Labyrinth Maze

The Labyrinth Maze is a fun game that tilts a marble through the maze and out of a hole at the finish.

To make a Labyrinth maze, first you need to find a plank of wood. It will be easier if you start with a 2 by 4 to cut up into 4 equal pieces. Then on the table saw, cut it into 4 equal length rectangles. These rectangles will become the sides. Be careful with the table saw because they are dangerous and should be used with someone supervising you. Next, you need to find or cut a square a piece of wood for the middle base section. Check that your cuts are the right size by aligning it to your base piece of wood.

You need to make a 45 degree angle on each of the rectangular piece sides so that they fit tight and flush together, once it is assembled. Using the table saw, make a notch at the bottom edge of the wood for the base to slip into. One thing to notice is to label your wood from the side it is supposed to connect to because if it is in the wrong place they won't align correctly. Two of my wood pieces were bigger than the others so they weren’t an exact square but more of a rectangle, and had to go on either side but it still worked out.

Find plywood for the base of the box and then find another piece that is a bit smaller for the second base. This second base is going to be your maze. You can use ECarve which on the page there is a part called easel and that's where you will make your maze, or use your hands to manually carve out a maze, wide enough, so the marble can roll through it. Get a separate piece of wood and make holes into the maze and glue the maze pieces onto it. Mine took around 45 minutes to make. If you don't know how to use the easel you can also use the pre-made maze already designed for you.

Build two poles or you can buy little pre-cut circle shaped dowels and cut four circles. Put one on each side of the base and let them be on the different sides of the maze. These will be the handles that will let it roll and tilt through the maze, every which way. You need to cut opposite holes in each of the circles to let it roll, one side will be higher up which will tilt it. Two of the circles have to be smaller than the others because they will collide and won't be able to move if they are touching each other. The circles can be many sizes thick or thin. My first attempt I thought the circles were cut too thin so I made thicker ones.

Cut a hole at one of the sides of your box. Cut another hole at the end of your maze so the ball can fall and come out of the hole that you made in the side of the box. You also need to add holes on the 4 sides of your maze box so that each side has a hole for the pole handles, but two of the holes (the ones opposite each other) have to be lower than the other ones, so that the pole handles don’t hit each other. The pole handles will be criss crossed over each other inside the box. Now glue all of the sides together from the base and the outer sides.

These are most of the materials needed.

Now put the poles through the holes with the circles attached. Place the maze on top of the handles. Twist the handle and have fun.