The Most Beautiful Coin Flipper You’ll Ever See

Flipping a coin may be easy for most of us, but if you really thing about it, balancing a coin on the end of your thumb and then flicking isn’t actually that easy. Peter Brown has been playing board games with his daughter, who isn’t yet skilled at this act of random decision-making. Naturally, Peter decided to come up with a mechanical solution that he calls “The Coinapult.”

The video below shows the process of making this nicely finished coin-thrower, starting with a table saw operation. The pieces of wood are cut to shape, sanded, and finally glued together after the two dowels are beat into place. The flipper mechanism is shaped with a slot for the coin, and a rubber band is used to throw it into the air. Everything is stained nicely, and the resulting mechanism is quite functional at flipping coins.

The video has several good pictures of the flipper, and the functional, but less-finished prototype is shown around 3:00. Peter seems to think the prototype is pretty good, but there’s some strange disagreement about this after the 4 minute mark.

This isn’t the only time Peter’s been featured here. Check out his technique for working with denim on a lathe, or for something more colorful, here’s an idea to turn colored pencils into jewelry.