How to Make a Rube Goldberg Machine That Displays a Message

Have you ever wondered how to make a rube goldberg machine? Here you have one that you can copy, adapt, or take parts from to make your very own machine in your house.

RC Car

String

Pencil

2 Paper cups

Golf ball

Bunk Bed with a fence-like metal bottom and a desk.

At least 4 books, going from thinnest to thickest

Ribbon with low friction

Any small item with a hole in the middle

Tennis ball

Hot glue

Jenga blocks

Cardboard rectangle like the one on the video

Stress ball

Seesaw-like contraption on the edge of something like a desk or a piece of furniture.

Tape

Paper

Something to draw on the paper.

1. First, tape or tie a string to the RC car. Then, attach the other side of the string to the pencil. 2. Tie or tape a string to the paper cup, and put the golf ball inside to give it weight. Tie the other side of the string to the underside of the bed. 3. Then, put the pencil through the metal "fence" under the bed, but pass the string with the cup through it so that it is hanging. (See diagram above)

4. The cup will later swing, so put 4-6 books, from lightest to thickest, where the cup is going to hit it. Make sure the cup hits the lightest one first, and they should do a domino effect to the heaviest book, which will fall off the desk. (I had to curve the books.) 5. Tape one edge of the ribbon to the heaviest book. (It is helpful to put some pillows under it, so it does not get damaged.) 6. Tie a string to the top of the bunk bed all the way to the piece of furniture where you want to do all the rest of the machine, but make sure to put the small object with the hole through the string first. (See the photos to get an idea for what it should look like.)7. Now, push the object all the way up the string, and get the ribbon and tie a slip knot in front of it so it does not fall immediately. Make sure that the ribbon has very low friction so that it will become undone easily.

8. Then, get your cardboard square and jenga blocks. First, design the path you want the tennis ball to follow. Put hot glue on them to make them stick. Once you have that, prop up the board at about a 70 degree angle, so that the ball goes down fast enough, but not too fast that it falls. 9. Put a few jenga blocks next to the opening to make a "road" so that the tennis ball stays on course. At the end of the path, and close to the edge, put a stress ball.

10. Balancing on the edge of the piece of furniture, put a paper cup. Tie a sting on it. 11. Finally, make a see-saw like contraption on the edge. On the side that is off the edge, tie the other side of the string. On the side that is on the furniture, tape a face-down paper with a message.

Now you are almost done! This is what should happen: First, your RC car will move forward, pulling the string. This will pull the pencil, letting the cup swing and hit the first book. This will trigger a domino effect with the books, which makes the last book fall, pulling the string. The knot will untie, and the object will zipline down the string and hit the tennis ball. The tennis ball with go down the path, hit the stress ball, which goes in the cup, which falls of the desk, and pulls one side of the seesaw. The other side goes up, and your message is now visible. Yay! This will probably not work the first time, however. You will have to tweak it to work for your house, and it might take 10 tries to get it to work. But you need to keep on working until you get it right!