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Could This Be the Most Complex K’nex Ball Machine Ever Built? It’s Got to Be Seen to Be Believed!

Sep. 14, 2012 2:51pm
University of Minnesota Student Creates 40,000 Piece Knex Ball Machine in his Bedroom

This long-exposure image shows one of Austin Granger's most complex K'nex machines. (Photo via Imagur)

A 21-year-old from Minnesota may have just completed the most complex K’nex machine ever.

With more than 40,000 of the little rods and connectors composing the K’nex ball machine that creator Austin Granger calls “Clockwork,” he writes on YouTube it is the “largest and most complex K’nex structure to date.” It is Granger’s fifth machine built at such a grand scale.

This one, he writes, includes more than 450 feet of track, 21 different paths, eight motors, five lifts and “a one-of-a-kind computer-controlled crane.” The K’nex balls as well are illuminated and computer controlled.

University of Minnesota Student Creates 40,000 Piece Knex Ball Machine in his Bedroom

(Image: YouTube screenshot)

University of Minnesota Student Creates 40,000 Piece Knex Ball Machine in his Bedroom

(Image: YouTube screenshot)

University of Minnesota Student Creates 40,000 Piece Knex Ball Machine in his Bedroom

(Image: YouTube screenshot)

University of Minnesota Student Creates 40,000 Piece Knex Ball Machine in his Bedroom

(Image: YouTube screenshot)

Going by the YouTube user name austron, Granger also writes that he even created the music especially for his video to debut his new creation.

ABC News reports that Grander’s Clockwork is constructed in his bedroom. Given the complexity of the piece, ABC asked if he can he even get to his bed.

“Yes I can,” he told them. “When I build these large machines in my room, I always take special care to make them as unobtrusive as I can so I can still use all the critical parts of my room like the bed, shelves and doors. Everything is designed to go around over and under instead of just occupying space and blocking everything. I can sleep perfectly comfortably.”

University of Minnesota Student Creates 40,000 Piece Knex Ball Machine in his Bedroom

A view of the machine shot looking upward from the floor. (Image: YouTube screenshot)

Check it out:

Switching from LEGO to K’nex around age 7 to build larger, moving structures, his mother Renee Bergeron told ABC News when he is working on a project he gets so focused he forgets to sleep and eat. Bergeron said Granger considers K’nex building an art form.

Granger is a computer science student at the University of Minnesota.

Now, just how long does it take to disassemble a many thousand-piece K’nex structure if it took eight months to build? Granger told ABC about two months.

Read more about Granger’s K’nex designs on his blog here.

(H/T: GeekOSystem)

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