Making Marble-Action Games, Gadgets, Mazes & Contraptions: Designs for 10 Outlandish, Ingenious and Intricate Woodworking Projects

Rating:
Summary: Few dimensions are given.
Review: I am used to making projects for which dimensions for the various pieces are provided. Not only does the author fail to provide dimensions but he also fails to even talk about some of the pieces that are part of a given project.

Rating:
Summary: Few dimensions are given.
Review: I am used to making projects for which dimensions for the various pieces are provided. Not only does the author fail to provide dimensions but he also fails to even talk about some of the pieces that are part of a given project.

Rating:
Summary: OK for ideas, but not for projects
Review: I was disappointed as well. I expected projects I could build, but nothing struck me as worth the time. The basic ideas are OK, marble rollers, and so on. But I would only use this stuff as a departure point for my own designs.

Rating:
Summary: OK for ideas, but not for projects
Review: I was disappointed as well. I expected projects I could build, but nothing struck me as worth the time. The basic ideas are OK, marble rollers, and so on. But I would only use this stuff as a departure point for my own designs.

Rating:
Summary: Making Marble-Action Games, Gadgets, Mazes & Contraptions
Review: This book was a terrible disappointment. I wanted to give it no stars but that didn't seem to be an option. For most of these gadgets he begins the chapter by explaining that they don't actually work very well, they tend to jam and clog up requiring a certain amount of tilting and tapping to clear the device. Many of the mazes and such are non-functional - they are there to make the contraption look complicated. It's clear to me from looking at it that the dice substitute will never generate a 1, 2, or 6, and the thing is definitely not uniform like dice would be. The spirit of Rube Goldberg is represented by contraptions that do a lot but accomplish very little. The mechanisms in this book just don't do anything. I didn't find a single satisfying project in here and felt like it was a waste of twenty bucks. And what are metric conversion tables doing in here? An embarrassment if you ask me. If you like this kind of stuff get Making Wooden Mechanical Models by Alan and Gill Bridgewater. It is far superior.