Ball Lifter - Archimedes Screw

[Sid]

Please find below a recent discussion in the shoutbox regarding a home made ball lifter ( Bravo Birdbrain)

it may be of great interest to some so have a look and please if you have any ideas or comments to add please do so.

06-24-2006 10:46 AM MrGneiss bb are you really thinking of making a ball lift with a archimedes screw?

06-24-2006 10:46 AM birdbrain now back to our regular programing: GACK!!

06-24-2006 10:46 AM MrGneiss because I thought about doing that too.

06-24-2006 10:46 AM Sid Your idea about the ball lifter sounds... very interesting..

06-24-2006 10:47 AM Sid Screw YOU!!!!

06-24-2006 10:47 AM birdbrain never seen a pachinko up close but do have some clear 1 1/2 tube and a 3 ft screw that fits inside

06-24-2006 10:47 AM Sid sorry guys couldnt resist... please go on regarding the ball lifter..

06-24-2006 10:48 AM birdbrain just a matter of building a tray that feeds the tube and cutting an outlet at the top that dumps into upper tray.

06-24-2006 10:49 AM MrGneiss Really, stop being so childish.

06-24-2006 10:49 AM MrGneiss It seem like it should work.

06-24-2006 10:50 AM birdbrain as we said about 20 bucks for a 24vdc motor off an electric scooter(strong enough to push my 300Lbs along at 15 mph)

06-24-2006 10:50 AM Sid thats definately an interesting concept and i am sure it would work.

06-24-2006 10:50 AM Sid that would make for quick reloads..

06-24-2006 10:50 AM birdbrain will put one together over the weekend and see how it works with marbles

06-24-2006 10:51 AM] birdbrain: just a push button on frt or a float switch in the upper tray

[06-24-2006 10:51 AM] MrGneiss: Like I said, i thought about trying the same thing, I just didn't have an idea where to get the screw.

[06-24-2006 10:52 AM] Sid: ive been thinking about a hand cracnk system for a while but due to my Spiderman payou problems havent been able to get things going

[06-24-2006 10:53 AM] Sid: hmm you could probably attach it to one of the attendant buttons on the front.

[06-24-2006 10:53 AM] birdbrain: lot of shallow well drills have screw about 3 ft long on end.once they are worn driller toss them

[06-24-2006 10:55 AM] MrGneiss: I know of some places downtown where I can get a screw for about $20...

[06-24-2006 11:00 AM] birdbrain: how far up from lower tray to top of top tray?

[06-24-2006 11:01 AM] Sid: approx 75 cm

[06-24-2006 11:01 AM] MrGneiss: I shall go mesure...

[06-24-2006 11:02 AM] MrGneiss: in inches...

[06-24-2006 11:04 AM] MrGneiss: 29"

[06-24-2006 11:04 AM] Sid: 75 / 2.54

[06-24-2006 11:04 AM] Sid: 29"

[06-24-2006 11:06 AM] MrGneiss: There is no lower try, so this is from the top
of the bottom of the frame (?) to the top of the top hopper.

[06-24-2006 11:06 AM] Sid: http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c3...aras/screw.jpg it have to be something like this..

[06-24-2006 11:06 AM] MrGneiss: tray

[06-24-2006 11:06 AM] birdbrain: ok so in actuality all you need is a wood auger like for drilling holes in 2x4s with an extention on it. the auger part only needs to force balls up tube a short way then as you feed more balls into tube they will rise out the top

[06-24-2006 11:07 AM] Sid: thats why i said approximately as the bottom tray location can vary

[06-24-2006 11:07 AM] Sid: now can the Screw be verticle or does it have to be at an angle..

[06-24-2006 11:07 AM] birdbrain: if you put motor at bottm you would not nee extention!!

[06-24-2006 11:08 AM] MrGneiss: I need to be exact, you know that.

[06-24-2006 11:08 AM] birdbrain: strait up and down would be fine

[06-24-2006 11:08 AM] Sid: thats my idea as you got all the electrical stuff there..

[06-24-2006 11:09 AM] Sid: but ok so this thing works. and the screw is rotating some issues I see are

[06-24-2006 11:09 AM] Sid: 1) feeding the balls into the screw

[06-24-2006 11:09 AM] birdbrain: if you wanted it real fast just hook drill bit to your electric drill !!

[06-24-2006 11:10 AM] Sid: 2) how to stop the balls from falling back down the screw if power is turned off or there are no more balls in bottom tray..

[06-24-2006 11:10 AM] MrGneiss: I had one of those toy marble rollercoster things, and it used a vertical screw to get the balls back to the top.

[06-24-2006 11:10 AM] Sid: hmmm.. this is certainly interesting stuff and i do think it is better suited for a thread..

[06-24-2006 11:11 AM] birdbrain: 1) build lower tray with slopeing bottom

[06-24-2006 11:11 AM] birdbrain: 2) screw would be at bottom pushing balls up

[06-24-2006 11:12 AM] birdbrain: Gack!!

[06-24-2006 11:12 AM] MrGneiss: I don't think thread would be strong enough, but someone should post this in the pachinko mod section!

[06-24-2006 11:13 AM] Sid: http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c3...ras/screw2.jpg

[06-24-2006 11:14 AM] Sid: ok so you would only need a few inches of screw attached to the motor and then the rest of the tube is screwless..

[06-24-2006 11:14 AM] birdbrain: yes!! screw dosnt have to extend alll the way up though

[06-24-2006 11:14 AM] MrGneiss: So are you thinking of the screw only at the bottom of the tube, or the whole way?

[06-24-2006 11:15 AM] birdbrain: it wound just fill tube with balls and the would overflow into feed tray

[06-24-2006 11:15 AM] MrGneiss: interesting!

[06-24-2006 11:15 AM] birdbrain: no need for full length screw

[06-24-2006 11:16 AM] birdbrain: let me screww around this weekend then will post sunday nite

[06-24-2006 11:27 AM] birdbrain: all you need is short piece of pvc to cover screw and and start ball feed,the rest can be flexable tube easy to trywrap to things