Here some general tips to make a good working Marble Run:
- For Kids: Please ask your parents first before start building your track.
- Search room: Your bedroom, attic, hobby room, shed, garden, etc. Search a place that’s big enough to build the track. Do not build tracks in crowded places as middle of living room or kitchen. For smaller projects, you only need a table to work.
- Search material: Tubes, roof gutters, vacuum cleaner hoses, racetrack toys, k’nex, curtain rails, bicycle bells, door bells, gongs, chimes, lamp hoods, funnels, music instruments, paper, cardboard, building bricks and lots of more. Be aware of using glass or porcelain; it can break when marbles hits it with high speed. When working with paper or cardboard, you only need a pair of scissors and glue or sticky tape to build a track, when working with other materials such as wood or metals, you need some good tools to build a stabile track.
- Build your track: Begin at bottom, then build up to top, this works easier. Be sure that your track is steep enough to keep the marble rolling without get stuck.
- Test your track: Put a marble several times on the track while constructing to test it.
When a marble get stuck:
- Adjust the track supports.
- Make the track wider when a marble jams between the edges of the track and fix chinks between the track parts.
- Look for small gaps between the track parts or check the joints, fix it with sticky tape or push it together.
- Make the track stronger, support weak track parts, especially when using paper or cardboard.
- Check the track for dirt or dust and clean it.
When a marble falls off track:
- Attach guide rails or extra side walls along the outer side of track curves where the marbles flies off track.
- Look for small obstructions or bad joints on track parts, they can launch the marble. Fix it with sticky tape or push the track parts to make the joints smoother.
- Slow the marbles down with obstacles.
- Take your time to build a good working marble run, you need time and a good technical sense. Most marble run construction toys contains a building manual, read it careful before you begin.