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Thread: Newb looking for English Ball Lifter instructions -- New to making ball lifters!

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    Blind Shooter Cheverisi's Avatar
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    Question Newb looking for English Ball Lifter instructions -- New to making ball lifters!

    I am sure this has been shown on other parts of the site, but I would like to make my own ball lifter for my pachinko and wanted to see where I can find decent English language instructions. I really have no idea even where to start in terms of finding motors, gears, the spiral lifter, or what exact other parts I would need, but would love to get information on how I could try to make my own lifter. I am really very limited in my experience with power tools and I have absolutely no idea how to weld, but want to try to make one of these and not just gaze in awe over what has already been made. I have a limited budget ($60 or less) and am not interested in buying a ball lifter that is a few hundred dollars (more than I have ever paid for my 2 pachinkos combined - $60 total!). Any advice or especially visual printed instructions in English would be something I would greatly appreciate!

    Thanks everyone!

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    Pachi Puro Card Shark's Avatar
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    Default Re: Newb looking for English Ball Lifter instructions -- New to making ball lift

    Not sure I would be much help. I did come up with a couple of designs but have yet to build a prototype. Also doubt they would hit your budget you set. There are quite a few threads here on various solutions...

    Ball Lifters/Ball Management

    I do have a lifter on one of my machines and love it. If you ever in the Richmond area, you are welcome to check it out.
    "Life consists not in holding good cards but in playing those you hold well."
    Pachiholic and Proud!!! サメ

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    Stuey - The RADministrator MrGneiss's Avatar
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    Default Re: Newb looking for English Ball Lifter instructions -- New to making ball lift

    An easy to make, inexpensive ball lifter is one of the holy grails of this site.. I'm afraid that the forum that Shark has already linked to is probably the most English info on the net about DIY pachinko ball lifters.. It may not be much but it may give you some good ideas.. Some people have also been inspired by marble run lifter and marble pump videos on Youtube..

    I wish there were some easy instructions out there, but as far as I know there isn't.. If you come up with any ideas please post!!

    Good luck!!

    "Blowing smoke rings at the moon."

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    Blind Shooter Cheverisi's Avatar
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    Default Re: Newb looking for English Ball Lifter instructions -- New to making ball lift

    I thought I would go ahead and bite the bullet, splurging $374.00 shipped on a refurbished ball return machine. The same machine was listed on ebay for $500 shipped, but I thought I might as well give one a try.

    At this point, my plan is to take my vintage Nishijin Model B pachinko, my 1987 Sankyo Flying Carpet, and my 2007 King Kong machine and find some way to make them into 3 sides of a cube-shaped cabinet, possibly using an old kitchen cabinet at Habitat for Humanity's local store. I am definitely a newb with power tools and have not the slightest clue other than copycatting others for engineering or designing cabinets // ball return systems. However, my plan is to take the automatic ball return and have the balls drop into a central pipe with 3 separate slanted openings to feed into each of my machines equally. I will plan to place the ball return pause lever in the main 3-way hopper to stop this as my idea to feed my machines in a small cabinet setting.

    I am thinking that the return machine hopper, itself will need 3 feeding ramps from the losing // winning ball rear exits on the machines to collect all the balls. I am considering the simple and lame ascii text as a possible lower diagram below

    Bottom:

    Flying Carpet
    D \-/ N
    O | | I
    {}<------ Ball Return Machine Hupper
    O | | S
    R /-\ H
    King Kong

    Top:
    FC Jackpot tray
    /
    Ball Feeder Loop->J[]- NISH Jackpot tray
    \
    KK Jackpot tray

    [] = 3-way hopper with feeder pausing lever placed within

    My one question now is: Should I have a separate overflow bucket just in case any 1 tray overflows or should i just have 4 slanted internal ramps to return excess balls back into the main feeding hopper?

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    I was thrown out of Top Gear Drunkenclam's Avatar
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    Default Re: Newb looking for English Ball Lifter instructions -- New to making ball lift

    A quick word of warning. My orange (silver brand) lifter. Struggles when asked to lift higher than the norm. This might be a common issue. Or just my lifter. There are a couple of lifters on YJA for between ¥5000-6000. With shipping from Japan, might work out slightly cheaper. But these aren't refurbished
    Ian #UKPachinko

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