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…
Continue readingThis 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…
Continue readingLower 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…
Continue readingI 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…
Continue readingThe 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)…
Continue readingI resolve to do the following: Work in the garage more. I want to build the ball lifter for a new rolling ball sculpture. I got a new band saw blade that cuts through 1/8” thick steel like butter, even running the blade too fast, and I’m on…
Continue readingDear random internet person, I once had to stop two cars back from a stop sign. There was snow on the road and the road was on a bit of a hill. There was no way to get out and measure the snow composition and compaction, and no…
Continue readingThis is a running log of my progress on the new RBS. I designed the motorized lift mechanism in an earlier blog post, but I’ll show the animation again for completeness sake. Animation of Mechanical Ball Lift I used the Linkage program to design this. It was handy…
Continue readingI redesigned the ball lift to have two lifting arms. The ball holding “claws” will intertwine to allow the ball to be picked out of the lower arm by the upper arm. This video shows one of the variations of the lift that I designed. I’m making small…
Continue readingI found another rolling ball sculptor that uses copper wire and solder to build very interesting works of art. These rolling ball sculptures are more organic and artistic than many. http://www.heye-draht-art.de/index-E.html His name is Ernst Heye and he is very creative. Even if the link to his site…
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