Funtime Marble Roller Motorized Lift System Version 1.0

This is the motorized lift system for the Funtime Marble Roller System. This is version 1.0.

If anything is missing please let me. I will respond within a day or so.

I built this because I got tired of trying other's lift system to find out that they were limited in height. I wanted a system that could allow me create a lift as high as I wanted to. I also found that most caused the marble to fall off if there were any unwanted vibrations from the motor or the desk being bumped. I failed at that as stability becomes a problem over a couple of feet. I'm thinking if I should try to solve this problem or let people come up with their own solutions.

I ended up buying a Grawler T40 motor from Hobbytown to power this. I needed a lot of torque and gear reductions on high-speed cheap motors wasn't working as they were very noisy and the lose of power because of them wasn't worth spending my time on any longer.

This motor is mounted into the motor mount. The main gear is connected to the shaft using a spider coupling. The gear runs into a worm drive. The gearing and worm drive are not as good as I'd like but better than most worm drives I've down loaded and tested. I created larger gears to avoid breakage and for a better meshing of the gears. I'll redesign this whole thing in CAD sometime in 2022.

The worm drive is connected to the auger which runs up the center of the shroud. There are two shrouds for you liking. The augers are connected together. There is a center hole to guide the augers and keep them straight but I have found it is not necessary to use at all. The auger has been specially made to be concaved so as to hold the marble close to the shaft.

The collector plate sits on top of the worm drive and is where the marbles are collected to be lifted up the auger.

At the top of the lift is a special shroud designed for distributing the marble. It was necessary as each shroud is 100mm but some of the intial shroud height is augmented by how it sits on the collector plate.

The final pieces are the distributor and shroud cap. I've added sides to the distributor to prevent the marble from falling out and not onto the rails. I know that this needs improvement and it will be looked at in 2022. It forces the marble away from the auger and onto the rail. The cap holds things together with the flags being used as rods to hold the cap in place, should you choose not to glue it.

This is a motorized lfit system for the Funtime Marble Rolling System. Additionally, a separate project is out there for the Funtime Marble Rolling System AA Battery Mount with Switch.

I do plan on redesigning this sometime in February or later as this was all done using Microsoft's 3D Builder and not CAD software. The gears are noisy and things need to be made with more precision but it works as well as beautifying some of the pieces that while hidden show how I remixed from another project.

About this model:

Things are a bit wonky aligning the pieces. As mentioned this wasn't done in CAD software... But they will line up. Once you get things put together you may wish to super glue some of the pieces to provide stabiltiy and less movement.

I recommend glueing the following as so long was they are aligned you won't need to take them apart.

The worm case top to the collector plate. When doing so make sure that you align the pieces by having the connector pins in place and that you have the proper orientation for the top.

The Shroud Cap and Shroud Top Distribution pieces.

Spider couplings for the motor spider coupling and the main worm drive gear. Worse case here is that you have to reprint both of these if one should break. Make sure that the couplings are level and straight.

The next ones are okay to glue but should they fail you may need to replace them and other pieces.

The worm case top and bottom. Make sure that you insert the main worm drive gear into place prior to printing as you won't be able to insert it aftewards, or remove it.

When building the marble roller using the lift system start with the ending and work upward to the release. I find this more stable and easier to work with.

No supports are needed! I design things to avoid supports.
I print all of these in PLA at 280 microns for faster printing. I dont' believe anything is longer than 5 hours, which is why things are split apart and designed the way that they are. I hate 10 hour print jobs to find out something went wrong and I have a half of a roll of filament melted to my nozzle and up the throat. :)