What's with all the DIY ball lifters

[metalmoto]

Anyone tried to make one with external magnets to pull the balls up? No ball contact with gears, would just need to move away from the tube/chute at the top to release them into a tray. Just thinking outside the gear box. Seems the internal gear drive has been the limiting factor up to now.

It's funny, but I once liberated the guts from an electric stapler. I took it to a friends house, and found that we could launch Pachinko balls into the 20 foot ceiling, leaving dents.
Place a ball into the coil, press a switch, and it was a projectile... Duck when the ball comes down. Enough of that...
Thought I might be able to make a ball lifter from it somehow. But put it on a shelf for another day...