Rolling Ball Sculpture

I’ll need to post some photos soon. I’m working on a billiard ball rolling ball sculpture. It is about 4.5 feet tall and has a chain lift like a roller coaster. The cool feature of this sculpture is the authentic roller coaster look and feel. The track is two 3/16″ rods with a third 3/16″ below to form a triangle. The three rods are connected using triangulation to make this look like a structurally sound roller coaster type track.

Here is a picture I just found. It’s not good but shows some of the structure. This photo was taken of a previous attempt at building this same sculpture a few years ago. I salvaged the lift hill but I’m starting over otherwise:

2014.jpg

That curve is gone and I’m going to build a loop instead.

I’ve gotten better at welding and brazing since the work in the picture was done although this stuff always looks crappy during construction. It’s much better looking in person and with a ball rolling on it.

Not too many people build billiard ball rolling ball sculptures from what I see on Google Images. I’ve seen some big “sculptures” but they are usually long sections of track mounted on walls or ceilings although I’ve also seen a few nice self-contained units too. There is something un-artistic about the big versions. The small RBS that I see sometimes have a character and aesthetic appeal and I’m trying to get some of that with this big sculpture.

Other Sculpture

I’m also working on a small sculpture that is an interesting shape cut from a 4.5 inch pipe and polished to a smooth shiny finish on the outside. It’s looking good but I remember an art instructor once mentioning some flaws in an art class piece I did and I want to get rid of any imperfections in the surface. It’s tough because it’s steel and the bends in the cutouts make it hard to polish with power tools. Working by hand takes far too long for my patience.

Computer Programming

I have no programming projects right now. I stopped work on the train game because it was getting tiresome and I wanted to work with my hands on physical stuff instead of virtual stuff. I was at a point where I was unsure how to proceed. I needed to either refine and perfect what I had so far, so that I could let a user have very accurate control over train movement or I needed to move on to dealing with freight and loading and things of that nature.

That’s my personal status.

One final note; Blogs are just diaries for exhibitionists.