Meet the K’NEXpert: Austin Granger

We’re thrilled to welcome Austin Granger back to The Works Museum for Tech Fest on Saturday, February 21, 2026! As the creative mind behind our K’NEX Ball Machine exhibit, Austin will be at the museum to share his expertise and answer all your K’NEX questions. Families can watch his incredible creation in action and then dive into hands-on engineering fun of their own. 

Knowing visitors to Tech Fest might be curious, we asked Austin some questions to get to know him and his work! 

What first inspired you to build K’NEX machines?

“When I was growing up, I often saw people's large-scale K'NEX builds in K'NEX catalogs and magazines, and it was always a dream of mine to build something cool enough to be featured like that. I stopped following the instructions and started building my own things. Rockets, skyscrapers, bridges, cars, anything I could think of.  

Then when a friend took me to The Works Museum in the late 90's, I saw K'NEX used for real engineering. There was a machine that could make drawings, there was a working clock, things I had n ever seen done with K'NEX before. That's when I realized that just because something is a "toy" doesn't mean you can't do serious engineering with it. I thought ‘If someone can take this toy and build something so cool that it can teach people in a museum, maybe I can do that some day!’ 

Then in 2002, I came across a team of adult K'NEX builders called "Build Fest". Their two-story-tall "Atomic ParaBall" ball machine was simply awe-inspiring to 11-year-old me, and I was determined to build something like that on my own someday. I tried - and failed - many times to replicate what I saw, but after sticking with it for 6 years, I finally reached the point where I felt ready to share my creations with the world. I posted my first ever K'NEX ball machine video, titled "Subatomic Paraball", when I was 17.  

Ever since that day, I have worked to improve my techniques and hone my K'NEX skills, trying to make each new build cooler, bigger, and more elaborate than the last. Even today, I always try to challenge myself with something totally new every time I start a new project.” 

How did this particular ball machine for the museum come to life?

“In the fall of 2012, I completed my largest ever K'NEX ball machine to date, entitled "Clockwork" in my bedroom at my parents' home in St Paul. You can see a video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q76r-3z4Ckk. The St Paul Pioneer Press did an article about my build, and Don Craighead– a former board member of The Works Museum - reached out to me, asking if I could build a similar machine for the museum.  

In 2013 I built my first installation for The Works, a 23-foot-tall ball machine in the middle of the former lobby stairwell. In 2018, I rebuilt the ageing machine to be even larger, more complex, but also more reliable. Then in 2023, The Works closed for renovations, and my ball machine had to move to the new museum gallery. The Works still wanted a ball machine for their new space, so I began working on a new design.  

By this point, I had moved about an hour away from The Works Museum so it was not practical for me to build the machine on-location. Instead, I designed a semi-modular machine that I could build at home and transport to the ball machine. After 6 months of design and construction, the ball machine was transported to The Works Museum in several large pieces and reassembled in its current spot." 

What was the trickiest challenge you had to solve while building it?

“The hardest challenge was engineering the ball machine to be movable. I had never transported a ball machine to another location before, and designing something that could be broken down into pieces, while ensuring each piece was strong enough to hold its own weight, presented a major challenge. In addition, I wanted this machine to be my most reliable yet, so designing a ball lift mechanism that could still keep working even if parts of it broke down was another key challenge. I go into far more detail about the challenges faced in this build in my multi-part video series about constructing this ball machine: http://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLZ7qqHOxWPtkzmpPwLWr1qimfCORdaqmx”

Why do you think events like Tech Fest are a good way for kids to explore engineering and creativity?

“It's all too common today for kids (and even grown-ups) to look at a big, complicated thing like my ball machine, or a robot, or a fast car, or a rocket, and say ‘Wow, I could never make something like that!’ I think Tech Fest is important because it shows you that you CAN build something like that. My favorite activities at Tech Fest are the ones that show you a complex piece of machinery and then show you how to build your own version out of things you probably have at home. So much of my childhood was spent looking at big machines and trying to see if I could build them myself out of my toys, and I think Tech Fest is a great place to inspire that creative spark.” 

What’s your favorite part of the ball machine to watch in action?

“My favorite part is the dump track that loads up 10 balls and sends them all at once into the big funnel. I always enjoy seeing people's reactions watching it fill up slowly over time, wondering when it's finally going to go." 

What do kids seem most excited about when they watch the ball machine?

“Like myself, the kids seem to be most excited by the dump track. It is a lot of fun to see the crowd of kids form in front of the machine as the dump track is about to go!" 

What engineering or design ideas do you hope kids pick up just by watching the machine run?

“I want kids – and parents too – to see that the toys they play with can be real engineering tools. I want kids to see that I am just an ordinary person like all of them, who was inspired by the things I saw and tried to do it myself, and you can do it too! I want kids to get home from a day of fun at The Works Museum and go running to their box of LEGO or K'NEX or any other creative toys they have and start trying to build the coolest thing they can imagine. And most importantly, I want kids to realize that things aren't going to work right on the first try, or the second, or the third. Failure isn't a bad thing, it's part of the fun! Build something new, try it out, see what doesn't work, fix it, and try again! Every time you fail, you become a better engineer. Before you know it, you'll amaze yourself with what you can make." 

What other kinds of K'NEX contraptions have you created? Where else can we see or follow your work?

“I have created countless K'NEX ball machines and other K'NEX structures which can all be seen on my youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@Austron.  

Right now at my home, I have a LEGO train running around my ceiling on a K'NEX track: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aeBq4dn2gv”