K'nex Pinball Machine

by Alocke

21K4665

Intro: K'nex Pinball Machine

Hey everyone!  I'm proud to present my latest project; a full sized, playable, arcade-style K'nex pinball machine!  It took around four months to complete and way too long to film.  Feel free to ask any questions and I hope you enjoy it as much as I enjoyed building it!  Comment and subscribe!

A couple notes:

There are three main "features" of the machine.  There are two holes in the floor leading to lifts.  The first path shown in the video is one of these holes, and it leads to a chain lift.  Out of the lift, the ball drops into a flipper and onto a tubed path which winds its way around the entire machine, then back into the middle of the machine where it gets slightly more complicated.

Another feature is next to the left flipper.  The ball drops underneath the machine, and a lift carries it all the way back to the top, where it drops onto the red/green track.

The last feature, which I spent the most time on, is the other hole in the floor.  The mill lift carries the ball to the top, and the ball then drops into a holder.  A second ball is required to release the first one, and both are carried up the back by two small chain lifts.  Once they drop off, they both descend the entire machine, going through a double loop, then another single loop to reach the table.  An interesting note about this feature is that one motor powers all three lifts.  There's a picture showing the gearbox that transmits power to the two small chain lifts.



56 Comments

bearfield 10 years ago

it is absolutely amazing that someone could build that in their basement. my 11 year old daughter and her girlfriend have built the 3 circus rides which include the ferris wheel and 2 others, with very little help from me. k nex is awesome stuff, and what you have done is nothing short of spectacular. WELL DONE.

btrog 11 years ago

How do you do it?

kewrw28 11 years ago

That was worth every penny...The Mind Blower. Absolutly Fantastic.

JoJoJo00 11 years ago

Dude, no way!
AWESOME! What shadowman said!

SenKat 11 years ago

OHMYGOD !!!! THAT is Splendicularilly Phantastikal ! Other than the obvious fortune you musta spent getting all of those parts together, the amount of time it took had to have been VAST ! Thanks for sharing, this is by far the most impressive machine I think I have EVER seen !

Alocke 11 years ago

Thank you so much!

bunnydeath 11 years ago

Wow, that's a lot of work. Beautifully done! I second the post on your patience.

Alocke 11 years ago

Thank you so much! It's one of my favorite pastimes, especially after a crappy day at school. I just put in headphones and can build for hours on end :D

Edgar 11 years ago

A great idea, and a great Video for watching, over 5 minutes time off and a Beer!

Gone to my Portuguese Gizmo Blog:
http://faz-voce-mesmo.blogspot.pt/2012/10/propriedade-industrial-o-livro-3d.html

Alocke 11 years ago

Thank you so much!

KWHCoaster 11 years ago

Wow!! Impressive. Even more impressive is the ability of those four leg to hold up all of that weight!!

Alocke 11 years ago

I've actually heard this from a couple of people. When I first started it, that thought wasn't even in my mind. The plastic that K'nex are made of are really really great in compression (think about trying to squish a blue rod by its ends), and not so great in tension (think pulling apart). From what I can tell, none of my rods were bent from the weight.
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