Both of my vintage machines are semi-cyclic and that works great for them. But I recently acquired a 1990's era early modern machine. It goes through balls so fast, I'm constantly shuffling them manually, and god forbid I actually hit "fever mode" there's just no hope of keeping up. So I find myself considering a ball lifter.

I don't have any intention of dropping $400+ on a ball lifter, if I can even find one, on ebay. So I've been looking at a lot of DIY videos online. There are a few really sophisticated ones that look like they work great but are way too complicated for me to build. Those folks (god bless them) have put in way more than $400 worth of labor to create their one-of-a-kind ball lifter solution.

The ones that appeal to me are a lot simpler. This one looks like it works a lot like the expensive real-deal ball lifters I occasionally see here and on ebay. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yB6Uiyw-Re0

There's a link in the comments to some 3D files to build it (or something very like it). https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2361236 Looks like you'd just add a switch and a motor. You can even have the parts printed in plastic or laser cut from wood. The price depends on the materials, but it ranges from $30-$100.

There are a few out there in this same vein, but I don't see any of them actually built to completion. And I haven't seen them discussed here on PachiTalk. All of which makes me think there's some fatal flaw to this approach that everyone (but me) has already figured out. I mean if there were a way to build a ball lifter for under $100, most of us would probably have one right?

Has anyone tried to build one of these? Has anyone seen one that actually works?