I built this several years ago, but just revisited it recently to put together a more detailed web page with many more photos.




Overview: Drop the marbles in at the top, they race down one of two tracks, banging and clattering all the way...





And at the bottom they leave the track, ring the bell, and drop into this sort of catch basin area



I bought this brass counter bell (desk bell) kit from Lee Valley. They don’t sell it any more, but you can find a counter bell at any office supply store, or check amazon



This is a two-dimensional marble toy. (Rear view) all the track pieces are simply glued or tacked to this vertical plywood back.


(If you want a complicated 3-D type of marble toy, I recommend checking out one of Matthias Wandel’s, like this one: http://woodgears.ca/mm2/index.html )



Top Down, watching them roll



Ringing the Bell…



I used 9/16" diameter chrome steel balls. And then made this wooden track sections from 3/4" wide by 1/4" thick stock, glued up into this U-shaped channel.



The base needs to be thick + heavy, so it doesn’t tip. I embedded the back into a dado.