A cool new musical instrument, made from engineering tools, the ball-bearing drum machine is proving quite a hit with hardware hackers. The instrument, called BeatBearing, makes drum patterns using ball bearings. It was created by Peter Bennett, a 26-year-old PhD student at Queen’s University in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Click here for a video of Bennett’s prototype in action.

According to Bennett, the BeatBearing is an example of minimalist modern design created from chrome, transparent Perspex and computer graphics. It acts as a rhythm sequencer–a red line sweeps across the grid, playing a sound whenever a ball bearing is encountered, “like an updated version of the old piano-roll.”

Bennett has written a “make your own BeatBearing” step-by-step guide that will be published in the magazine MAKE. The instrument is also going to be the subject of a short film.

Thanks to MIT Technology Review.