With everything close to being ready, it was time to re-design and build the apparatus. Here is a quick sketch of how I sort of wanted it. Unfortunately the Grove Starter Kit they sent still hasn't arrived, so none of that will be integrated into the project.

After discussing with my brother-in-law, I decided to do something similar to what I had in the sketch.

There was a bit of finesse involved in making the horizontal beams the correct length such that the the two rails held on to each other, but loose enough for free movement