Ball Lifter?

[DrDark]

Friends..the last 15 seconds of this video says it all.
YouTube - Marble machine 1 in action

[Eddie]

A Piston!!! What a fantastic idea. This might be what we have been looking for

I found this description on his web page.

This marble pump is basically the heart of the marble machine. It elevates the marbles, and everything else is powered completely by descending marbles.
This view shows the pump with the intake and exit attachment removed. Visible is the slider, with the hole in which the piston sits, plus a marble for reference. On the right is a 115 volt AC induction motor. The chain drive provides another bit of reduction. The white sprocket on the left is not directly coupled to the crankshaft, but has a form of slip clutch instead. This slip clutch prevents damage when the machine jams, and also, by being very jerky, can cause jams to become undone on their own. The block with the hole in it is the slider, while the hole is where the piston sits. The crankshaft is made from bent coat hanger wire, and goes through the piston in the slider. Various escapeents are cut out of the inside to give the crankshaft room to turn.

Under normal operation, the marble pump is just this rumbling piece of machinery underneath the table on which all the action happens. Marbles magically disappear in a hole in the table, and are pumped up the central column to descend again.

[Eddie]

This link is really detailed. the slipper clutch for jammed balls is another smart idea.

How the marble pump works

[compirate]

Thought this looked familiar

Ball lifter ideas

posts 21 and 24

I bet it could be modified to lift several columns at a time, increasing it's capacity.

[birdbrain]

im thinking more along this line.the crank would just move the block that the piston rides in,rather than the piston itself, the piston would have a small wheel on the bottom and would ride up and down the ramp. this would make it quieter and by using a thicker block and ramp you can move multiple balls

[birdbrain]

build one with legos!!!
YouTube - Lego#34 :: Marble Pump

heres a design that will feed two machines seperatly:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SuUc578eRoo

[chmer01]

If someone here does build one of these please upload the plans with the dimentions.

[birdbrain]

OK! Here we go:
the original ball lift idea is a great starting point,BUT, they had major problems with binding due to the piston twisting in the cylinder. here is my solution. there will be a lever that will push the balls up out of the tube,this lever will have an arm extending below the slide block and will engage a fixed pin approx. 1/4" before the end of it's travel, pushing the balls up and out of the tube. the balls will pass a spring that will keep them from falling back into the slider. i will be making one tomorrow out of plastic and will post the process.
pic 1: slide in the load position.
pic 2: slide about to engage the actuating pin
pic 3: slide fully extended and lift fully raised
pic 4: closeup of one-way spring

[wrkey]

Hey Birdbrain,

Here's a thought for ya. Instead of a spring type device to prevent the balls from falling back... use a 'flap' instead. See the diagram below. A spring could become weak or break and you must overcome the force of the spring in order to shove the next ball up. A flap would have no other resistance than it's own weight which would be minimal.

I'm not sure of feasibility of the design below but a combination of the two might "get'er done"!

Good luck on the prototyping!

[reaperman]

Yes, I'm dragging up an old thread, but it hardly seems fair to create yet another ball lifter thread for my very casual thoughts on the subject. I've been inspired by the 'Archimedes Screw' and 'marble pusher' ideas, but they always seem too complex.

however it seems that when I thought this my head wasn't using them in the correct direction.



YouTube - Wooden Marble Run Pump Lift
could the pump really be as simple as a piston, a spring loaded wedge and some tubing?

YouTube - Marble Run 2 Grandpa's original with a Pump
and who really needs a 3 foot long Archimedes Screw when a couple inches is long enough?

[luckydog]

how about a vaucumn pump to suck the balls up a tube???

[JBimmolate]

Hey reaperman, I was thinking about that last design but had never seen it before. I was thinking of using a wood drill bit (cork screw style) for the screw portion and attaching it to a small electric motor. Now that I see what I was thinking in action I feel this may be possible for sure. When I have time I may mock up a test run to try it out. Thanks for the link!

Miles

[Drunkenclam]

I too was thinking about some sort of cork screw, I'd knew I've seen just the thing before some where. It came to me today. Modern sash windows have a device called a spiral balance.
See attached..
http://balance.lupimedia.com/files/I...structions.PDF

I was wondering if the centre part could be used as a lifting spiral.
They do one 72" length versioin. Although how long the spiral part is I don't know.

[luckydog]

my thoughts are a large long spring in a tube that spirals constantly and lift the balls as it turns.

another thought is a spring on a cam to shoot the balls up a tube with a deflector at the top to the tray like a pinball machine shoots balls.

[mscott03]

Well, I've come to the point where I am ready to make a ball lifter/pump as well - I think it would be awesome to automate this whole thing. First I want to start by pulling from a 12V line on the Pachinko, and using a relay have it turn on/off the motor when the top ball hopper gets low. Secondly, I dont think the piston/pump idea will suffice - you will be paying out balls faster than a piston can move without malfunction..

The idea I had is to have 2 halves of PVC tube outside of a drill bit style center rod. I think this will have less chance for a ball to jam and be able to pump balls up faster than the piston method. I am going to draw some plans up tonight and hopefully be able to reproduce the idea in real life!

[TailTrauma]

The idea I had is to have 2 halves of PVC tube outside of a drill bit style center rod. I think this will have less chance for a ball to jam and be able to pump balls up faster than the piston method. I am going to draw some plans up tonight and hopefully be able to reproduce the idea in real life!

I had a similar idea, found some stock materials that might do the trick. (I'm of the cobble-existing-crap-together school of engineering.)

Yard Butler 30" 1.75" diameter augur:
Amazon.com: Yard Butler RD-2 30-Inch Roto Digger: Patio, Lawn & Garden
I found one of these in my local Ace, seems sturdy enough to lift balls...

Schedule 80 2" pvc. (Inner diameter 1.93")
PVC and CPVC Pipes - Schedule 40 & 80

I haven't tried it yet. The augur part of the bit isn't long enough to lift the whole way, and I've got no clue if the balls would be pushed the rest of the way up the pipe.

Another idea is to gut a golf putting rig for the 110v solenoid, use it and a pulsed power source to 'shoot' the balls. Would be noisy as heck, but might be really fast and resistant to jams.

Please post any experiments! I'll be interested to see what you come up with.

[mscott03]

YouTube - SPACEWARP 60000

There is a perfect example of the lifter I was thinking of, auger style with different tracks/cylinders on the sides. They could all then be dumped into the top, and depending on how many sides you put on it, you could double, triple or even quadruple the amount of balls being feed to the top.

[TailTrauma]

Okay, that thing is cool. Thanks for showing! Now I even more want to see what you come up with.

[WondersPachi]

Nice work people!

[takethecastle57]

ThinkGeek :: Spacewarp 5000