I built this Rube Goldberg machine over the summer of 2007. I had seen many Rube Goldberg machines in the past and had built a couple small contraptions years ago, so I decided to spend a couple days building the ultimate Rube Goldberg (maybe not the ultimate as that title goes to the music video for “This Too Shall Pass” by OK Go). Setting up the Rube Goldberg took some time, but only a fraction of the time it took to film.

No, it did not work on the first try. Or the second. Or the tenth, though I wish it would have worked that soon. I actually lost count on how many times I had to reset everything, but I can tell you it was well over ten. In the end, all the time I put into the making of this Rube Goldberg payed off, as the entire machine worked as seen in the video. I told myself that this would be the last Rube Goldberg I would build as I couldn’t build a better one. I was wrong. Exactly on year later I realized my creativity and craftsmanship was no where near what it had grown to be. So I decided to prove myself wrong and build a Rube Goldberg that blew this one away. Click here to see it.