Marble elevator

thingiverse

Half a meter vertical lift system. Intrigued by the marble run transport snail 152 mm 7 twists from Thomasdr at http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:613224. I decided to surprise my grandchildren with an impressive marble elevator and printed three transport snails combined on a threaded M4 rod. The housing features a marble IN piece and a marble OUT piece, connected with three extensions using connecting elements. Standard glass 16 mm marbles fit well, but also smaller ones are lifted without problems. All parts print easy without supports but high infill to make them strong. If 14 cm height is too much for your printer, just make the extensions shorter and use one more connecting element. For some printers it might be a good idea to have a 10mm brim at the base of the extensions and screw. The M4 threaded rod has a 2mm diameter hole at the bottom in order to fix it to the motor connector by a 2mm bolt. Just to make sure it stays in place when it is loaded. The motor is a geared DC motor. Because not all motors are the same, the relevant OpenSCAD files are attached as well to adapt shaft diameter, mounting holes etc. As soon as there are more marbles in action, they push each other in and out of the elevator. https://youtu.be/FxqTiIFRTv8 Use your imagination and available materials like wood, tubing etc to create an interesting marble run around this elevator. Plenty of examples can be found on Thingiverse. Print Settings Printer: Wanhao3i Rafts: Doesn't Matter Supports: No Resolution: 0.2 Notes: Brim for the longer parts, if needed