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.

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...