How To Build Your Own Marble Run

There is a sense of wonder and excitement when it comes to marble runs, watching the marble roll up and over and back around as it makes its way through the maze, and when you’ve create the marble run yourself that excitement gets even bigger knowing that you’ve put it all together. Marble runs are fun little experiments that get your mind working to solve a puzzle while you have fun trying to find cool and interesting things around the house to use to create this spectacular marble run. At the end of the finished product you’ll no doubt feel very accomplished and appreciate the praise of all your new “fans” at watching your marble run masterpiece.  So, how exactly do you make a marble run? Well, below you will find a guide to building a marble run to help you start creating and feeling the excitement.

1.    Go Searching - First, search around the home for supplies to build your best marble run. You are sure to find some interesting items such as toilet paper/paper towel rolls, plastic/wooden spoons, cardboard boxes, children’s toys, etc. Anything and everything can be used in building a marble run; you just have to use your noggin to figure out how they will work.

2.    Plan Your Marble Run – Next, you want to begin building your marble run in your mind. Think about how you can use the materials you’ve found around the house to build the run and how best to use gravity to make your run work. To use the pull of gravity you need your marble run to be at an angle so build it slightly raised on a board propped up about 5” or build it within a large box where the marble would be traveling down throughout the run. You want to make paths that the marble can rolls through such as linking paper towel rolls and wooden spoons one after the other to form a path that the marble can roll through as gravity pulls it down.

3.    Start Building in Steps - As you put your marble run together, concentrate on one part of the run at one time, making sure that it works properly before you move on to the next part. Building a marble run is all about trial and error so it may take a little while to figure out the best way to build the run, so don’t get discouraged. Again, make sure that you are utilizing gravity to make your marble run work or you are going to find that within a few seconds the momentum of the marble will stall and the fun will be over.

4.    Do a Test Run – After you think you’ve put the marble run together properly, do a test run. A test run will work out all the kinks and help you to build one that works like it should. The test run might even be a few test runs, but that’s the way it goes. Once you get the marble to run properly through the maze you’ve create then it’s time for you to find an audience to enjoy the awesome marble run you’ve created over and over.

5.    Have Fun – The best part about building a cheap marble run is having fun, so don’t forget it. Use your brain to think up cool ways to incorporate fun things around the house to make the marble run visually appealing and exciting. Don’t stress out or get angry when you first or even third try doesn’t work because really the fun is about 50% building and 50% watching, so don’t forget to enjoy the building half as well.