I always loved watching marble machines, especially the creations of denha. These little machines are super cute and very well made. So a marble machine was on my todo list for a very long time.
To start easy, I decided to build the most minimalistic marble machine I could think of. Just one oval and a single lift mechanism.
To form the oval tracks out of 2mm brass I bend them in a bending jig and pressed them into a template, milled on my ShapeOko. The support posts where also cut on my CNC out of 2mm brass sheet.
After soldering the support posts to the rails and soldering the lifting mechanism, everything got test assembled on a piece of MDF.
Of course, such a marble machine needs a nice base. To find a nice piece of wood I spent a couple of hours at a wood shop for local and exotic woods. I bought a piece of african padouk. That piece then got cut to length, sanded (a lot!) and finished with linseed oil.
Finally, putting all together, it needed quite some tweaking to get it robust and not losing a ball every now and then. The balls are 15mm in diameter and made out of stainless steel.
This was the first time I worked with wood and brass. Always good to increase the possible materials. I enjoyed working with wood, despite the mess that is makes in my small workshop.
Links
- More pictures of the build process at Flickr
- Check out denha’s Youtube channel. Lots of awesome marble machines.
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