How to Make a Rube Goldberg Machine

This Rube Goldberg machine has four simple machines, it consists of: 2 Inclined planes, 1 pulley, 1 lever, and 1 wheel and axle. In this Instructable, I will show you how to make a Rube Goldberg machine.

● Cardboard

● Dominos

● Duct tape

● DC motor connected to a switch and battery box

● Golf ball

● Tennis ball

● Two small boxes/baskets

● RC car with switch

● Two pairs of scissors

● A stand with two pieces of paper with them laying on top of each other and the blank one on top of the one with a drawing or picture

● String

● Rubber band

● A pulley of some type

● Marbles

● 1 small piece of wood

First things first, do you know what a Rube Goldberg machine is? No, ok a Rube Goldberg machine uses a set of reactions that work in succession, triggering one event after another until the final step or thing/event goes off. So now that you know what it is let’s build one! The first step is to gather your materials, you will need:

● Cardboard

● Dominos

● Duct tape

● Dc motor connected to a switch and battery box

● Golf ball

● Tennis ball

● Two small boxes/baskets

● RC car with switch

● Two pairs of scissors

● A stand with two pieces of paper with them laying on top of each other and the blank one on top of the one with a drawing or picture

● String

● Rubber band

● A pulley of some type

● Marbles

● 1 small piece of wood

In this step we will be making the first part. You will need the tennis ball, duct tape, and cardboard. First, cut a hole in the tennis ball, not too big but big enough to fit marbles in it. Put the marbles in the tennis ball and then put a piece of duct tape on top of the hole. Next, make a box out of cardboard with two of the sides open/without cardboard so you can see through it and tape it together. Next, make a ramp out of cardboard and tape it to the cardboard box without sides. Then, get another piece of cardboard and tape it’s top to the other side of the ramp(Inclined plane). Now, you will need one more piece of cardboard and tape it to the bottom of the hollow box and the other piece that we just attached to the ramp and then tape it to the table. Lastly, put the tennis ball at the top of the ramp. You finished the first part!

This is actually getting somewhere, this step will be pretty easy peasy, lemon squeezy! You will need: marbles, cardboard, your pulley, the two small boxes, duct tape, string, dominos, a golf ball, and the RC with a switch. I know it might seem harder because of more materials but it is an easy setup. First, cut two pieces of cardboard(must be the same height and width). Put them 6 inches away from each other and tape them to the table(I recommend going to a table that is like a craft table). Then tape both sides of the pulley to the cardboard pieces(you are going to have to move the cardboard pieces closer but keep them taped and just move the tops closer). Get some of the string and attach one side to the smallest box and the other side to the bigger box. Now drape the string over the pulley and put 5 marbles in the smaller box to weigh it down and get a small piece of masking tape or some other easily tearing tape and slightly tape the bigger box to the ramps so when the weight/tennis ball comes down it will tear the masking tape. Put the RC under the bigger box but in between the two cardboard pieces with the switch under the bigger box. In front of the RC by 5 inches, lay some dominos in a line and make a curved road leading off the table out of cardboard and tape it to the table and put the golf ball at the end and keep the line of dominos going and stop once they reach the golf ball.

We are almost done(actually we are about halfway done after this step).Get some materials. You will need Dominos, some cardboard, the piece of wood, duct tape. First cut a piece of cardboard and then cut it into thirds. Tape them together in the shape of a triangle. Now cut another piece of cardboard and put the triangle on a chair and put the chair under the golf ball and then put the other piece of cardboard on top of the triangle. Tape the piece of wood to one side of the piece of cardboard. Put the side without the wood straight under the golf ball so when it falls it lands on that side and the side with the wood goes up, you have a lever! Lay a domino sideways on the chair next to the wood and put another domino on top of the wood and lay the other side of the domino on the sideways domino. Set some more dominoes in a line to the end of the chair with a little space left and the ones you just laid down, lay them sideways like the first one. Leave about an inch left on the end of the chair.

This step is the easiest of them all and you only need three things: some duct tape, cardboard, and the DC motor connected to a switch and battery box. The first thing to do is Make a ramp like the one you made before with side rails. Next tape it to the end of the chair so it is almost going straight down but slightly at an angle. Next, tape the battery box to the floor and make sure the switch is right below the ramp. Make a small cardboard box and tape it to the floor and then tape the motor to it. Lastly, get the last domino from the chair and lay it down on the tip of the chair so when the domino behind it falls on it, the domino will fall down the ramp and hit the switch turning the motor on.

One more step to go after this one! In this step you will need: 1 pair of scissors, duct tape, a mini toy car, string, and a rubber band. First, put a domino down in front of the motor, then stack 5 dominos on top of each other in front of the last domino. Now, put a domino on top of the 5 dominoes. Stack 8 dominoes in front of the five dominoes and put a domino on top of the eight dominoes. Then, tape the scissors to the floor in front of the domino stack, open the scissors just a tiny bit and tape the string to the floor next to the scissors and then put the string in the scissors. Next, tie the other end of the string to the middle of the rubber band and cut the rubber band so it is a line with the string tied to the middle. Now, tape the rubber band sides to the floor to where the string is tight on the rubber band and is pulling it back. Put the car in front of the rubber band. In the picture it shows a marble so just switch that for a small toy car( the small toy car is wheel and axle).

This is the last step, then you will have made a Rube Goldberg machine!

So I made and you can make multiple simple machines! In this last step we will need 6 things: Dominos, duct tape, string, scissors, the paper and the picture, and the stand for the paper(I made my own out of cardboard). First, put one domino down 1 inch in front of the car and then keep putting dominos down and make a curved line and stop when you have placed 4 dominos down. Next, stack 4 dominos on top of each other and put one on top of the other ones like in the previous step. Then, stack 6 dominos in front of the 4 and put on top of the 6 standing up, and in front of the 6, stack 8 dominos on top of each other and put 1 on top of the 8 dominos. Now, tape the scissors to the floor in front of the stack of 8 dominos, open them a tiny, tiny bit(enough to get the string through). Finally, tape one end of the string to the floor next to the scissors and put the string through the scissors, and tape the other end to the blank paper’s top right corner. Finally, tape the stand to the floor and put the picture on the stand and put the cover paper on top. Make it to where the stand is next to the scissors but distanced 6 inches to where the blank paper is leaning over and when you cut it, the blank paper falls down and shows the picture.

Thank you for looking at my instructable I hope you enjoyed it!

Yay! You created a Rube Goldberg machine! Also I started this before hipolito.alzola posted, but I did not copy, but I made a different version.