Homemade Marble Run Toy
Thursday, June 26th, 2008
This is a marble run toy that I made for my four-year-old. The wood and PVC parts are attached to a mat with velcro, so they can be removed and reconfigured. The mat is a simple doormat glued to a 2 ft x 4 ft piece of pressboard.
I made a simple stand out of some scrap 2×4 and pine board.
90° and 45° PVC joints with the hook part of the velcro fastener. The velcro strips with the self adhesive backing work great.
The key was choosing the right material for the chutes. I had considered slicing PVC pipe in half, or building my own with strips of molding, but my friend, Tim, hit upon using lattice fence endcap material. They come in long strips with grooves already routed in them, so all I had to do was cut them into different lengths, and put some more velcro strips on.
Here it is in action:
