73 Finally finished building tracks...

Here is the final product. There are some cosmetic things to clean up, and maybe a support or two to add - but it's all done. Here is a somewhat long video showing how it will move when it's plugged in. This is with a 10 rpm motor which delivers a marble @ just about 3 per minute.

6ft high by 6ft wide. All stainless steel construction. The wood ring is made from Walnut with a nice oil/wax finish. See here for in progress photos of the ring being built. http://www.rollingballsculpture.com/?attachment_id=1030

I didn't build the ring myself as I like to work in metal....

If you'd like to see the video in full size, instead of reduced size and quality, then download it directly to your desktop: http://www.rollingballsculpture.com/images/VIDEO/73TakeFive.wmv

#64 at: "Coolest Toys on Earth"

Sara was very nice and sent me some photos she took of my - (well, not mine any more) sculpture in the window of Coolest Toys on Earth. If your wondering it's #64. Check out the radiometers hanging from it to add movement in the sunshine...

Here is what Sara said to me-

"Here are a couple I photos I took when I visited the coolest toys on earth. It's a fantastic toy store. Not the run of the mill type. There's another shot of the other side of the store. I thought you might like seeing it since you said you never had.
Enjoy!"

Very cool! I was wondering what my (not mine anymore!) sculpture was doing these days....
...I should just make another....

Brenda's Tulip Dream.

Side A

Side B

I went to Flickr to look at tulips just before making the flower. I think it came out pretty good. The track goes through the flower in two places before rocking into place at the bottom. 15ft of track and uses 1" glass marbles. Base, stalk and flower are 1/4" stainless rod, the leaves are made from 3/16" stainless rod and the rest is 1/8" stainless rod. All neatly TIG welded.

See it in motion below.

Loop d' loop before and after.

Here are the two wires bent for a loop d' loop. Notice the track spacer at the start of the track. There are two spacers, but you can only see one in this photo. The spacers are to hold everything in place so it cannot twist while I am working on the curves.


See how well the loops came together after some spacers were added.

Now the loops are added to the others - for 14 in a row.

4 in the first section, 6 in the second section and 4 in the last section.

More about making track

Track is the usually ignored aspect of building RBS. But...it is surprisingly important and something you will do quite often if you build your own ball run. The most important thing about track is building the corners so the ball does not come off at any speed. That is why I think it is best when building a tall or multi-track run to start from the top and work your way down. You can let the ball go and see how fast it is going so you know how to bank the upcoming corners. The track you will need for the inside and outside track will vary depending on the amount of banking that you will need. A slow corner will not need much banking and the amount of track used on the inside of the curve is much less than the outside. But if your ball is going fast then it will just shoot off the curve if you do not bank the corner appropriately. The ball does not have to be going very fast to stay in a corner that is almost vertical. A vertical corner uses almost the same amount of wire on the inside and oustide rails.

My point is...make only a couple corners at a time. Add supports to that section and then send down the marble. Make your next curves match the speed of the ball while leading it all around your sculpture. My final advice? Keep the speed of the marble low whenever possible. A slow marble does not want to jump the track, and is less susceptible to ambient vibrations. More track...Oh no! Get a reliable way to space and hold your rails in place and it will be a snap! Well, almost... : )

Final spiral video

See the last video that will deal with just spirals...I will be working on tipping arms next, and the remaining track. Stay tuned.

Aluminum caps dress up the Drive and Idler wheels **BLING**

These caps are made out of aluminum, and mostly made on the mill. There are 36 grooves in each of the disks. The two pointy nose cones, which each have 12 sides, are polished.

Here are the parts, apart. There are two hidden set screws in the caps that go on the two idler wheels. The caps do not rotate, just the disk behind them, so you can see the disk's reflection in it's polished surface.

Here's the drive wheel. Both parts turn at the same time.

Here's the left idler wheel. And below is a quick Youtube video of the wheels in motion. Check it out!

More spirals, and a track tune-up.

I built 5 more spirals. There are three counter-clockwise and two clockwise. It's easier to make several at the same time instead of installing and making one at a time. Track tip: Don't forget to cut and face the ends of your track incoming and outgoing your spiral. It may be difficult to get a grinder in there once it is in place.

Here are those 5 spirals installed and hooked up to track. It takes a little over a minute for a marble to get from the top to the bottom of this track alone. The track is pretty close to the bottom. I will leave it where it is. I may be able to fit on one more spiral, but until I know how high the tracks will be where the they starts to merge, I want to leave myself plenty of room. I'll try and get some new video next week.

I also fixed this ugly corner I had built after the last loop d' loop. It was not smooth and very loud. In the picture above I am refering to the 90 degree corner caged in at the bottom after the last tight loop - turing away from the wall.

Here is that same corner - except it is changed into a smooth, fast, quiet corner that looks better, too. Now the exiting marble glides through that section fast, and is ready to twirl through the next set of loops . (Not yet added). Also see the left idler wheel. Ready to be idle.

Now the spirals in motion

Here are the spirals, added and functional. The track does bounce around a bit, but I don't want to add the final supports until all of the track and elements are in place. In a way, you want it to be self supporting by connecting to itself and not rely on long supports you may not have needed. Although I'm sure I could add a couple...

Spirals Online

Here are those same 4 spirals, installed, and ready to roll...

Spirals

4 spirals. Two clockwise, two counter-clockwise.

And today...a video - #73 - Take one

Here is what I built have so far...

Really, though, I still have a lot more to go...

Track day 3

Here is my progress as of today. I still have a lot more track to build. I always build the loop d' loops first because they need their space. It's much easier to build around them, than to try and fit one in.



This is the loop d' loop close up. It has 10 loops in a row. There will be more then 10 loops total, but the last section is not build and added yet. This phase of building is fun and challenging. Even though things get to go wherever I want them, that doesnt mean that it is easy to decide where everything should go...

#73 In Progress

I started building the track today. I installed the 3 switches needed to turn one path into 4 paths. The ring turns slowly so that approx 3.5 marbles per minute are released onto the tracks. It takes 1:15secs for one marble to get picked up from the bottom and get released at the top.



This is a closeup of the track. I still need to brush off the welds spots to clean them. When a sculpture has more than one track I always make and install all of the necessary track splitters and then go from there. The third switch will have fewest marbles.


Want to see how it moves so far? Watch this short movie.

10 hours later....

I ended my Thursday with an idea of how I was going to make the ball ejector for getting the marbles out of the ring at the top. I had something started, and spent that night thinking all I had to do was go ahead a finish it. Unfortunately, it did not work out that well. I worked on that particular design until about 3:00 pm, on Friday - I wanted to give up as it just did not work. In fact I remade that part 5, count them, 5 different times. All a failure. The main problem being the wire that was supposed to push out the marble didn't travel into the hole far enough. The secondary problem was I had to make it work, at any cost of time. Finally I scrapped what I had, and after something to eat, tried again. After all of the problems I had been having with the first design, I was starting to get an idea of what I needed to change to make it work.

This picture (above) shows the ejector pin fully extended into the hole. You can see that the pin coming out from the wood ring is just about to pass the lever, and let it fall back to it's resting position.

This is design that works. There is a pin sticking out under each hole. This pin pushes into an arm, that in turn pushes into the bottom of the three white bearings. Since the fulcrum is off-center, the top will move farther than the bottom is pushed. Meaning: The bottom is pushed in about 3/4", and the top will move out 1 1/4". This shot (above) shows the pin just about to push into the lever.

This photos shows the pin fully extended into the hole in the ring. The 1/4" rod that is now straight out is a counter weight. It's weight will make the arm return when the pin passes. It will work better than a spring because it will have less pressure, and gravity will never fail. The rubber is to keep it quiet when it drops back to it's resting position.

Finally, here's a view from the top. The white bearing on the right is to keep the ring in the same position at the top, and so that it cannot shift and rub on the ejector pin. Lots of testing and retesting to get to this point, but well worth it. It works flawlessly, and is a joy to watch. (now that it works!)

Now on to track, track and more track. : )