> ...


William it coming along iv been following like Andy ,but will be ready to see it ,may try it latter my self ,know the one at your shop sold me on them


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## greasemonkeyredneck (Aug 14, 2010)

greasemonkeyredneck said:


> *Riser Blocks*
> 
> In my previous post, I admitted to being sidetracked most of the week. I have gotten some work done on the marble machine, but it is a spot in the project where it is kind of pointless to post much because the work is kind of boring and mundane.
> The parts I am working on are called riser blocks.
> ...


Thanks Eddie. I hope you build one one of these days. I think you'd enjoy it.


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## stefang (Apr 9, 2009)

greasemonkeyredneck said:


> *Riser Blocks*
> 
> In my previous post, I admitted to being sidetracked most of the week. I have gotten some work done on the marble machine, but it is a spot in the project where it is kind of pointless to post much because the work is kind of boring and mundane.
> The parts I am working on are called riser blocks.
> ...


Looks like a lot of work William. I'm convinced that you do more work in a day than I manage in a month in spite of your health issues. Looking forward to see how these parts all work together on this interesting build.


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## greasemonkeyredneck (Aug 14, 2010)

greasemonkeyredneck said:


> *Riser Blocks*
> 
> In my previous post, I admitted to being sidetracked most of the week. I have gotten some work done on the marble machine, but it is a spot in the project where it is kind of pointless to post much because the work is kind of boring and mundane.
> The parts I am working on are called riser blocks.
> ...


Thanks Mike.
I've heard that a few times about how much I do. I tend to squeeze all I can out of a day. I wish I could do it consistently though. My health just doesn't allow it to be done every day anymore. I have a good stretches and my bad spells. 
You should have known me when I was in good health though. I'll bet if I hadn't messed my back up in '99 I would be able to work circles around the young guys even today. I just grew up working and always liked it. I now have depression issues sometimes related and corresponding directly to when I'm not able to do much. I always figured I'd work till the day I die. So when I get down and can't get to the shop, I get down mentally as well. I feel a need to constantly be doing something.
All that makes me start to think of some of the jobs I've done that others wouldn't have done. My first paying job I was thirteen years old. I hoed cotton for eight dollars a day. That amazes me when I think that a lot of people make more than that an hour now.


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## Kentuk55 (Sep 21, 2010)

greasemonkeyredneck said:


> *Riser Blocks*
> 
> In my previous post, I admitted to being sidetracked most of the week. I have gotten some work done on the marble machine, but it is a spot in the project where it is kind of pointless to post much because the work is kind of boring and mundane.
> The parts I am working on are called riser blocks.
> ...


Yes, I know you've got more accomplished than I have in the past fast 2 months.. Sure can't figure out how to slow time down


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## greasemonkeyredneck (Aug 14, 2010)

greasemonkeyredneck said:


> *Riser Blocks*
> 
> In my previous post, I admitted to being sidetracked most of the week. I have gotten some work done on the marble machine, but it is a spot in the project where it is kind of pointless to post much because the work is kind of boring and mundane.
> The parts I am working on are called riser blocks.
> ...


I gave up on slowing down time Roger because I wonder if that would slow our movements down as well. 
Lengthening the days though, that's an idea.


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## greasemonkeyredneck (Aug 14, 2010)

*Track Blocks - Part 1*

I've decided to break the track blocks into parts in addition to the separate parts of the project as a whole because the track blocks will cover multiple days of work. 
Before I start with that though, I also need to show the rest of the riser blocks. I did not see a need to make another post about them because it was only more of the basic same process as making the first part of them.








On the right side in this photo is the rest of the riser blocks. I finished these yesterday but wasn't up to posting last night. All these blocks are long narrow blocks that will be used to tie everything together as you build up the marble tracks.








I decided to show this photo of all the riser blocks laid out on the table to show better the amount of blocks that go into this. These are just the risers. Today it was time to start on the actual track blocks that the marbles will ride on.








I'm starting on the straight track blocks. These start are just square blocks of wood in two different lengths. The underside of all the track blocks get the same grid measured holes to lock in with the riser blocks. I showed in previous posts how this works.
The four blocks you see in the lower left corner are the only ones with holes through them. These also have three millimeter cutouts on the bottom of them on the end with the holes. This provides clearance for marbles if the track is built to have them fall on close tracks below them.








Each of these blocks, in both lengths, get the same six degree taper cut on them. This provides the downward slope for gravity to take over and move the marbles.








Then I used a router to cut the length of the slots in the pieces. Next, I used a router bit in the drill press to mill out the exits on some pieces. Each piece is tested multiple times. If there are any problems they are fine tuned using a dremil drill with a sanding drum on it and lightly shaping the pieces until things work smoothly. 








Here I have restacked all the riser blocks on the right side and started the stacks of track blocks on the left. As I go, the stacks keep growing.


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## gfadvm (Jan 13, 2011)

greasemonkeyredneck said:


> *Track Blocks - Part 1*
> 
> I've decided to break the track blocks into parts in addition to the separate parts of the project as a whole because the track blocks will cover multiple days of work.
> Before I start with that though, I also need to show the rest of the riser blocks. I did not see a need to make another post about them because it was only more of the basic same process as making the first part of them.
> ...


I'm still watching and fascinated with the amount of work you put into this!


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## boxcarmarty (Dec 9, 2011)

greasemonkeyredneck said:


> *Track Blocks - Part 1*
> 
> I've decided to break the track blocks into parts in addition to the separate parts of the project as a whole because the track blocks will cover multiple days of work.
> Before I start with that though, I also need to show the rest of the riser blocks. I did not see a need to make another post about them because it was only more of the basic same process as making the first part of them.
> ...


I'm still confused…..


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## greasemonkeyredneck (Aug 14, 2010)

greasemonkeyredneck said:


> *Track Blocks - Part 1*
> 
> I've decided to break the track blocks into parts in addition to the separate parts of the project as a whole because the track blocks will cover multiple days of work.
> Before I start with that though, I also need to show the rest of the riser blocks. I did not see a need to make another post about them because it was only more of the basic same process as making the first part of them.
> ...


It is a lot of time consuming tasks that go into these things Andy.
Marty, stay tuned. It will al make sense in the end.


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## DIYaholic (Jan 28, 2011)

greasemonkeyredneck said:


> *Track Blocks - Part 1*
> 
> I've decided to break the track blocks into parts in addition to the separate parts of the project as a whole because the track blocks will cover multiple days of work.
> Before I start with that though, I also need to show the rest of the riser blocks. I did not see a need to make another post about them because it was only more of the basic same process as making the first part of them.
> ...


Marty will continue to be confused well after the machine is completed!!!

I would imagine that this could get just a tad tedious (to me at least) to build ALL those pieces/parts….
More power to you William!!!

I do like the overall concept of the interlocking modular components. Really looking forward to seeing it come together & in operation!!!

Carry on….


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## alba (Jul 31, 2010)

greasemonkeyredneck said:


> *Track Blocks - Part 1*
> 
> I've decided to break the track blocks into parts in addition to the separate parts of the project as a whole because the track blocks will cover multiple days of work.
> Before I start with that though, I also need to show the rest of the riser blocks. I did not see a need to make another post about them because it was only more of the basic same process as making the first part of them.
> ...


Going well William
Jamie


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## toeachhisown (Eddie) (Mar 30, 2011)

greasemonkeyredneck said:


> *Track Blocks - Part 1*
> 
> I've decided to break the track blocks into parts in addition to the separate parts of the project as a whole because the track blocks will cover multiple days of work.
> Before I start with that though, I also need to show the rest of the riser blocks. I did not see a need to make another post about them because it was only more of the basic same process as making the first part of them.
> ...


im still hanging in there William, looking forward to this one


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## stefang (Apr 9, 2009)

greasemonkeyredneck said:


> *Track Blocks - Part 1*
> 
> I've decided to break the track blocks into parts in addition to the separate parts of the project as a whole because the track blocks will cover multiple days of work.
> Before I start with that though, I also need to show the rest of the riser blocks. I did not see a need to make another post about them because it was only more of the basic same process as making the first part of them.
> ...


Unlike boxcarmarty, I'm not confused at all, as I haven't had a clue what's going on from the very start. It is fun seeing this machine develop though. Ok, I did understand the pump, but it's all been downhill for me since then. Keep up the good work William.


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## Kentuk55 (Sep 21, 2010)

greasemonkeyredneck said:


> *Track Blocks - Part 1*
> 
> I've decided to break the track blocks into parts in addition to the separate parts of the project as a whole because the track blocks will cover multiple days of work.
> Before I start with that though, I also need to show the rest of the riser blocks. I did not see a need to make another post about them because it was only more of the basic same process as making the first part of them.
> ...


I'm just excited to see these marbles, since I've lost mine many years ago


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## greasemonkeyredneck (Aug 14, 2010)

greasemonkeyredneck said:


> *Track Blocks - Part 1*
> 
> I've decided to break the track blocks into parts in addition to the separate parts of the project as a whole because the track blocks will cover multiple days of work.
> Before I start with that though, I also need to show the rest of the riser blocks. I did not see a need to make another post about them because it was only more of the basic same process as making the first part of them.
> ...


Randy, it is tedious making all those parts, very tedious. That is the point of this blog. I wanted to give an idea of what goes into these machines. Ever since I built the other three machines, I've had questions and comments coming to my email ranging from amazement, to curiosity, to some saying it must be easy since I have built the ones so far from plans. I want to assure anyone who wishes to do one that it can be done with patience, but they are far from "easy". A lot of work goes into them. Beyond that, no plan prepares you for all the fine tuning and tweaking that has to be done. This is only a fun project for someone who likes getting obsessed with the finest of details to make something work. If you don't, please watch someone elses work and save your sanity.

Thank you Jamie. I appreicate you keeping up with it.

It's a pleasure as always Eddie. I realized that you didn't get a chance to really see my other machines when you made your visit a while back. We got busy running our mouths. Next trip you make, I'm going to be sure that you see them in action.

Mike, thank you. And if you understand the pump, then the rest of it will be a breeze to comprehend. You should build one. This would be a perfect project for you. After seeing all the work you recently put into the marquetry piece, this would be a cakewalk for you.

Roger, thank you. That's perfect though. You have to lose you marbles before working on one of these. They'd drive you crazy if you hadn't.

.

Alright, I think I need to explain it the best I can. If it doesn't help anyone, then I'm afraid you'll just have to wait and see the video when it's all done.
As I go through it, remember the parts. 
The base holds everything. When the blocks are not used they are stored in the base.
The crank turned the pump, which pushes the marbles up and out the top of the elevator shaft, where the marbles will follow a path built up with riser and track blocks. The riser blocks are just pieces of wood that support hieght of the track blocks. The track blocks are self explanatory and are, well, tracks.

1. Build a track system. This can be anything from simple to complex. Once all the track blocks are built, you can use the riser and track blocks to build all kind of contraptions. The limits will only be with your imagination. 
There are mainly three things you have to pay attention to here. 
The tracks have to start where marbles coming out of the elevator column feed them. 
The track have to be put together so they don't "leak" marbles all over the place and provide constant motion. This can sometimes only be done through trial and error.
The end of any track system has to feed back into the feed trough so they can keep circulating back through the system.
2. Load the marbles up into the feed trough. Depending on the system of blocks that are built, this can range from 25 marbles up to over 100. The number will depend on how many, again depending on the complexity of what you've built. More complex systems will hold upwards of twenty marbles in the pump plus what ever amount stays in motion through the contraption. Using too few marbles will not hurt anything but will cuase "dead" spots in the action while the pump waits for marbles to make it back down to it. Remember you always have about twenty five marbles that are not used at the moment inside the elevator column. These have to have more marbles fed to them to push the next one out. 
3. Turn the crank at a slow steady pace and watch the fun. 
4. When you get bored with that design, take it apart. Use marbles in between the holes in the base plates and the block pieces and build something else.


----------



## Doe (Aug 26, 2010)

greasemonkeyredneck said:


> *Track Blocks - Part 1*
> 
> I've decided to break the track blocks into parts in addition to the separate parts of the project as a whole because the track blocks will cover multiple days of work.
> Before I start with that though, I also need to show the rest of the riser blocks. I did not see a need to make another post about them because it was only more of the basic same process as making the first part of them.
> ...


This is way, WAY cool! I'm really not sure I'd have the patience to do all the risers and straight blocks. Can you give us a rough estimate as to how long it took, testing and all?


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## greasemonkeyredneck (Aug 14, 2010)

greasemonkeyredneck said:


> *Track Blocks - Part 1*
> 
> I've decided to break the track blocks into parts in addition to the separate parts of the project as a whole because the track blocks will cover multiple days of work.
> Before I start with that though, I also need to show the rest of the riser blocks. I did not see a need to make another post about them because it was only more of the basic same process as making the first part of them.
> ...


I think you're asking how long it took just for the riser blocks and the few straight track pieces I've gotten done so far?
If so, I have about a day and a half in doing the riser blocks, and a whole day doing the straight track pieces. So that's two and a half days. I'm counting eight hours as a day because I haven't been able to actually put in a whole day lately. If you count each day I worked on it, it would be closer to about five days. 
I'm overcomplicating. I have a habit of that.
I have about twenty hours in just the riser blocks and the straight track pieces.
Aaaah! But I am nowhere near done yet. I'll have today's progress up after I eat dinner.


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## greasemonkeyredneck (Aug 14, 2010)

*Track Blocks - Part 2*

Next up on the track block list is the zig-zag tracks.








As you can see, these track pieces are double wide, but get the same grid measured hole pattern as everything else so it can be locked in place using marbles. 
I debated on what wood to use for these zig-zag pieces. I have so far made all the riser blocks and track blocks out of sycamore. Then I realized today that these pieces, and a few others are larger than any sycamore I have on hand. I thought about gluing up material to make stock big enough. The problem is, I really do not want glued up stock any time I can avoid it. I prefer solid wood. I do have large enough stock in sapelle though. So I made the decision that using sapelle for some of the pieces would allow me to use solid stock, and add more color to the mix. So some parts from here out will be made of sapelle. 
Back the the zig-zag tracks, the ramp portion is made of sapelle, while the rest is sycamore.








The top part of the ramps have triangles of wood that makes the marbles zig and zag through to the bottom. You may notice, the two are mirror pieces to each other.
Ok, I have an admission to make today. The pieces you see here are my third attempt at making these correctly. Have you ever had one of those days you just shouldn't have went to the shop?








The stacks of pieces are steadily growing as the days go by.


----------



## toeachhisown (Eddie) (Mar 30, 2011)

greasemonkeyredneck said:


> *Track Blocks - Part 2*
> 
> Next up on the track block list is the zig-zag tracks.
> 
> ...


William I have lots of those days,the machine seems to be coming along ,I admire your patience to even try these .looking forward to the completion to see it still can't see it yet but I'm going to hang in here.with ya


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## DIYaholic (Jan 28, 2011)

greasemonkeyredneck said:


> *Track Blocks - Part 2*
> 
> Next up on the track block list is the zig-zag tracks.
> 
> ...


Moving right along….

I really like the contrast of the sapelle & sycamore!

Will you be applying a "finish, when finished???


----------



## StumpyNubs (Sep 25, 2010)

greasemonkeyredneck said:


> *Track Blocks - Part 2*
> 
> Next up on the track block list is the zig-zag tracks.
> 
> ...


Lookin good. Thanks for the update!


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## greasemonkeyredneck (Aug 14, 2010)

greasemonkeyredneck said:


> *Track Blocks - Part 2*
> 
> Next up on the track block list is the zig-zag tracks.
> 
> ...


Sorry it is hard to see it for what it is at the moment Eddie. All this craziness will make sense when it's done.
Yes I will be applying a finish Randy. I just haven't decided what yet.


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## gfadvm (Jan 13, 2011)

greasemonkeyredneck said:


> *Track Blocks - Part 2*
> 
> Next up on the track block list is the zig-zag tracks.
> 
> ...


Looking interesting. Carry on!


----------



## superdav721 (Aug 16, 2010)

greasemonkeyredneck said:


> *Track Blocks - Part 2*
> 
> Next up on the track block list is the zig-zag tracks.
> 
> ...


That looks like a game I had when I was a kid.


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## boxcarmarty (Dec 9, 2011)

greasemonkeyredneck said:


> *Track Blocks - Part 2*
> 
> Next up on the track block list is the zig-zag tracks.
> 
> ...


Cool, What is it???


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## superdav721 (Aug 16, 2010)

greasemonkeyredneck said:


> *Track Blocks - Part 2*
> 
> Next up on the track block list is the zig-zag tracks.
> 
> ...


----------



## alba (Jul 31, 2010)

greasemonkeyredneck said:


> *Track Blocks - Part 2*
> 
> Next up on the track block list is the zig-zag tracks.
> 
> ...


William it is going along nicely
Yes, I get a lot of days that wood be better out of the shop 
Jamie


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## stefang (Apr 9, 2009)

greasemonkeyredneck said:


> *Track Blocks - Part 2*
> 
> Next up on the track block list is the zig-zag tracks.
> 
> ...


This is looking more and more complicated and interesting day by day William. I have many days that I shouldn't have been in the shop. Yesterday was one of those, changing the sanding disk on my big disk sander.


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## greasemonkeyredneck (Aug 14, 2010)

greasemonkeyredneck said:


> *Track Blocks - Part 2*
> 
> Next up on the track block list is the zig-zag tracks.
> 
> ...


Thank you all very much for your responses.
I am glad some of you find it interesting.
I hope you'll stick around and see it till the end.

Mike, I just changed the sanding pad on my 12" sander last week. Mine has to be partially disassembled to change the pad. It is a pain in the rear for sure. So I usually use a pad until it is just complete garbage before changing it. This is not ideal, but I hate changing that thing.


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## Kentuk55 (Sep 21, 2010)

greasemonkeyredneck said:


> *Track Blocks - Part 2*
> 
> Next up on the track block list is the zig-zag tracks.
> 
> ...


Isn't that a whatchamacallit


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## greasemonkeyredneck (Aug 14, 2010)

*Track Blocks - Part 3*

I had a good day today. Actually, it wasn't a good day at all, but I did get a lot done. To tell the truth, I was angry today. It's a long story, but I was just mad. When I get that way, I have a tendency to push back any pain I may be having and just go. I usually pay for it later, but I get a lot done. 








That being said, this is what I got done today.








Three funnels.








Two circulating bowls.








One ski jump.








One rocker ramp.








Two flip flops.








And of course they all have the same grid measured holes in the bottoms as all the other pieces.
You may notice in this photo that the circulating bowls have a half hole removed on one face of the bottom. There is a good reason for this. These are usually going to mounted low over pieces below them. They need this relief area so marbles have room to clear them while moving on along the tracks. 








And that completes all the track blocks. Here is a photo of them all, along with the riser blocks stacked neatly on top of the base plates.
Also in this photo, you can see that one of the five unit blocks got permenantly attached to the elevator column. That is so there is solid support for the beginning track pieces coming off the end of the column that the marbles will be feeding out of.








To give everyone a better idea of the magnitude of all that I've done lately with this project, here is all the pieces laid out in full view. The only thing you don't see here is the base with the pump mounted in it.
Next up, I have to test and possibly fine tune the fitment of any pieces that are problematic. Then everything needs to have a finish put on it.


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## boxcarmarty (Dec 9, 2011)

greasemonkeyredneck said:


> *Track Blocks - Part 3*
> 
> I had a good day today. Actually, it wasn't a good day at all, but I did get a lot done. To tell the truth, I was angry today. It's a long story, but I was just mad. When I get that way, I have a tendency to push back any pain I may be having and just go. I usually pay for it later, but I get a lot done.
> 
> ...


Cool, Does it make cheeseburgers???


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## greasemonkeyredneck (Aug 14, 2010)

greasemonkeyredneck said:


> *Track Blocks - Part 3*
> 
> I had a good day today. Actually, it wasn't a good day at all, but I did get a lot done. To tell the truth, I was angry today. It's a long story, but I was just mad. When I get that way, I have a tendency to push back any pain I may be having and just go. I usually pay for it later, but I get a lot done.
> 
> ...


I'm sorry. I'm afraid it does not make cheesehurgers. When I'm done though, it'll move enough marbles to keep your mind off the cheeseburgers.


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## toeachhisown (Eddie) (Mar 30, 2011)

greasemonkeyredneck said:


> *Track Blocks - Part 3*
> 
> I had a good day today. Actually, it wasn't a good day at all, but I did get a lot done. To tell the truth, I was angry today. It's a long story, but I was just mad. When I get that way, I have a tendency to push back any pain I may be having and just go. I usually pay for it later, but I get a lot done.
> 
> ...


William this one looks far more complexed than the one in your display area in your shop ,cant wait to see it , thats a lot of parts , Mississippi needs a good school superintendent that has all their marballs


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## alba (Jul 31, 2010)

greasemonkeyredneck said:


> *Track Blocks - Part 3*
> 
> I had a good day today. Actually, it wasn't a good day at all, but I did get a lot done. To tell the truth, I was angry today. It's a long story, but I was just mad. When I get that way, I have a tendency to push back any pain I may be having and just go. I usually pay for it later, but I get a lot done.
> 
> ...


William it is a mammoth task but your moving along well
I pushed yesterday and today is big time payback, I'm with you
More tablets and a wasted day in bed. 
Jamie


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## stefang (Apr 9, 2009)

greasemonkeyredneck said:


> *Track Blocks - Part 3*
> 
> I had a good day today. Actually, it wasn't a good day at all, but I did get a lot done. To tell the truth, I was angry today. It's a long story, but I was just mad. When I get that way, I have a tendency to push back any pain I may be having and just go. I usually pay for it later, but I get a lot done.
> 
> ...


A lot of work indeed! I hope this machine can cook, or make electricity when it finished.


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## greasemonkeyredneck (Aug 14, 2010)

greasemonkeyredneck said:


> *Track Blocks - Part 3*
> 
> I had a good day today. Actually, it wasn't a good day at all, but I did get a lot done. To tell the truth, I was angry today. It's a long story, but I was just mad. When I get that way, I have a tendency to push back any pain I may be having and just go. I usually pay for it later, but I get a lot done.
> 
> ...


Thank you all.

Eddie, it isn't more complex at all. Actually it is simpler. It has been a tad more complex to build, but will be simpler in it's operation. And I've never seen a school anything, even teachers, that have all their marbles. How can you expect them to put up with that many kids and keep their marbles?

Jamie, I do it all the time. I pay for it and have accepted it as part of life. I had to take extra meds this morning just to get out of bed. Rain is moving in also and that doesn't help matters.

Mike, it does none of the above. All it will do is move little glass balls around in a fashion to keep simple minds entertained. That's not the point though. What is the point? Well, when it come to marble machines, or any type similar to it, if you have to ask why, then you're missing the point entirely.


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## grizzman (May 10, 2009)

greasemonkeyredneck said:


> *Track Blocks - Part 3*
> 
> I had a good day today. Actually, it wasn't a good day at all, but I did get a lot done. To tell the truth, I was angry today. It's a long story, but I was just mad. When I get that way, I have a tendency to push back any pain I may be having and just go. I usually pay for it later, but I get a lot done.
> 
> ...


this is pretty dang impressive william, cant wait to see the marbles move, spin, drop, run along a track, and who knows how many movements will take place…but i just hope you wont loose your marbles when your done with this…so a new day has begun, with the rising of the sun, dont worry, be happy…....


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## Kentuk55 (Sep 21, 2010)

greasemonkeyredneck said:


> *Track Blocks - Part 3*
> 
> I had a good day today. Actually, it wasn't a good day at all, but I did get a lot done. To tell the truth, I was angry today. It's a long story, but I was just mad. When I get that way, I have a tendency to push back any pain I may be having and just go. I usually pay for it later, but I get a lot done.
> 
> ...


Wow! That's a lotta machining, drilling, and such. It's gonna be good, I know it. Marty: u want to supersize that cheeseburger???


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## greasemonkeyredneck (Aug 14, 2010)

greasemonkeyredneck said:


> *Track Blocks - Part 3*
> 
> I had a good day today. Actually, it wasn't a good day at all, but I did get a lot done. To tell the truth, I was angry today. It's a long story, but I was just mad. When I get that way, I have a tendency to push back any pain I may be having and just go. I usually pay for it later, but I get a lot done.
> 
> ...


I hope to get to the shop today and make up a track just to show it in motion Grizz. The problem is that this isn't looking too promising at the moment. On top of me overdoing it yesterday, it is raining, and you know how rain effects me. I think I may just go back to bed soon.

Roger, yes it was a lot of shaping of parts. I think drilling all those holes has done one of my forstner bits in. I need to do a touch up job on it. It is so dull that it's burning wood as it cuts. That aint good.


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## boxcarmarty (Dec 9, 2011)

greasemonkeyredneck said:


> *Track Blocks - Part 3*
> 
> I had a good day today. Actually, it wasn't a good day at all, but I did get a lot done. To tell the truth, I was angry today. It's a long story, but I was just mad. When I get that way, I have a tendency to push back any pain I may be having and just go. I usually pay for it later, but I get a lot done.
> 
> ...


Roger, I'm glad you showed up. Can I get a chocolate shake with that???


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## nancyann (Mar 20, 2013)

greasemonkeyredneck said:


> *Track Blocks - Part 3*
> 
> I had a good day today. Actually, it wasn't a good day at all, but I did get a lot done. To tell the truth, I was angry today. It's a long story, but I was just mad. When I get that way, I have a tendency to push back any pain I may be having and just go. I usually pay for it later, but I get a lot done.
> 
> ...


Hi William! Wow, you have been a busy bee! Looks really complicated, and I can see you put alot of work into it. Hope today is a better one for you.


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## greasemonkeyredneck (Aug 14, 2010)

greasemonkeyredneck said:


> *Track Blocks - Part 3*
> 
> I had a good day today. Actually, it wasn't a good day at all, but I did get a lot done. To tell the truth, I was angry today. It's a long story, but I was just mad. When I get that way, I have a tendency to push back any pain I may be having and just go. I usually pay for it later, but I get a lot done.
> 
> ...


No Marty. The shake machine is broken.

Thanks NancyAnn. It isn't complicated at all, just very time consuming. Today actually turned into a catostrophe. I will be posting a blog about that after dinner.


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## greasemonkeyredneck (Aug 14, 2010)

*Testing..............Ooooops!*









Today started the testing process. I didn't feel well at all, but figured that I could handle just testing, as I didn't foresee any problems, so off to the shop I went. I was wrong. Oh boy was I wrong. There was a problem, a huge one. While building up tracks, nothing lined up as it should.
After doing some measuring and double, and triple checking, I found the problem. I had made a gigantic mistake. I'm not talking about a little boo-boo. I'm talking a mistake of epic proportions. This is my worst fear when building something like this. Some problems don't present themselves until everything else is done and you are down to final testing. 








The problem was the feed trough. You may recall how much I keep harping on keeping that same 3.2cm spacing grid pattern through out the machine? In order to do so, the feed trough that runs through the middle of the two base plates was supposed to be 3.2cm wide, with the middle section being 1.8cm and the two sides being 0.7cm. Well apparently I had one of those brain farts I am so famous for. I somehow, in my head, added those two side measurements together and came up with two 1.4cm sides. That made the trough 4.6cm wide and threw everything off the grid by 1.4cm. That just wasn't going to do.
So I done some head scratching trying to figure out a way to correct this situation without rebuilding the whole base unit. 
I tried offsetting holes in the block that is up high on the elevator column. That worked, unless you tried running track across the feed trough and back. So that still wouldn't work. There was just no way around it. At the very least I was going to have to rebuild the feed trough.








After rebuilding the feed trough I had to enlarge the notches on the base plates to bring them over to the new, narrower trough. This left a 0.7cm gap on the sides. I was out of suitable plywood to redo the base plates, and that material isn't exactly cheap, so I made and glued in filler strips on each side of the base. 








Then it was back to testing. After making the modifications to the trough and plates, all was lining up ok now. However, I am not happy with the building of the tracks at all. You see, there are plenty of track elements to build any kind of configuration you can think of. The problem is that it is a puzzle to get it all supported high enough without running out of riser blocks. There are plenty of blocks to tie things together, but not enough of the taller blocks to build upwards. In fact, it is too much of a puzzle in my opinion. The idea is supposed to be to be able to build whatever you like, not to have to solve puzzles to do so. So I am going to make more of the tall square blocks. 
Another thing I noticed was that, while building all of this, and tying it all together using marbles, the marbles I have are running out quickly. I need to go buy some more marbles. You see, the marbles come fifty to a bag. However, of the bags I've bought so far, less than half of them are five eighths inch or smaller so they'll work with this grid design. It's alright though. At a dollar a bag, I figure I'll buy five or six more bags, weed out the oversized ones, and have enough to get the task done without further issues.
So, I only thought I was done except for the testing. I need more blocks and marbles. That is next on the agenda.


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## JL7 (Apr 13, 2010)

greasemonkeyredneck said:


> *Testing..............Ooooops!*
> 
> 
> 
> ...


So…......you really have lost all your marbles then…....

Sorry to here about the boo boo…....this I can relate to…..build your blocks, find your marbles and carry on…..Cool stuff William..


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## sras (Oct 31, 2009)

greasemonkeyredneck said:


> *Testing..............Ooooops!*
> 
> 
> 
> ...


It's one thing to make a mistake. The fun part is when you fix it! Nice save!


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## gfadvm (Jan 13, 2011)

greasemonkeyredneck said:


> *Testing..............Ooooops!*
> 
> 
> 
> ...


You are a patient man. That screw up would have taken the heart out of me. But you just "cowboyed up" and fixed it. Carry on!


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## Kreegan (Jul 10, 2012)

greasemonkeyredneck said:


> *Testing..............Ooooops!*
> 
> 
> 
> ...


That sucks about the mistake, William, but mistakes are a part of the process I guess. I'm sure you'll fix it and wow us all with this one when it's done.


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## boxcarmarty (Dec 9, 2011)

greasemonkeyredneck said:


> *Testing..............Ooooops!*
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Dang good thing you went to school yesterday. Did you meet the math teacher???

Have we figured out what it is yet???


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## DIYaholic (Jan 28, 2011)

greasemonkeyredneck said:


> *Testing..............Ooooops!*
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Glad you were able to conjure up a fix….

It wasn't a mistake, but rather a….
Design change!!!

Please continue to plug away at this, as I wantz ta seez some marbles a rollin' & fallin' and what not!!!

GREAT SAVE!!!


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## greasemonkeyredneck (Aug 14, 2010)

greasemonkeyredneck said:


> *Testing..............Ooooops!*
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Thank you all.
If all goes well, I will go to town first thing in the morning for more marbles, make more blocks, and be back on track to having the marbles rolling down the track. 
Randy has it right. He actually remembered something I usually say. It's not a mistake, but a design change.


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## toeachhisown (Eddie) (Mar 30, 2011)

greasemonkeyredneck said:


> *Testing..............Ooooops!*
> 
> 
> 
> ...


William have been there and its just like the old saying quieter never win and winner never quit ,way to go looking forward to the rest of this build


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## alba (Jul 31, 2010)

greasemonkeyredneck said:


> *Testing..............Ooooops!*
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Bummer William, but you got it sorted
It will help Gordon though as we have not reached that stage.
Jamie


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## grizzman (May 10, 2009)

greasemonkeyredneck said:


> *Testing..............Ooooops!*
> 
> 
> 
> ...


well its a good thing the door on your wood stove wont let this fit in there…lol…naw,,,your a cool cucumber, you found the problem, worked it out, and in the morning you will be rolling again…get it…marbles…rolling…....har har har…im the jokester of the hour here…really sorry for your boo boo….you need to check your blood pressure on deals like this…


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## stefang (Apr 9, 2009)

greasemonkeyredneck said:


> *Testing..............Ooooops!*
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Some days are like that. Don't give up on it too soon William. Now when you are upset with it, it probably seems worse than it is.


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## greasemonkeyredneck (Aug 14, 2010)

greasemonkeyredneck said:


> *Testing..............Ooooops!*
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Thanks all. 
Grizz, I would never burn anything I have this much work in by placing it in the wood heater.
That's what bon-fires are for.

Seriously though.
I always try to fix what I can, if it's possible.
If something is messed up so that it is not repairable in a way that wouldn't make it look butchered together, then it's fancy firewood. I don't think my fix for this project harmed it in any way though. All is good.

Now I have to tell a secret. I was not surprised by the boo-boo with the trough. I didn't know where it was going to be, but I have the notion that the 3.2cm grid pattern was going to be messed up somewhere along the way and have to be reconed with. It's just the nature of this type of system. It all depends on keeping that exact pattern throughout the machine. It's also real easy to mess it up. 
So, that's a lesson for anyone wishing to build this project. Please don't fret if you find a problem with alignment due to the grid pattern. It's all good. Stop and see what you have to do to fix it. It's wood. The worst case scenerio is that you have to rebuild something.


----------



## Doe (Aug 26, 2010)

greasemonkeyredneck said:


> *Testing..............Ooooops!*
> 
> 
> 
> ...


That's some impressive save. As is your philosophy. Not many people would be as calm as you are.


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## DS (Oct 10, 2011)

greasemonkeyredneck said:


> *Testing..............Ooooops!*
> 
> 
> 
> ...


The way I read it, he hasn't lost his marbles, just they are all irregular.
Welcome to the "Irregular Marbles Club" William!

BTW, genius build and genius solution. I LIKE IT!


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## oldnovice (Mar 7, 2009)

greasemonkeyredneck said:


> *Testing..............Ooooops!*
> 
> 
> 
> ...


*William* did you use the plans available or is this your own design?


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## greasemonkeyredneck (Aug 14, 2010)

greasemonkeyredneck said:


> *Testing..............Ooooops!*
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Thank you Doe. I am usually calm when it comes to things such as wood work or mechanics. I only see mess ups in that sort of thing as a challenge. Now if I could just figure out a way to have as much patience for screwups from people?

Thank you DS. I am the new member of a club and I didn't even know I was in the running. I hope they don't kick me out for not being an irregular marble. I really did just lose my marbles a long time ago.

Novice, this one is built from plans by Matthius Wandell. You can see more about it here if you'd like.

If any of you would like to see a video of the one I'm building in motion, please see today's blog entry.


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## greasemonkeyredneck (Aug 14, 2010)

*Preview*

I was ready and anxious to get back to testing this morning. You may remember from last time though that I had a few things to do first. So off to town I went for more marbles to start with. I bought six bags of marbles to be safe, but there is more to that in a bit.








Also I felt a need to make more of the tallest solid riser blocks. These are simple and didn't take long at all to whip up. Actually, I probably could have gotten by with less than the twelve I wound up making, in addition to the ones I already had. I always say though, if it's worth doing, it's worth overdoing. 








Then it was back to building up some track to test everything. With what I bought this morning, I had enough marbles to test everything, but I still don't have enough. I need five eighths marbles for this design. The problem is, out of each bag of fifty marbles I bought this morning that are supposed to be five eighths, only about five to seven marbles in each bag were acceptable. Most are oversized and won't fit the holes. Some have flat spots and don't roll well. I don't know if it's just a bad batch or what, but I have got to find a solution. I can't keep just buying more and more marbles. The coffee can with the rejected marbles is getting almost full, while the usable can still runs dry when I'm testing.
Anyway, I've gotten a few messages with questions that mostly deal with confusion as to how all this actually goes together. So, in addition to the photo above, here is a video.




Next thing I wanted to test was that all the pieces are supposed to fit into the base if one was to decide to store the whole mess, in a closet, for example.








Remember I made some extra pieces. It all fit.








It was like working a three dimensional puzzle to get it all in there though. I just wanted to see if it fit. I believe if I actually wanted to put it away in use, I would elect to place certain pieces, like maybe the square riser blocks, on top of the base plates to make it easier to fit everything else inside. This would free up space and make things easier, while still keeping everything neatly together to pull out and play with at a later date.

.

That is going to be the last post for at least a few days. All that is left is a finish. I still have yet to figure out what finish I want to use though. A couple of my other marble machines have no finish at all. I do want to put something on this one though. I know I'll finish the base if I don't do anything else. The blocks I am considering leaving unfinished. I am already having issues with some marbles being mighty tight because they are on the verge of being too large. I am afraid that putting finish on them will compound this issue. 
I will give this some though and decide. Then I will post a video of the completely finished project when I am done. I hope you have enjoyed seeing what goes into a project like this. They are a lot of fun in my opinion. They are time consuming though and not for the impatient or easily frustrated.


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## toeachhisown (Eddie) (Mar 30, 2011)

greasemonkeyredneck said:


> *Preview*
> 
> I was ready and anxious to get back to testing this morning. You may remember from last time though that I had a few things to do first. So off to town I went for more marbles to start with. I bought six bags of marbles to be safe, but there is more to that in a bit.
> 
> ...


now i see ,it dose come together now,you have a great deal of patients William ,is this set to where you can rearrange it into different configurations , never mind i see now .


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## grizzman (May 10, 2009)

greasemonkeyredneck said:


> *Preview*
> 
> I was ready and anxious to get back to testing this morning. You may remember from last time though that I had a few things to do first. So off to town I went for more marbles to start with. I bought six bags of marbles to be safe, but there is more to that in a bit.
> 
> ...


fantastic william, me and the wife just watched your video, its a cool machine, you probably need to order your marbles on line from a reliable source, one that gives you exactly what you order…great job here…


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## greasemonkeyredneck (Aug 14, 2010)

greasemonkeyredneck said:


> *Preview*
> 
> I was ready and anxious to get back to testing this morning. You may remember from last time though that I had a few things to do first. So off to town I went for more marbles to start with. I bought six bags of marbles to be safe, but there is more to that in a bit.
> 
> ...


Thanks you both.

Eddie, yes, you can rearrange it any way you want. You're only limited by the bounds of your imagination.

Grizz, I've tried that route with another marble machine. I over paid for marbles that were supposed to be exactly the right size, and still only sixty percent were not oversized. I've come to the conclusion that, with marbles being just basically cast or blown glass, there is no guarantee on size. For most of my machines, a tad bit of difference isn't that big a deal. Accuaracy came into play on this one to give it the ability to repeat results with the stacking blocks. It'll be alright. I'll make sure to build my next marble machine with looser tolerances to use up all the rejected ones from this one.

Did I say next one? Oh yes, there will be a next one.


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## gfadvm (Jan 13, 2011)

greasemonkeyredneck said:


> *Preview*
> 
> I was ready and anxious to get back to testing this morning. You may remember from last time though that I had a few things to do first. So off to town I went for more marbles to start with. I bought six bags of marbles to be safe, but there is more to that in a bit.
> 
> ...


William, You are a genious! That is so cool I'd never get anything done from playing with it. That is just so outside my skill set. Keep posting your amazing stuff. The video made it all the more fun. Great job!

I still think you sound exactly like HWJ on the vids!


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## sras (Oct 31, 2009)

greasemonkeyredneck said:


> *Preview*
> 
> I was ready and anxious to get back to testing this morning. You may remember from last time though that I had a few things to do first. So off to town I went for more marbles to start with. I bought six bags of marbles to be safe, but there is more to that in a bit.
> 
> ...


Great video William! That looks like a ton of fun!

I showed it to my wife. I think I'm going to end up buying a set of plans…


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## greasemonkeyredneck (Aug 14, 2010)

greasemonkeyredneck said:


> *Preview*
> 
> I was ready and anxious to get back to testing this morning. You may remember from last time though that I had a few things to do first. So off to town I went for more marbles to start with. I bought six bags of marbles to be safe, but there is more to that in a bit.
> 
> ...


Thank you Andy. I do love building things that move and have action. I was looking tonight at an idea for a future project that is right up my alley. Wait till you see it. It has some action for sure.

Steve, thanks. Go ahead and buy the plans. They are cheap for the detail Mattius puts into his plans. This is the fifth project I have built of his and am always pleased with his plans. In addition to the plans themselves, you get instructions written in easy to read format, plenty of photos of every step, detailed measurements plus full size templates for any parts that aren't easily laid out with typical measuring tools, and even a sketchup file that employs the free version of sketchup from Google if you like using that route.


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## JL7 (Apr 13, 2010)

greasemonkeyredneck said:


> *Preview*
> 
> I was ready and anxious to get back to testing this morning. You may remember from last time though that I had a few things to do first. So off to town I went for more marbles to start with. I bought six bags of marbles to be safe, but there is more to that in a bit.
> 
> ...


Very nice William….love it…...flat spots or not….looks like a winner…. I'll ask again…..what's next??

Cool build man…..


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## greasemonkeyredneck (Aug 14, 2010)

greasemonkeyredneck said:


> *Preview*
> 
> I was ready and anxious to get back to testing this morning. You may remember from last time though that I had a few things to do first. So off to town I went for more marbles to start with. I bought six bags of marbles to be safe, but there is more to that in a bit.
> 
> ...


That's what I'm debating on Jeff, and have several cool ideas and plans for the future.
I can't decide right now between the wooden gear clock, the new idea for my rubber band gatling gun, or the air powered engine.

And thank you for the compliments. I forgot though, first I have to finish this. It isn't complete just yet.


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## DIYaholic (Jan 28, 2011)

greasemonkeyredneck said:


> *Preview*
> 
> I was ready and anxious to get back to testing this morning. You may remember from last time though that I had a few things to do first. So off to town I went for more marbles to start with. I bought six bags of marbles to be safe, but there is more to that in a bit.
> 
> ...


Great build there, William.
Nice job on the video!

Probably more expensive than marbles, but would individual ball bearings be "machined" to a higher tolerance??? They would also add another "mechanical" aspect to the "marble machine"....

Looking forward to the finale, err "finish"!!!


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## superdav721 (Aug 16, 2010)

greasemonkeyredneck said:


> *Preview*
> 
> I was ready and anxious to get back to testing this morning. You may remember from last time though that I had a few things to do first. So off to town I went for more marbles to start with. I bought six bags of marbles to be safe, but there is more to that in a bit.
> 
> ...


Now I get what you are doing. William my wife says you should have been an engineer.
The thought of you in a lab coat came to my mind.
Then it swiftly left.
All kidding aside.
This is something a child or adult could spend hours playing with.
I will be over in a few.


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## boxcarmarty (Dec 9, 2011)

greasemonkeyredneck said:


> *Preview*
> 
> I was ready and anxious to get back to testing this morning. You may remember from last time though that I had a few things to do first. So off to town I went for more marbles to start with. I bought six bags of marbles to be safe, but there is more to that in a bit.
> 
> ...


It's Alive…..


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## greasemonkeyredneck (Aug 14, 2010)

greasemonkeyredneck said:


> *Preview*
> 
> I was ready and anxious to get back to testing this morning. You may remember from last time though that I had a few things to do first. So off to town I went for more marbles to start with. I bought six bags of marbles to be safe, but there is more to that in a bit.
> 
> ...


Randy, ball bearings are ideal for something like this.
For the price though, I can just buy more bags of marbles and test them through a 5/8" hole like I've been doing, and I prefer the real marble look to the metallic ball bearings. 
Then there is the drawback to ball bearings. They are also heavier. This means redesigning everything with higher sides so the momentum doesn't cause them to constantly overshoot around corners. 
They are ideal though if you want to do something with exact tolerances. This is supposed to be more fun though than exact tolerances.

Dave, I'm glad you think so, because that is what it is meant for, something that will appeal to kids, and the kid in us all. Thanks.


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## greasemonkeyredneck (Aug 14, 2010)

greasemonkeyredneck said:


> *Preview*
> 
> I was ready and anxious to get back to testing this morning. You may remember from last time though that I had a few things to do first. So off to town I went for more marbles to start with. I bought six bags of marbles to be safe, but there is more to that in a bit.
> 
> ...


Yes Marty.
Well, not yet.
It is coming to life though.


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## boxcarmarty (Dec 9, 2011)

greasemonkeyredneck said:


> *Preview*
> 
> I was ready and anxious to get back to testing this morning. You may remember from last time though that I had a few things to do first. So off to town I went for more marbles to start with. I bought six bags of marbles to be safe, but there is more to that in a bit.
> 
> ...


Lab coat?? As in Dr. Jekyll??


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## stefang (Apr 9, 2009)

greasemonkeyredneck said:


> *Preview*
> 
> I was ready and anxious to get back to testing this morning. You may remember from last time though that I had a few things to do first. So off to town I went for more marbles to start with. I bought six bags of marbles to be safe, but there is more to that in a bit.
> 
> ...


It seems to work great William. Good video. It's too bad there isn't some way to polish the marbles that are too large down to the right size.


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## alba (Jul 31, 2010)

greasemonkeyredneck said:


> *Preview*
> 
> I was ready and anxious to get back to testing this morning. You may remember from last time though that I had a few things to do first. So off to town I went for more marbles to start with. I bought six bags of marbles to be safe, but there is more to that in a bit.
> 
> ...


William it has come along nicely
Are you going to add more designs to it like a test
track for new ideas?
Jamie


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## Kentuk55 (Sep 21, 2010)

greasemonkeyredneck said:


> *Preview*
> 
> I was ready and anxious to get back to testing this morning. You may remember from last time though that I had a few things to do first. So off to town I went for more marbles to start with. I bought six bags of marbles to be safe, but there is more to that in a bit.
> 
> ...


I wonder if this is how my brain works.??


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## greasemonkeyredneck (Aug 14, 2010)

greasemonkeyredneck said:


> *Preview*
> 
> I was ready and anxious to get back to testing this morning. You may remember from last time though that I had a few things to do first. So off to town I went for more marbles to start with. I bought six bags of marbles to be safe, but there is more to that in a bit.
> 
> ...


Mike, I thought of that. I helped a buddy build a tumbler once to make beads. I gave it some though though and decided that I don't know of a good way to consistantly take down glass. So I think I'll leave it alone. It's no problem. I'll make use of the extra marbles one day.

Jamie. I will be building more tracks for sure. It's too much fun not to.

Roger. Don't tell everyone the secret, but if you could look inside of people's heads, this is how everyone's brains work. The only difference is that some people's track systems are more elaborate than others.


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## scrollingmom (Aug 27, 2011)

greasemonkeyredneck said:


> *Preview*
> 
> I was ready and anxious to get back to testing this morning. You may remember from last time though that I had a few things to do first. So off to town I went for more marbles to start with. I bought six bags of marbles to be safe, but there is more to that in a bit.
> 
> ...


Love the video and your machine is great.


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## greasemonkeyredneck (Aug 14, 2010)

greasemonkeyredneck said:


> *Preview*
> 
> I was ready and anxious to get back to testing this morning. You may remember from last time though that I had a few things to do first. So off to town I went for more marbles to start with. I bought six bags of marbles to be safe, but there is more to that in a bit.
> 
> ...


Thank you Kelly.


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## greasemonkeyredneck (Aug 14, 2010)

*Then Finish, The Catch, and Some Instructions*

If you haven't already seen it, you can see the finished project here.

Now the catch is, this project is not staying in my shop like the other marble machines I've built. This one is supposed to be shipped to Canada. My problem is, I now have to figure out the best way to ship this. It is 48×52cm, 17cm high, and weighs about 37 pounds. 
That wieght is not exact. I got the weight by standing on bathroom scales with the project, then without, and subtracting for the difference. This isn't exact but give me a general idea of the weight.
I'm open to all suggestions about the best and most cost efficient way to get this to a fellow Lumberjock across the norther border.

.

Now, the rest of this last blog entry is an instructional for the person who this is going to. If you would like, you can read on. If not, thank you for checking out my blog and be sure to go check out the finished project. 








After removing the cardboard and other packing materials, this is what you'll be looking at.
Before I go further, I wanted to give you a list of exactly what you'll be recieving.








1-base unit with pump assembly
1-bag of marbles
1-feed chute
1-elevator column
18-4×4 unit high double unit riser blocks
8-4×3 unit high double unit riser blocks
4-2×1 unit high double unit riser blocks
8-3 unit high single unit riser blocks
6-2 unit high single unit riser blocks
4-12 unit riser plates
2-6 unit riser blocks
4-5 unit riser blocks
4-4 unit riser blocks
8-3 unit riser blocks
8-2 unit riser blocks
3-flip flop units
2-zig zag tracks
3-funnels
2-circulating bowls
1-double back ramp
1-ski jump
4-long straight tracks
2-long drop tracks
3-long left exit tracks
3-long right exit tracks
4-short straight tracks
2-short drop tracks
3-short left exit tracks
3-short right exit tracks








Now, back to setting everything up.
Remove the base plates and you'll be looking at this. You can certainly just dump it out like a kid if you'd like. I prefer to arrange everything neatly though so I can see what I've got. It makes it easier if you plan on building complicated tracks.








Locate the crank assembly. I've removed it for shipping. In this photo I show the two pieces, but when you get it, the block will be attached to the end of the shaft.








Remove the four screws from the connecting block and take it off of the shaft as you see in this photo. If you look at each end of the connecting block, there are ink pen markings I left on the ends to make it easy to tell which way it goes in order to go back in the exact same position.








Push the crank shaft through the hole in the side of the base unit where the walnut cover with the arrow is. The metal rod from the pump assembly goes into the hole in the end of the crank shaft.
The crank handle should be about one to two millimeters from the decorative walnut cover on the side of the base unit.








Place the connecting block over the end of the shaft just as it was when you removed it. Replace the four screws and tighten them down tight. This compresses the split shaft and tightens it down onto the metal pump shaft.








Place the elevator column on top of the pump assembly. You can see in this photo that there are metal alignment pins to make sure it is placed in the exact proper orientation each time. Be sure to press it down firmly over the alignment pins.








It will now look like this.








Place the feed chute back into place. You can see in this photo the notched end goes towards the front of the machine. The other end just rests on top of the pump assembly. 








Put the base plates back in position and you're ready to start building.









There is a five unit riser block permenantly attached towards the top of the elvator column for you to start with. If you wish to work with a double track, start with a flip flop. While any of the three will work, two of them require use of additional riser blocks to bring them to the proper height. I made this one out of a pretty piece of mahogany burl I had to distinguish it from the other two. If you start with it on top of the riser block that is attached to the elevator column, it is the proper height for the elvator exit. The next pieces are tracks that you have to use other pieces to support along side each side of the flip flop. As marbles come out, they'll alternate each direction from the flip flop. 
Build your tracks however you wish. Marbles are fed from the feed chute to the pump and go up and out the elvator column. You are only limited by your own imagination. All tracks must end feeding back into the feed chute if you want the track system to keep cycling back through. 








Building track systems that don't leak marbles all over the place is a matter of trial and error. Be prepared to chase down flying marbles. It happens. Don't be scared to experiment. Add block on the other side of problem areas just to keep marbles from flying off. Marbles are unpredictable. No matter how carefully you build, some will seem like they have a mind of their own and fly off somewhere waiting for you to find them. This is part of the fun.








You've already seen how the pieces lock together using marbles. With the marbles I am shipping with the machine, I've had no problems building track systems and still have enough to keep it fed well enough. However, due to lost marbles, or if you just prefer more, you may have to find a source to purchase more marbles. If you do, you need to drill a 5/8 inch hole into a scrap piece of wood like I've shown in the blogs and test each marble, one by one. I've found that marble sizes are not consistant. If they are a tad small, that' fine. If they are oversized though, they will not work. 








A lot of the pieces, like the 12 unit riser plate, has multiple holes to be placed numerous ways. It is not necessary though to use a marble in every hole. Usually, two marbles for each block is plenty enough to keep it from moving. 
A lot of the marbles are tight in the holes. This makes it sometimes a pain getting the marbles out of the holes. Also, this requires you sometimes to press down firmly to get the pieces to lock together correctly. This is fine. All the pieces are new. Over time and use, the holes will naturally enlarge a tiny bit and things will fit better. The only issue I've had with this is sometimes I may accidentally drop a marble and it'll get into the base plate and not want to come out. It's not big deal. I just leave it there. I get it out when I change designs by flipping the plate upside down and tapping the bottom side of it. It can stay put and I may use it later to hold another block in place. 
If you do choose to use all available holes for every block instead of the two per block (unless otherwise needed) to hold pieces in place, there is a chance you'll run out of marbles and not have enough to feed the tracks fast enough to keep things moving satisfactorily. If this starts to happen, you'll have to use less marbles to stabilize the pieces, or you'll have to get extra marbles. That is up to you as the individual user.

.

I guess that's it. The only thing left to say is have fun. I hope you enjoy it very much.
I will include a note when I ship it with my phone number in case you have any questions that can't wait. Also you know you can reach me through private message here on Lumberjocks if you don't mind waiting for an answer. It isn't difficult though. I only included as much info here as I did because I wanted to be absolutely sure that you'd have no issues with the machine.

And a special thanks to any and all who followed this blog. I hope you enjoyed seeing what went into it. It's a lot of work, but it is a fun project. If you'd like to build this design, don't forget, go to here to get the plans. 
Or if you'd rather have on with a fixed track, you can see the other marble machine I built from the same man's plans here. It was a fun one to do as well.


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## TopamaxSurvivor (May 2, 2008)

greasemonkeyredneck said:


> *Then Finish, The Catch, and Some Instructions*
> 
> If you haven't already seen it, you can see the finished project here.
> 
> ...


Nice build! Turned out great.


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## alba (Jul 31, 2010)

greasemonkeyredneck said:


> *Then Finish, The Catch, and Some Instructions*
> 
> If you haven't already seen it, you can see the finished project here.
> 
> ...


William it has come out really well.
Jamie


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## stefang (Apr 9, 2009)

greasemonkeyredneck said:


> *Then Finish, The Catch, and Some Instructions*
> 
> If you haven't already seen it, you can see the finished project here.
> 
> ...


Congrats on finishing this wonderful project William.


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## JL7 (Apr 13, 2010)

greasemonkeyredneck said:


> *Then Finish, The Catch, and Some Instructions*
> 
> If you haven't already seen it, you can see the finished project here.
> 
> ...


Be honest…..who talks more, you or your wife?

Good luck on the shipping…..it's not going to be cheap…..

Great blog by the way…..


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## greasemonkeyredneck (Aug 14, 2010)

greasemonkeyredneck said:


> *Then Finish, The Catch, and Some Instructions*
> 
> If you haven't already seen it, you can see the finished project here.
> 
> ...


Thank you all.

Jeff, why do you ask?


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## JL7 (Apr 13, 2010)

greasemonkeyredneck said:


> *Then Finish, The Catch, and Some Instructions*
> 
> If you haven't already seen it, you can see the finished project here.
> 
> ...


Well….....at least with this segment, you gave us the option to skip the bottom part…....but of course, you probably know I have to read then…....:^)


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## greasemonkeyredneck (Aug 14, 2010)

greasemonkeyredneck said:


> *Then Finish, The Catch, and Some Instructions*
> 
> If you haven't already seen it, you can see the finished project here.
> 
> ...


I don't talk a lot.
I do sometimes type a lot though.
Who are we fooling?
I talk a lot.

To answer the question though, I am a wise man.
I may talk a lot,
But when the wife talks, I listen a lot.


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## DIYaholic (Jan 28, 2011)

greasemonkeyredneck said:


> *Then Finish, The Catch, and Some Instructions*
> 
> If you haven't already seen it, you can see the finished project here.
> 
> ...


To think…..
All the time & effort you put into this machine….
Going to an LJer to play with! Mighty nice of you!!!

I hope you play with it A LOT….
before you ship it out!!!

Thanks for detailing the build so well. I enjoyed following along!


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## Buckethead (Apr 14, 2013)

greasemonkeyredneck said:


> *Then Finish, The Catch, and Some Instructions*
> 
> If you haven't already seen it, you can see the finished project here.
> 
> ...


Need video of marble machine in action.


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## greasemonkeyredneck (Aug 14, 2010)

greasemonkeyredneck said:


> *Then Finish, The Catch, and Some Instructions*
> 
> If you haven't already seen it, you can see the finished project here.
> 
> ...


Thanks Randy.
Buckethead, you can see video here.
Part two and three are videos of two different tracks.


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## Kentuk55 (Sep 21, 2010)

greasemonkeyredneck said:


> *Then Finish, The Catch, and Some Instructions*
> 
> If you haven't already seen it, you can see the finished project here.
> 
> ...


That may cost you a little bit


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## gfadvm (Jan 13, 2011)

greasemonkeyredneck said:


> *Then Finish, The Catch, and Some Instructions*
> 
> If you haven't already seen it, you can see the finished project here.
> 
> ...


Holy cow William. Tool comapnies need to hire you to write their assembly instructions! Not only did you do them in English, but the were clear and understandable!


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## greasemonkeyredneck (Aug 14, 2010)

greasemonkeyredneck said:


> *Then Finish, The Catch, and Some Instructions*
> 
> If you haven't already seen it, you can see the finished project here.
> 
> ...


I'll let ya'll know what the costs are when I find out Roger.

Andy, I hadn't noticed until you said something that it does sound better than any instructions I've had with anything I've purchased in the last twenty years. 
Or maybe I just talk too much.


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