How to make a ball bearing rollercoaster

Step 7 Experiment!

Here is a picture of one of the finished models. You can see that vertical support wires have been mounted into the chipboard: this is done by drilling small holes into it and pushing the wire in.

Once you have started to put different modular components together and mounted them onto a board you will find that things may need slight adjustment / fettling.

Use a spirit level to make sure that your board is level before adjusting your roller coaster - this allows you to make sure it will work once you've moved it somewhere else.

Any problems then post a comment and we will try our best to help you out.

Good luck,

The Jam Jar Collective 

Comments

[aessam1]

Really amazing
i hope to make one when i have some free time

[richardhtet98]

hi! We are doing your project for physics and we saw that you used two motors. Do you have a different design that includes only one motor and please show us at different angles. we love your project the g mail is [e-mail]. and we, cant solder copper.

[JamJarCollective]

Hi Richard,
thank you for your comment. We do have a new design using only one motor - we haven't quite yet put an instructable together for this but can share some images:

http://twitpic.com/4846hm

http://www.flickr.com/photos/nottinghack/5520954871/sizes/l/in/photostream/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/nottinghack/5520943595/sizes/l/in/photostream/

The new lifter works by forcing the ball bearings vertically up a 'cage' - rather than using the 'archimedes screw' type technique.

We can't get any more photographs yet as the sculpture is away on holiday but once we get it back I'll try to get some more pictures of the new ball lifter detail.

we would suggest that if you can't solder copper then this project may be a little too much of a challenge. Have you tried using flux and/or a more powerful soldering iron?

Good luck + let us know how you get on.

[sfong]

Love this.  I decided to build one with my son.  The straighten wire technique is wonderful. 

I have tried to solder the wires, and have had no luck.  My soldering iron is electric.  Do I need to use a gas like butane?  Can you give more detail on your equipment and methods?

[JamJarCollective]

You could try using fluz to get the heat to transfer more effectively. We have had success with both gas + electric soldering irons. You may need to try a higher powered one (we now use a 40w electric iron) - although we have burned out a number of them through heavy use.

[codongolev]

I use butane. and like willstyles said, use solder. it helps a lot.

if you want to get a torch for cheap, dealextreme's a good website. their stuff's a little cheap (my ignition system broke and I have to use a lighter now), but the torches seem to work fine.

[WillStyles]

Have you tried using soldering paste on the joints? It really aids in the trasfer of heat from the gun to the copper.

[day-weed]

very very very very very welllll done! i gotta try this! gotta question though. how do you join two pieces of track (e.g. a loop and a straight track) together or is it one continuous wire?

[fenris]

far out

[Heptron]

Have you also thought about banking the track in the corners rather than using the extra barrier? It would 'clean up' the appearance a bit and make things look more sleek. However, I don't know how to calculate the proper bank angle to ensure the ball doesn't escape...

[dale283]

Very nice work, well thought out

[noobie605]

make a vid.

[Jon123]

there is a vid, here you go.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KDP1Wi4UxR4


BTW great job on this,  I have recently built something very similar and put it in a rube goldberg for competition.  It's not nearly as awesome as yours though.

[P821543016]

 video
 man