Wood Trick Wooden Marble Run Electric Motorized - 3D Wooden Puzzles for Adults to Build - 17x16 - Marble Maze Wooden Model Kits for Adults to Build

I loved building this kit. Great design. I have bought several Wood Trick kits and this so far has been the most fun for me. The kits are well laid out and parts are marked clearly. Instructions are very clear just make sure to follow those arrows. :) Parts for the most part come out pretty clean. there were a few smaller parts that I had to be careful with getting them out.

This Wood Trick Gravity Marble Run build is more complex than the previous Wood Trick kits. I've built all of them - this is the flagship. Take your time, handle the parts carefully, and use the right tools. It took me much more than "9-10 hours" to assemble - like 3 days - actually the assembly is most of the fun of these kits. So why hurry it? Go slow, think it through, do it right. Assembled - well you are half done - now you need to tune it so it works without jamming or dropping the marbles. It's well engineered and executed - with some caveats I'll discuss here. The instructions have a couple errors - if you are paying attention you will spot them. Look closely at the pics in the manual - small variances in the parts, like which way to turn them, are easy to miss. Also you need to change the assembly order in a few places - the parts you just installed are in the way of the next step. Test the segments as you progress before moving on - you don't want to bury a problem behind more assembly and find you have to disassemble to fix it. You will need glue in spite of their claim it's not needed. To fix parts you will break, and anchor some assemblies which get loose or don't quite align correctly. I use Titebond wood glue to fix broken parts or ones that need to be fixed together at their bonding surfaces. It will hold the broken parts together in 5 minutes without needing a clamp, if you handle it lightly. Fixing time much longer unless you augment it with heat glue. Get a miniature heat glue gun to fix some parts in place after the assembly is complete and tested. Gorilla Glue makes a Mini Hot Glue Gun that works well. Miniature so you can manouver it between the gaps in the structure. Heat glue sets up in 5 minutes which speeds waiting for it. In seconds if you set up a fan to cool the glue. Also it's less permanent then wood glue so you can remove it with a Dremel if needed. I found I needed to adjust some parts for alignment of the ramps - even added a brace to hold the highest ramp to align with the top "bucket". Holding the parts in place while the heat glue sets up expedites securing them. Also the motor frame needed to be anchored in one place as it's torque caused it to loosen and move - part 245, pg 16 needed to be heat-glued at the right tab. I had to move the bucket-tipping cam (part 29 pg 12) down almost a cm as it wasn't tipping the buckets enough, using wood glue. I had to glue the plate (part 5 pg 14) which moves the vertical elevator shaft (part 20 pg 10), under the driven, cammed shape (part 25 pg 14) as it came loose from the torque. The drive cam (parts 235 & 242, pg 17) on the end of the lever arm (part 236, pg 17) needed to be glued on with Titebond on the mating surfaces. It's a "cam" because it doesn't rotate as it should. Meaning you also need to be generous with lube at that point. On lube, I find Renaissance Wax is perfect for most places on this kit - much better than their paraffin. This micro-crystalline acid-free wax was developed for preservation and corrosion proofing of museum artifacts in England - great on anything you want to preserve - especially wood - antique (or modern) gun stocks, for example. I buy the bigger tub at Amazon. I apply it with Q-tips or micro-fiber cloth. I also periodically re-lube the drive cam with a Q-tip and wax. Makes it run smoother. The ramps needed little work to deliver the marbles without dropping them. Mainly just getting them to align well with the adjacent ramps, using heat glue. I did have to add a little heat glue as a spacer and do a little wood removal from the lower diverter so it would cycle correctly without jamming. Be careful you don't break the parts taking them off the cards. Larger pieces I use my finger nails to push them away, then turn over and push back to break the "sprues" holding them on. Small pieces I use a gunsmith's bench block with cutouts to brace the card, and drive the pieces out with a gunsmith's hammer & punch set (Bestnule punch set, includes the bench block, at Amazon). You'll find using pliars to squeeze parts together works well. Extra-long nose pliars, straight jawed, and with 45° and 90° angles (the later enables jaws coming together parallel) will reach into tight confines. Small vise-grip long nose pliars are very useful in assembly. Also an extra-long screwdriver helps to reach into the mechanism. A Dremel with extension drive, and small burr / rotary file bits is needed when tuning the completed assembly. They incorporated a lot of spring pins with a latch after the pins protrude from the other side of the hole. That assumes the wood will act as a spring & not break. FALSE. You need to file down the height of the "latch" or the pins will break & then you need to use glue. I used a tiny file to reduce the latch. Including a pic of most of the tools I used. The long bent-nose pliars, vise-grip knockoffs & long screwdrivers are at Harbor Freight. Other tools from Amazon. I also need a magnifying-lens hood for close-up work on the tuning detail as well as looking close at the instruction manual.The extra-long needle nose I welded up the extension handle in my shop. I also bought glass marbles to replace the plastic ones in the kit. They are heavier, with more momentum so as not to get stuck easily. Also the plastic ones have blems that can cause them to get stuck. Bought these, 2 sizes, the bigger ones are correct. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0C8JB1KTP?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_fed_asin_title&th=1 Lastly, I added some cotton balls to occupy some voids near the bottom of the ramps so the balls wouldn't drop in there. With careful tuning, the Gravity Marble Run now operates perfectly with dropped marbles happening rarely.

I’ve built over 10 Wood Trick builds and all three of their marble runs and this is my favorite build. It’s broken down into two main sections: First you make the base and central “tower” that carries up the marbles. This is fantastic because you test out and tweak the marble hopper that collects them and the mechanics before proceeding. The second portion are the rails that surround the central tower which are solid and relatively easy to assemble. And since these rails are all accessible easily you can make adjustments as needed. I’d recommend second a few marbles through the tracks as you build them as small adjustments make it much smoother. Also looks great in an office or on a bookshelf for displays. Lots of compliments when people see it in action.

i usually give these away when i finish them but no way with this one. it zigs, zags and swoops. fun challening build. and its huge. the best designed one yet. i highly highly recommend this.

I have assembled seven other puzzle kits of different difficulty levels. This one is the worst one I have ever done. Some of the parts are not properly laser cut, and are almost impossible to remove from the boards while other parts will virtually fall off the boards with virtually no effort. I consider this puzzle to be a complete waste of time and effort. I spent hours assembling this thing properly however, the balls will not travel into the lift for some reason or another. Plus the fit of the parts is not all that great. They do not fit properly like they should. this thing is a literal joke. Cannot say at this time if I will ever tackle another wood trick puzzle, but most likely I will not. Apparently quality control is a big issue with wood trick. how are you overpriced and under performing is the best thing I can say about this puzzle.

Package recd. in very poor condition. A14.5x14.5x2 display package was shipped loose in a 16x21x5 undamaged shipping box.No packing,nothing to keep it from sliding around in side.This puzzle has 743 parts carefully nested on flat panels.About 20 of the pieces came detached and I had to search the boards to relocate the parts.The display package is badly damaged and there is no way to tell if it was that way when shipped. The product is good quality and a joy to assemble.Am enjoying working with it.

This was the most satisfying wood puzzel of all my collection to build. Do not rush to complete, have plenty of patience, don't force any fitting of parts and you will do well. Most bad reviews I believe are made by those who are building this as their first to construct. Most should have built a few others before constructing the Gravity puzzel but it can be completed if you have the time and patience to study the instructions and the video closely. All parts fit well but snug. Because of this it is wise to use pliers to save on finger fatigue. The building of this puzzel can be completed with only a few small adjustments when finished which all these types of puzzels always need. I have noted a few things I did to make assembly easier and perform perfectly when completed. I lubricated all gear teeth and any surfaces that slide against each other wih Woodworkers Slipit and a small artist brush. It is easier, faster, and cleaner than parafine wax. Attaching the marble run tracks can be difficult using your fingers or pliers without breaking the tracks side rails. Using a few pieces of scrap wood placed on the tracks, inside the rails, and a little above the side rails will give you something to use your pliers against to push the tracks down. I noticed some marbles will bounce out of the track (Part #152 Page 36) when dropped from the track above. Using some scrap wood from the parts cards I made a taller rail to add to this track which keeps the marble on the track in order to continue down the track. I definitely recommend this puzzle for everyone.

This was the most challenging Wood Trick model I have built. The instructions must be followed carefully, as many parts are similar and the pictures are not always clear. Page 24 has a mistake that is shown in my pictures; assemblies R-1 and R-2 are mis-labeled... the illustration is correct but the numbers are reversed! Be sure to sand and wax all the moving parts and test run the lift mechanism when finished building it (page 18) before proceeding further. Overall a great model that was fun to build!

Wie immer klasse Qualität

Grande boîte, j'ai hâte de le commencer

Motor mechanism not secured properly, keeps jumping out of position. Marble keeps jamming while going up the 'elevator', left & right sides appear to be out of sync. Enjoyed assembling the Marble run but disappointed in performance.

excelent

Bellissimo.