Ball Dozer on Ebay!!

[MrGneiss]

Here is one of the sought after Ball Dozer ball lifters on ebay.. 4 bids (3 bidders) so far..$21.21!!

Pachinko Ball Lifter Balllifter Ball Dozer New | eBay

[MrGneiss]

Bidders:4Bids:6 $26 so far

[mxfaiman]

9 bids $76

*Note to US members. Check the location, the member who built it is the one selling it.

[pachiwall]

I noticed that...The sentance "The Ball lifter is brandnew and handmade, tested again before shipping it to your home." , clued me in that the seller was likely the maker. I'm out because me and PayPal don't get along well. Besides, I expect sniping to go wild in the last 10 seconds!

[DukeOfDelmar]

I noticed that...The sentance "The Ball lifter is brandnew and handmade, tested again before shipping it to your home." , clued me in that the seller was likely the maker. I'm out because me and PayPal don't get along well. Besides, I expect sniping to go wild in the last 10 seconds!

Yes, this is the same type sold by Dragonfly Amusements.

[MrGneiss]

Looks like it went for $188+$35 shipping to the US!!

Bidders:11 Bids:22

[Drunkenclam]

I was outbid. But I'm in no great need for it at the moment. Otherwise I'd have bid more.

[MrGneiss]

Meant to post this yesterday.. Another one has been listed!!

Pachinko Ball Lifter Balllifter Ball Dozer New | eBay

[MrGneiss]

This one went for $227.50..

[KimbaWLion]

I wish the original person was still selling them they went for a LOT less...

[mxfaiman]

I wish the original person was still selling them they went for a LOT less...

I think it is the original person selling them.

[daverob]

I think it is the original person selling them.

It's not the original seller.

The guy who designed it and originally sold it (Frank) was in Germany. His project pages are still up on Balldozer - The Pachinko ball lifter I have a couple of them I got directly from Frank, and the original selling price was very good. But it was originally made as a kind of hobby project, the selling price covered the cost of the parts, but it took too much of his time to actually make them and there wasn't enough money in it to justify the effort.

When he decided to quit, Jan at Dragonfly Amusements in the Netherlands stepped in and bought the designs and the remaining parts from Frank. As Jan's only income is from his home arcade business, he couldn't treat it as a hobby and had to factor in the cost of his time to manufacture them, and the final selling price almost doubled.

I've always thought ball lifters were an expensive addition to the hobby, and have considered coming up with my own design. But it always comes down to either having a design that requires a lot of manual assembly work (which pushes the price up considerably), or having to make a big up-front investment in tooling and equipment and then hoping that you can sell enough to make a decent return. I'm sure that if I had a couple of hundred paid up pre-orders then I could come up with a sub $100 ball lifter, but the pachinko collector community is quite small and that sort of sales quantity is likely to be unacheivable or is likely to over-saturate the market so that you wouldn't be able sell any more after the initial pre-orders are fulfilled.

[thrasherwr]

I won one of the ones on eBay, worked great for a while, but sad to say I have been having problems with it already. Started jamming all of a sudden and the sprocket started slipping on the shaft it looked to only had been put on with adhesive. I took it apart and used some jb weld stuff on it for lack of better option due to the setup. Going to test it again today and hope it holds up!

[Moparformances]

I won one of the ones on eBay, worked great for a while, but sad to say I have been having problems with it already. Started jamming all of a sudden and the sprocket started slipping on the shaft it looked to only had been put on with adhesive. I took it apart and used some jb weld stuff on it for lack of better option due to the setup. Going to test it again today and hope it holds up!

sorry to hear this... hope you can get it working again

Welcome to Pachitalk

[Super Dave Osbourne]

That is sad to hear the construction is not durable in your case. I have to believe Jan will correct the problem if you talk to him directly. Sadly again though he is likely located far from you and cost to send it back and then back again would be cost prohibitive, about the entire profit Jan would have realized in the sale. I have wanted a ball lifter, looked at many different designs for DIY, material costs, and have concluded with patience and reason that my arm is the best ball lifter of all and 'free'.

[thrasherwr]

That is sad to hear the construction is not durable in your case. I have to believe Jan will correct the problem if you talk to him directly. Sadly again though he is likely located far from you and cost to send it back and then back again would be cost prohibitive, about the entire profit Jan would have realized in the sale. I have wanted a ball lifter, looked at many different designs for DIY, material costs, and have concluded with patience and reason that my arm is the best ball lifter of all and 'free'.

Thanks moparformances!
I thought about contacting Jan, however like you said about the shipping back and forth overseas takes time and $$. Unfortunately the jb weld held just about until the balls got to the top then failed. Guess I'm headed to auto parts store looking for another solution. My second machine will be here tomorrow, so I gotta get this thing working!!

[Drunkenclam]

Can you not use a very sharp drill bit and install a split pin throught the drive cog and throught the output shaft?

[thrasherwr]

Can you not use a very sharp drill bit and install a split pin throught the drive cog and throught the output shaft?

Very good idea, was thinking something like that myself, but more of a last resort thing as I would have to find access to a drill press and the risk of damaging the sprocket. The shaft already has a hold through it, would have been nice if the original design had a pin already installed through there. Turns out I was using a less reliable epoxy, so now I am trying again with the "best" kind I can get, so now the waiting game for the curing and I will test again tomorrow hopefully better results

[daverob]

I'm not sure whether you can get it your side of the pond, but in this situation I'd use something like Loctite 660 bearing retainer adhesive rather than epoxy, but it's hard to get hold of in small quantities and quite expensive. The most important thing is that everything should be spotlessly clean and free from oil or grease before using any adhesives. Just touching the parts to be joined with bare fingers would be enough to contaminate the adhesive and risk a weak bond.

I think the problem with the design is that the motor has a 6mm shaft and the gear comes with a 10mm hole, so there is a brass insert glued into the gear, which is then glued onto the shaft. Frank (the original designer of the Balldozer) had some problems with this joint on the first prototypes, but after trying a few different Loctite adhesives there were no more slipping gears. I don't know if Jan (the current manufacturer of the Balldozer) has changed the adhesives or the assembly process.

[mandoman]

At work we order Loctite from Grainger.
Looks like a 6ml tube is about $20.
LOCTITE Retaining Compound,QuickMetal66010 - Grainger Industrial Supply

You can also get it through Amazon from third party vendors for about the same price.