Marble Roller Coaster

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Marble Roller Coaster
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First, youll need to make lots of track.
Drinking straws are what you need.
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Just cut off the bendy ends
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Lay them flat on a table, like this - alternately
up and down - until you have enough to support
another straw, horizontally across.
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Pop a dab of glue on each vertical straw and
stick the horizontal straws down
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which will leave you with something that looks
like this.
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Pry the two separate sets of glued straws apart
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and then stick another horizontal straw across
the end of each
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which will leave you with two of these.
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Next, carefully use a pair of scissors to cut
each down into individual pieces of rollercoaster
track, like this.
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You can join the pieces of track by using small
pieces of flexible plastic tubing that you can
buy from DIY or pet shops.
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Thread the small pieces into the strawsjoin them
up.
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Kebab skewers make great upright supports for the
rollercoaster. imply pop the sharp end of a
skewer into one of the horizontal supports of
each piece of track.
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Blobs of modeling clay are perfect for making
bases.
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You can strengthen the upright supports by making
them into scaffolds, by glueing smaller pieces of
kebab skewer in a triangle formation, like this.
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Corners are made by bending plastic tubing
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but youll need to test the run of the marble
and tweak the position of the tubing if the
marble falls off.
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You can use extra skewers to prop up the bends to
stop the marbles from falling off.
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A steep vertical drop is great for making the
marble go fast enough to scale a steep upright
immediately afterwards
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You might need to reinforce corners with extra
tubing and skewers
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or barriers, like this one.
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Its great fun to make, and to play with.