Make a Nature Pinball Machine

Build a pinball machine out of sticks and acorns. This DIY project starts with a backyard scavenger hunt. Collect sticks, pinecones, and acorn caps, then build your own bumper layout inside an empty box.

Materials you'll need

• empty cardboard box with sides (like a KiwiCo crate box)
• long sticks
• hair ties
• nature collection: pinecones, acorn caps, bark, small sticks, acorn
• glue

 

Step-by-step tutorial

Step 1: Grab an empty cardboard box with sides. The walls keep your pinball from rolling away, so a shallow box like a KiwiCo crate box works great.

Step 2: With a grown-up's help, poke a hole in each long side of the box near the bottom corners. Slide a long stick through each hole so one end rests inside the box as a flipper and the other end sticks out as a handle.

Step 3: Loop a hair tie around each stick where it meets the box wall, then hook the hair tie into a small slit in the cardboard. The hair tie pulls your flipper back into place after every flip.

Step 4: Head outside and build a nature collection of pinecones, acorn caps, bark, and small sticks. Save one nice, round acorn to use as your pinball.

Step 5: Create your board. Arrange your nature finds inside the box as bumpers and attach them with glue. Line the top edge with a stick, tuck pinecones into the top corners, and angle a small stick above each flipper to guide the acorn toward it.

Step 6: Set your acorn at the top of the board and tip the box slightly toward you. When the acorn rolls down, push the handles to flip it back up into the bumpers.

Learn more

Your flippers are levers, simple machines made of a stiff bar that turns around a pivot point called a fulcrum. Each stick pivots right where it pokes through the box wall. Because that fulcrum sits between your hand and the flipper, pushing the handle one way swings the flipper the opposite way, just like a seesaw. Flipping also stretches the hair tie, which stores elastic potential energy (energy saved up from stretching) and snaps the flipper back when you let go. Meanwhile, gravity pulls the acorn back down the tilted board toward your flippers.

If this project was a hit, Desktop Pinball replaces the scavenger hunt with a customizable pinball machine that lets you play just about anywhere.