Our marble machines are battery powered using standard AA batteries.

All of our marble machines run on 3 volts. However, if you want to slow it down, you can replace one AA battery with a "Dummy Battery", or you can use a wire to bridge the connection in the battery holder.

Our products are safe for children over 6 to use however, adult supervision is required as the marbles are very small and can be mistakenly ingested.

The running time for our marble machines is usually 144+ hours on one set(2) of AA batteries.

Not yet, but we are working on it!

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We're always releasing new designs on a frequent basis, but the best way to be informed of our product updates is to subscribe to our email newsletter or follow us on social media:

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Depending on the order size, we're more than happy to discuss incentives for larger orders. Please get in touch via the Contact Us page to discuss your order.

Please take a look at our Refund policy.

Protecting your personal information is very important to us. Please take a look at our Privacy Policy for more information.

Yes! We love it when you share your love for our marble machines. Here you can find more information on our referral program. 

Marble Machines are printed in PLA. That is a type of plastic that will get bendy at 50 °C (122 °F). Therefore they should not be placed on top of a radiator or anywhere close to a heating source. A car is a big no-no as well.

It is also advisable to not put them in direct sunlight or the colors might fade over time.

We are based in the Netherlands, specifically in The Hague.

Yes, we sell to most countries outside of the Netherlands. Take a look at our shipping policy.

All our prices are in USD however, customers can easily convert pricing on our website using our currency conversion calculator. Whilst customers can see our pricing in their local currency, prices will be converted back to USA Currency (USD) at checkout.

Customers outside of the European Union may be subject to import taxes and customs duties (VAT) levied by your local customs office, once the order reaches the destination country.

 

These additional fees for customs clearance must be fulfilled by the recipient; Out Of Marbles has no control over these charges, nor can we predict what they may be.

Customs policies vary widely from country to country; you should contact your local customs office for more information. When customs clearance procedures are required, it may cause delays beyond our control.

Please take a look at our shipping policy.

How to use .3mf files?

All slicers should open .3mf files by simply dragging the file into the slicer

Why are we using .3mf files?

STL format is more than 30 years old. 3D printing technology has advanced and offers features and capabilities that STL was never developed to translate. For example, STL files describe only the surface geometry of a three-dimensional object without any representation of color, texture or other common CAD model attributes. It does not save mesh topology, which can lead to file sizes larger than can be supported by the 3D printer, and it can introduce roundness errors, which will usually result in a 3D print failure.

If your bed is 20*20cm (200*200mm) or larger, but you cannot slice the files (the slicer won't let you)? Then disable skirt & brim settings and then it should slice just fine.

Please click here and download the Test Fit model: Test Fit.3mf

Print  "Test Fit.3mf" with normal settings at 0.2 or 0.3mm layer height. These parts have small tolerances between them and there are 2 sized rings. First place the widerring all the way onto the axle. It should not move or rotate on its own, It should stay in place with a tight friction fit. 

Then take the narrower ring and also place it on the axle. The narrower ring should be able to move/rotate freely, but still be snugly on the axle. This narrow test ring represents the wheel later on, so it should turn freely. To make them fit, you can also lightly sand if there are any imperfections from 3d printing on the axle.

You may need to calibrate your 3D printer’s extrusion multiplier to get the correct fit. If you are having trouble getting a correct fit, consider using “horizontal size compensation”. This setting controls how many millimeters the features printed will be enlarged or shrunk by. If the fit is too tight, try -0.1mm compensation, if it's still too tight, try -0.2mm, etc. 

• In PrusaSlicer this can be found under Print settings -> Advanced -> XY Size Compensation. 
• In Simplify3D open your Process settings, click “Show advanced” to show all the settings, click the tab labeled “Other” and then find Horizontal Size Compensation. 
• In Cura the setting is called "Horizontal Expansion"

If it is relatively close, then you can also probably get away with leaving your printer settings as they are, but then you will have to sand more.

We exclusively use Fillamentum brand. They are made here in Europe in Czech.

We use their PLA Extrafill line.  Most notably "Vertigo Grey" for the base pieces and "Gold Happens" for modules.

They are widely available in Europe, but they have recently launched USA warehouse, so you should be able to get them over there also :)

Chain should be at just the right tension for the machine to run smoothly. Too loose and the chain will drag on other pieces and marbles might fall out of the buckets. Too tight and the motor will have to work needlessly harder than it would otherwise and might break down much faster.

Solution is to either scale up or down the chain links.

You should scale a few chain links up by 102% or down 98% in X direction (length wise). Then print them and replace a few and you will see immediate improvements. And just repeat this step until it runs smoothly.

Also I suggest buying Silicone Spray. It is similar to WD-40, but that is not silicone spray, so you shouldnt use that. You should buy silicone spray instead, and spray it on the gears and chain. It acts as lubricant for plastic.

Is your tipper misaligned like this?

Your base is most likely lifting up from the table. You can test that by pushing down on the base pieces and if you see the movement, that is the cause then.

To fix it, unscrew the 3 bolts at the base. You need to unscrew each of them until the two bases become just slightly loose. This should bring both base pieces back down flat on the table and align the path at the top.

First, are you sure that you printed it with 100% infill? it requires 100% infill because steel marbles are heavier than plastic.

If it is still not working properly then It can be down to a few things:

1. Is the tipper moving smoothly? move it by hand and it shouldn't have any resistance and scrape on anything. If it does, lightly sand the touching parts.
2. if its still not working properly, then observe which side of the tipper is causing problems. For example, if the tipper won't properly dump when 4th marble comes on, the left side is too heavy. if however, it dumps prematurely, then the right side is too heavy.
   I suggest using the dremel and slowly sanding down the heavy side. I would only dremel it from behind, so that sanding is not visible from the front. Do small increments and keep checking constantly to not miss the sweet spot and over grind/sand it.
   

Someone had the following problem:

the marbles on the right hand side keep falling behind the screw jacking up the whole thing

and the solutions is to print "TDS_Screw Cap"  that you can find in optional folder.

It is a known problem and this part is due for a redesign. Marbles exit too fast. 

To fix it, you can use a small amount of hotglue and put it down somewhere in the spiral that is causing you issues. That should slow the marbles down sufficiently.

Hardware Kit

The simplest way is to purchase our Hardware Kit. It is a Complete Kit for our Marble Machines. It will come in handy if you do not want to source the parts yourself. 

While we ship the critical parts, you will 3D print the rest of the product. The kits fit on all of our designs and you need one kit per marble machine.

All our components are plug and play - no electronics knowledge or soldering needed!

Source It Yourself

If you want to source hardware by yourself then here is a list for ONE marble machine. It is highly recommended to have a soldering kit and the knowledge to solder wires. You can however get away with not soldering the wires and only wrap them tightly. It will require fiddling with the wires from time to time because that is not a permanent connection.

Links are for Aliexpress, however you can search and buy on Amazon to get it faster.

• 50x  7.144mm (9/32”) Stainless steel ball bearings (If you cannot find them locally, 7mm size should work also)
• 1x Motor N20 3V 15-20RPM (read here if you can't find this exact motor locally)
• 2x AA 1.5V battery
• 1x AA battery holder
• Super glue or Hot glue
• 1x 12mm metal Locking/Latching switch
• a few (15 in total for all marble machines)  M3x16 bolts  and  M3 Hex Nuts
• Dupont male to female 20cm wires (or use any small gauge wire that you already have at home)

Yes you certainly can. However there are a few things to note.

For example, if you buy 6V 30 rpm motor. The lifting mechanisms will go slightly faster, because yours would be 30rpm and I use and test for 20 rpm motors. It would still work without problems, however you will need bigger battery holder for 4x1.5V batteries to reach the rated 6V.

Another option is that you check the specifications for your motor and see what Voltage is the minimum. If its 6V, then you need to use 4x1.5V batteries. If however it is 3V minimum, then you can use 2x1.5V batteries and the motor will turn at half the speed, in this case it would go from 30rpm to 15rpm.

Also some N20 motors have longer gearboxes. I only use 10mm long ones. Some models however are 12.5mm long. In 95% of the cases these will still work, but things would be slightly missaligned. 

I wouldn't suggest using more than 50rpm motors. Currently anything past 30rpm was not tested by us..