MARBLE MACHINE by ScottsdaleSteve

MARBLE MACHINE

Created by - ScottsdaleSteve

Date Created - 2020-10-30

Last Update - 2020-11-02 14:17:28

Status - published

This is my entry in the Carbide 3D Community Challenge #14 "Gears". A machine whose only purpose is to circulate ball bearings in a fun and loud way. If you want the original c2d design files, please look in this link: https://community.carbide3d.com/t/community-challenge-14-2019-2020-edition/26395/30

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Download Project

Type	Length	Width	Thickness	Job Zero

Name	Type	Tool	Feedrate	Plungerate	Cut Depth

List of Files
Filename	File Type	File Size
design_1	c2d	1.12MB
design_2	c2d	381.11kB
design_3	c2d	175.28kB
design_4	c2d	225.73kB
design_5	c2d	32.60kB
design_6	c2d	202.12kB
design_7	c2d	73.27kB
design_8	c2d	65.55kB
design_9	c2d	25.04kB
design_10	c2d	1.69MB
design_11	c2d	255.13kB
design_12	c2d	74.85kB
design_13	c2d	779.84kB
design_14	c2d	822.85kB

General Comments:

Conceived 2 days after the contest was announced, it’s been a crawl/walk/run/mad dash to get the project, glamour-shots and video done by the deadline. Having never done gears, I thought they would be the hardest part, but they turned out to be relatively straightforward using a free online gear generator (link below).

The hardest part was getting the marbles to load, not fall out on the ride to the top, and then dump out consistently at the top. Gravity keeps them in place for the ride, because the gear rack tilt back 4 degrees. Then through trial and error I machined “divots” on the inside edge so the marbles fall out at the top. [Note: The “better” way is to drill the marble holes on an angle with a Forstner bit in a drill press. But who wants to use a drill press for 30 holes when they have a CNC???]

I had no particular plan. After successfully getting the lifter mechanism working, I just made it up as I went, adding on stick-by-stick until all paths led back to the start.

Design Notes:

All parts cut on my Shapeoko XL (Gears, Tracks, “Vortex Bowls”, Spiral staircase steps, Zig-Zag, Left/Right gate, etc.), with the exception of the legs and feet holding up the features.
I later modified the small vortex bowls by plugging the single hole and cutting double holes to turn them into “randomizers”.
I arbitrarily decided to make it all fit inside a 16x16x16 inch cube.
Added a couple idler gears just because I could and I like the way it looks.
100% baltic birch, with 2 coats of Shellac.
12 VDC, 9 RPM motor from Amazon
Pulleys and stock Z belt stolen from my Shapeoko maintenance kit.
3/8” steel ball bearings (a.k.a. “Marbles”)
Through trial and error, 4 degrees seems to be the magic number for the slope on everything. Less and they didn’t roll well. More and they roll too fast and jump the tracks.
Gears designed here: http://www.jeromeleary.com/gears/ 3 and exported as DXF files, then imported into Carbide Create
Marble Transfer Rate: 90 per minute; 5,400 per hour.

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Comments

nickmathisworkshop posted 11 months ago

Great job! I'll have to make this for my sons.

mancave posted 6 months ago

Hi Steve, I would love to attempt this project but cannot seem to convert your files from c2d to svg dxf etc is there any other way to access these files. Thank you Paul U.K.

gbb16 posted 6 months ago

Utterly spectacular and very impressive! Nice work!

Tmath posted 6 months ago

Steve, this is fantastic work! I've started my build for my son for Christmas. Certainly a few questions as I've started cutting. Would you mind if I reached out to clarify a few points?

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