Create an incredibly complex marble run 'Marble Fountain' with a 3D printer, where balls roll endlessly
Wanting to create the most intricate piece of art imaginable using a 3D printer, mechatronics engineer
Marble Fountain :: Will Morrison — Personal Blog
https://willmorrison.net/posts/marble-fountain/
Morrison's Marble Fountain is below.
Morrison says the prototype for Marble Fountain was completed quickly. The process for creating Marble Fountain is very simple: first, randomly place points. Then, draw smooth curves to connect each point and set a constant slope. This was too simple, so in order to add more parts, he created a 'path solver' program to simulate the path the balls would roll.
The path solver first creates random paths from the top to the bottom of the marble run. Each path is placed within a specified radius, and paths are evenly spaced. Changes in slope are smoothed to prevent the marbles from floating up. Minimum and maximum turning radii are also set for curves in the path to prevent the marbles from jumping off or coming to a halt on the path.
The supports supporting each path are weighted by distance and size similarity, and are pulled toward each other. The arcs in the support structure are used because supports also have inertia. The Marble Fountain took about 5 to 20 minutes to print.
So, here is the completed Marble Fountain.
This is what the Marble Fountain looks like from above. The starting point of the balls is in the middle.
The two black lines act as rails, and the ball rolls along them.
The balls eventually gather in one place and are transported by machine to the starting point.
Viewed from the side, the overall complexity becomes more apparent.
A ball rolling from the starting point. There appear to be eight paths.
Morrison also publishes the code for printing the Marble Fountain.
GitHub - Will-Morr/MarbleFountain
https://github.com/Will-Morr/MarbleFountain
Morrison added, 'The Marble Fountain is the most time-consuming hobby project I've ever done. I started it in February 2024 and worked on it intermittently until September. I was planning to exhibit it in a gallery, but I struggled to stabilize the system enough to exhibit it. Two or three marbles fell per hour, and I also encountered problems with the motor only being able to run for a few hours without overheating.'
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