Rube Goldberg Balloon Popping Machine
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This is a pretty large project. There are five sections each with either one or two steps. The top is a marble run that ends in a pully system, the next is a wash board, the third is xylophone stairs. Fourth is a clothespeg holding up the balloon popping needle and the last step holds the balloon. Lots of time and work went into this and it worked first time.
4ft tall at highest point, made of wood, metal and found objects |
Full VideosHere's a video of the machine working. It's a little hard to see, so there are individual videos of the steps as well as pictures for a bit of detail, but this is the full machine.
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First StepThis is the first step of the project. It's a marble run made of copper wire soldered to screws that are in wood. It took a terribly long time. I was just lucky that had some help.
This is the marble run with the small brass wire that didn't work very well.
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This is the cleaned-down version. Just the wooden towers with nails in them.
Right before we began to solder the rungs, the little copper stands soldered into the nails. Looks like a strange electric metropolis.
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Second & Third Step
These two were connected to each other because the placement was essential so the marbles fell properly.
The xylophone stairs were hard, but fun to make. We needed to take apart a machine just to make them. They don't sound terribly awesome because the xylophone pieces were from a child's toy. |
Fourth & Fifth StepThis is the final step, and the two are essential together. The fifth tier is just a balloon holder, but the fourth tier is a clothspeg nailed in that holds back the needle that is soldered to doorhinged metal flap. It pops the balloon wonderfully.
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