Homemade coin racks

Discussion in 'Coin Roll Hunting' started by Cherd, Apr 26, 2012.

  1. Cherd

    Cherd Junior Member Supporter

    I'm a penny roll searcher. I like to sort all of the cents by date and let the potential variety dates accumulate before I examine them (Feels like I have a better shot if I have a couple hundred to go through). I was trying to figure out a good way to store my sorted pennies between examinations. So, I rummaged through the garage to see what might work. I found a piece of plywood, some 3/4 inch PVC pipe, and a roll of ducktape (should be able to make pretty much anything with those ingredients :thumb:). Here's what I came up with:

    image001.jpg image002.jpg image003.jpg

    Each rack has nine pieces of PVC attached, and I needed four of them to have enough slots for each of the years that I sort (plus slots for wheaties and foreigns). I sort boxes of pennies until one of the coin stacks reaches the top of the rack, and then I examine the coins for the particular variety for which I'm looking. They work pretty well. The hardest part is dremmeling the gaps out of the PVC, but all in all they are pretty easy to make.
     
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  3. Hunt1

    Hunt1 Active Member

    In all honesty, this is one of the best things i have seen on this forum.
     
  4. CoinCast

    CoinCast Member

    That is a cool design! I don't search enough to need it, but to someone who does thats pretty genius.
     
  5. Kasia

    Kasia Got my learning hat on

    That is a genius idea. Certainly much better than some of the other ideas I've seen.
     
  6. Gedon_Althor

    Gedon_Althor Member

    You made my day! Of course by doing so you ruined my wife's day because I'm putting down the honey-do list and have a new weekend project :thumb:
     
  7. mrbrklyn

    mrbrklyn New Member

    Isn't PVC a problem to use though?
     
  8. softmentor

    softmentor Well-Known Member

    It's a thing of beauty!
    RE pvc it's a problem for long term storage because of the gas it releases slowly over time, but it will not do any harm in a day or even a week. Especially since it's ventilated, not coins sealed inside the PVC.
     
  9. Cherd

    Cherd Junior Member Supporter

    Hah! Thanks for the compliments guys. I wasn't sure whether anyone would find these things interesting or not, but figured there may be a couple of people that would find them useful.

    You have to use 3/4 inch schedule 40 pipe, as the ID of schedule 80 is too small to hold a penny. The thin wall makes it tricky because you have to countersink the fastening screws so that the pennies can slide past. I found that using a brad point drill bit for the pilot hole worked well. Since you don't have much thickness to play with it is easy to go too deep and have your screw heads pop all the way through (as evidenced by the multiple holes in some of the PVC pieces :rolleyes:). There is a block of wood attached along the underside of the PVC lengths. You want the bottom of the PVC pieces to stick out about a 1/4 inch past this block, makes it easier to grab and push the stack out of the slot. It is important to get nice square cuts on the bottom side of the PVC pieces (I used a mitre saw for this). If the contact between the bottom plate and the bottom of the PVC is out of square then it could leave a gap on one side or the other that is large enough for a penny to slide through, which causes problems with coins falling out.

    If anyone decides to build some then be sure to post some pics. I'd love to see them.
     
  10. Blaubart

    Blaubart Melt Value = 4.50

    Ouch!

    If you were my neighbor, I'd have invited you over to run each length of PVC through my table saw a couple of times.

    Ziiiiip - Rotate 45 degrees - Ziiiip. Done. Repeat.

    We might have been able to come up with a better way of attaching the lengths of PVC to the plywood. Perhaps glue them in place? It might be difficult to find a glue that doesn't stink for 30 days and sticks good to both PVC and plywood.
     
  11. Cherd

    Cherd Junior Member Supporter

    I actually have access to a tablesaw, and my first inclination was to use it for PVC pieces. Then I looked at the size of the PVC, looked at the size of my fingers, and decided that I was most interested in keeping my fingers at their current length! :eek:

    But you're right, a tablesaw would work well if you had equipment and/or a method that would allow you to do it safely. I've just had too many things "kick" on me when using a tablesaw, so I don't like to cut relatively small pieces that require getting my hands close to the blade (Happened to my buddy a couple of years ago, cut half of his thumb off). I used a little saw blade on my dremel, and I have a router table type setup that is made for holding the dremel tool in place. This ends up being like a miniature tablesaw, which worked pretty well.

    Ya, that's a good idea. Fastening with screws was a pain in the butt, plus they can get in the way of the coins if not set at exactly the right depth. I bet quick-setting clear epoxy would work well if you roughened up the PVC surface.
     
  12. Blaubart

    Blaubart Melt Value = 4.50

    Tablesaws are safe if you use good technique:

    - Use featherboards to hold narrow stock against the fence.
    - Use a push stick to feed narrow cuts through.
    - Keep most of your hand on the fence, so you won't fall into the blade if your material gets kicked back.
    - Don't stand directly behind the material.
    - Keep the blade at a minimum height to make the cut, especially on something like PVC.
    (Some people recommend having it at max height when ripping thick hardwood, but I only do that with a guard in place)

    ...and this is something I think you can appreciate seeing as how you made this rig for sorting coins:

    - Build jigs to make unwieldy cuts manageable.

    I've been playing with powertools for 25+ years and still have all ten fingers and two eyes! ;)
     
  13. mrbrklyn

    mrbrklyn New Member

    I can't build a darn thing, but I love this thread.
     
  14. stlouiscoin

    stlouiscoin New Member

    great idea!! now for the next genius who wants to come up with a machine that can sort them by date! then all you would have to do is dump coins in and you would have the sorted by date too
     
  15. softmentor

    softmentor Well-Known Member

    Ditto what Blaubart said. He's got the groove on table saw technique, so to speak. Push stick rocks. like totally keep your fingers dude.
     
  16. snapsalot

    snapsalot Member

    Now someone just has to build a robot to auto sort them and search for key variaties :D.
     
  17. fretboard

    fretboard Defender of Old Coinage!

    Not bad, great idea!! :D You could probably sell quite a few on ebay. There's plenty of roll searchers and collectors that don't go on forums. You never know! :thumb:
     
  18. daship

    daship Member

  19. Merc Crazy

    Merc Crazy Bumbling numismatic fool

    I'd buy one if he offered them for sale for a reasonable price here. I'm about as handy as t-rex.
     
  20. Cherd

    Cherd Junior Member Supporter

    Heck, I'd make some and ship them to you guys at cost if I had the time. Unfortunately, I started a new full time job a few months ago that requires a lot of travel, while also trying to finish up my PhD work at the same time. Needless to say, I do not have much time left for hobby activities. Once I finish up my dissertation I would be glad to build some more.

    It sounds like Blaubart is a man with the tools (and skill) to knock these things out pretty easily, while also improving the design. Gedon mentioned that he was going to build some this weekend. If they or anyone else wanted to share or even sell them to others then that would be perfectly fine with me.
     
  21. rubber_ducky

    rubber_ducky New Member

    Awesome! I should do that!
     
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