Been wanting a marble run for some time to be powered by one of my engines.
This came in the mail today. I like projects I can sit at the kitchen table and work on....kind of curious how small an engine will power it.
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Some forward progress, it seems if One wants a wood marble run, One must WORK for it! The structure is surprisingly stiff when fit together.
The crank handle will be replaced with pulley for steam power.
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Have seen a couple of these "in action", and they´re really cool accessories, with loads of motion.
Will be looking forward to see yours going Ben
Have you seen my Marble Run driven by a Maerklin 402 Steam Motor
and a Ha Mobil Transmission. The only thing a had to change was
a driving wheel and remove the handle.Makes really fun.
Awaiting your movie - Cheers Arnold
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8stC0kSoYIM
Have you seen my Marble Run driven by a Maerklin 402 Steam Motor
and a Ha Mobil Transmission. The only thing a had to change was
a driving wheel and remove the handle.Makes really fun.
Awaiting your movie - Cheers Arnold
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8stC0kSoYIM
Looks good Arnold, if it was mine I might be tempted to drive it a little bit faster for more action. It looks like you may have a spare larger pulley on your line shaft? Slow is cool to, I don't know if it would drive at the faster speed.
I have more progress, there are more parts to these marble runs than you can imagine!
It takes strong fingers and not get in a big hurry fitting parts, but I highly recommend these Rokr marble runs. Mine should be functional tommorow night.
The kit provides wax to lube gear teeth and friction points but I prefure pencil lead graphite. (Nothing wrong with wax)The piston "rods" that move the "stairs" up and down where very much in bind condition dry but after burnish with pencil lead they are as smooth as butter now.
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Coming along nicely there Ben
The LG501 is complete. For tips on assembly I would say you often have to push a square or rectangular tab into its respective hole, a couple light swipes of sandpaper on the leading edge of male tab (just a tiny bevel) is huge to reduce force needed to install and prevent splits or cracks in the wood. It is not needed on every part but towards the end installing larger sub assemblys to the run it is very helpful. Also thin super glue can repair most any damage and at the end when you are satisfied the run works well you can go around and tack weld several main areas to lock in your good settings and make the run more durable. I would spare the glue until you have seen the run work well in case you have an assembly that Needs adjustments.
The features of the LG501 is a main cog gear lifts the balls 1/2 way up then balls run to the walking stairs. The steps can accept two balls per step but will work if only one ball. At top of stairs there is a triangle shape teeter-totter and there are 2 runs down the mountain. it will send one ball down each run so there is lots of action!
I had some 3/8 slingshot ammo and it does work but the slightly larger balls in the kit are better.
My single gripe with the kit is the axle the crank handle is on is quite wobbly, I will take the run to work and correct this and turn up a Flywheel from hardwood or Aluminum for steam power!
Hopefully this review will help someone decide if they want to build a marble run, I enjoyed the build and am considering buying another model in the Rokr series.
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Imagine cutting that out with a fret saw!
Imagine cutting that out with a fret saw!
That would be a whole heap of Frettin'!
A little experiment showed the model can run well up to apox 60 RPM on the hand crank...much faster and the cog wheel has difficulty picking up new balls and also they escape the stair steps! At this speed there are often 4+ balls running down the run which looks and sounds Very busy indeed. That should not be a difficult number to achieve with steam power or it occurred to me a Tarot Stirling engine might run this quite well?
Imagine cutting that out with a fret saw!
That would be a whole heap of Frettin'!
LOL I was going to say that as well....you'd be frettin' for sure !!!
Lasers are amazing are they not! I was watching a vid last night of a hand held one taking rust and paint off articles to restore. Wow...if when these become more readily available sand blasting boxes will go the way of wooden buckets.
Great job Ben!
Looking forward to see it "steamed"
Amazon had these on "Lightning deal" for $28 shipped, this one should be on my porch today, so the thread may continue.
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