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Thread: The Balldozer - My custom made ball lifter

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    Blind Shooter Berzerk's Avatar
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    Default The Balldozer - My custom made ball lifter

    Hi,

    I want to present my custom made ball lifter to you. It took me more than 6 months to get it finished (including a lot of design changes, finding all the parts, eliminating ball jams, picking up 20 000 balls from the floor and so on...), but now I got it working. It lifts more than 300 balls/minute and is pretty silent. And I gave it a name, I call it the Balldozer ;-)

    I made a little web page with pictures, the history of the lifter some videos and a FAQ to answer all questions.

    The page is located at: http://www.menzler.de/Balldozer

    If you have any questions that are not getting answered on the page already, you can ask them here in the forum.

    Hope you like it,

    Berzerk

    IMG_0041.jpg

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    Ensign Newton owennewton's Avatar
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    Default Re: The Balldozer - My custom made ball lifter

    Very cool! NIT posted one of your videos in another thread and some of us (Me included ) were joking around with low offers but I am interested in how much something like this would cost. Great job
    the

    LLTR

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    Blind Shooter Berzerk's Avatar
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    Default Re: The Balldozer - My custom made ball lifter

    Oh... I found the thread... well... I'm glad you like the name and beauty is in the eye of the beholder :-) I know that it might look strange at first sight. On the other hand, I saw a lot of ball lifter threads here that started enthusiastic and ending up in no result. So I'm at least happy that this ball lifter is working and not taking 100 hours to build.

    Unfortunately you can not work with injection molding for a series of three and so you have to work with parts that are available when you want to make it reproduceable :-) I was looking for part's that are durable and fit and are easy to handle and the most important thing to me was, that the lifter fits in a cabinet, so I do not see it anyway. And with daverob's dongle, you have the perfect pachinko experience.

    So I'm more than happy with it, no matter how it looks.

    You will not be able to get all the parts for $40. The gear motor and the gear are not cheap and all the other parts add up too. And you will need about 2 hours to build it if you have the right tools and the experience.

    But I did not really calculate a price because I did not know if there are really other people interested and if I want to spend my spare time building ball lifters :-)

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    SNORTARRIFIC! new in town's Avatar
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    Thumbs up Re: The Balldozer - My custom made ball lifter

    Small World.

    I just e-mailed you back before logging onto PachiTalk. One answer already answered. You are a Member here.

    The Video that you have that impressed me the Most was the 2 story Ball Lift


    It shows the Durability of your Device.

    Thank You for Posting about it.
    72 Pachi's, 36 Pachinko's, 2 Pallots, 3 Pinn's & 2 Pachinko Bar Signs. Links to About Me: pachijunkie's Videos


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    Master Inventor daverob's Avatar
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    Default Re: The Balldozer - My custom made ball lifter

    I've been lucky enough to have been able to play around with an early prototype of one of these ball lifters for the past couple of months, and I must say that it works _really_ well. It's easily a match for my orange Japanese ball lifter in terms of speed and reliability, and is compact enough to fit in the space at the back of a pachinko machine without needing an extra deep cabinet.

    Ok, it might look like it's mutated out of a pile of washing machine parts but as an engineer I'm really impressed with the simplicity of the design, and the use and modification of off-the-shelf parts, rather than needing to use expensive or hard to make custom parts. I've been thinking about trying my hand at designing a ball lifter for a few years now, and most of my attempts have been unnecessarily complex and look like they've come from a first year woodwork shop student at a school for the blind (and I couldn't get any of them to actually work properly either!).

    You could spend a lot of time and/or money designing custom parts and end up with a beautiful looking ball lifter, but if that makes it too complex or expensive for anyone to be able to make/afford, what's the point? Seeing as it's going to be hidden away in the back of a cabinet, aesthetics are really only of minor importance anyway.

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    Scowlin' Jean Hornigold hanabi's Avatar
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    Default Re: The Balldozer - My custom made ball lifter

    Wow congratulations Berzerk!!

    You have succeeded where many have tried and yet not quite got there with their ball lifter designs, and yours sounds like it works very well indeed!!

    Thank you for sharing your invention with your fellow pachinko enthusiasts here at PachiTalk



    Angie ...
    Pachinkos, Pachislos, Coffee, Papercraft Ninja, Pinball

    I ran away with the Steampunk Circus!
    I was hiding in a room in my mind...
    You crush the lily in my soul...



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    Kungishi yose's Avatar
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    Default Re: The Balldozer - My custom made ball lifter

    I like it, I like the name of it.In the design world it's [ form follows function].I think your ugly duckling should stay ugly that's it's beauty.could you show photos of the gear action on the feed tube end. A very interesting make do design. Well done.
    IMAGINATION IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN KNOWLEDGE

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    Blind Shooter Berzerk's Avatar
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    Default Re: The Balldozer - My custom made ball lifter

    Quote Originally Posted by yose View Post
    could you show photos of the gear action on the feed tube end. A very interesting make do design. Well done.
    Thanks, I will do when I have one open again. There is a spring at the tube entry that is leading the balls before they enter the tube. If you just stick the tube on the gear without some "guide" you will have a ball jam every 5 minutes.

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    Pachi Puro pachiwall's Avatar
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    Default Re: The Balldozer - My custom made ball lifter

    Congratulations on a functional lifter I wish you the greatest luck in whatever you choose! PLANS MAYBE?

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    I was thrown out of Top Gear Drunkenclam's Avatar
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    Default Re: The Balldozer - My custom made ball lifter

    Anyone who can make one work. Has to be a sucess. I never thought about using 4" pipe on mine. Was concentrating on making things small.
    Well done
    Ian #UKPachinko

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    Captain Weirdo Sid's Avatar
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    Default Re: The Balldozer - My custom made ball lifter

    Amazing WORK!


    Thank you!

    "I've stopped fighting my inner demons, we are on the same side now."

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    Pachi Puro KimbaWLion's Avatar
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    Default Re: The Balldozer - My custom made ball lifter

    I have no problems getting one together (by that I mean with parts and a set of plans) is just that getting standardized parts I think would be kind of tough for some of the gearing...
    As an engineer myself the simplicity really impresses me as does lifting balls to the 2nd story of your house...
    Plans and part list would be very useful when you get the time! It seems strong enough that you you could
    drain to a one LARGE area and feed multi-machines with it from what I can see... BUT that is just my take
    looking at it. You could test that theory at your leisure...
    I may not be the best guy, BUT I am not the bad guy!- Coop from Megas XLR

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    Blind Shooter Berzerk's Avatar
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    Default Re: The Balldozer - My custom made ball lifter

    Quote Originally Posted by KimbaWLion View Post
    I have no problems getting one together (by that I mean with parts and a set of plans) is just that getting standardized parts I think would be kind of tough for some of the gearing...
    Well, it's: I use only standardized parts but I have to modify every single one of them (but the button and the clams). I work a lot with metal stencils that I put over the parts to drill the holes at right positions or to saw pieces out of the tubes on the right positions. For example, I have to drill more then 25 holes in 8 different sizes, from 2mm to 30 mm.

    At the end, if I am not precise enough, I will have ball jams. With precise, I mean less then 0.5 mm. It took me about 200 hours of testing only to get the right idea for the ball entry to the lifting tube right and like with all other parts on the lifter too, it's not the final implementation that is kind of impressing, by far not. It's just... you need to get the right idea :-) The building itself is not so hard if you have a drill press, a band saw and some standard tools.

    As an engineer myself the simplicity really impresses me as does lifting balls to the 2nd story of your house...
    Lucky me, it's not my house, only my workshop :-)

    Plans and part list would be very useful when you get the time! It seems strong enough that you you could
    drain to a one LARGE area and feed multi-machines with it from what I can see... BUT that is just my take
    looking at it. You could test that theory at your leisure...
    Since I have the stencils and I already built a bunch of them in the last months, I don't really have plans, I think I will draw some when I get the time. You can feed as many machines with it as 300+ balls a minute are enough I guess. I have a setup where I feed two machines in a cabinet with the ball storage at the top with one lifter. That is working without any modification (well, you have to lead the balls of the second machine to lifter somehow of course).

    If you have the ball storage below your machines, you have to feed the ball to some kind of drainage system (no, I'm not working in the plumbing business ;-) ) that evenly fills you machines... I don't know how you could do that but it is doable for sure. And you would need some extra actuators so the lifter will only stop lifting when all your machines are loaded. Doable with some small "pedal"-switches in a row, normally closed.

    But I did not test it and I can not test it because I don't have enough pachinko machines and the ones I have are in a cabinet with the ball storage above.

    What I will test is: What will happen when the ball lifter is completely filled up with balls, because that will be the case in this setup. I did not check this, because in my use case this will never happen. I can't imagine a problem here, but you'll never know.

    BTW: There is also one minor disadvantage when the balls are stored below the machine, at least that's my experience. When they are stored below, then a ball lifter starts lifting when the upper tray is empty. That means, it is lifting to an empty plastic tray and this is kind of noisy, because the balls are falling on the plastic like on a drum. Even if they fall only one or two inches. When the balls are stored above the machines, you basically do not hear anything.
    Last edited by Berzerk; 07-03-2011 at 02:16 PM. Reason: Automerged Doublepost

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    Pachi Puro pachiwall's Avatar
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    Default Re: The Balldozer - My custom made ball lifter

    I have been toying with some ball feed systems in my head. My biggest issue with overhead storage is... if you ever need to open a cabinet, you have to stop the flow of balls from the hopper. A few ideas... but none tested.

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    PachiTalk Hostess dattia's Avatar
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    Default Re: The Balldozer - My custom made ball lifter

    Bravo!!!
    Dawn

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    Blind Shooter Berzerk's Avatar
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    Default Re: The Balldozer - My custom made ball lifter

    Quote Originally Posted by pachiwall View Post
    I have been toying with some ball feed systems in my head. My biggest issue with overhead storage is... if you ever need to open a cabinet, you have to stop the flow of balls from the hopper. A few ideas... but none tested.
    You are right, you always need to block the ball entry and release some balls before you open the cabinet. I do that with a little plastic disk... actually no problem unless you don't forget it :-)

    My favorite cabinet:
    Attached Images Attached Images

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    Chicken Fried Steak takethecastle57's Avatar
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    Default Re: The Balldozer - My custom made ball lifter

    Bravo Brava Very nice and sort of "Steampunk" design !! With your Balldozer lifter the metal fixtures could be produced and offered for sale worldwide . What is the spec's of the gearbox /motor that you used and is the lifting gear a special made or "Off the shelf" ? I Really Like the name of Balldozer
    When things don't go right the 1st time , Step back ,Take a break and come back renewed. RGS

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    Blind Shooter Berzerk's Avatar
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    Default Re: The Balldozer - My custom made ball lifter

    Hi, the specs of the motor are 12v, gear ratio 1/84.4 and torque is 15kgf.cm (locking torque is 36 kgf.cm / 3,53 Nm).

    BTW: Since I got some mails what would be the price of one, I started building a small series like 5 of them on saturday and I will figure out how much one of them would cost. For the ones that are interested. I will let you know the result. Thanks for the kind words.

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    Default Re: The Balldozer - My custom made ball lifter

    I Was going to ask what did it cost you to build! Its one of those things where since you can get totally off the shelf parts you and have to modify
    gears to get the ratio it made me at least wonder what it cost you build it! I may over use the phrase me as an engineer a lot but i REALLY do appreciate the
    simplicity and the power this thing has. Same thing with the Silk Drive which I am sure you know about too! Silent with power yours and the Silk Drive do it
    above and beyond the call of duty!
    I may not be the best guy, BUT I am not the bad guy!- Coop from Megas XLR

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    Fever Hunter WondersPachi's Avatar
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    Default Re: The Balldozer - My custom made ball lifter

    gears are what will cost you, 61 bucks for a mod-1 40 tooth gear (less than 3 in wide) I've seen this lifter before, it can lift quite a few balls quickly.
    Thats what i'm concerned about my lifter (worm) it will only lift one line of balls at a time (atm) and I'm not sure if that will be enought to keep up with a fever. May have to go all the way around.

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