I'm planning on making a Ramsay Stack. Here is what I'm planning on doing.

Drill out a 1 1/2 inch hole 3 dollars deap in a piece of scrap wood
Super glue 3 morgan dollars together
Hot glue the 3 coin stack in the hole of the scrap wood
Use a drill press with a hole saw to cut a 1 1/4 inch hole in the stack, this results in a cylinder with 1/8 inch wall
Free the cylinder of coins from the hot glue
Break the cylinder apart and clean it up
Epoxy the cylinder together with a whole coin.
Done!

I use super glue and break the cylinder apart only to epoxy it back together because I'm worried that the heat from the drilling might damage the epoxy.


What do you think? Have I lost my mind? Anyone have any better ideas?
Let me know thanks!

For the final glue, may I suggest E6000?
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=b2Dd2_BjEWY

Thanks for the suggestion! I'm not totally sold on Epoxy for the application. What is is about E6000 that you think would be good for the coin stack?

E6000 is not a two part mix and it lasts and holds up well.

I'll definitely give it a try. thanks

Ramsay stack complete! Photos to follow, but first lessons learned.

"Drill out a 1 1/2 inch hole 3 dollars deap in a piece of scrap wood"
"Super glue 3 morgan dollars together"
My plan was to drill all three coins together to make sure the hole lined up. If you didn't guess, I was using a drill press for this. After dirling the 1/2 inch hole in the scrap wood and clamping it to the drill press, I realized the coins would be centered, so I didn't need to drill them together. I drilled a small whole in all the coins using the setup described, this way I could change the set up, but still line up the whole saw at the same spot in each coin.

"Hot glue the 3 coin stack in the hole of the scrap wood"
The hot glue was a disaster. The coins quickly heated up and melted the hot glue. I ended up clamping the coins in a vice. I'll show this set up in a photo in a future post.

"Use a drill press with a hole saw to cut a 1 1/4 inch hole in the stack, this results in a cylinder with 1/8 inch wall"
This worked fine. Even though I was using cheap no name whole saw. Someday I'll spring for a good set.

"Free the cylinder of coins from the hot glue"
I use a vice see above.

"Break the cylinder apart and clean it up"
Did not end up gluing them together for drilling. I'm glad I was able to avoid this step, I was not looking foward to getting the super glue off the coins.

"Epoxy the cylinder together with a whole coin."
I use superglue to line up the stack before I put the epoxy on. This avoided wrestling with the coins while I put the epoxy on. I did some experiments with the E6000 type glue and found it too hard to controle. With the epoxy I could clean up after getting it on parts of the stack where it shouldn't go.

Anyway stack complete photos to follow.

Photo of stack

Click here to view attached image.

Looks good.
Making it yourself and the performing the trick will be quite rewarding.

Great use of a hole saw. I am inspired and want to try it.

There is also a product called Cold Solder. It has a hight temp. tolerance vs. epoxy or E6000. E6000 is a wonderful product as it's self leveling and very very strong.

James P. Riser explains how to make a stack of coins.

http://www.jamesriser.com/Magic/GeniiExp......ack.html

Here is the leather Cylinder explanation.

http://www.jamesriser.com/Magic/GeniiExp......ple.html

Just some ideas to consider. Tango sells a stack that is "fanable". Meaning they aren't glued together and can be moved around as a convincer. The fan is easy to make yourself and can even be made to do more types of fans than Tango's version.

Also if you are performing with a cork you really only need 2 coins to be gimmicked depending on the thickness of the cork. The rest can be whole coins that are fanable or just a shorter stack with independent coins on top. Either way a coin can be put on top of the stack during the performance to be able to lift it off as a convincer. Playing with the stack to much during the performance is suspicious, so I just use these ideas subtly or not at all.

Also Curtis Kam does a magician fooler version of the trick with a brass nut. You would need a deeper stack for that. Also a penny or two could be used as the magician fooler.