How many balls should a cabinet hold?

[ken524]

In designing a Pachinko Cabinet (modern Pachinko) how many balls should the upper hopper (and lower hopper) hold?

Syph mentioned that his original cab design held around 4000, which he said was more than necessary. Would 800 or so be enough for several minutes of gameplay? I haven't had much chance to play our new PinkPanther because of the lack of a cabinet.

Any opinions?

Cordially,
Ken
(persuing the perfect cab design)

[Just PAchinkos]

My opinion......A full hopper is fine until you hit fever mode. Then is the measure of how many balls you have comes into play. I think the concensus on this forum is that a fever pays out about 2500 balls over the 15 rounds but more is possible. So the bigger you build the top hopper the better. Panther has a relatively shallow front wing so doesn't hold too many 'in' balls. I would say 4000 would be ample for the top. On this bigger is best!

[ken524]

Wow. 4000. I wouldn't have guessed this high. Thanks for the input!

-Ken

[Just PAchinkos]

If you are looking at building a box cabinet for the top and want to avoid filling it often then yes the 4000 is ideal. But if you only want normal play and don't mind refilling then 1500 will do. Most suppliers give 400-500 but I would expect people would buy another 1000.

[Just PAchinkos]

I would like to know what people have done to make the balls flow from a top box down to the ball tray on the pachinko so the balls don't flow out everywhere, also how can you then swing the door out and not have thousands of balls on the floor? Ideas please......

[MrGneiss]

I would like to know what people have done to make the balls flow from a top box down to the ball tray on the pachinko so the balls don't flow out everywhere, also how can you then swing the door out and not have thousands of balls on the floor? Ideas please......

What, you don't want thousands of ball on the floor?

[Just PAchinkos]

Well I don't mind but the wife gets unreasonably grumpy!

[ken524]

also how can you then swing the door out and not have thousands of balls on the floor? Ideas please......

I've got some ideas I'm kicking around for that... Perhaps some sort of a hinge flap thingie on the bottom of the PVC downtube that closes as the door is opened... might have to mount an actuator of some sort in the back. Shouldn't be too hard.

-Ken

[Just PAchinkos]

I keep thinking of scrapping a machine and using the ball payout motor from a machine then having a switch so when the door is open it isolates the motor.
Or yes a hinge on the flap.
Hmmm too many ways.

[Bilko44]

Follow this link to my four game ball management system to see how I handled the issue of stopping ball flow when you open the door.
http://www.pachitalk.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2098

[websherpa]

I would like to know what people have done to make the balls flow from a top box down to the ball tray on the pachinko so the balls don't flow out everywhere, also how can you then swing the door out and not have thousands of balls on the floor? Ideas please......

What about a sliding door, like on a dust collection blast gate. They're relatively easy to make if you are a woodworker, or perhaps you can buy a small premade blast gate (if there is one with a small enough diameter), I think they make them for Shop Vac dust collection systems in 2inch diameter. In any case you could mount the blast gate in the feed tube above the machine and (with some wiggle effort depending on weght of balls) jam it closed. (although there would still be some balls in the tube portion below the top of the machine.... hmmm...

[websherpa]

Leevalley.com has a 2" blast gate: http://www.leevalley.com/wood/page.a...06&cat=1,42401

[slotter]

The cabinets from Gameroom cabinets come with a spring loaded bottom small door that holds the balls inside in place until opened. Just have to have a bucket ready when you open the door and then dump them back to the top.

[sacpinplayer]

The cabinets from Gameroom cabinets come with a spring loaded bottom small door that holds the balls inside in place until opened. Just have to have a bucket ready when you open the door and then dump them back to the top.

Don, I just ordered two cabinets from Gameroom Cabinets. On these cabinets, when you pour the balls into the funnel on top do you load up the funnel with balls? Can the top rear plastic tray handle the weight of that many balls without cracking?

[syph]

I would like to know what people have done to make the balls flow from a top box down to the ball tray on the pachinko so the balls don't flow out everywhere, also how can you then swing the door out and not have thousands of balls on the floor? Ideas please......

I love bilko's system, but I don't know anything about metal, so I stayed away from it. My cases use a simple, messy and loud system - there's a piece of PVC pipe that leads down to the hopper, I'll look up the measurements later. To stop overflow, you just make sure that the pvc pipe stops less than a ball width (preferably a lot less) short of the hopper height, but don't let it go IN the hopper or you will not be able to open your cabinet without it catching on and breaking the plastic hopper bin wall on the machine. The messy part is when you need to open it up while there are a bunch of balls up top, and I didn't handle this very well. You *could* scoop them out, but I just wait until the cats are asleep and open the door of the pachinko machine about three inches. All the balls drain out the tube and down the back of the case, making a hell of a racket, but they (ahem, mostly) stay in the case and end up in the bottom area, where you can, depending on your design, drain or scoop them out to put back on top. It's not a good system unless you have three cats who react with hilarious explosions of fur and spittle when you drop three or four thousand balls on top of what amounts to a wooden drum head.

[sacpinplayer]

..........but I just wait until the cats are asleep and open the door of the pachinko machine about three inches. All the balls drain out the tube and down the back of the case, making a hell of a racket, ............It's not a good system unless you have three cats who react with hilarious explosions of fur and spittle when you drop three or four thousand balls on top of what amounts to a wooden drum head.

Makes me wish we had a cat or two.

[slotter]

Mike, there is a gap between the funnel on the cabinet and the tray on the Pachinko machine, therefore, unless you make something to hold the balls in when the tray fills up, they will fall off the sides of the tray. I would think if you were to modify the machine tray to hold the balls up to the funnel, it would hold the balls without cracking.

[slotter]

Whoops, I just read syph's posting on how he handles the funnel problem with the PVC pipe. Thanks!

[ken524]

Thanks guys... there are a LOT of good ideas here!!

[Just PAchinkos]

Absolutely ken, the dust gate has caught my attention, a wood version could be supurb. I'm off to the local carpenter!