I'm in awe. The balance between mechanical elements and track runs, the leapfrog, the structural (both the gray wall attributed to shadowman and the blue and white). You've accomplished every one of your goals. I've recently purchased a ball factory set, hopefully I can get a single element down that can be as impressive as just one of you master knex-ers.
I have gotten inspired by people like you who made made ball machines in the old days of UA-cam that were popular in the KNEX community. These are the types of ball machines (compact) that really got me going and I like all of the the compact and new elements that are in this one. But really my Closing statement is that this ball machine is banger, I loved that you came back and I hope to see more stuff like this.👍😁
Great to see a new ball machine from you! Nice to see both types of balls being used in a single build :). I really love the element where the one ball is going over the other!
Really awesome machine. Enjoyed seeing all the new elements. Just when I think I have seen it all - something else comes along! Really liked the cool video edits as well!
Glad to see you're back, even if it isn't forever. What a way to go out! That leapfrog element is seriously amazing, as well as the overall design. It's nostalgic in a sense. I know that's what you were going for but it really shows in the overall layout of the tracks and lifts. It's genuinely refreshing to see things that have long gone by the way side, such as paths leading directly to lifts instead of a white floor, picked up and reinvented to be something unique. It's truly inspiring. Congratulations on everything, and I wish you the best of luck for your future.
Tornado96AU thanks! You’ve been an inspiration to me since I was a kid, and I guess knowing you made it means I probably can too. Thanks for the reply man! 😄
I love this! So simple and sweet. It's nice on the eyes and I love the differential mechanism at 2:07 as well as the style it was filmed. Music suited it well too! Nice job
Did not expect to see a new machine from you when i searched for ball machines but damn its good. Grew up watching alot of yours and shadowmans machines and it seems like now im finally getting the hang of it haha. Good to see a new video and good luck in future endevours :)
Really glad you uploaded this, I didn't even know you were making a full machine haha. It's nice to see your unique building techniques, and I like the small details such as the different track types and the tower structures for the chain lifts (my favorite is the wall spiral). I totally forgot about that grey wall design, I thought it looked familiar. Great job!
KM135 is on the mark. The top means that the larger black and white balls only go to path 9. Yeah I was quite happy with the wall spiral too! Getting the spiral track on was a challenge though... Great to hear from you again! Hope you're all doing well. :)
I built an exact copy of your element on path 8, shown at 3:55. I found it to be somewhat unreliable, with the ball often falling off as it passes over the ball in front of it. I'm wondering if there is something I missed when I built it. Was this track pretty reliable when you built it, or did you just show us a take of it working perfectly?
I was considering showing this at a show so it was incredibly reliable. My guess is a ball would fall off every 30 runs or so. Some things to have a look at: - The orange connectors where the ball lands on each flipper are intentionally angled inward to catch the ball more firmly. Check that they are indeed angled. - Check that the element is level. If there's a lot of stress on a certain section of your build that can cause the it to twist just enough to stop it working. (This happened to me with one of the other elements in this build). - have you got the correct style of ball? There are two sizes (as demonstrated by the black & white balls in the last track which are slightly larger). This element only works with the smaller ones that have a hole in them. - make sure the 'pusher' is two grey connectors with a gap in between. This also helps keep the ball centred. - have a play around with the weighting of the arms. the arm needs to light enough that the ball can cause it to snap the ball over it, but heavy enough that it doesn't overpush the ball. That's why the 'spacer' in between the two red connectors is a green connector. Let me know how it goes!
Thanks for responding. I found my problem. It was the white rods underneath the flippers. I didn't realize these were an important part of the track, I thought they were structural, so the balls were having to work harder to push the flippers farther. I added them to support the flippers, and it works a lot better now. The ball machine I'm making is unique in that it has no track separators. Instead, it's one tall plinko tower(the chamber with the pegs that the balls randomly bounce off on the way down). There are points all the way down where a ball can randomly land to leave the main chamber and go off on various track elements, then get redeposited in the chamber at a later point. So the track selection is entirely random. I have added your element to my tower and it is working well. Thanks!
Sorry, this was taken down over a year ago. You might have to do it the old fashioned way and pause the video to see how much you can figure out from freezeframes!
@@Tornado96AU Yeah I know.. such a shame! It's such a cool balmachine with new cool elements.. the details of those are so complex, it's gonna be very hard to build them
Check out 0:53 The gap between the lift exit paths and the orange connectors is big enough to only allow the yellow and red balls through, which are a different size to the black and white.
I'm in awe. The balance between mechanical elements and track runs, the leapfrog, the structural (both the gray wall attributed to shadowman and the blue and white). You've accomplished every one of your goals. I've recently purchased a ball factory set, hopefully I can get a single element down that can be as impressive as just one of you master knex-ers.
such a great machine! I love all the clever little elements and use of multiple types of balls, and how the machine looks overall.
That hop frog part was awesome.
I love the style, just simple and fun. It does indeed remind me of metropolis!
This is a really cool ball machine! Great job!
That duel section looks amazing! It is so smoooth!
I have gotten inspired by people like you who made made ball machines in the old days of UA-cam that were popular in the KNEX community. These are the types of ball machines (compact) that really got me going and I like all of the the compact and new elements that are in this one. But really my Closing statement is that this ball machine is banger, I loved that you came back and I hope to see more stuff like this.👍😁
I'm glad our creations could inspire you like that! Keep it going. Keep creating, keep inventing. :)
Great to see a new ball machine from you! Nice to see both types of balls being used in a single build :). I really love the element where the one ball is going over the other!
Really awesome machine. Enjoyed seeing all the new elements. Just when I think I have seen it all - something else comes along! Really liked the cool video edits as well!
Great build, dome fun techniques
Deadly! Love the cinematography too :)
I like it, especially the new elements.
wow :O that's a top tier ball machine there :D
Glad to see you're back, even if it isn't forever. What a way to go out! That leapfrog element is seriously amazing, as well as the overall design. It's nostalgic in a sense. I know that's what you were going for but it really shows in the overall layout of the tracks and lifts. It's genuinely refreshing to see things that have long gone by the way side, such as paths leading directly to lifts instead of a white floor, picked up and reinvented to be something unique. It's truly inspiring. Congratulations on everything, and I wish you the best of luck for your future.
That was really rewarding to read! Glad that my intention came through that clearly!
Tornado96AU thanks! You’ve been an inspiration to me since I was a kid, and I guess knowing you made it means I probably can too.
Thanks for the reply man! 😄
I love this! So simple and sweet. It's nice on the eyes and I love the differential mechanism at 2:07 as well as the style it was filmed. Music suited it well too! Nice job
Did not expect to see a new machine from you when i searched for ball machines but damn its good. Grew up watching alot of yours and shadowmans machines and it seems like now im finally getting the hang of it haha. Good to see a new video and good luck in future endevours :)
I can just imagine a flea walking through the small Wonka door entrance in the bottom of this and being wowwed by a world of 'pure imagination'.
man, I miss chain rides. when I first started making ball machines, I thought chain rides were the pinnacle of elements
Really glad you uploaded this, I didn't even know you were making a full machine haha. It's nice to see your unique building techniques, and I like the small details such as the different track types and the tower structures for the chain lifts (my favorite is the wall spiral). I totally forgot about that grey wall design, I thought it looked familiar. Great job!
There is a size splitter at the top... I think
KM135 is on the mark. The top means that the larger black and white balls only go to path 9.
Yeah I was quite happy with the wall spiral too! Getting the spiral track on was a challenge though...
Great to hear from you again! Hope you're all doing well. :)
That leapfrog element is awesome! You have any instructions?
awesome! :)
I built an exact copy of your element on path 8, shown at 3:55. I found it to be somewhat unreliable, with the ball often falling off as it passes over the ball in front of it. I'm wondering if there is something I missed when I built it. Was this track pretty reliable when you built it, or did you just show us a take of it working perfectly?
I was considering showing this at a show so it was incredibly reliable. My guess is a ball would fall off every 30 runs or so.
Some things to have a look at:
- The orange connectors where the ball lands on each flipper are intentionally angled inward to catch the ball more firmly. Check that they are indeed angled.
- Check that the element is level. If there's a lot of stress on a certain section of your build that can cause the it to twist just enough to stop it working. (This happened to me with one of the other elements in this build).
- have you got the correct style of ball? There are two sizes (as demonstrated by the black & white balls in the last track which are slightly larger). This element only works with the smaller ones that have a hole in them.
- make sure the 'pusher' is two grey connectors with a gap in between. This also helps keep the ball centred.
- have a play around with the weighting of the arms. the arm needs to light enough that the ball can cause it to snap the ball over it, but heavy enough that it doesn't overpush the ball. That's why the 'spacer' in between the two red connectors is a green connector.
Let me know how it goes!
Thanks for responding. I found my problem. It was the white rods underneath the flippers. I didn't realize these were an important part of the track, I thought they were structural, so the balls were having to work harder to push the flippers farther. I added them to support the flippers, and it works a lot better now.
The ball machine I'm making is unique in that it has no track separators. Instead, it's one tall plinko tower(the chamber with the pegs that the balls randomly bounce off on the way down). There are points all the way down where a ball can randomly land to leave the main chamber and go off on various track elements, then get redeposited in the chamber at a later point. So the track selection is entirely random. I have added your element to my tower and it is working well. Thanks!
Is there any chance that the elements come up on instructables.com, so we can recreate them?
Sorry, this was taken down over a year ago. You might have to do it the old fashioned way and pause the video to see how much you can figure out from freezeframes!
@@Tornado96AU Yeah I know.. such a shame! It's such a cool balmachine with new cool elements.. the details of those are so complex, it's gonna be very hard to build them
how did you get the black and white balls separated from the red and yellow ones?
Check out 0:53
The gap between the lift exit paths and the orange connectors is big enough to only allow the yellow and red balls through, which are a different size to the black and white.
@@Tornado96AU holy cow i never knew the black and white ones where smaller
@@eonbree8593 Wrong way around. Black and white are larger and also lighter. :P
Wow what