A Gardeners Forum Forums General Discussion The Banter Hall Does anyone know what this is called??

We want to do a search to try to find this.....this....thing! we dont' know what it is called!!! Basically, it is a wooden thing that you put money into it and the coin that you drop in does all sorts of things to get down to the bottom. Does that make sense??? We saw one somewhere where you put in the coin and it rolls back and forth down a slide (for lack of a better term) and then went around a thing that was kind of like a ferris wheel (is this even helping??) and then the coin clanked against 3 chimes and it did a few other things before landing in the bottom where it was collected. OK, so now that you have an idea of what I'm looking for...do you know what it is called or where I can look for it!?!?!?

I know exactly what you are talking about but I don't know if I have ever heard what they are called. If I come across something I will let you know!

I know just what you mean too, but I don't think I've ever heard a specific name.......maybe someone will know.

I don't even know of a phrase that I can google for it!!! I tried coin operated toys.....just got a bunch of pool tables.

Sounds like a mechanical bank to me Jenn...Nana

AH! we're getting closer!!! I googled Mechanical bank and just got the really old antique ones. I tried "new mechanical banks" and still got the antiques. Any other ideas???

This sounds like a Rube Goldberg kind of thing. A complicated piece of engineering to accomplish a simple task. Very fun to watch. I just googled 'hand crafted wooden toy coin bank' But I didn't hit any of the sites to check. Now I will google up a rube goldberg coin bank.
This one isn't wood.
http://www.gadget-vault.com/2008/07/rube-goldberg-piggy-bank.html

I'm searching for you too Jenn, I goggled modern mechanical piggy banks and came across what Tina did and variations but nothing like what you described, I did come across a pair of chrome gnome piggy banks tho

did you try goggling, Modern novelty action piggy banks

I had to stop looking for a bit....was dinner time and bed time for the kiddos. Luke is still hanging in there...so maybe I can get him to bed in about a half hour...seems pretty content, so maybe I can search some more. :)

What I would really love is to find some plans of some sort to make a rather large one...like maybe as large as 4 feet tall!! We would like it for our children's program at the church. We do AWANA on Sunday evenings and they bring in 50 cents for dues each week....would make it a little more fun than just throwing the quarters into a basket. Also, we'd leave the coin machine out during the week hoping that maybe kids from the preschool will "use" it and at the same time, donate some change to the program.

I under stand, Jenn. I have been googling woodworking plans and things. You might just have to design your own. I can't find anything like this available in person or in plans.

I was afraid of that....I wouldn't know the first thing about designing one...like I can't even think of many things that the coins could do. Can you?? I know that going back and forth down "slides" would be part of it....like one of those marble toys, kwim? But what else could be done??? Do you have any ideas, Tina?

I think Luke has finally decided to go to sleep. I fed him and put him to bed and he just wouldn't settle down, so I gave up trying to keep the sucky in his mouth and cam downstairs. I have been listening to him scream for about 20 minutes and he all of a sudden just stopped. Now I need to check on him to make sure all is well. I hate it when they stop screaming out of no where like that!

I googled "coin maze" and came up with a couple of things....found a patent for "coin drop amusement game" so will try to look further using those terms.

coins can flip and create another series of motion

I also don't care for it much when babies stop suddenly. The worst goes through your mind until you check.
I was hoping you had handy folk in your church that would enjoy the challenge. In our local malls they have bins for coins (to feed people I think). you put the coins in a slot and they go around and around a slightly funneled lid until they drop into a hole (too small to reach into). Outside of rolling on their edges or sliding on their sides or spinning, I can't think of much else a coin can do.

I know what you are talking about. There was a design in a book that I have somewhere that's called 50 award winning science fair projects, but the design is for a marble instead of a coin. It was one of my favourite designs, so I still remember it. This is a really simply version, without gears, moving bridges, etc. The basic idea is to build a box, with wood. The bottom piece is about an inch thick with holes drilled at even intervals between the holes (the intervals should be slightly wider than the diameter of your coin, say and extra eight of an inch). Start of with one row, and continue row by row. The rows are staggered, like how you lay bricks. You should leave about 4-6 inches between the last row and the bottom of the box for the marbles/coins to collect in and wait for you to retrieve them later. The holes are for the dowel to make the marble stagger across the board (the box will be held up perpendicularly to the table, gravity will pull the marble down) The hole's diameter should be the diameter of your dowel or slightly smaller so the dowel will fit in the hole snuggly (you should still put a dab of glue at the bottom of the hole before you put in the dowel to make sure it won't come out). The dowel should be cut into one and a half inch long pieces (so when you insert the dowel into the holes, there should be one inch protruding from the hole. Because all the dowels are the same height (1" from the base of the bottom piece of wood) After you put in all the dowel into the holes, you should have a board with a mass of 1" pieces of dowel protruding from it. Then, add pieces of wood to the side so the top of the sides to the box is flush to dowel. Your should now have an open box, 1" deep. Before gluing on the top piece of wood for the top, make a slit for coins to go in. Now glue all the pieces together to make your box. Next, take a piece of plastic (you can buy them in big sheets with paper covering both sides to prevent scratches until you're ready to use it) and cut it to the dimension of your box, so it covers the front. Use a hinge to connect the bottom on the plastic to the bottom of the box, and add a lock to the top of the plastic and box. Make sure the hinge is set on the end where your left the 4-6 inch clearance. You are basically finished. If you want to add a wheel at the bottom if you choose, or folding support foot (like a picture frame) on the back to make it more stable. The most important thing is that you don't have any space between the dowel and the plastic for the coins to get stuck in.

I understand exactly what you are describing, Kenny!! It's a mini version of the Plinko board that is on The Price is Right (my favorite game show EVER!!). Maybe making something like this isn't as hard as I thought it would be.....I am going to sit down and think about this tomorrow and make some drawings and see what I come up with....maybe what I need to do is search for other marble "mazes" and base the coin maze on that. I could combine a few different things together so that the kids can get a bang for their half a buck.

So, I just realized it is nearly 1 in the morning. I was watching the first season of a show on DVD and didn't realize what time it was. Boy am I going to be tired tomorrow! I usually have Stephen to tell me when it is time to go to bed, but he is working 3rd shift tonight and I'm alone with the kids (have the dogs here to watch over me tho). :)

i was thinking coin sorter. i've seen those that have the bridges you are talking about. i'll look later.