K'nex Ball Machine at The Works Museum
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- čas přidán 10. 09. 2024
- This machine still needs a title! Post any suggestions in the comments.
This is a short teaser for my latest construction project, the world's largest K'nex ball machine, at The Works Museum in Bloomington, Minnesota. theworks.org/
The machine stands 23.5 feet tall and 40 feet long, and contains over 100,000 pieces. It has 2 lifts, 3 motors, and 8 paths, including a 20 foot free-fall, an 8 foot tall big-ball-factory spiral, and a 60 foot long path which hangs from the ceiling. It takes 3 and a half minutes for a ball to climb to the top of the tallest tower.
The music used is an original composition and can be downloaded here: / teaser-for-the-works
i have a suggestion for its name: World's Largest K'nex Ball Machine
1. Olympus
2. Labyrinth
3. The Rig
4. Psychedelic
5. The Poodle
Not bad, I did have a machine named Labyrinth back in 2010 though.
the stairs and building was constructed around the k'nex machine.
That trailer was SO MUCH MORE better than "vampire academy"
Epic. . . It should have jawbreakers and gumballs running constantly !
Mayor Fuglycool
I can't wait to see the full video!
My childhood fantasy... come true... :') Its so...beautiful..
Now THAT'S a ball tower. Nice work!
Wow! It's so Piece Full and moving!
Super Cool, Windchill not included!
Feels like the trailer for some kind of awesome sci-fi movie
Wow - great job! This is awesome. The name that came to mind when I watched this was Goliath. Maybe Behemoth? It needs a BIG name.
I dub this contraption the K'nex Ultra Neato Thingy!
The demoralizer - because that's how you feel in the face of this EPIC creation.
My fingers bleed just thinking about snapping all those pieces together. Those sets were torture growing up!
There's starving kids in Africa that could of ate that plastic.
Shame on you.
There'RE starving kids in Africa that could HAVE EATEN that plastic.
Then they're starving kids in Africa who could've choked on it.
Stephani -D There are uneducated kids in Africa that could use your help.
I so wish I had the time to make these machines still... College, why?!!?!? Looks fantastic, man!
an Imgurian did a thing! Congrats!
Ah this makes me miss my glory days of K'nex...
Wow! This is amazing! My pieces are nothing compared to the pieces of you. :D
This is what he got for Christmas.. a buncha k'nex
Citizen K'nex
Damnit patches.
question where do you buy your knex from and how is the weight of all those pieces not crushing the bottom so that it breaks
AMAZING!
Austron's K'next big thing
Epicness
I'm wondering cuz I stumbled on a yellow version of the green connector with 4 connection points, I got a massive box of knex for Christmas that came from eBay and this is were I found it, is this a rare piece?
Amazing !
Wished I had that much rollercoastertubing,
How many meters of tubing track did you use?
Yea! That's even better!
Is there a specific place where you go to buy K'nex pieces? After seeing all of these whimsical machines, I'd like to try it for myself, but I have no clue where to start. I'm a college student, so budget is something I would like to keep very low out of necessity.
I get nearly all of my pieces from ebay for my personal projects. This project, however, was built entirely from donated parts and money.
who has that much time that they can just play with k'nex that was my childhood toy
This is my job, it is not free time.
i want that job
Man i wanna make a ball with a camera in it so we can get a first person view of this that'd be amazing
Hoping and assuming that is all glued?
congrats
Where is the best place to get K'nex from?
If I built that thing, I'd have glass panels around to protect it, not a 4-foot high piece of cloth which could let a 5-year old in to destroy it.
K'Nex Big Thing
Then some kid trips over and ruins it :( ... But that is really awesome!
this is ludicrous :D
It's big, but it's not as impressive as Clockwork to me, which was packed with ingenuity. I guess you've had to keep the complex elements out of this one to ensure reliability?
That's exactly it. In a way it was freeing to have such a large space and access to so many pieces, but this machine has to run 7 hours a day for several years. Moving parts and more creative elements have to be kept to a bare minimum, so most of the tracks are fairly bland compared to your average K'nex ball machine.
austron That's something I can relate to, most of my models travel from place to place for expositions. It's my main limiting factor on building, having to build something I can tear appart quickly and have it work reliably is incredibly hard. Not to mention the electronics involved to keep my models running in a realistic way, as I mostly build roller-coaster and fairground rides. Though, having ride cycles does slow down the wear, a lot. You've done a great job Austin, keep it up!
Is there some type of social group to connect with other builders of giant knex ball machines? I am currently building one that will have around 25,000 pieces, and would love to see some sort of group where I could talk to other builders about tips and stuff.
Well, there is an SSC group chat on Skype, but we go of-topic a lot.
Ball of America
if only u could attach a gopro to one of these balls
Looks so tempting to break though xD
Austron have you ever seem my builds? I never got into ball machines due to lack of imagination time and pieces lol but I do build K'nex guns! I have one that shoots 500ft if your interested in checking it out
Make a ball that lights (led inside, or made out of glass with glowsticks inside), and film a full video in half-darkness, so it would be visible.
I have used lighted balls in the past, though at the moment I am unable to due to a pair of extremely obnoxious patent trolls who have been harassing me for the past several months, claiming that they own the rights to any lighted ball which moves on a track. So unfortunately this machine will most likely not have lighted balls :(
I do, however, have videos of my past machines with lighted balls in dark rooms on my channel, so hopefully they won't be forcibly removed.
austron You should just block the trolls.
austron block the trolls. Have they blocked your past videos? No. Then continue on making them and see if they can do anything about it. If they can, then make a ball that is UV painted and put a blacklight on it. Get creative!
I am planning to do UV reactive balls for my next machine, but I can't realistically do that at the museum. As for the patent trolls, they are threatening legal action if I make any more lighted ball videos, they are not threatening to act against my previous videos. I hate to give into their absurd demands, but I'd rather not risk losing my youtube channel just because a couple people can't behave like reasonable adults.
austron What are trolls' names? I could take care of them for you >:)
I have just one simple question... Where can I find your life?
Also that is pretty F***ing impressive
You should call it: into the K,nexus!!
what this song please??
Not really fair if he's using other materials to support the structure, ie the strings holding it from the ceiling.
First of all, those aren't strings, they are K'nex chain, there are no non-k'nex pieces in the structure except for an extension cord to power the upper lift's motor. Second, even if they were strings, that is unfair because...?
austron K'nex chains. Fair enough.
I think it would be unfair because of the slight advantage it would give compared to using only K'nex pieces.
austron Where do you find those odd tube pieces? I know they're K'NEX but I can't find them anywhere...
The music of this shit makes it disturbing... I have chills
how about Rainbow Road?
Is it me or did the audio sound really glitchy at around 0:31? I think that's youtube being a derp-on-a-stick again.
I had an issue with the sound mixing in the video editor. I thought it was fixed when I uploaded it, but I was using headphones at the time. When I played it back through speakers I realized the bass was pulled up way too high and it caused distortion in the lower frequencies.
Oh, it doesn't matter. The video itself is what's important. It's amazing, by the way. 100,000+. I've only built a ball machine with 15k. (Next time, say CZcams messed up the audio, they won't know any difference.)
bro youtube never derps.
chownful You must barely be on CZcams then.
Is this science works in Melbourne? ;o
Wow!
get a little gyro camera and let it run through it, thatd be cool
Cloud 10?
The Burj Khalifa Ball Tower. Or maybe nix the Khalifa bit so it rolls off the tongue better (pun not intended). The Burj Khalifa is currently the world's tallest building located in the UAE.
What's up with music…odd!
You should name this altitude and give it a mountain at the top.
I bet the guy who built this had sore fingers by the time he was done.
I think the Portal music was a bit too...."Death" for something this colorful....
-.- That's not Portal, serves me right for being on at 4:30 am...no more internets for me tonight.....still....intense music......
How about "Spherical K'netix" or "K'netix"
How long will this be on display?
It will be up for as long as it continues to function, we are hoping to keep it for at least a couple of years.
Awesome! Minnesota resident here, I'm probably gonna try to make it out there during the summer. Nice Job!
knexpert5 If you can, you should try to come in late february for Tech Fest. I will have a table set up next to the machine where I will be talking about it and answering questions.
Awesome! I would, but I'll be in Indiana then for finals.
I read the title as largest ball teaser...
"Commerce" because of all the ups and downs. As well as from the expense of all those pieces!
why no "pee wee herman breakfast" music?
Kraze-O-Tron
"The Nunnery"
the Ballbuster
"The 7 summits".... in reference to the 7 highest mountains in the world...
the hell does it even do?
So you never checked out his channel? Get an attention span.
a name ? Knexator ? Knexathon ?
*Caractacus Potts Compendium
would be a Good name for it
*Based on the 1968 movie Chitty Chitty Bang Bang
And it is not broken
Call it the Tall Baller
That's way over a fucking 100,000 pieces.
Wow
That's pretty nice. Good job. Hopefully a little bad ass child doesn't run up to it a kick the snot out of it and bust it all to shit
My parents never let me have K'nex as a kid :(
A bit taller than my Christmas tree my Christmas tree is 21 feet tall
Someone's got too much spare time!
Apparently working at a children's museum is a waste of time now. Good to know! I will reconsider my life choices immediately.
Call it Keith or Derrick
i wonder if any kid has ran into that thing
betcha that would of sucked if the camera fell on it :)
" The Short Track "
bowling balls?
skyscraper
Im just gob-smacked
c'est un jouet pour les grands
The music makes it sound depressing!
Name it Robert Wadlow.
This is just obscene!
not the biggest there bigger
AwesomeDesertTortoises There is one larger than this one, at Brickmania Toyworks in Minneapolis, also built by me.
oh
Knexinator!
Big bertha
No name? Since the machine is basically about kinetic energy...K'netic is too obvious?
Already exists, search "Knetic Energy Knex ball Machine" by koolcoasterkid
*Your name* Titan.
Call it Xfinity
K'nexfinity?