New Ball Machine Started

I have now started to build a new ball machine! I'm almost done with the first lift; I'm working on the motor. I started building the lift in March 2010, but then put it aside until Cataclysm was down. But, I began the actual ball machine yesterday. This ball machine won't take up as much space as Cataclysm did, but that doesn't really mean it will be smaller. ;-) It won't have as much lifts either, but it will have more paths. It will have one, maybe two networks that go to the very top. I hope to finish it by the end of summer. I won't post any pictures now, but I might do a few updates in the future.

Inverted Double Helix Lift

This lift is one that I recreated from Cataclysm. It's different than the original double helix lift because there is a tower in the center that spins around, and the helix is on the outside. This makes it more efficient, because it can be made much higher.

Click here for the instructions! The one in the instructions isn't very tall, but it's easy to modify to make taller.

Here is a video.

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: