I cleaned my garage and I’m back to working on a Rolling Ball Sculpture again. My garage was figuratively knee deep in stuff and almost literally knee deep in some places. I wanted to make some room to work on projects while also uncover the climbing wall. Yes, I built a simulated rock climbing wall 15 years ago and it is the first place I start to lean things when I’ve got too much junk to store elsewhere.
Climbing Wall Mostly Uncovered
I built the climbing wall for my then five year old kid. That’s why there are hand and foot holds cut right through the plywood. Then I added climbing holds for more difficult climbing, and finally, added the parts that lean out from the wall. For my casual use, it’s fun and just hard enough to build a little climbing strength.
The opposite view shows what my work bench looks like when it’s clean. Amazingly, this is the clean version“
“Clean” Workbench
It’s actually a bit cleaner than this now. When I too the picture, I was still moving things around. But it’s not much cleaner. The Benchmaster milling machine had been sitting in front of the climbing wall for a year and I finally cut away an L shaped extension of the workbench and moved it. It weighs a lot and the cheap casters I got for under each leg bent a little when I moved it. but it worked and it’s now bolted to the workbench and the wall ( the table, not the mill itself).
On to the project…
This is what I was working on a long time ago:
Ball Lifter #2
The movie is more recent and shows it actually picking up and dropping off balls:
Ball Lifter #2 Running
Skip ahead to 1:01 to see a shot of the whole thing at once.
I decided to add an on/off switch to this sculpture because the power switch on the cord of the previous sculpture seems cheap and is at the back of the sculpture. This new one will have the switch next to the motor with a few links connecting it to a push/pull switch in front. To convert the push/pull action to up/down action for the switch, I built some new parts shown here:
The Big Lever
The Big Lever After Cleaning Up
The Big Lever and Small Connecting Link (And Switch)
The Big Lever and Small Connecting Link (And Switch)
Opposite Side of Lever, Link, and Switch
The lever that sticks down will have a rod connecting it to the front of the machine with a small steel ball on the end. Pushing in on the rod will turn off the sculpture. I think that this cool switch mechanism will be a nice addition to the machinery.