Scenic Marble Run

Marble Run!

For my final project, I chose to make a marble run that takes a marble through a leisurely trip through California. The project was intentionally a budget-friendly, laser-cut production. To construct my work, I used Solidworks to make a model of the machine, and then I laser cut these assembly parts on acrylic and balsa wood.

This project is meant for children or even adults who really love California and puzzles. If I were to commercialize my product, I would make it easy to assemble (add numbers and tabs to all the decorations/parts so it is simple for children and adults to put together). I would also make it customizable. In my case, I made it a trip through my favorite state, California, but there is great room for a similar machine to include other landmarks (depending on the customer). 

Moodboard: Intended Users

The intended users for my product are children and puzzle-oriented adults. Some other intended users include location-based fanatics (for this project, California fans in particular)

Moodboard: Product Inspiration

This product was inspired by the state of California. I grew up in California, so I have a soft spot for most of the beaches and beautiful landmarks in the state. I wanted to make a project that would be a good representation of my passion for the state

The Process

CAD

For this project, I used Solidworks to model most functional parts of the project. This included the track, raising wheel, struts, and little "waterfall"  that helped the marble progress. It was really important for this particular project to have all of the CADding done in order for it to be successful. Without modeling, the design would not have been nearly as polished.

Laser Cutting

One of the most time-consuming parts of this project was laser cutting all of the pieces. For the "waterfall" steps, I had to cut the supports many times in order to find a height that would allow for the marble to move down the path with enough velocity to propel itself all the way to the end of the track. 

Image Processing

I really wanted to include some iconic landmarks in my project, some of which included the Golden Gate bridge, Bixby bridge, Redwood trees, water, and Mammoth Mountain. In order to do this, I had to take images from google and use Inkscape to trace their bitmaps such that I could laser cut them. 

Before...

After...

Assembly

Once all the pieces were printed and ready, I used varied glues and press-fits to assemble the whole project

Final Remarks

Once it was assembled, I had to add some struts for support, but the machine was mostly working! The wheel in the back was not functioning to the capacity I had wanted it to, but the tracks worked perfectly and the decorations were just what I wanted. 

Video of working project: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-GbQ9vCeUm4