Chain lift assembly

Here is a motor mount for a DC motor. This motor mount was originally built for a helical (spiral) lift. The opening around the motor shaft is set-in to allow for the thrust bearing that is needed between the mount and the helical lift shaft. Without it, the weight of the lift and marbles would be directly on the motor. Not good. The only thing missing from this photo is the shaft that connects the motor shaft and the lift. I hadn't made any yet, and now I am glad that I did not. I needed to make a chain lift, and decided to use the DC motors because the mount was already made. So this means I needed to adapt what I had, to what I needed.

These are the extra parts needed. The square pad at the top is just to hold the roller bearing in place. The shaft fits over the motor shaft, goes through the bearing, and holds the sprocket. The allen head screws are easy to identify, also see the small aluminum 'stand-offs' that keep the bearing pad from pushing the shaft into the motor mount. And of course, the two sprockets. One is a 30 tooth, and the other is 45 tooth. Using a lathe, I turned off some of the shoulder on the big sprocket, to reduce the weight, and so the set screw hole would not have to be threaded as much.

Here is the shaft, installed first.

Next, the bearing pad fits onto the shaft.

To keep the bearing pad from crushing the shaft into the motor mount, a stand-off is used between the bearing mount and the motor mount. Once tightened it holds the weight of the sprocket against the face of the mount, while leaving room for the shaft to move around easily. The flat on the end of the shaft is for the set screw on the large sprocket. With a flat spot like that the set screw does not need to be tightened to within an inch of it's life...

The large sprocket is the drive sprocket. Here the ladder chain is draped over the top, but the motor will be at the bottom, so the chain will actually go around the bottom of the sprocket. The smaller sprocket spins loosely, so it has a bronze bearing pushed into the center. It will be kept from moving side to side once it is mounted on the 1/4" shaft that fits through the bearing.

I am very pleased to be learning to use a Lathe and Mill. Without them, this would be very difficult, if not impossible. (Thanks Bill B !!) To get the nice rounded look on the aluminum, each pieces is routed on the edge. To save time, and reduce costs, always make more than one. (I made three...)

This assembly has been installed on my next project....A 4' X 4' floor standing sculpture. 3 tracks. See it here soon!

Rolling Ball museum in Korea - Funique

Stephen Jendro posted this Link to a set of photos taken at Funique in Korea. The photos are taken at the Rolling Ball Museum which is part of Funique. There are a few of my sculptures in these photos (see below), as well as other RBS artists. The variety of ball runs will amaze you!

(above) These two hand powered sculptures use 2" balls. The closest sculpture used 3/16" stainless wire for the tracks. It was hard to bend, but was perfect for the larger marble. Using a lot of track spacers made the tracks almost look like train tracks. A fun sculpture to build and operate. Quite noisy though. Lots of clacking and clanking when in operation. 2 of 4 that I built in that size. I don't see the other 2 on the photos, perhaps they are somewhere else...

(above) There are 4 different tracks on this sculpture. 3 balls collect at the top, tipping with the third marble. Two of the marbles go through loop d' loops and the third marble drops to another collector. The second collector tips with two marbles, and each of those two marbles has it's own loop track too. All 4 tracks collect back at the bottom, and the marbles go back up the lift for another spin down the rails.

(above) See a great section of twisted loop d' loop track. 3 tracks on this sculpture with a wide flat funnel that dropped the marbles randomly into the three tracks. I remember taking video of this sculpture and was lucky that on my very first take of filming, all 3 tracks were taken at nearly the same time. Never occured again when filming this particular RBS...I couldn't edit my video then, so I had to use that first take.

(above) This sculpture uses 5/8" steel balls, and has the tipping arms at both sides.

Shipping #73

Here are a few photos of creating the shipping crate that will enclose my sculpture as it heads across the US. I live in CA and this RBS is headed for New York, NY. Shipping isn't as hard as it sounds, especially with a little practice!

#73 Final video!

Finally ... see it all done. Next: shipping... : )

On the Stand

#73 is now off the wall and onto a stand. The stand is made from approx. 40ft of 1 1/4" stainless steel square tubing. The frame on the sculpture itself is made from about 40ft of 1/2" stainless steel, and I used over 1300ft of 1/8" stainless rod for the tracks and supports.