Might be selling a cheap Pachinko ball lifting device

[SteveFury]

Hi, wow it's been along time since I've logged in.

Anyway I've been working on a pachinko ball lifter. All the ones I've seen are prohibitively expensive for my two machines.
My machines are a 70's Sanyo and a 40's Crown and honestly, I don't play them much for having to manually reload balls.
I realize many people are in the same situation and that's why I began my ball lifter project.

The goal was to keep it low cost as possible and accessible to anyone.
I've made several prototypes and have a couple mod improvements to do before release, This my latest prototype:
PumpV4.jpg
I call it my Pachinko Ball Pump. It's about 3x3x1.5" tall. It's designed to use common 1/2" PCV plastic pipe for the vertical tube.
It can be operated wither manually or electrically via a small DC motor. I might offer a motorized option that will automatically start/stop the pump if balls are present for lifting via optical coupler.

If I decide to sell this, it will likely be offered through Shapeways for maybe $15 or $20. They can print it in most anything from plastic to aluminum.
Or I might also sell the .STL printing files for less.

A few common parts (Small screws, rubber band etc) would be needed for assembly. You'd need to make your own ball guides from your Pachinko machine ball outlets to the lifter.

I was wondering if anyone might be interested in such a thing.

[MrGneiss]

Looks pretty cool to me!!

[Lddrizzt]

I think most of us have been looking for an affordable ball lift solution for years.
I for one could never justify the price of the ones that are available out there now.

[Moparformances]

do ya mind sharing how it works?? a video would answer allot of questions

[SteveFury]

Hi Mopar.
I don't mind at all.

It's really quite simple. The balls input down a sloped ramp that ensures they end up single file as one ball drops into the "cylinder".

A lever crank is risen by either a manual lever or electric motor. A "piston" inside the cylinder pushes the pachinko ball up past a latching pawl. As the ball passes the pawl, the pawl snaps under the pachinko ball.

As the lever is drawn back down the ball is prevented from dropping by the pawl.

The lever is brought all the way down and the next ball is loaded onto it for the new cycle.

The balls stack inside the PVC rising tube to be just above the pachinko machines receiving tray, where a 90 degree elbow is attached and directs the balls into the tray.

I plan to incorporate an optical based motor switching circuit. It would include the optics, motor and other parts. If it detects a ball(s) is available to lift, it will turn on and cycle until no more balls remain.

Pictured is my version 4. I'm busy working on V5 that has many improvements.
Looks like Shapeways might want to charge a ridiculous amount for materials so I might just sell it directly.

[Drunkenclam]

I think it's cool. I would be worried by the the following.
The weight of the balls on the piston or pawn. Causing excess wear on the rotating shaft or piston. Could you adapt the design to incorporate some kind of simple bearing or roller bearing on the shift and sleeve the piston.

As for an optical sensor. I would use a proximity sensor instead. Can read through the plastic and will not get effected by dirt and dust.

[SteveFury]

Yup I agree.
I hope to set up a test bed with my V5 to continually cycle a set of balls 24hrs a day with a counter to see what and how long it takes until something fails.
If, for example it counts 250,000 balls before a part fails... and the replacement part cost $0.15 to print then I'd probably keep it the same. However if it fails more quickly then I'll have to rethink things. I'm trying to avoid bearings and the like to keep costs down.

My pump should deliver 4-5 balls per second. Too slow to service multiple machines but OK I think for an individual machine in relatively light duty.