Could Rockston's side lifter be modified to use this motor

[judremy]

These are pretty cheap and other than the shaft length, everything seems to be what is needed.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/191959461891

[daverob]

That motor is way too small for a ball lifter, it's unlikely to have enough torque to lift the balls the full height of a pachinko machine. My first attempts at designing a ball lifter used a motor only a little larger than this one, and it could only lift about a foot to 18".

You need to remember you've got about 1lb (~500g) of balls in the tube, and they're all dragging against the side of the tube as they're pushed up from the bottom, so the motor needs to be fairly powerful to overcome all the friction.

The motor Rockston uses is a bit of an overkill, as it's a lot more powerful than is needed for a ball lifter. But this is a good thing, as it will be less stressed so will last much longer. It's quite reasonably priced (if bought from Aliexpress), and is only a few dollars more than the smaller motors that are powerful enough for a ball lifter.