not sure of your plans but if you use a jump (or two) to cross the lift push-rod's path you could leave the inner circle and then re-enter...love your videos!
Loving these videos, I just started watching this morning and I've already caught up pretty much. I'm excited to see how the downhill tracks weave their way through the maze of supports, and i hope very much to see balls crossing that invisible barrier of the pusher rod at least a couple times on the way down! I also think the downhill stuff will stiffen up the whole machine dramatically. Keep it up, you've earned a subscriber!
Great video as always. Your approach is interesting. But I don't think it's reliable. The balls are heavy and wiggle the construction, which adds randomness to the balls. As someone who also builds ball contraptions (though not from copper), I can tell you the balls are going to find a way out. That would especially be problematic if you want it to be in a museum. If I were on your place, I would rather go for some kind of mechanism, that let's the balls go straight in one direction, but doesn't let them go in the other direction, if you know what I mean. Similar to a meachanism that's used in pull-back motors to keep an axle spinning. The balls would change a direction when the dragging arm becomes too short and the balls would roll downhill. Whatever you'll do with it, good luck with it.
It's easy to say from an armchair far away, but it does seem like something more elegant could be achieved. The lifting pole is narrow, so raising one side of the lift track and bringing it in a little should cause it to fall inward... Still, you make things look much nicer than I could!
Hi, Thanks so much for the comment, You have made think in a different direction. I will keep these ideas in mind if (or when) reliabilty becomes an issue. If necessary, I think I could remove the whole escape module and replace it with something less bouncy. Lets see!
I really appreciate all ideas, from all types of chairs! Even if the idea isn't used by me, I still enjoy reading them and of course, I'm always happy to learn new stuff and build on others ideas on this sculpture or a future one.
You're sending the ball the wrong way to start off with. Then it hits the deflection bar. Maybe a ramp with the outer side staying high while the inner rail should lower to top it in wards. Hard to explain
Thanks for the comment Rich. I really did try everything and just lowering the inside rail made the ball drop steeply down without enough horizontal travel. When I found this bounce system I had to use it as it was the only solution with enough horizontal travel. Cheers. 👋