Marble Roller Coaster

There is almost nothing like wood for ease of construction. Cut a hole larger than the marble in a small piece of 1/2" plywood or similar. File a couple slots toward the bottom of the hole for the rails. Use you favorite glue and then sand/file it all down so the the support does not rub the marble.

You could cut a 1/2" slot in the end of some PVC pipe (or a cardboard tube) and slip the wood into that for pylons.

For creativity, have the marble fly through the air at some point and catch it in a funnel.

You may have issues keeping the rails at the same separation so be prepared to make many supports. You can get threaded rod and drill a hole through the wood and put a nut on each side. Assemble that before you bend the rod. Don't forget to bank the curves.

Consider also gator board and other foam core "mounting boards" at your art supply store. For more or less straight runs you could make this entirely out of such stuff and cut your rails out of strips and slot it together. Cut it all up with an Exacto.

Or take two pieces of foam core and cut them both at the same time. Glue some foam core between and create whatever down hill runs you want. Good for long hilly stretches.

Mix and match. Wander through a craft store.

Jeff

Jeff

That'd be my approach, too; very easy to work with.

I suppose if the budget's there you could go all-out and get the supports laser-cut, so that the guide rails actually snap into the sockets in the supports with no glue necessary :-)

I hope we get a Youtube link when it's done. ;-)

Edward