How could I build a marble tower out of a cardboard box?
September 22nd, 2009 | by admin |I need to build a tower that when I drop the marble down it will roll from one level to another, and so on. This tower needs to be fairly basic and simple. Thanks.
Madilyn,
you will need a lot of wide masking tape and a box cutting knife -and lots of replacement blades. The blades wear quickly, don’t try to force them to cut the cardboard. It will tear instead of cutting. Be sure to put a few layers of cardboard under the piece you are cutting so you don’t cut the table surface.
It sounds like you want to make it fairly large, and perhaps tall. You will need to use hot glue to add more layers of cardboard to add strength to the larger or taller pieces.
Since you want to roll a marble down the cardboard, in the fashion of a Rube Goldberg device, you may not need to make the "gutters" the marble runs in very wide, saving you lots of time in construction. Be sure to make the areas where the marble changes directions a little taller so the marbles don’t fly out of the pathway.
Give yourself enough time to complete and perfect the project. I do this by figuring how long something will take to build, then multiplying by 3 for a more realistic time.
One Response to “How could I build a marble tower out of a cardboard box?”
By Jeanne B on Sep 22, 2009 | Reply
Madilyn,
you will need a lot of wide masking tape and a box cutting knife -and lots of replacement blades. The blades wear quickly, don’t try to force them to cut the cardboard. It will tear instead of cutting. Be sure to put a few layers of cardboard under the piece you are cutting so you don’t cut the table surface.
It sounds like you want to make it fairly large, and perhaps tall. You will need to use hot glue to add more layers of cardboard to add strength to the larger or taller pieces.
Since you want to roll a marble down the cardboard, in the fashion of a Rube Goldberg device, you may not need to make the "gutters" the marble runs in very wide, saving you lots of time in construction. Be sure to make the areas where the marble changes directions a little taller so the marbles don’t fly out of the pathway.
Give yourself enough time to complete and perfect the project. I do this by figuring how long something will take to build, then multiplying by 3 for a more realistic time.
References :
My college art classes included 8 or 9 in sculpture. Two of which we had large cardboard projects.