Tube Claw Lift, a knex ball machine lift

Hello!

This is the second new lift featured in my knex ball machine Elysium: http://www.instructables.com/id/Knex-...

The Tube Claw Lift is one of the most complicated lifts I have ever built. I had multiple problems while building this, the biggest one being the exit, but also things like the crank, the entrance, and the tube-axle connections didn't work from the first time. Surprisingly, this thing works! This version has never failed so far.

I started building this for my ball machine Revolution, with the idea of the lowest claw directly picking up the balls from the floor. At that time I had a lot of troubles with the lift, and after a while it even got too tall for Revolution. So I cancelled that idea, and it was replaced by the Floor Double Arm Lift (which did pick up the balls directly from the floor, that idea was something I really wanted to keep). But I never took the basic mechanism of the now called Tube Claw Lift apart, it just stood there till I retried it after Revolution. Then I got a half working version (the one in Elysium), and after taking Elysium down I did another retry to make the lift work good.

After 3 stages, this version is definitely the best one, so that's the reason why I post it now.

One disadvantage with this lift: it can only lift one ball at a time. I tested it with multiple balls (a gate wouldn't be required because the lowest claw only takes one ball at a time), but when there are 3 balls in the tubes, pieces in the motor section will most likely snap.

If you want to build this, here are the instructions: http://www.instructables.com/id/Tube-...

Thanks for watching!

~Sandroknexmaster~