Stuntman and woodworker Ben Tardif has spent the last three years on a very important project — building an epic marble machine. Dubbed "Marble Mountain" by its creator, the structure is comprised of 25 different sections which, when all pieced together, forms an 8-foot-tall obstacle course for marbles.
In a video Tardif uploaded to Reddit and YouTube, Tardif reveals that the machine can run 300 marbles at a time, with a max speed of "60 MPM" — Tardif's invented acronym for "marbles per minute." He tracked his progress on Instagram under #marblemountainproject, as well.
The different sections mimic real locations, like San Francisco's iconic Lombard Street and Golden Gate Bridge or Times Square. Other pieces are more generic, such as a racetrack, bowling alley, miniature golf course, and a ski jump. It only took Redditor HauschkasFoot one hour to make the ultimate pun: "A marble of engineering." In all seriousness, this machine is very impressive.
Take a look at how Tardif assembles the beast:
The core of the machine is this spiral mechanism which feeds marbles from the bottom to the top. Here's a closer look:
Our favorite section is this racetrack segment. Tardif managed to manipulate the structure so that seven marbles fill in the racing slots, and then the eighth marble is automatically redirected to open the gates.
And they're off!
In a Reddit comment, Tardif noted it took nearly a week to film every moving piece in order to create the 7-minute long video. So far, it's paying off. The Reddit submission has over 5,000 upvotes in just 13 hours.
This isn't the first time Reddit has been captivated by a marble machine. In early March, Swedish musician Martin Molin created one that actually played music using over 3,000 parts and 2,000 marbles.
Watch the full video of Tardif's magical "Marble Mountain" below:
