A ball hopper question

[SteveFury]

I am designing a pachinko ball dispenser that will dump 30 balls into a container for the machine flipper supply tray. I've been busy for a couple hours trying to discover a way to feed balls one at a time out of a supply hopper filled with potentially hundreds of balls. It sounds easy enough, but it's a rather difficult problem.

In order for my project to work, the balls simply MUST flow single file.

I started off my experiments by pouring about 100 balls into an empty water bottle dispenser and trying to dump them out. The balls jam together or "bottleneck" and won't naturally flow.
Then I used a cardboard box, and cut a hole a bit bigger than a ball. Same problem.
I cut a bigger hole, maybe 2" square in the bottom of the box and made a long tapered chute out the bottom. The bottleneck jamming was worse.
Then I cut a piece of 1/2" PVC pipe in half, and cut a long slot in the bottom of the box and put the PVC pipe underneath it so the balls would roll out. Same problem.
I took a piece of 2" PVC pipe with an elbow on it, thinking the elbow would effect the balls to work. I even put a long tapered trough on the end. But the problem persists.
I looked at the supply hopper in my Nichijin "A" to see how they do it. The balls flow down a tapered trough. I tried to duplicate the design in wax coated cardboard. Still the same jamming problem.

You can see my attempt to simulate the Nichijin hopper with its graduated trough in the photo below. Also the pipe and and representation of the 1/2 cut PVC experiment.

IMG_2378.jpg IMG_2379.jpg IMG_2380.jpg IMG_2381.jpg

The cardboard box shown with the cardboard taped underneath seemed to have the most potential, but they still somewhat jammed.
If I can discover a good reliable design I'll use more permanent materials.

I've given up for the moment and wondered if anyone here have tried to work that problem of getting balls to flow single file out of a hopper.
It's probably a simple solution but I have yet to discover it.

[Moparformances]

im not the best at using the search..

there is a member that made a ball lifter.. it worked from a hopper to a single file setup with a screw lifter..

let me see if i can find it??
______________________________________________________
guess im just lucky some times

check this out...

http://www.pachitalk.com/forums/pach...rm-method.html

[Steve Cebu]

From what I have seen the machines use a hanging piece that the balsl run into that seems to bump them and that keeps them in the slot.
So a single tube tapering or otherwise probably won't work as well as something hanging in a channel.
Granted the channel is 2 balls wide but that yellow piece keeps them in line if the balls start to stack up.
Just a thought anyway.

IMG_2870.jpg

[Drunkenclam]

The trick is to look at the front of the machine. The balls towards the front of the hopper ride up slighty to fall inbetween the single row of balls down to the hammer. If you just narrow the gap to one ball width but don't taper the sides, it will always jam.

[SteveFury]

Ok I think I have this figured out but not the way I originally thought.

I woke up this morning and pondered a bit about my project and considered using a sliding block with a hole cut in the middle of it, mounted underneath a hopper to measure the balls.

But then I realized I've had an old gumball machine for about 15 years. Candy is expensive so it's been empty and useless for almost all that time. The mechanics are basically the same as my sliding block idea, except I can easily adjust the amount of balls dispensed, it can take any kind of coin from a penny to a quarter or free play. A great piggy bank for those pesky pennies. I've done some testing and it vends 10-11 pachinko balls per knob spin when it's set to dispense the maximum. I also have the stand for the "new pachinko ball machine" which I removed for these photos.

A Pachislo token just does fit into the coin slot hole, but the knob won't spin. I'd bet some work with a Dremel tool on the ultra-simple mechanism would allow it to take tokens too. Tokens for Pachinko balls. Right now the vended balls are kind of a hassle to finger-dig out of the machine's collection cup. I might open a hole on the bottom of that cup for them to pour out into your hand. Another option is to grind a slot in the front of the cup for them to flow out of, but that would permanently disfigure the machine. I'll have to wait and see how it goes.

Right now I only have around 180 pachinko balls, and I have all of them loaded in the machine for the photos below.

So what's the point in this?
My main concern is how to keep my pachinko machines reasonably clean. I'm in the process of rebuilding my 2nd machine and when it's finished I plan to build cabinets to help keep the dust out of the back of them. The supply trays will be easier to clean without the (dusty) balls parked on it.

IMG_2384.jpg IMG_2385.jpg IMG_2382.jpg

The question is whether the mechanism will handle the weight of a few more hundred balls. So far the knob resistance is about the same as I would expect when it's used with candy.

[Drunkenclam]

I too have gone for a ball dispenser to go with my machines that aren't CR. I have a ¥4 per ball ¥100/¥500 coin ball dispenser coming from Japan. I hope to modify it to take a daverob smart card system to dispense balls.

[SteveFury]

My only real concern is small kids thinking those silver spheres are candy. Think of the jaw breaker candy. (Ouch!)

We don't know many people with young children but it's something to keep in mind.

[yose]

You need more balls for the machine.What I have done is to use a small ziploc cup with about 250 balls in them for each machine to start play with.Then after a bonus round I just fill it back to 250 to start next time I play.The gumball machine is a nice idea for storing balls in .

[Steve Cebu]

I had 3 kids they are all grown now with kids of ther own except my youngest (Am i really that old )
The stuff they would get into and put in their mouths!
I'd be real careful with small metal balls around very young kids. Heck you have to be careful with EVERYTHING
around very young kids. Kids can find stuff on the floor and in places you couldn't even dream about.

[SteveFury]

Maybe I could bolt the machine to the top of a future cabinet and run a PVC pipe for a conduit to a dispenser further down. My 3 kids are in their mid to late teens so I imagine little ones may be coming soon.

Another option further down the road may be to attach a geared electric motor to the vending knob and set the mechanism to free play. I could put the machine body and motor in a box with only the glass globe of balls visible.

That could be REALLY cool.

[mxfaiman]

Well if you want I found the perfect gumball machine for dispensing balls.

It is an Oak Vista gumball machine (commercial grade) 25 cents gets you either 26 or 27 pachinko balls. (with the right dispenser at the lowest setting ) The dispenser you want is the one that is able to take peanuts.

Just thought I'd post my info that I found out by mistake.

[Moparformances]

i have a few older and new gumball machines.. but i have never put balls in one yet..

[new in town]

That would be one HEAVY Dispenser with a Full load of Sphere's.

I Like "IT"! ! !

[Steve Cebu]

I bet that gumball machine would hold close to 6,000 balls. That's a serious amount of weight!

[SteveFury]

The gumball machine I am using had two problems.
1. The balls were difficult to scoop out of the delivery cup.
2. I wanted it to accept the same tokens used in my pachislo.

The delivery problem was solved by cutting a small piece of 3/4" plywood to fill the cup. I cut a piece of galvanized steel to make a ramp, screwed it to the block and stained the block:

IMG_2463.jpg IMG_2464.jpg

The token problem was solved by first removing a small amount of metal from the rotor so the token will fit to its center:
IMG_2458.jpg IMG_2459.jpg

I also removed a small bit of material from the main body:
IMG_2460.jpg
Just enough material was removed for the token to clear it as it rotates past the area:
IMG_2461.jpg
I removed the material using a Dremel with a metal cutting bit.
This particular machine is not for commercial use and originally accepted pennies, nickels, dimes and quarters or free play, and now it also takes tokens. It remains undamaged for that utility should I want it for candy again.

[mxfaiman]

That would be one HEAVY Dispenser with a Full load of Sphere's.

I Like "IT"! ! !

Yeah it does get heavy. luckily it has a commercial grade stand it is sitting on. But I think if you were to load it up completely you'd have to build a stronger stand or set it on a table. (not like anyone is going to be able to swipe it off the table with it fully loaded )

I bet that gumball machine would hold close to 6,000 balls. That's a serious amount of weight!

I have no clue how many it could hold. (mainly because I don't have enough balls... ) But the machine I have has the biggest hopper they make on it so it could hold quite a bit.

But I'm afraid to say it won't always be filled with pachinko balls because this machine was a present for my brother and I promised him that I'd clean it up for him and then he could put any candy he wants in it.

[Steve Cebu]

I looked that gumball machine up and it looks like a new one would cost about $90. That's not too bad.

[mxfaiman]

I looked that gumball machine up and it looks like a new one would cost about $90. That's not too bad.

yes it is fairly cheap. I saw the same one as mine (minus the stand) on ebay and I think the person wanted $25. (that what I paid for mine. I found it at a garage sale.)

[Steve Cebu]

Well you can't beat $25 with a stick! That's a good deal!

[mxfaiman]

I forgot to mention it also came full of marbles and other glass things. So I didn't do to bad. I saw the machine and stand retail new for about $140. And the marbles are really only worth about $5 so I basically spent $20 on the machine. Though it needs a new globe cause there is a huge hunk that broke out. but new globe shouldn't be more than $25. I also need some other parts so in total I'll probably have about $60 into the machine. Not too bad for $140 set up.