BYO Coin Mech?

[vidmouse]

I bought a used Golden Tee Coin Door from some guy for $1 off ebay (actually 75-cents -- it still had a quarter in it!)  but it has no coin mechs.
I'm cheap and I was wondering if I could build my own mechanical coin mech from material I have on-hand -- by routing out a wood block to form tracks where the coins could roll, then covering it up w/ plexiglass.

Not sure how the tracks would go, and it wouldn't be foolproof, but here's the start of the idea.  Any suggestions?

[sstorkel]

Any suggestions?

Save your quarters for a week, then buy the real thing? 

Seriously, though, you'll probably spend enough time and money on it that you'd be better off spending $15-20 to buy a brand-new mech that will work perfectly. At least that's what I'd do...

[shardian]

Peale probably still has some that he sells for $5 each. I've even sold some on here for that price.

[bfauska]

It'd be a fun challenge, that's for sure.  If you were looking to make a universal mech that doesn't care what coin it would be really easy, just route one slot that passes by the switch and into the bin, I think the size/weight feature of the mechs is actually mechanical isn't it?  In that case you'd have a lot more work to do.

Again the question of is it more fun to build something or save up the money to buy it so you can play with it.  I vote for build.

[AcidArmitage]

i have mine run down a short track that is tilted to the right slightly. When the coins go in they hug the right wall and on that right wall is a hole cut into the side slightly bigger than a nickel. Anything smaller than a quarter will fall out of that hole while a quarter will still be hugging the right wall because the hole has a thin piece above it. So coins that arent quarters just fall to the coin return and quarter roll along the shaft and hit a spring that bridges a connection.

[vidmouse]

Interesting... do you have a picture that could show me what it looks like?
I think I get most of it except the part where you have a "thin piece above it" to keep the quarter hugging the right wall.

How well does it work?  Do you occasionally get quarters that jam?

I think I'm leaning toward "build" unless someone pings me with
a "free" pair of mechs.  Have a hard time paying for sub-parts
that cost more than the door.  (of course that's not hard considering my
steal on the door)   

I might just let all coins trigger the switches, if I can't figure out the
sorter feature...

[Austin.Wolff]

Also ask yourself, do you really need a working coin door (or one to only accept quarters)?

[AcidArmitage]

Interesting... do you have a picture that could show me what it looks like?
I think I get most of it except the part where you have a "thin piece above it" to keep the quarter hugging the right wall.

How well does it work?  Do you occasionally get quarters that jam?

I think I'm leaning toward "build" unless someone pings me with
a "free" pair of mechs.  Have a hard time paying for sub-parts
that cost more than the door.  (of course that's not hard considering my
steal on the door)   

I might just let all coins trigger the switches, if I can't figure out the
sorter feature...

yea ill take a picture tonight

but yea ur gonna love it... its made out of a cracker box lol

[vidmouse]

Also ask yourself, do you really need a working coin door (or one to only accept quarters)?

My goal is really just something to accept quarters (or similar sized
tokens including BYOAC's) and reject everything else.  I don't NEED
it, as I already have coin buttons I'm not going to disable, but I
thought it might just be a fun thing to have.

Having the manual coin refund/reject mechanism (or whatever it's called) working
is not in my plan.

I would like to get them lighted up too... luckily I have some bulbs that
will work, just have to wire to 5v.

[AcidArmitage]

sorry i ran into a problem with my castors tonight and it took a long ass time to fix them so ill take those pictures ASAP

[Austin.Wolff]

EDIT:  Nvm what I said

[SirPeale]

Peale probably still has some that he sells for $5 each. I've even sold some on here for that price.

I've got oodles - but - I still can't figure out what size token they take.

I'll look around and see if I can find some token ones.

[WCBoudreaux]

I have 2 plastic ones I'll give u... Where r u located? Shouldn't cost more than about $3-$4 to ship any way...

[xmenxmen]

I could use a few (2 to be exact) if anyone got any extra.  I am in CA.  For it, it's not really about getting the coin door working, but more about having one in place so the button on the (midway) coin door won't get stuck inside after being push too in.  Suprisingly I discover there's really 2 (possibly more) version of this door out there.  Some of the have a little bracket that prevent the button from going in too far while other one (including mine) doesn't.  Borrowed a mech from a buddy and confirm that it does somehow block the button from going all the way in.

Have searched ebay lately and most want way too much for what I am trying to accomplish.

[WCBoudreaux]

Well, I only have 3 extras at the moment... 2 plastic ones, and a metal one... If Vidmouse don't want them, then they're yours...

[vidmouse]

Take em xmen... I'm still going to try and see if I can build my own.
The thing I might be intersested in is any photo that might give
me a clue... right now it feels  a little like I'm trying to build a
submarine without ever having seen the sea. 

[AcidArmitage]

sorry cant find my camera but heres a drawing until i find it

[vidmouse]

Thanks for the drawing, but from what I can
tell it looks like you have a Midway style coin
door (see attached photo) -- am I right?

In which case, the coins drop a slightly different
way... will have to see if I can modify mine
to work the same way.

[AcidArmitage]

my coins drop in vertically... all you need to do to make is horizontal is rotate my model so the hole is facing downward and still have a downward angle so that the coins slide over the hole and the bigger sized quarter will slide right over. you might need to tweak the hole size so the quarter doesnt "hang"

[WCBoudreaux]

Take em xmen... I'm still going to try and see if I can build my own.

Ok Xmen, if u still need them, PM me your details...

[vidmouse]

I got a few hours tonight to work on my coin door install...
had to cut the hole in my front panel for the whole thing.
After that I didn't have patience to route out a coin mech
w/ sorting capability so I just made some cardboard slides
for now... it all works!  Seems like it works best with quarters
anyway... pennies seem to just drop right through (but not
to the coin return)
I got the coin lights working too... makes the whole thing
look great but it's tough to get a good picture.