Coin Sorter hpaul

There are 4 prints required for the each of the quarter, nickel, penny and dime trays. Print alternating trays in different colors for quick visual identification when restacking them after each sorting batch.Glue the trays using cyanoacrylate since acetone would harm the thin coin screens. The best technique is to glue the screen edges together in pairs, then the vertical sides, then the two assembled halves. The dime tray is open on the bottom with a ledge to hold a 6 inch square of cardboard or thin plastic sheet. Though the holes are all perfect circles, on my printer (Thing-O-Matic, well calibrated, using ABS) the screens vary a bit from true square, though consistently in each tray from the same GCode (and perfectly square in the stl). When the squares of the screen were a bit too small to meet (by about 1/16 inchÂ), I used pieces of ABS filament glued to the underside to seam them together. When they were a bit large, the result was a slight bulge in the screen which didn't affect the appearance or usability.The coin counter/roller tubes are printed in two sections each, a measuring tube and a loading tube. The diameter of the loading tube is slightly larger than that of the counting tube to allow for the paper wrapper. They should be glued sitting on a flat surface, centered on their widths. Printing the measuring tube in a light color and the loading tube in a darker one helps with the measuring process. A light sanding may be needed to produce a good joint. Any heavier sanding should be done on the loading tube so as not to alter the measuring tube. The dimensions are very critical for accurate counting, particularly for the pennies and dimes.To use the sorting trays, stack them in ascending size, dime tray on the bottom. Dump a handful of coins on the top tray and give a few swirls and shakes and they will quickly sort themselves out, then separate the trays and empty the coins into containers. The main limitation on the amount of coins sorted at once is the penny tray, which loads up quickly with pennies and blocks dimes from falling through. It will soon be obvious that fewer coins per sort are faster than many coins and a lot of shaking.The counting/rolling tubes are easiest to use on a flat surface with the funnel end propped up about 1/2 inch so the tube rests on a slight angle, narrow end down; that helps to hold the coins in the counting end. Hold a bunch of the coins in a loosely cupped palm, shake slightly, and they will fall into short rolls that you can grab to load into the counting tube. When the coins fill up to the break in the tubes, open a paper sleeve, being sure to open the folds fully (or use a pre-rolled tube) and, making sure the paper doesn't become crimped in the tube, insert it into the funnel end. (You would think the coins could be loaded into the funnel to feed them into the counting tube, but it doesn't work.) Then tilt the top of the coin roll slightly into the paper tube and, with one finger in the other end of the tube to keep them from falling out, push the coins into the loading end, even up the coin roll within the paper, fold down the paper behind the roll (the cutaway on the loading tube allows that), and fold over the paper on the open end. Pull the loaded roll from the tube and finish closing the other end.I used two shells and 30% fill for all the pieces. The tray sections took about an hour to print for each 1/4 tray (less for the dime tray) and the tubes about 45 minutes per section. The trays required a total of about 10 oz. of plastic, and the counting/rolling tubes about 2 1/2 oz. for all four.