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MARBLE LIFTING AUTOMATION

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Brian Rupnow:
I have finally decided what I will build next. I want something new and different to run with one on my many model engines. I haven't been able to find any full sized machinery to replicate, but I have become fascinated by "marble machines" on Youtube. There are some fascinating marble lifting devices shown there. Of course they are mostly made of wood, and perhaps just a little crude by machinists standards, but have some brilliant thought put into the mechanisms themselves. So---Since imitation is the greatest form of flattery, I have decided to try my hand at building a marble lifting automation machine in metal. Of course, one of the first things I have to do is to figure out just HOW some of these things actually work.--So--It begins with some "Crap-o-cad" sketches to first get a handle on the idea---

Brian Rupnow:
Having roughed out an idea, after watching a Youtube video twenty times to see what is actually happening, and making a preliminary sketch, I then move to Solidworks, where I can create it in 3D to some kind of "scale", and see how the parts would go together, and what sizes of material I would use to make the components.

Brian Rupnow:
Of course it helps a great deal to then be able to animate things and see if they are going to behave in the way that I anticipated. The dark blue "marble" is shown in all of the different motions---In reality it would enter from the top left hole, be transported down and around the sliding red block cavity, ad then be shoved up through a second hole in the overhead blue part and into a clear glass vertical tube and be accumulated there, prevented from falling back down the tube by the grey sliding component. At this stage of the game, I don't have to make the animation any clearer than it is.--This is not nearly so much about a flawless animation as it is about getting all of the motions clear in my head.

Brian Rupnow:
There!! I think I got it.--My goodness, there is an amazing amount of inter-related geometry to get everything doing what it's supposed to!!!

Arbalest:
Check out Matthias Wandel's site: http://woodgears.ca/

He's built exactly that in wood. Very simple mechanism but still strangely fascinating to watch!

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