Jacobs Ladder with Horizontal Twin engine

Brian Rupnow · Dec 27, 2011

Success!!! I have figured out the mystery of my camera (Read the instruction booklet) and changed engine over to my Horizontal Twin to run the Jacobs ladder. Its working real slick now. And yes, you will hear me contradict myself---I can't honestly remember if it was 3 or 4 years ago that I built my horizontal twin engine---(I say both in the video). Now I can start work on my ball return track.

firebird · Dec 27, 2011

Hi Brian

Absolutely fascinating, I could sit and watch that for ages.

Cheers

Rich

Path · Dec 27, 2011

Very nice ...

Now you need to design a return slide for automatic feed! :big:

Have great Holiday.

Pat H.

Brian Rupnow · Jan 1, 2012

Well, there we have it guys. Another succesful, totally useless peice of mechanical wizardry. Its not terribly difficult to build, but it certainly does have "eye appeal" when operating. If anyone decides they would like to build one of these to run with an Elmer Verbourg sized engine, I recomend building it at 1/2 the scale of the drawings I posted. Did I learn anything new when building this?---Well, yes, I learned how difficult it must be for model train builders to build the links that run between wheels on the engine and get them to operate without binding and locking up. I learned that no matter how many times you clamp a ball track in place and roll balls down it to establish the correct angle, it can still surprise you after all the holes are tapped and things are bolted, not clamped into place. In hind sight, I think perhaps it would have worked better with steel balls instead of wooden balls, but the fact that it works as well as it does pleases me. Thanks guys, for looking and following my thread, and for your positive comments. Happy New Year-----Brian