January 2014

Beginning of the Tree I’m trying my hand at making a metal Bonsai tree as the main support for the rolling ball sculpture track. This is going to be tricky because I need to get most of the tree finished before I start placing the track. But there…

I just finished building the parts for the ball lifter. This won’t be the last post about this rolling ball sculpture because I need to build the track. But I may not have much to say about the lift mechanism after this. Two-Step Ball Lifter I may need…

This is a subtle variation of the previous design. The upper ground connector, for the upper lift, was too far to the left and a little too high. I moved it, and the ground connector below it, a little to the right. The plan was to weld some…

Lower Ball Lift The rolling ball sculpture (kugelbahn/marble-run), is coming along slowly but surely. The video shows the lower ball lift working. The upper lift arms will attach to this same frame and lift the ball another five-ish inches. I bought some nicely colored 1” marbles to try…

I have a few more parts built, so I put the motor on and ran this test. Mechanism Test The motor is running "backwards" in this test. The long part sticking out from the two moving parts is just a metal rod I stuck in there to make…

The previous post about this work-in-progress can be found here. I finished the rough metal work for the frame of the lift mechanism. The frame is designed like a truck frame. Here are some pictures. Three Frame Parts Assembled Frame Motor Installed Ball Stops (not shaped correctly yet)…