HOWTO make a stupendous, ceiling-height kid's-room marble-run

George sez, "This looks like the work of the world's greatest dad: a ceiling level, custom-built kinetic marble run - complete with Instructables info to make your own."

Kinetic Marble Track Around The Top Of A Room (Instructables) (Thanks, George!)

I write books. My latest is a YA science fiction novel called Homeland (it's the sequel to Little Brother). More books: Rapture of the Nerds (a novel, with Charlie Stross); With a Little Help (short stories); and The Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow (novella and nonfic). I speak all over the place and I tweet and tumble, too.

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Anonymous

Because only fathers do this sort of thing.
recoiled

I hope there is an off switch, or else ANY kid with this kind of mechanism in his/her room will never stay in bed/sleep again
Anonymous

At about 19 seconds in, you can clearly see a shift register implemented using marbles and wooden channels. We could likely generalize this up to something that operates much like a camera’s CCD, but the full operation of the system is visible to the naked eye. This might be a very nice instructive tool to show anyone how digital cameras work.
Anonymous

wow!
too cool
WaylonWillie

wow, nice job!
maoinhibitor

This is really beautiful. Thanks for sharing!
sbarnes2

I had a toy like this growing up:
http://www.toystogrowon.com/sku185
I loved it so much, I am pretty sure I still have it somewhere! It was so much fun to see how the parts connected and where the marble would come out. I’m more for this kind of thing than a passive toy on the wall, cool as it may be.
bpratt

“There’s absolutely no doubt in my mind that this is far more fun for the dad than for the kid.”
You say that like it’s a bad thing!
ErikO23

All i can every think about when i see these is the Pitagora Suichi.
penguinchris

I’m a bit late in commenting but while something this complex is great as an installation, I think I have a better idea – especially for a kid.

What if you had the entire wall as peg board, and you had a big set of different pieces that you could attach and remove as you pleased?

It would be like The Incredible Machine games – as a kid I spent countless hours on the computer playing those (and someone please tell me there’s a remake for smartphones! off to the android market…)
rabidpotatochip

I see this and all I can think of is how I’m going to convince Mrs. Chip to let me install this in our bedroom.
Anonymous

I remember there being a larger version (biggger spheres) using paths across the ceilings and through the walls of the top of one of the Trade Center towers – where the cafe and gift shop(s) were. These types of fun, along with slot cars and train sets make me a kid again easily. Perhaps I never strayed too far from that territory.
Anonymous

Ok this is just way to cool, I would have loved this growing up.
Eutychus

There’s absolutely no doubt in my mind that this is far more fun for the dad than for the kid. Until such time as the kid sets it running in the middle of the night.
- Wordguy
  
  Glow-in-the-dark marbles!