Quadrilla Marble Run tower-bases

Frank Pellow

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Toronto, Ontario, CANADA
(post 1 of 2)

Three years ago I documented some enhancements that I made to the wooden marble run sets sold under the name Quadrilla. See the thread: http://familywoodworking.org/forums/showthread.php?t=1646

At the time, I expected to make additional enhancements fairly soon. But, I have not gotten around to doing so until now. :(

The idea for tower-bases came when I was making a Quadrilla marble run with Jamie (my 5-year-old granddaughter) a couple of weeks ago. We ran out of blocks but still had available rails. More than half the blocks that we were using served no purpose other than to hold up the towers. This is somewhat of a waste because each of the many Quadrilla blocks is built to serve some other purpose as well.

It occurred to me that it would be easy to manufacture some blocks whose only purpose was to support a tower. Once I started talking to Jamie about such a block, we came up with two “extra” features for it. First, the blocks can incorporate a wide base in order to make the towers more stable and second, the blocks can be built in multiples of the standard 6 cm height.

I have been storing some 2x10 Avodire wood in my garage for a few years that is idea for this project: Avodire that I bought at the Century Mill Lumber clearence sale -small.JPG

Avodire is a medium-hard hardwood, the is almost white in colour and is straight and knot free.

I started by cutting off a chunk about one metre long, Then proceeded to rip strips that were slightly wider than the Quadrilla blocks. Then I set the fence on my table saw using a Quadrilla block as a “story stick”: Quadrila tower bases 01 -Starting to cut 2x10 rough-sawn Avodire -small.JPG Quadrila tower bases 02 -Using a Quadrilla block to set the width of saw cut -small.JPG

and ripped several pieces to the same thickness as the blocks.

Next a chamfer was routed on the corners of all the pieces to match those on the Quadrilla blocks: Quadrila tower bases 03 -Routing the corners so that they match the corners on Quadrilla blocks .JPG

The round pegs on the Quadrilla blocks (as seen on the orange block in the above picture) are a little under 30mm in diameter and about 12mm in height. To accommodate the pegs, 30mm holes were drilled 14mm deep into the top of each of the tower bases: Quadrila tower bases 04 -Drilling a 30cm hole in the top of a base -small.JPG

The vertical piece was glued to a 11cm x 11cm 12mm thick piece of Baltic Birch and a pair of 18mm thick L shaped pieces were glued around the vertical piece in order to add support. Here is a photo of the glued and clamped assembly for one tower base: Quadrila tower bases 05 -Clamping a glued base piece -small.JPG

Before the glue-up the pieces were sanded with 120 / 150 / 220 grit paper in order using my Festool Rotex sander. After assembly and between coats of finish sanding with 220 grit was done using my Festool linear sander. In the photo belowI am about to remove some dried glue: Quadrila tower bases 06 -Sanding -small.JPG

The tower based were finished using three different colours (one for each height) of water based aniline dye. Quadrila tower bases 07 -Mixing dyes to use on the bases -small.JPG

I mixed one quarter teaspoon of dye with one half teaspoon of water to form a paste then added this past to one quarter cup of water-based gloss Varathane.

Each tower-base received a coat of the stain followed by two coats of straight Varathane with light sanding between coats: Quadrila tower bases 08 -A dyed tower base drying -small.JPG
 
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(post 2 of 2)

The picture below shows some completed tower-bases, some Quadrilla blocks, and some parts: Quadrila tower bases 09 -Some completed tower bases and some parts for same -small.JPG

The green tower bases are 180+12 mm in height, The yellow ones are 240+12 mm, and the red ones are 300+12 mm.

Finally, I got to test things out.

Quadrila tower bases 10 -A few pieces in use -small.JPG

The bases work exactly as I expected them to. They certainly add stability to the marble towers.
 
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I gave some of the tower bases to my granddaughter Leah on her ninth birthday a couple of weeks ago. When I visited her early last week, I found that she has already put some of them to good use:

Quadrilla tower blocks in use by Leah -small.JPG

It is very gratifying seeing something you have designed and built being put to good use.
 
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Very cool, Frank. Looks like a lot of fun, and also looks like Leah hasn't wasted any time putting them to use. :thumb:
 
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