FilaCoaster - Filament Marble Rollercoaster

Marble Rollercoaster with Filament Rails

Hey all! When I was a teenager, I was gifted a kit called SpaceRail where you assembled a rollercoaster for marbles. It consisted of metal rods and a roll of plastic wire that formed rails. I recently, remebered this and thought it might be interesting to 3D print it and use filament as the rails, so that the whole kit (minus the marbles) can be made at home!

The FilaCoaster consists of several block types, connectors, and a board to assemble everything on. Everything is put together with 3D printed screws and threads; a screwdriver model is included in the set to help with assembly. The marble sizes supported are 14-17 mm marbles (the Bambu Lab Marble Run Kit comes with 14 mm marbles).

Parts:

• Blocks:
  • Riser - PLA - These blocks screw together to create supports to hold the rails up
  • Rail Holder - PLA - These blocks go on top of a stack of Risers and hold the Angled Rail Connector
  • End - PLA - This block goes at the end to catch the marble
• Connectors:
  • Angled Rail Connector - PETG - This attaches to the Rail Holder with a pressure fit and can be attached at an angle
  • Floating Rail Connector - PETG - These are attached intermittently between Angle Rail Connectors to keep the rail a consistent width
• Board Pieces:
  • Board - PLA - This prints upside-down; use the Board Screws to attach Risers
  • Board Screws - PLA - These connect Risers to the Board
  • Screwdriver - PETG - This assists in screwing in the Board Screws
  • Rails - PETG Filament - Raw PETG filament is used for the Rails

Here's the parts labelled in the slicer:

The parts connecting to the filament rails should be printed in PETG. PLA worked okay in my prototyping, however they broke very often when snapping in the filament while PETG allows for very easy assembly. If you must use PLA, I recommend a PLA+ or PLA Meta filament that is more flexible and stronger. The filament rail can also be raw PLA filament, but be warned it's harder to shape for the rollercoaster than PETG, and again, PLA+ or PLA Meta will be more workable than PLA.

Build Instructions

After printing all the parts, here's how you can assemble your custom FilaCoaster.

Step 1:

Put a screw in the desired hole of the board, from underneath.

Step 2:

Hand screw or use the printed screwdriver to screw a Riser Block onto the Board.

Step 3:

Attach more Risers to increase the height of the coaster support tower.

Step 4:

When you're done stacking Risers, screw on a Rail Holder to the top of the tower. The whole support tower can be rotated to angle the Rail Holder however you'd like.

Step 5:

To finish the support tower, press fit an Angled Rail Connector onto the Rail Holder. The Angled Rail Connector can be angled side to side to better fit your custom coaster path.

Repeat these steps with shorter towers each time along your custom path. When the support towers are done, you can begin snapping in the filament onto the Angled Rail Connectors to create the rails. The filament rails can be snapped in by hand, but using simple pliers can make it much easier. Use the model image as a guide on how often to put Floating Rail Connectors along your track. Finally, screw in an End Block to the board at the end of your track and your FilaCoaster will be complete!

For those with the Bambu Lab Marble Run Kit, I've also created a Spiral Lift machine that turns your rollercoaster into an endless ride!

Check it out here: Spiral Lift