Rapid Ball Juggler

Wow, two posts in one day. Anyway, here is my latest creation, the ball juggler! It's a kinetic sculpture that is built just for entertainment. Ping pong balls are thrown into a basket with a catapult. It's powered by a motor, and a rubber band makes the catapult shoot the balls. A pusher rotates, and it pushes the catapult back. There's a ball dispenser on the catapult side which loads one ball at a time into the catapult.

EDIT: The name has been changed from catapult machine to ball juggler. It just sounds better. :-)

Click here for the instructions!

Here's the video:

Squirrel Trap V2 Preview

I built Version 2 of my squirrel trap! It's much better than the old one, and I made it use metallics. :-) This is a preview because I'm going to post another topic with more pictures, and explain it more.

Cataclysm is Demolished

After a week of demolishing and counting pieces, Cataclysm is demolished. The room looks so empty now! This huge ball machine used exactly 28,538 pieces! The picture above just shows some of the pieces. There are boxes all over the place. To see more pictures of the pieces and demolition, click here to go to my contest (which is now over). Scroll down to see the pictures. Lots of the pieces don't even fit in their boxes anymore, since I bought around 3,000 more pieces while building it.

Now I'll have to think of my next project...

Cataclysm is Finished!

This post is a little late, but oh well. As the title says, I have finally finished Cataclysm after 16 months of hard work! It has 10 lifts and 6 paths. The lifts are organized into three networks, each network having two paths. This is my biggest ball machine to date, but I haven't counted the pieces yet. It stands 8 feet tall to the ceiling, and takes up a whole rug. I had to buy many pieces while building.

Here is Cataclysm's picture gallery! I'm still working on uploading more photos, but 20 is good for now. I'm already busy taking this huge ball machine down.

Video:

Coin Sorter

This is a machine I worked on over the past few months, but finally had enough motivation to finish it. It sorts dimes, pennies, nickels, and quarters. It does this using a sorting tray, which runs back and forth using a motor. The coins are sorted into paper sleeves by size.

Click here for the instructions!

 Here's the video:

Lifts of Cataclysm Finished

After almost a year of construction, the lifts of Cataclysm are finally finished! I added my alternator lift (which is in a previous post), and three other lifts. That makes 10 lifts! They aren't all different or new though, but most of them have never been done before. There are three lift networks in all, each leading to the ceiling. It'll have an estimate of 12 paths (4 paths per network). I may build more paths depending on how much pieces and space I have. Now that I bought 900 green rods, I can begin on the elements.

As for other projects, I'm building something else (it's a secret), and I'm working on another collaboration with Hiyadudez.

There are no pictures here because I want to keep everything a surprise. ;-)

Alternator Lift

This is a new ball machine lift I made and worked on for a month. Here's how it works: a tower in the middle of the main tower (called the lifter) has ball grabbers on it. There are ball holders built into the front of the tower. When the lifter goes up and down, the balls are alternated from one side to the other, which is why I named it the Alternator Lift! This lift will go into Cataclysm.

Click here for instructions!

Here's the video of the lift in action:

Knex Automatic Card Shuffler

Hey everyone! I haven't updated this blog in a long time.

Anyways, this is a project that I did with Hiyadudez. This makes the second project that I did with him, the first being the hole puncher. This cool gadget shuffles a full deck of standard-sized poker playing cards. It does this by pushing the cards out with a wheel. There are two sides, so they get shuffled pretty good.
Click here for more pictures.

Click here for instructions!! 

Video:

Hole Puncher

This is a cool little hole puncher that makes two holes in paper. It does this with 2 sharpened rods and a rubber band in the back. This was a collaboration project between me and Hiyadudez. We came up with a basic design, and then made it better and modified it. Besides from just punching holes, it also has a tray in the back that can hold business cards, pencils, and other office supplies. Hiyadudez made the video, watch it below. Click here for the instructions!

Cataclysm Demolition?!

What? Demolishing? Don't worry, I'm not demolishing it like I said in the title. My house is getting new windows, and since one of the main towers is in front of a window, I had to break the tower off. Picture at right. I had to take the chain to the chain path lift apart. I also took train track and the train station out. The picture below shows the tower that I broke off. After the new windows are installed I'll put it back and resume construction. See pictures in my construction album.

Construction Pictures of Cataclysm

I'm uploading all of Cataclysm's construction pictures in one place, an album on Knex Forum. This way you all will be able to see pictures of Cataclysm's progress!
Click here to see the album! I'll upload pictures there regularly, but not too regularly. ;-)

Cataclysm Update Video No. 2

Here's an update video I made of Cataclysm. The arm lift isn't working in the video because the motors don't have batteries in them (to prevent corrosion). I finished the ball launcher and built a wheel lift and chain path lift. I still need to fix the track coming out of the launcher, since the ball doesn't make it all the way up half the time. I also took pictures, and made an album of Cataclysm's construction. I'll update it whenever I take more pictures. You can see that album here.

Click here for the video! You can also watch the video in my video bar up top!

Knex Hyperspace Training Tower Video

I made this video because I was bored and wanted to work with new video editing software, AVS Video Editor 4. I got this set for Christmas, and filmed it on New Years Day. I finally had enough time to make the video. You can watch it below or on the top of this page in the "My Videos" bar.