Elevate

@Frenzies - don't give up..

Spoiler

The final roll is 100% repeatable (it's just a matter of timing, which you can base on the position of the cam shaft).
And more importantly, there are cleverly multiple solutions to this excellent puzzle - and I'm pretty sure they all rely on the final roll. So once you've mastered that, you can try other approaches and find one that does work for you.

@Frenzies

Spoiler

Oh you mean the horizontal pillars? Yes, I've found them a bit unreliable too. On the other hand...
If you were to pursue an alternative solution, you wouldn't have to suffer them

@sawdust - I struggle with the tripping on air trick too. And i can't speak for @cpw, but here's my method..

Spoiler

Cross over the lifting lever to the steps on the other side, and wait at the top of the steps. When the sliding metal pillar comes in range and is about to depart, set an autopilot route to it so that you fall to the ground. Then go find the elevator at the back, and climb onto it from a distance - it takes you straight to the final ball. The rest you already know.

... Now tell me that wasn't fun!

@sawdust

Spoiler

LOL - I thought those stairs were there to taunt me!

... I can't get B to go down them. I'm still at a loss for what magic you used to accomplish this shyness on his part.

@sawdust - Hmmm! A mystery within a puzzle. An enigma to unwind...

@sawdust , @trids - you're not the only ones... I can't get B to go up or down the stairs. Truly weird.

@D.S.Masters - I have recently learned that the no-go stairs effect is a clever exploit of the "max world size" constraint at design time.
See here for more details.

@trids And yet you can get onto the white floor by falling... weird.