Blog Moved

Since this blog only had one post, I decided to move that post here. I'll probably be making more stuff out of Knex besides ball machines, and I don't want to have to keep up with two blogs that are both about Knex. So, I won't be posting any more in this blog.

New Ball Machine Under Construction

After I took Diffusion apart, I decided I would make a new ball machine called Cataclysm. I started building on May 25, 2009. I plan for this ball machine to be my largest yet, and it will have new lift systems. I'm working on a very complex lift system I call an Intermodal Train System (I.T.S). It involves a car that runs on track, similar to the original Knex Roller Coaster. The car will pick up a ball and carry it to the top. Then it will come back down. I finished the car, which uses a CyberKnex motor to power itself. In order to go forward and backward, a ball has to land in a tray, and then a switch on the motor gets pushed down by the tray. When the car reaches the top, a ball will have to land in the other side of the tray, making the car go back to where it started. The car was hard to build because lots of stuff had to be fitted in to a very small space. You can't really see the car in the above image, but that is what the base of the ball machine will look like. I might move towers or add new towers as I'm building since I don't have any plans or drawings (I did sketch out where the towers will be, but not the elements).

I'm currently working on an elevator that will lift the car up and down. It doesn't have its own motor. When the car gets on, a gear on the bottom of it will mesh with a gear on the top of the elevator. The gear on top is connected to four sides, which will have chain running through them. The wheels on the side of the elevator will help it be straight (I might add more as I'm building the elevator shaft). I also have to make a counterweight to make it easier on the car's motor, because it and the elevator are very heavy. Work still has to be done on these lift systems. It will take a very long time to finish this ball machine.