23 replies to this topic

[sathothy]

Hi guys! I kinda lost interest in knex for the last 5-7 months but I got inspired again and started building a new ballmachine that I´ve been working on for the past 5/4 weeks!
Right now I have the lifts done and some of the path seperators.
Some overviews:






The shifting wheel lift. This is the first thing I made. It's basicly just multiple wheel lifts stacked.




It has two exits one to the connected arm lift and one to the chainsaw lift.


The connected arm lift made by Sandroknexmaster.


Path seperator.( Inspired by KneXtreme's design)


Double vertical car lift. This lift took most of my time. It uses two gears spinning in different directions and when the car gets to the top a switch is hit which will make the chain go the different direction causing the other car to go up and when that car gets to the top it hits the switch again and it repeats the progress.


The switch




The micro chainsaw lift. Curently it has two entrances but I'm having problems with balls pushing other balls out of the lift so I might have to change it so it only has one entrance.


The exit and other path seperator


Here's a video showing how most of it works:
http://youtu.be/5njn8oejavY

Comment and suggestions are always welcome!

Edited by sathothy, 26 July 2014 - 08:41 AM.

[CowmanBearPig]

That's fantastic! Nice work!

[Kevkillerke]

Cool! A micro ball machine, great project.

[Kool Coaster Kid]

Nice machine! It's great to finally see another machine on the site! The wheel lift is cool. Also, the dual chain lift looks almost like one Dick Heijboer used in his recent machine. How many paths will be in it when it's done?

[-=Zach=-]

This is fantastic! I really like the path separator system you have.

[DHB]

The dual chain lift looks like the mine: https://www.youtube....zrdK5tiN1guO7kA Did you come up with the idea yourself or did I inspire you? Nice start of your bm btw

[Mister Piglette]

I love the separators and the last lift shown is super cool! Great start

[Jester1960]

I like the 4 wheel lift, I had considered that one time , but never made it happen, excellent job, I might have to try that now. keep up the great work

[sathothy]

That's fantastic! Nice work!

Cool! A micro ball machine, great project.

This is fantastic! I really like the path separator system you have.

I love the separators and the last lift shown is super cool! Great start

I like the 4 wheel lift, I had considered that one time , but never made it happen, excellent job, I might have to try that now. keep up the great work

Thanks all!

Nice machine! It's great to finally see another machine on the site! The wheel lift is cool. Also, the dual chain lift looks almost like one Dick Heijboer used in his recent machine. How many paths will be in it when it's done?

There will probaly be around 8/9 paths.

The dual chain lift looks like the mine: https://www.youtube....zrdK5tiN1guO7kA Did you come up with the idea yourself or did I inspire you? Nice start of your bm btw

You inspired me to use another car thingy instead of a counterweight.


I finshed the central path randomizer area to go to the bottom lifts and I finshed 4 paths! I wont go into too much details about the paths. You'll have to wait till the final video for that .

Some overviews:






The central path randomizer area:
It's basicly just a tiny white floor that drops the ball in the middle of a turning platform that distributes the balls over three paths that go to the lifts randomly! Kinda like the randomizer alocke used in bis machine.



The mechanism.

[Kevkillerke]

Wow! This looks so cool and you are only halfway
Good luck finding original paths

[Kool Coaster Kid]

Nice! I like the randomizer a lot. It kinda takes away the large floor concept but keeps the same random concept of the floor. Cant wait to see the paths.

[Sorunome]

Wha, this is looking awesome!

[sathothy]

Wow! This looks so cool and you are only halfway
Good luck finding original paths

Thank you!

Nice! I like the randomizer a lot. It kinda takes away the large floor concept but keeps the same random concept of the floor. Cant wait to see the paths.

Thanks! The paths are done!But you're going to have to wait a week to see them in more detail.

Wha, this is looking awesome!

Thanks !

It's complete! I ended up making a total of 10 paths and 4/5 lifts (5 if you count the double vertical car lift as 2 lifts). I also made the the double vertical car lift faster( It's only geared down once now instead of twice). I would make it even faster but I don't have enough gears to do that.
The only things that I have to do still are: Some finishing touches, filming and editing the final video and to come up with a name. The only decent name I've come up with is ''Composition''( because the ballmachine is a composition of micro knex and standard knex), but I'm not sure about it.
The pictures(mostly overviews, more detailed pictures will come when I post the final video):












The final video will probaly come in about a week .

[Kool Coaster Kid]

Nice machine. Composition is a good name. I see lots of cool elements there, the one that catches my eye is the micro track placed vertical in a S shape. Can't wait for the final video.

[Muzz135]

Wow! This is really cool! I think I'll join Kool Coaster Kid in saying that I'm looking forward to the video!

[sathothy]

Nice machine. Composition is a good name. I see lots of cool elements there, the one that catches my eye is the micro track placed vertical in a S shape. Can't wait for the final video.

Thank you! I decided to keep Composition as the name.

Wow! This is really cool! I think I'll join Kool Coaster Kid in saying that I'm looking forward to the video!

Thanks!

Filming and editing went pretty fast so the final video is done! I think it turned out pretty good

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mUFIgMpsREI&feature=youtu.be

Some specifications:
10 paths,
5 lifts divided in 3 networks,
Around 12.000 pieces used,
It's 8 red rods wide(That's including the tracks sticking out like the s-curve track), 8 red rods long and 7 red rods high. That's 448 cubic red rods
It's my biggest machine yet.
The 5 lifts are: shifting wheel lift, connected arm lift(credits go to sandroknexmaster!), vertical chainsaw lift(I accidentally put jigsaw lift in the video...), double vertical car lift(counts as 2).

Here are the final pictures:

Spoiler

Here is the link to the post on instructables: Composition a knex ballmachine
I'm also going to enter this in Instructables toy rods and conenctors contest(Community Contest: Toy Rods and Connectors), a vote would be appriciated .

Edited by sathothy, 26 July 2014 - 08:24 AM.

[The KNex Weasel]

This is really swell! Nice job.

[Mister Piglette]

Wow this was amazing

[Muzz135]

Love this ball machine! Great work on all the different mechanisms! And fantastic job overall! Can't wait to see your next project!

[Kool Coaster Kid]

Nice machine! Path 9 is the best IMO. Good job.