♫ Mini ♪ Marble ♫ Music ♪ Machine ♬

This one has been years in the making:

the Mini Marble Music Machine!

This is a desktop version of the incredible machines built by Martin from Wintergatan. I have been hugely inspired by him and always wanted to create my own version. This started years ago but the Marble Run Contest finally gave me a deadline to push on with this project!

So here it is:

Sadly I did not yet receive enough marbles so that is why I muted channels and only have a three note song, but up to nine notes are programmable!

(I will make a better recording shortly, quite a lot of noise reverb in the kitchen) 

Programmable music rolls LINK

In the print profiles you can find the original Marble Machine song by Wintergatan (8 tracks) and Mary had a little Lamb (3 tracks) that I adapted to work with the very limited amount of marbles I had.

To create your own music roll there is a customizable model available created by @DrJones where you can plug in your own songs and creations and you are more then welcome to share your models as print profiles on this page!

The roll can fit 64 notes, they are divided into 8 bars with 8 eighth notes (beats). In the top you fill in which notes you are using from left to right (no repeats of the exact same character, but you can do a “c” and a "C"). And then you fill in for every 8th note(s) which note should be played.

You can not do the same note consecutively, they have to at least be a fourth note (two “beats”) apart. And a lot of repeats is also not advisable since you can run the que empty in a short time.

The Xylophone plates

I have tested multiple xylophones for this model and the one I decided on is widely available from a lot of different brands and resellers in different colors. Just search for Xylophone or Glockenspiel and I believe all these will work:

Mine was pretty well tuned, I can't guarantee that for yours. I got mine second hand but these seem to all come from the same manufacturer.

Other parts:

From Bambu (see below):

12 mm marbles (150pcs)

10mm M3 bolts (10 pcs)

30mm M3 bolts (10 pcs)

Non Bambu:
M5 rods 244mm (3 pcs)

M5 (lock)nuts (6 pcs)

Optional: stick on felt/rubber/something to dampen the falling marbles

Instructions:

Assembly is pretty straight forward. Make sure to work the bolts in carefully not to damage the print!

1. Place the escapement gears in the top and thread one rod end through. Nut on both sides but keep it loose
2. Place the top on the base and mount with M3x30 bolts. Not all nine are necessary, I only use 3. Screw them in carefully!
3. Place the escapement readers and thread a rod end through. Nut on both sides but keep it loose
4. Assemble the marble lift with two M3x10 bolts
5. Place the marble lift and mount it with 3 m3x10 bolts
6. Place the gear between the lift and the base, use 2 M3x10 bolts but don't tighten fully, keep it free spinning.
7. For X1 and P1 only: assemble the Archimedes screw with 1 M3x30 bolt
8. Place the Archimedes screw. There is one marble at the bottom center that is used as a smooth bearing
9. If I didn't forget anything you can now place your music roll and thread the last rod end through.
10. Create music!

It was a tight squeeze to get this model ready for the closing of the contest, I will update this page in the coming weeks!

And other than that

Happy printing!

Rossero

A special thanks for helping with the OpenSCAD to:
@DrJones

@Oxooxo

And Axel and DellaTom at the Wintergatan Discord Server