How to Make Simple Pinball Machine with Recycled Materials Crafts Project for Kids

This is a super cool crafts activity that we are going to do today. If you love playing pinball, then you will love making this simple machine…a pinball machine. Just recycle some old stuff from around your house … such as a cardboard box, pins, paper towel roll, a marble, and you will have your own handmade game / toy to play with.

You Might Also Enjoy : Making Pinball Toy from VHS Tape

How to Make Simple Pinball Machine with Recycled Materials Crafts Project for Kids

Crafts Materials Needed

– Cardboard Box

– Extra Piece of Cardboard

– Some Thin Cardboard…Like from a Cereal Box

– Tape

– Glue

– Rubber Bands

– Strong Cardboard Tube (about 6 inches long)

– Pencil

– If you want to decorate it – decorative paper

– ruler

– marble or ball-like candy

Optional Materials to Use for Obstacles

– pins, straws, bottle caps, bottle, paper fastener, other household items (use your creativity)

Step 1

Take your cardboard tube and trace 2 circles with it. Then cut them out about 1/4 inch smaller than the circle you traced.

Cut Out these two circles….like I said, a bit smaller than you had traced them at.

Step 2

Glue these 2 circles together.

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Step 3

Tape these circles to the eraser-side of the pencil. Tape it VERY well by taping it around the base of the pencil too.

Step 4

Now take out 4 rubber bands, any size…just make sure that they are sturdy rubber bands. You are going to tie them all together by following the 3 steps above. Just put one end of a rubber band through another rubber band (#1) and then pull this rubber band through itself (#2) and then pull (#3).

Link all 4 of these rubber bands together using this method.

Step 5

Now take the cardboard tube out and poke a hole through it with a scissor 1 inch from the bottom. Do the same thing on the other side of the cardboard tube.

Just showing you that I poked the hold in it with a scissor. Do the same thing on the opposite side.

Step 6

Now pull the rubber bands through both ends of the tube so that it looks like the picture above.

Step 7

Now tie very loose knots on both ends of the rubber band chain…one on either end of the cardboard tube.

Step 8

Now pull the pencil-circles piece through the cardboard tube, making sure to avoid the rubber bands. While the cardboard circles are at the top… pull 2 rubber band loops over the pencil. Do one on the left and then the one on the right.

Step 9

Cut 2 inches out of the box on the bottom right. I decorated my box with cool paper, but you don’t need to.

Step 10

Cut out a piece of cardboard that is about half the length of the pinball box. The width of the cardboard should be about an inch higher than the height of the pinball box. Draw a line where the height of the pinball box would be, as I did above. Then cut slits in the cardboard like I did above, in the portion of the cardboard to the right of this line.

Now bend on this line.

Glue it on the left side of the opening in the box. Glue at bottom and also glue it to the side of the box, where it touches the pinball box.

Step 11

Cut a thin piece of cardboard that is about 1 and a half times the width of the pinball box. It should be the same height of your pinball box. Now cut slits on the right and left side of this cardboard.

Now paste it to both sides of the box.

Step 12

Cut another piece of cardboard that is about 1 and a half times the width of your pinball box….it should be about 2 to 2 and a half inches high. Now cut slits all down the bottom of this piece of cardboard.

Turn the pinball box over. Now bend and fold the cardboard piece that you just cut to look like the picture above. This is going to be the stand for your pinball machine so that it is tilted. Glue this stand on the bottom of the box (at the back of the box).

Step 13

Measure about 3/4 inches up the bottom of the pinball box. Cut a hole half way up the height of the box, at the point your measured 3/4 inches.  Then also cut a hole on the barrier.

UNTIE THE LOOSE KNOTS IN THE RUBBER BANDS ON EITHER SIDE OF THE CARDBOARD TUBE!!

Then put the cardboard tube cannon into the 2 inches gap in the box….and then put the rubber bands through each of the holes.

Double knot on both sides.

Step 14

So first make your flipper with cardboard or Popsicle sticks and. I taped mine with red duct tape to make it look nicer.

We are going to cut a hole in the pinball box to put the flipper in. Use your judgment, depending on your box, on where you want to place the flipper.

Then Make a notch at the top and bottom of this hole to fit the flipper in securely.

I put the flipper in. Make sure that it works properly. If this doesn’t work properly for you…use a paper fastener. Directions are in this tutorial that I found on the net.

Step 15

Cut a long and thin strip of cardboard.

Fan Fold it…Fold forwards, then backwards, then forwards, then backwards….

Until it looks like this.

Now touch the first strip to the last strip and it turns into a star. Glue it together. To hook it to your pinball machine…use a sewing pin / doll pin and stick it in the center of it. Now when a marble hits it, it spins.

Step 16

To make some good barriers, use doll pins or sewing pins and stick them just far enough from each other that the marble will fit through, but make it move in different directions.

Step 17

Cut a 2 inch piece of cardboard out and cut strips out like I did above.

Now fold and glue it at the bottom of the pinball box, like I did in the picture.

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Paste another one like the previous one…do a 3rd or 4th one too if you want to.

Step 18

I put a piece of decorative paper in each half circle.

Step 19

Put a score in each of them too. These don’t have to be just at the bottom…they can be anywhere on the pinball board.

Use Your Creativity to Make More Obstacles

I didn’t quite finish it because this is where YOUR creativity comes in. We can post your ideas here.

You Might Also Enjoy Our Other Crafts Tutorial : Making Pinball Toy from VHS Tape

I found a few other Pinball Making Tutorials Online that will give you some great ideas. Read them below

How to Make a Simple Pinball Machine

FETCH! Pinball Wizard

Design Your Own Pinball Machine.

Use Your Creativity to Make More Obstacles

Fire the marble out of the cannon / plunger by lowering the pencil a bit, putting the marble in the top of the cannon, and then pull the pencil down, and let go. Now hit the flipper to keep the ball up in the air longer. Write the number of points that you get with each turn down on a piece of paper. However…make your pinball machine the way that you WANT it to be…no the way that I want mine to be like.

Have fun!

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