Sourcing coin slugs?

[SavannahLion]

Exactly that, Coin slugs. Where can one find them?

Before we get any further, if Saint feels this violates the rulez, then so be it, he or one of his operatives can do what they wish with this thread. I couldn't really find any "legality" information about the use of slugs on the U.S. mint site (Wikipedia is a questionable source anyways) and besides, I've witnessed newspaper deliveries where slugs were used to open the vending machines in the wild.  

I want them because the U.S. quarter is 1.75mm thick (just shy of my 2mm search) with an OD of 24.26mm or just shy of an inch. I imagine the 50 cent piece is a nice fit too. It' s 2.15mm thick and just over 1.2" OD. I don't know what the dimensions of any other countries coin but I doubt they're too far off either.

My goal is to locate a reasonably cheap source (I found one but they wanted a whopping $4+ for each!!) or fabricate my own ~2mm (but <3mm) thick disk with a 2 or 3mm shaft hole (for a yet undecided stepper/servo/hobby motor) with an undecided but ideally less than 1" OD disk with a "V" groove (or a material soft enough that I can cut my own) to accept and hold a rubber O-Ring. Aluminum, copper, nickel or perhaps steel would be damn near perfect, then I could braze/solder a collet (collar?) over the shaft hole to accept a set or grub screw.

So I was teaching my four and two year old how to count money when I realized the 25 and 50 cent pieces were almost exactly what I was looking for. And due to the nature and purpose of the coins slugs, I figure their tolerances are going to be pretty tight.

So back to the question at hand, where might one find such slugs?

[Franco B]

Maybe you could find a friendly CNC machinist to make one for you?

Something like this?



How many do you need?

[SavannahLion]

Err yeah actually, that's what I'm trying to hunt down. I need 4 plus one spare for the inevetible screw up if I done have an extra so 5.

Except I have to go back to my calculations again. The hobby motor likely isn't going to be strong enough and the stepper I looked at has a 5mm shaft ground flat to 3mm but is, according to the discussions, slow as snot. My calculations say otherwise (netting me .9  RPS), so it's either the overhead from the Arduino libraries or my math is bad.

Either way, Are you the CNC owner?

[Mysterioii]

Out of curiosity why do you need blanks?  Why not have a machinist make them for you out of real quarters or halves...  they only cost 25-50 cents or so...   .    It's not a crime to alter them if it's not for the purpose of committing fraud...  otherwise every zoo and museum that lets you smoosh an image into a penny would be committing felonies hundreds of times a day...  

[Thenasty]

dunno if its the right size but, how about those Electrical Box Extenders ?

Like this.....I'm sure you can find it anywhere (maybe FREE)

[Franco B]

I don't own a CNC lathe but I operate one amongst other things.

Once you have decided on a motor/design let me know and I'll get some made for you. If you only need ≤5 then I can also add the collar to it and drill and tap them. I can't really do loads and loads as the drilling/tapping will be a separate manual setup on another machine