Making Marble-Action Games, Gadgets, Mazes & Contraptions

Making Marble-Action Games, Gadgets, Mazes & Contraptions
Designs for 10 Outlandish, Ingenious and Intricate Woodworking Projects
by Alan and Gill Bridgewater

Softcover
215 x 280mm
95pp

Published by Stackpole Books, PA, USA

R.R.P.$25.90

ISBN 0-8117-2855-2

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Marble Coordination Tester

Marble Deceleration Honeycomb Maze

Ultimate-Level Marble Labyrinth

Marble-Bearing Random Number Selector

As reviewed in The Australasian Toymaker Issue 1

You might not lose your marbles building the projects in Making Marble-Action Games, Gadgets, Mazes & Contraptions but you’ll sure have fun trying to keep them.

By the authors' own admission (Alan and Gill Bridgewater), this book is full of 'nonsensical, absurd, nonproductive, and altogether anarchic and slightly cuckoo' projects. Don't let that put you off though. The drawings and instructions for the 10 action games such as the Marble Coordination Tester, the Marble Ejector and the Perpetual Random Number Shuffler while detailed and intricate, are within the capabilities of beginners.

To help the beginner and reinforce a few of the fundamentals of woodworking required to make the toys, there is an introduction that deals with the basics of box-making. Topics covered include Squaring the Wood, Gluing and Clamping Up, Tool and Technique Tips that includes information on Sawing Along the Run of the Grain, Planing End Grain and Dowels.

Each project, beginning with the Marble Coordination Tester, sets out a background to the toy and follows with instructions on Design, Structure, and Techniques, detailed drawings (Imperial measurements), step-by-step construction and assembly requirements and concludes with an Afterthoughts and Troubleshooting debrief.

The idea for the Marble Ejector originated at a busy airport — a mechanical plunger for rapidly moving people through high traffic bottlenecks. This project involves using two basic construction techniques: woodturning and scrollsawing. Clear plastic sheeting is also used but this can be cut using the scrollsaw.

Any number of the projects in Making Marble-Action Games, Gadgets, Mazes & Contraptions will test your skills, but they will also amaze and delight the maker and the lucky child, teenager or adult who receives one.

Photos: Black & White with Colour Section

Units of Measurement: Imperial

Contents

Acknowledgments
Introduction

Getting Started
Making the Basic Box
Tool and Technique Tips

Projects
Marble Coordination Tester

Marble Deceleration Honeycomb Maze

Ultimate-Level Marble Labyrinth

Marble-Bearing Random Number Selector

Marble Ejector

Perpetual Marble Delivery Device

Marble Rotator Finger-Touch Tumbler Labyrinth