I’m building a new RBS. The first thing I am working on is a new design for an atypical lift mechanism. I want to lift the ball on the end of a lever, but not use a gate mechanism to pick up the ball. This lift mechanism will move the lever under the ball before lifting it to the top of the RBS.

Lift Mechanism Video

The video shows the mechanism running in the Linkage program. The links may appear as large polygons in the program, but I will be building them to be a bit more decorative. For instance, the link on the left will be more of an L shape when this is done, since all three sides of the triangle are not needed. The Linkage program doesn’t allow for it now, but the shape of the links can be anything desired, as long as the connectors are all in the same places.

I am still torn on the best artistic style for this “kugelbahn”. I was thinking about sticking with an organic look like the last one I made:

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Organic Style

But I saw a video on the internet with mechanisms built from Meccano. The track style in this image (below) might be an interesting style for an industrial looking RBS.

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Meccano Ball Factory

I would simplify the construction and only use this style for the track. It’s a bit overwhelming to have all of the supports built using this same type of material. I’m just not sure yet.

So far, I just have full size drawings of the lift mechanism parts, as well as a few motors. I will probably use a 2 RPM gearhead motor because the lift spends about 1/3 of its time on the uphill swing and a faster motor lifts the ball a bit too quick, in my opinion. I also tend to like rolling ball sculptures that don’t have a lot of balls moving at the same time. The path and details seem hard to see when there are balls clanking around everywhere.

I will post some construction pictures when I have something built. With two jobs and the holidays coming up, I doubt that I’ll get this built anytime soon.