3D printable magnetic marble run modeled in openSCAD.

A collection of marble run tracks that mount onto any magnetic surface.
Make it your own by deciding which parts to print or even customizing them using the included openscad files!

Straight Just a straight run. Available in many lengths from 50mm to 200mm.
The Wave This track makes things a bit more interesting. Print with supports.
Curve A 90 degree curved piece. Great to catch a falling ball and getting it onto the next track.
The Tunnel A straight pipe that hides the ball. Available in multiple lengths.
The Drop A classic way to drop the ball onto the next track.
Lombard Street A San Francisco landmark for your marble. Print with supports.
The Wheel Spins as the ball goes past. Get creative and use it to launch another ball that is stored in the wheel. Or kick a ball placed on a track above into action. Available in various sizes and blade counts. Some assembly required: wheel-<-size>-<bladecount> + wheel-base + lock-<style>. Customize the look by using different colors for the parts.
The Pole Catch a ball and vault it to the next track. Assemble pole-<left|right> + pole-base + lock-<style> Customize the look by using different colors for the parts. The picture shows several design iterations.
The Whirlpool! The ball goes in circles until it drops through the center. Mount level for best effect.
The Looping This one is tricky! Mount it at the right angle, extend the incoming ramp and the marble will successfully perform a looping.
Funnel It's a funnel.
Auto-Launcher Releases one marble every couple of seconds. See it on YouTube. Assemble auto-launcher + pole-base + lock-<style>
Flipflop The flipflop diverts the marble left or right. Assemble flipflop + flipflop-base + lock-<style>
Tray The tray is a great way to finish the run and to store extra marbles.

All tracks are designed for round 10mm x 2mm magnets.
They can easily be ordered from Amazon or other retailers.

Each track needs at least two magnets, but many require three or even more.

The mounting holes were initially designed to be tight enough to just push the magnets in, but that turned out to be problematic. It was difficult to get the magnets to be flat rather than pivoting. Magnets would regularly fall out, etc.

In the end I switched to securing the magnets with hot glue. The holes are slightly wider to easily allow the magnet to be pushed into the glue. Hot glue is also excellent to make the back of the track less smooth if tracks slide on the board when marbles pass. Just spread a thin layer of hotglue all along the back and let it cool. The resulting surface has a nice grip.

Copyright (c) 2020 Jan Pieper ([email protected])

This code is hosted at github.com/jhpieper/marble-run under the MIT license. The 3D objects (STL files) are also hosted on thingiverse.com under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) license.

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.