Marble lifting automation

[Brian Rupnow]

I had to machine a reducer shim to install in the very top of the fitting that discharges the marble out the spout to the flip flop gate. Since the i.d. of the Lexan tube was 3/4". I step bored that top piece 1" to fit over the tube and 3/4" to line up with the inside of the tube. This worked fine but---the marbles are only 11/16" diameter. the very top marble would roll towards the back side of the vertical hole and stay there, going out backwards over the open top instead of rolling foreword out the spout. The brass shim which is .080 thick at the widest part tapering to 0" at the end of each arm does the trick quite nicely and forces the topmost marble foreword so that it rolls out the spout as intended. The brass shim is Loctited in place.

 

[Brian Rupnow]

So after a full day of reconfiguring the gate which releases marbles one at a time to the pitching arm, we are far enough along to make a video showing the flip-flop gate in operation. I just spied a nice concave wooden salad bowl upstairs in the kitchen, but when I asked my wife if I could have it to add to the marble machine, my wife was quite indignant, and said that she has had that wooden salad bowl longer than she has me!!! I guess maybe I'll go have a look at Walmart----

 

[gus]

Hi Brian,

Great machine to built but Gus has three engines to finish up. Plus the Nemett-Lynx to begin in March 2014.
Will have to KIV the marble machine.:wall:

Weather now cooler with some rainfall.Fishing been good. Trust weather at your end OK.

 

[Brian Rupnow]

Gus--Now we have about 3" of snow. A bit early, but not unreasonably so. I wouldn't really suggest that anyone build a marble machine. I'm doing it because I am tired of building engines, and I wanted something a bit challenging. It certainly is DIFFERENT, and its a bit of fun. I wish I could have come up with something else to build a scale model of that is more based on a real machine, but since I couldn't think of anything, the marble machine is going ahead. I don't feel under any great pressure to finish it like I do when I build an engine. Thanks for having a look.---Brian

 

[Brian Rupnow]

I convinced my good wife that she should buy a new set of wooden salad bowls. This means that I get one of the four existing ones to add to my crazy machine. I sorted through my odd bits of 2" round aluminum, and found that by joining 3 of them together I can generate a heavy walled tube to fit under the wooden bowl. A piece of 1/4" aluminum plate will make a bell support for one of my bronze handbells, and a bit of 1/8" steel and some .094 dia. wire can be combined to make a bell clapper. Now the deal is, ---the ball rolls out the spout on one side of the flip flop gate, picks up some velocity from the 5 degree gradient, and discharges into the wooden bowl at one side, where it rolls in ever diminishing circles until, like the famed hoo-hoo bird it disappears up its own---no no--wait.--I mean until it falls down the hole thru the center of the bowl and down through the 3/4" hole drilled through the center of the 2" diameter aluminum. On the way down, the ball bearing strikes the clapper, causing it to rotate on its axle and ring the bell. The ball bearing then discharges from the bottom of the tube, lands in a ball track (which I have yet to make) and finds it's way back to the load ramp for the pitching arm.

 

[Brian Rupnow]

I've got the bowl, I've mounted the bell---now all I need is a slot in the pedestal the bowl is setting on and to fabricate a clapper. This is very much "make it up as I go along", but even so I like to model this stuff first. It saves me a lot of remaking parts and beating my head on the wall!!!

 

[gus]

Good idea. Will sound like the Jackpot Machines ringing at Las Vegas!!!!

 

[Brian Rupnow]

Nice thought Gus!!!

 

[Swifty]

How is it progressing Brian, haven't had any new posts for a few days. Hope that your OK, or are you out there shovelling snow all the time?

Paul.

 

[Brian Rupnow]

Swifty, I've been sick. I picked up some kind of nasty virus in early November, and it won't let go of me. I haven't been sick enough to lay down and die, but not felt well enough to play machinist. Hopefully, I will get back into the swing of things soon. Thanks for asking .----Brian

 

[Path]

Brian,

Sorry to hear that you are sick.
Get well soon ... I always look forward to your postings.

Happy Holidays


Pat H

 

[Swifty]

Get well soon Brian, I look forward to your postings. I had a bad cold that lasted a couple of weeks before the main symptoms wore off, now 3 weeks further on I still have a cough that I can't quite shake.

Paul.

 

[Brian Rupnow]

I'm finding it difficult to maintain interest in this project. Last week I was diagnosed with pneumonia and put on a course of antibiotics. I don't feel sick enough to lay down and die, but I don't feel well enough to be playing in my machine shop either. I have been looking with a great deal of interest at the opposed piston engine built and posted about by Gail from New Mexico over on "Model Engine Maker". It is an outstanding design, and it appeals to me. I might build a "Rupnow" version of that engine in the coming year, and yet I don't want to get involved in "Model Engine Plagiarism" either. I don't have any "real" design work for paying customers at the moment, so I've been spending my days reading paperbacks and trolling the internet.--Living like this is getting old, rapidly, but until I feel better I don't have that many options.---Brian

 

[AussieJimG]

It's cold and you are sick and the world sucks. But the cold will go and all over the world people like me have fingers crossed that you will soon be feeling better.

So get well soon and have a good Xmas.

Jim

 

[Path]

Take care ... hope to see you on line soon. Have a great Holiday .

By the way ... I am working on your engine.
Just have a lot of interruptions and few other issues.


Pat H

 

[Brian Rupnow]

Thanks AusieJimG and Path and Swifty. I am looking forward to feeling like making chips again. It is very unusual for me to be idle for so long.---Brian

 

[krankie frankie]

Take a few days off, and I hope you are feeling better soon. Happy holidays to you and all your family.

krankie frankie

 

[Cogsy]

Hope you get better soon Brian. Being sick is no fun at all and I sympathise with being bored as well. Had 5 days laid up with a drip in my arm recently, broken jaw, split finger and a few other issues (all separate complaints at different times over the last few months). Once you're over the initial pain, boredom is the worst thing, and the TV gets old real quick.

 

[Brian Rupnow]

Jeez Cogsy--Sounds like you've been in a brawl at the local bar!!! No wonder you haven't been doing a lot of machining!!!---Brian