Plinko Game Construction

UPDATE: 08/29/17 - I saw a new Plinko type game at a trade show.  See my new post here:  New Plinko – Pinball Plinko?

 

If you don't want to make your own Plinko, here's some "premade" Plinko type games on Amazon:

White Prize Drop Game

Disk Drop Game

Portable Plinko Game

Midway Monsters Drop Zone Express Customizable Plinko Carnival Game

Prize Drop

 

I had always loved the Plinko game on the Price is Right gameshow.

This youtube clip shows a video of the Plinko game: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tNd8JaAXHic

We decided to build one for a game in our Kid's church. I google (or bing) searched and found a few people that had built some awesome ones. Some were way to complicated for me. I did get a great idea from one post. And it was to use pegboard. I bought a sheet of pegboard from Home Depot. I got a 2' X 4' board. So that's how big my Plinko board turned out to be. I started with the board and had to decide what to use as the pegs. I ended up using bolts. Mostly because I had a stack of them that seemed to be the perfect size. Figuring out the spacing will kind of depend on the "puck" size you are going to use. The good thing about the pegboard is that you can put your posts (bolts) in and move the puck around and make sure it fits everywhere correctly.



For pucks, we found an interesting solution. You can buy reflectors at Amazon: Blue Reflectors We bought 3 sets. I popped the blue reflectors out of the holders. Each reflector had a "peel and stick" backing. So I removed the paper on each one and stuck two together. This made it reflective on both sides and slick on both sides. It worked perfect. It moved quick and had a nice "pop" when it hit the bolts. But it also wasn't too heavy as to bend/break the bolts.



I also think these Air Hockey pucks would work great: Air Hockey Pucks

I added a few things to the board to complete it. To keep the puck in play, I added teeth shaped boards on each side. To cut these I simply put the board over the edges, and marked the holes (where bolts would go on the edges). Then draw lines between the points and cut them out with a jig saw.



We added a sign at the top. This was a yellow oval sign from Home Depot: http://www.homedepot.com/h_d1/N-5yc1v/R-202256499/h_d2/ProductDisplay?catalogId=10053&langId=-1&keyword=yellow+oval+sign&storeId=10051

We cut it in half and my wife added the Plinko text.

At the top of the gameboard, make sure you leave enough space for the kids to drop in the pucks. At the bottom, make sure to leave enough space for the landing. We could typically hold three pucks at the bottom in one landing point. We added a piece of wood at the bottom that would hold the pucks in place. Then the wood "swiveled" out of the way to let the pucks drop after the turn. During the first few test runs, I noticed the puck would randomly fly off of the gameboard. To solve this I added a piece of plexiglass to the front of the gameboard. I had some left from a previous project. It was actually part of an old drum shield our church used when we were meeting in the schools.



We just sit the game on a picture/art stand. In the future, if we use it again, I'll probably add some 2X4's for a stand. I like them being totally independant. Where they stand on their own.

If anyone reading this (if anyone does) and makes their own Kid's church games, I would love to see some pictures. I'm always looking for new ideas.

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Wheel of WOW

If you aren't interested in building your own Game Wheel, here's a couple you can purchase already built from Amazon:

WinSpin 18-inch Round Tabletop Color Prize Wheel

WinSpin 24" Tabletop Spinning Prize Wheel

WinSpin™ 30" Editable Color Prize Wheel

 

 

 

This is a picture of a game we made for Kid's church called Wheel of WOW.



 

It is pretty much made from an old lazy Susan. I'm not sure if it was actually bought at Ikea, but they have pretty much the same one at Ikea.

We painted it and added the nails around the edges. the kids loved using it.

The hardest part was finding the exact center of the circle.  I just turned it really fast, used a pencil and found the point where the pencil head is just sitting there and not drawing a circle.  That was my center.  I drew a line through that point.  Now the circle is divided in half.  Then used a square to draw the perpendicular line.  At this point, it is divided in quarters.  If you only want 4 options for you would be done now.  We wanted to go with 8 options, so we divided them again.  I pretty much just connected the ends of the lines together with a line and took a center point using a ruler.  This allowed me to divide it into eighths.  At this point, you could simply tape off parts of the circle you didn't want to paint and paint one (or more) pie pieces at a time.  We decided to put a while line between each one.  Again just marked off everything else with tape and painted.  We used spray paint as it was the easiest thing to do.  After we had it painted the way we wanted it, we added the nails.  The nails will be used to run against the clicker as well as used by the kids to spin the wheel.  We used nails instead of screws so that it would be easy on the kids fingers.  Most screws are kinda sharp on the threads.  I pre-drilled the holes for the nails.  I was afraid I would split the wood if I didn't predrill.  I used a bit just a hair smaller than the nail.  If you have a drill press, it would be a great time to use it.  If not, just make sure your drill is perpendicular to the wood when you drill the holes.  After you predrill, just hammer the nails in place.  don't go all the way through the wood.  But make sure you put enough of the nail into the wood to make it stable.  The kids put a lot of tourque on these nails when they are spinning (at least the boys do).  Make sure to leave enough of the nail sticking out of the wood to hit the clicker.

For the clicker, I had initially cut a triangle out of a piece of wood.  It looked great, but the wheel didn't spin very well.  The triangle was too heavy.  So next, I tried to go with a tie wrap.  But it was too thin and the well just spun too well and threw the cable tie all over the place.  I happened to find a pretty good solution.  We had used some of the these in our garden.  http://www.homedepot.com/h_d1/N-5yc1v/R-100329230/h_d2/ProductDisplay?catalogId=10053&langId=-1&keyword=plant+name+labels&storeId=10051

The ones in the link aren't exactly the ones we have.  But you get the idea.  It was thicker than a tie wrap.  This worked perfect.  I cut off the head (part you normally write on) and drilled little holes in the "stem".  I secured it to a piece of wood.  It's hard to tell much from the pictures.  So if you have questions about how its laid out, let me know.



Here's the game in use.  Obviously the kid landed on game.  We typically have some type of "Minute to Win it" game.  I think on this one, he had to keep two balloons in the air for 60 seconds.  Sorry the picture is blurry.