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Traffic cone, bucket of sand, magnets

[Originaly posted this to the yahoo Rolling Ball Sculptures list, reposted it in case it's useful to someone else]

I've been building a shop for bout two years now, and I've just started messing around with RBSs. I think I've come up with a fairly easy way to position the rails and "C"s for the RBS track. I'm not sure if anyone else is doing it quite like this... (If so, sorry, I must have missed the message.)

Any ways, the main idea is to use a bucket of sand to position the pieces roughly where you want the, and then to use rare-earth magnets to hold the rails at the right distance, and then one more magnet at the end of a rod to hold the "C" pieces in place. It's getting late, and I know this isn't too clear of a description, but there is more on my web site, at:

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Once the pieces and rails are in position I've been MIG welding them together, but my welds are pretty messy and it takes along time to clean them up. I'm going to try tacking them in place with a MIG welder, and then finishing it with O/A. That way I won't kill the magnets with too much heat, and I'll still have nice strong welds that don't take too long to clean up. I'll try messing with the settings on the MIG welder, too I've been having trouble getting a good strong weld without putting down too heavy a weld or just blasting through the 1/8" rod. Any suggestions?

I'd love to hear some comments, especially if someone has an easier way to make these!

Jeff Polaski

Reply to
Jeff Polaski
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Why not gas braze the joints?

Reply to
Ernie Leimkuhler

Cool project. While I am a bit of a newbie to welding, I am quite accomplished at wood working. I have a clamping suggestion that is either so terribly simple or just does not work. Here it goes.

Take a bunch of WOOD blocks. Say about 2" x 2" x 1 1/2". Drill holes the same size as the trck wire, and the same required distance apart. Then a hole through the otherside to hold a bolt and wing nut. Slice the the block with a band saw to divide the block, so that you may clamp it around the wires. Then insert your bolt and wing nut to clamp the wires into the correct distance every time. No magnets to misguide your welds, no accessive movement of the tracks from weld shrinkage.

You could make about a dozen of these in 15 minites or less. I'd use oak.

Now, for the welding part. It is possible from the past posts I have read that the magnets could be drawing your weld away from their correct destination. But, as I warned, I am a newbie. Try the blocks.

Reply to
Scott

Well, it has to do with how I make the C's to join the rails... I'm just wrapping the 1/8" rod around a 3/8" shaft and then using a Dremel w/a fiber cut-off wheel to cut the "spring" into a bunch of C's. It's quick and easy.

With those "C" shapes all I could do is a butt-joint and, on 1/8" rod, it's not too strong. Generally I've been welding the rails together and then tweaking them get the final shape. The tweaks put a fair amount of strain on the joints, and I just don't think that brazing would hold. I've tried a couple and they broke pretty easily. Of course, I'm not very skilled in brazing. I am taking a welding class, and we'll go over brazing later, so maybe I'll give it a try again after that.

Have other people had good results brazing 1/8" rod for a RBS? I was thinking of putting little bends at the ends of the C's... maybe making them more like a "U" and then bending the tips of the U so they match up with the rails. That way there's a lot more surface area for the brazing. Hmmm... just thinking out loud... I could make a jig pretty easily and crank out a bunch of those... I'll have to give it a try sometime soon.

My thinking is that there is a _lot_ of small fidgety assembly in making a rolling ball sculture, so I want to make it as fast and easy as possible. The magnets and sand seem to be a long way towards that goal, and I'm open to trying out anything else that will make it easier. I just want to get the most "bang per unit of buck", and make the most of my somewhat limited shop time. I'm not saying I want this to turn into an assembly line chore or anything, but if I can make the more repetive parts faster, then I have more time for the creative stuff.

[I've been making slow progress on the sculpture, but a welding class and projects around the house have eaten up a lot of time. I'll post some pictures to my site when I have a little more done.]

Jeff P.

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Reply to
Jeff Polaski

Well, it has to do with how I make the C's to join the rails... I'm just wrapping the 1/8" rod around a 3/8" shaft and then using a Dremel w/a fiber cut-off wheel to cut the "spring" into a bunch of C's. It's quick and easy.

With those "C" shapes all I could do is a butt-joint and, on 1/8" rod, it's not too strong. Generally I've been welding the rails together and then tweaking them get the final shape. The tweaks put a fair amount of strain on the joints, and I just don't think that brazing would hold. I've tried a couple and they broke pretty easily. Of course, I'm not very skilled in brazing. I am taking a welding class, and we'll go over brazing later, so maybe I'll give it a try again after that.

Have other people had good results brazing 1/8" rod for a RBS? I was thinking of putting little bends at the ends of the C's... maybe making them more like a "U" and then bending the tips of the U so they match up with the rails. That way there's a lot more surface area for the brazing. Hmmm... just thinking out loud... I could make a jig pretty easily and crank out a bunch of those... I'll have to give it a try sometime soon.

My thinking is that there is a _lot_ of small fidgety assembly in making a rolling ball sculture, so I want to make it as fast and easy as possible. The magnets and sand seem to be a long way towards that goal, and I'm open to trying out anything else that will make it easier. I just want to get the most "bang per unit of buck", and make the most of my somewhat limited shop time. I'm not saying I want this to turn into an assembly line chore or anything, but if I can make the more repetive parts faster, then I have more time for the creative stuff.

[I've been making slow progress on the sculpture, but a welding class and projects around the house have eaten up a lot of time. I'll post some pictures to my site when I have a little more done.]

Jeff P.

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Reply to
Jeff Polaski

Brazing and soldering are most suited to lap joints where the overlap of the materials is sufficient and the shear forces can be resisted. Butt joints, as you have discovered, are subject to side-loading as well as tension. The braze material adhesion is minimal in that configuration.

If the joint can be redesigned to include overlap, such as a half-tube applied to the perimeter of the wire opposite where the rolling balls will travel, then brazing might be an alternative.

Reply to
Thomas Kendrick

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