Marble Run Stepped Hoist

Needs some careful tuning for smooth operation, but one of the most fun ones out of all four overall.

This is the second circuit I have built and installed with the first one. The assembly is complex, but the result is superb. I added a slow motor to operate the whole thing.

love adding each one

It was great, fantastic!!

The Marble Run Stepped Hoist was great fun to build and operate. The mechanism is delightful. Congratulations, UGears on your creativity and kit execution. I’m hooked!

This is a brilliant model! It works beautifully. I built it in odd moments over 6 weeks, taking my time and making sure I sanded and waxed parts exactly as in the instructions. Assembling it is quite addictive but also surprisingly restful. The pictorial instructions are very clear and emphasise where extra care is needed. Once it was completed, it needed a few minor adjustments to make it fully reliable, but that is true of all complex working systems, and is part of the fun! I play with it every day, fascinated by its three marble routes: a fast marble hammer, a medium zig-zag and a slow spiral. I have put 3 other Ugears models on my Christmas list. Great job Ugears!

I had a lot of fun building this kit, and it works really smoothly. I’m impressed by the precision of the laser cutting and the way it clicks together - though occasionally a bit of force is required to get the joints fully home.

I was a bit confused by the marbles - the instructions indicated that the counterweights were 16mm diameter but I couldn’t see any obvious difference between them, certainly not without calipers )which I don’t have). Are there different sizes? If so perhaps a gauge hole to identify them would help.

I’m thinking of building another (or maybe 3!) to work together. Are all 4 different designs compatible in any combination? And when they are connected does a single handle operate them all?

Thanks for these incredibly creative models!

Fabulous marble run kit with a great variety of obstacles for the marbles to get through and clever mechanisms throughout. The included wax “crayon” is very effective at reducing friction between the wooden parts, and I was surprised by how smooth it all moved at the end! However, I’d just like to point out that, at the bottom of the run where the main lift picks up the marbles, the stopper that prevents marbles from running off the track isn’t very effective and simply knocks them off the run (an issue that could have been solved had an extra wall been placed to the side of that stopper piece). I ended up doing just that by taping a spare piece where it needed to go, which now practically lets it work almost flawlessly. Almost.

Looks nice, fun to put together, but does not work. Also after sanding and putting grease on gears, there is too much friction. Would not recommend this kit.

Just finished this model, my third. The step hoist doesn’t rise high enough to deposit the marble for the downward run. I’ve studied the assembly in great detail and everything looks correct. Any suggestions?

Several hours of gentle releasing parts, waxing, snapping together and I have a finished model....and it works!! Excellent step by step guides, incredible complexity for such a simple idea and surprisingly smooth operation for an entirely wooden marble run. It was fascinating watching it all come together as I was building it. I'm now off to build the chain hoist model and then stick them together. Hoping for 2 more variations in the range to get a full 4 runs going. Incredible design skills in your team!

This was our Christmas present together with the the chain hoist one. They’re both amazing and work great. I can understand they’re advanced to build but we’ve built a few models from you before and can confirm they work marvellously if instructions are adhered to. Thanks for making the holiday season special and bringing people together. Our kids love these machines.

faszinierendes Modell. Macht Spass es zu bauen und dann fertig zu sehen

I bought 2 complimentary marble models and gave them as Christmas gifts to our son and granddaughter. Both are tech-ys and I thought that they'd enjoy doing these together. I haven't polled them yet to inquire how they made out. I should do that soon, right??? lol But I'm confident that they had a great time assembling them.

Fabulous. I enjoyed every minute that I spent building this model. Very impressed with the box, components and the comprehensive instruction book. I have never built a wooden model before and I was amazed at the laser cut part sheets and once I had realised that the numbered sheets corresponded with the booklet then life became a little easier.
I had just a couple of building issues mostly relating to the stepped hoist itself. Take great care to align the rack and pinion and the elongated slot that takes a sliding bearing which rotates.

I broke one piece which was replaced very quickly by Ugears and they are very responsive to questions, additionally there is a very active Facebook page where additional help is always available.

I am now on my second model and I expect to be ordering a third any time soon.
Thank you Ugears.

It looked good on the outside and it was great to build and I can see how it is supposed to work, and it does except for the stepped hoist part. And as all the gears are connected, since that part fails to work, the whole things fails to work. I took it completely apart, sanded and waxed again and still it stops through half a rotation. If it worked like advertised, it would be 5 stars.

Great fun to build, and my kids love it. I can't wait to build another so they can work together.

I received this as a Christmas gift this past year and it was one of the better gifts I received. I love doing puzzles and this is was a good one. The directions were fairly easy to follow although could have had a few more words describing exactly how much sanding and/or waxing was needed at certain stages. I love the mechanics of it and had fun putting it together and while it looks great, it simply won’t run. The gears just don’t turn easily enough as there are 10 round gears and 6 or so places where the wood rubs against wood and has way too much friction to move much at all. It’s probably just one or two places that are causing it to fail but like in an earlier review, if one fails, the whole contraption fails. I really want it to work as it is well made and brilliantly designed.

I was having fun making this until I got to the base. It requires chopping up a thick rubber band into small sections and laying them over the slots before putting the main body in.
Almost none of the pieces stay in the slots, they pop right out. I push them as far as they go( support is flush with the upper base, rubber slightly poking out the other side) and only one of them "clicked" and stayed in. I kept trying to keep it in until one of the body pieces just snapped from the force.
I like the simple idea of using a rubber band here but the one supplied was too thick. Looking closer it varies in thickness too so it's also poor quality for this particular purpose and led to the wood snapping for me.
It's broken now so I'm done with it

Fantastic model, my girlfriend loved every moment of building it and it works really well. Only feedback we could give is that we found 2 of the marbles to be just too big for the run so we had to swap them for counterweight one. Apart from that small thing an absolutely amazing piece.

What a fabulous kit! So accurate and well engineered. Perfectly packaged and ready to build. A satisfying kit from start to finish. Top tips:
Make sure every piece is slotted home properly, One out of place can send the whole mechanism off.
Sand and wax where it says, don't try to save time by not doing it.
Be willing to spend a little time at the end tinkering - some pieces just need a tiny adjustment to make it flow through perfectly.

I received the Step Hoist for Xmas, having completed the Chain Hoist a month before. This is almost certainly the right order, as the Step is just that bit more insane and remarkable. Again, it's another example of incredible imagination and implementation, and is a pleasure to build. No problems along the way and great to see how differently it functions from the Chain.

Connecting the two is very straightforward, BUT you'll need to turn the *Step's* level *anti-clockwise* if you want the complete contraption to turn.

What a wonderful marble run. Enjoy to assemble from the beginning to the end. It needs more finger power to join the pieces that it's shown in the videos. And my finger tips were sore after first 2 hours if work. It was a Christmas gift for me to assemble and my little boy to play with. He's obsessed with marble runs. But this one is the best so far. As he says "never ending marble run, so much fun"
For me it's a master piece. Thanks for this amazing marble run.

P.S. I didn't buy it here, I bought it from a different seller. But my appreciation of having it is above and beyond my expectations.

The package arrived on time in perfect conditions. It is a gift when the owner finish building it I'll tell you how it works. I will something for me the next time for sure!

A very challenging 3D Puzzle to assemble. Had a few difficult steps and even broke a few pieces, but with some glue all is good. The issues I'm having getting it to operate smoothly. Will have to tinker the mechanism some more. Put your thinking cap on and get it a whirl. The only way to know for yourself is purchase and assemble. Good luck...

Thankyou UGEARS for a fine product ,I've connected the marble hoist to the marble step it's a hoot. I'm a retired auto mechanic used of working on complex automatic transmissions . I see the engineering, quality that goes into your model's. I'm currently building the Hexapod. Waiting for my drift car to be delivered in November, don't stop doing what your doing .

I just finished the marble step ,it's awesome I connected it to the marble hoist ,I found it did not recirclate the marbles for continuous operation! I'll have figure out how to recirculate the marbles. I love the the engineering in your products. I've built 50 of different UGEARS models . Now I'm going to start the Hexapod ,I like the fact that it has a steel spring in it for more operating time. I pre-ordered the Drift car that also has a steel spring in it. Thanks Bob