There’s a lot going on with this floor-standing Rolling Ball Sculpture. It has five different tracks, all fed by one of my more unusual track splitters. Instead of simply dividing one track into two, this splitter sends the first ball to track one, the second to track two, and continues through all five tracks. After sending a ball to track five, it resets and starts over again with track one.
Tracks one and two are matching loop d’ loop tracks. A ball-collecting tipping arm releases two balls at the same time, side by side, with each ball entering its own set of loops. They race through the loops together and continue down their separate tracks. It’s fun to see which one reaches the bottom first.
Track three is a full-length vertical zig-zag running almost the entire height of the sculpture.
Track four starts with a ball-collecting tipping arm that releases four balls at once into the “Ferris wheel” ball lift. The four balls roll around the outside of the large wheel, and their combined weight turns it. Pickups on the inside of the wheel lift a separate ball onto its own closed-loop track with a flat spiral. That ball eventually returns to the Ferris wheel and waits for the next four balls to come along and lift it again.
Meanwhile, those four balls leave the wheel and enter a tall coil. They come out of the coil with enough speed to attempt an uphill section — and they don’t always make it. If a ball runs out of momentum, it rolls backward and drops through a special exit that gives it a shortcut to the collector plate. If it makes it over the hill, it continues through an extended zig-zag before returning to the lift.
Track five is the true long track and travels throughout the entire RBS. It starts with a ball-collecting tipping arm that releases five marbles together. They stay together through much of the track, but several flat plates allow them to move around and trade positions along the way.
Eventually, all five tracks merge into a large flat spiral at the bottom. The balls spin around, drop through the center and line back up at the chain lift for another trip to the top.
100% stainless steel, TIG welded.