Well, It's finished. All done.

There are 3 tracks on this rolling ball sculpture. 1 track for the loop d' loop, 1 track for the single marble and 1 track for the "marble train" which has 5 marbles in the train. The final dimensions are 46" wide X 30" tall and 18" deep. All stainless steel, of course. 1 3/8" marbles.

The marble collector is adjustable. It can tip with 4, 5 or 6 marbles depending on how many marbles are in the counter-weight. You can have 1-4 marbles in the counter-weight but it seem to work best with two marbles, which means it will tip with 5 marbles. I was going to use a weighted slide, but the marbles look better and match the theme.

The loop d' loop has 7 consecutive loops. Want to see it in action? See it here on youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rBg234PEkVI - Don't forget to rate the video!

I am very happy with the outcome of this sculpture. It is quiet and smooth with very little loud banging noises. Nice and compact. It takes a full minute and 5 seconds for the single marble to complete it's trek from the top to the bottom. The motor is a 5 rpm DC motor which powers the helical lift.

#72 completed

Well, It's finished. All done.

There are 3 tracks on this rolling ball sculpture. 1 track for the loop d' loop, 1 track for the single marble and 1 track for the "marble train" which has 5 marbles in the train. The final dimensions are 46" wide X 30" tall and 18" deep. All stainless steel, of course. 1 3/8" marbles. The marble collector is adjustable. It can tip with 4, 5 or 6 marbles depending on how many marbles are in the counter-weight. You can have 1-4 marbles in the counter-weight but it seem to work best with two marbles, which means it will tip with 5 marbles. I was going to use a weighted slide, but the marbles look better and match the theme.

The loop d' loop has 7 consecutive loops. Want to see it in action? See it here on youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IhiqUD7-NUs - Don't forget to rate the video!

I am very happy with the outcome of this sculpture. It is quiet and smooth with very little loud banging noises. Nice and compact. It takes a full minute and 5 seconds for the single marble to complete it's trek from the top to the bottom. The motor is a 5 rpm DC motor which powers the helical lift.

rolling ball sculpture #72 in progress

This is my current rolling ball sculpture. It is 26" tall and 30" wide and 16" deep. The frame is made from 1/4" stainless steel rod. The track is made from 1/8" stainless steel rod. There will be three tracks on this sculpture. Right now, two of the tracks are installed; the loop d' loop track and the single marble track. Yes, all of the track you see is just for one track. It takes over a full minute for the single ball to get from the top to the bottom.

I have installed two track splitters. One is on the top left and the other is on the far right, top. The left splitter is the first and the one on the right is second. The top left splitter sends the marble - left onto all the track shown, and to the right into the next splitter. The second splitter sends the marbles either (left) to the loop d' loop or (right) into the ball collector, not built yet. The ball collector will be adjustable. This means you can choose if you want to arm to tip with three marbles (minimum) or up to 7 marbles (max). The idea for the adjustable ball collector is from the Chaos Tower I got my son Kennedy for Christmas. Their website had an adjustable ball collector for sale, I didn't buy it....I just needed the idea. I think I will use a weight that slides along a rod with a set screw. The farther out the weight is from the pivot point, then the more marbles the arm will hold.

I plan to be finished by Monday. I will post video to youtube when it is complete, and post the link here.

More track

Rolling ball sculpture has a couple different major sections to it's construction. First the frame, then the lift, then track and elements. The frame is straightforward, and should be braced before you begin building, so that the frame will not move. It does not seem too important when the frame has no track on it, but when the marbles start to roll, they exert energy and can make the whole sculpture shake.

The lift is somewhat complicated, but I think the real challenge with the motor is installing it so that the weight of the lift is off of the motor shaft - more of a concern with a helical lift than a chain lift.

Finally there are track and elements. I have somewhat explained making track in my how to secion on my website, but I have a little more to say here. I am working on a table top sculpture that has three tracks. One track for the loop d' loop, one track with just one marble that goes slow and has a few tipping arms. The third track will have a marble collector (adjustable) that will tip with 3-6 marbles, you choose. Track seems like it is the easy part of making RBS. Actually, it can be quite frustrating to make a track that just doesn't seem to fit into the space you have for it. I have found recently that the best way to add track that fits perfect the first time is to bend as much, if not all, of the wire track after it has been attached to the previous section. Track is not just for the ball to get from one place to another, but can be an element in itself. It is very important to keep the spacing consistent and to test the marbles as you go so you will not be surprised later, and not be able to get to the spot to fix it because it is buried behind other things on your sculpture.

I think making track is a lot like drawing a maze. Sometimes the track path must be very carefully led out of a tight spot. If you are truly stuck, the use a tipping arm to lower the ball down. Get creative! Since everything you will make is one-of-a-kind then your imagination is your only limit (besides tooling....).

Loop d' Loops

Everyone loves the loop. It even looks good without any marbles using the loop. Just imagining the marble swooping through the curves is sometimes almost as good. Today I set out to finish and install a multiple loop section on my current project, a table top sculpture. I not only finished the loop, but also had a personal best today - 7 loops in a row!

I always bend my curves inside track first, then outside. It seems to work better that way. But for loop d' loops that is not the way. Since there will not be an inside or outside to the corner, both wires of the track can, and should be, bent at the same time. This way the curve is exactly the same, and it is more than twice as fast to build!

Now back to the 7 loops. I will post a picture once I get a few taken tomorrow. The marble rolls down a decline about 18" or so and enters three elliptical loops (6-7" tall each) and then speeds into 4 ever decreasing loops (starting at a 4" diameter, ends with about 2 .5") which extend out to the side. It looks and sounds really cool. 7 *swishes* in a row that go increasingly faster is pretty satisfying to listen to.

The key to making a good loop, is bending a nice smooth curve, making your loops elliptical to conserve energy, and being able to hold the tracks evenly apart when you make your welds. The track in my loops is 1/8" narrower than my regular track. The closer the track rails are together, the faster the marble will roll.