The Final Pieces

Just a quick update of where I am.  I am pretty much complete with just a few final pieces to take care of. 

I have my power working correctly.  I was able to run the charger at 12 volts and 6 amps which gave me pretty much the perfect amount of power.

I have my glass in and no issues of balls popping out of line anymore as well as the noise level is now normal. 

The game is much harder than the Signal to get the skill shots.  I was thinking with 3 options you could hit them a lot but it is harder than I expected which is fun. 

Last things needed are:

- Super-8 card
- Having the lock for the door keyed or lock replaced
- Tilt pedestal replaced
- Paint the new knobs which I cannot do until spring

Here are a couple of pictures of how it looks now.

Working out the kinks

I am in the process of working out the last few kinks. I rewired the machine as all the wires were cracked.  I have tested it with the battery charger from the Signal to make sure it works properly before ordering one for this machine. It works but there were a few issues.

There was an issue with the armature in the left channel solenoid where after popping out it would not slide back in.  It was a little gunky so I cleaned it and hopefully it does the trick. I ordered a battery charger to run the machine and it arrived but was damaged so now waiting on the new one which should be here tomorrow.

I do have a little issue with the power and will need to see how it goes once I get the glass.  The issue is this. If a ball is in one of the channels it is propelled to the next position when a ball is dropped into either it's matching channel hole or the Super Hole which propels balls in both channels forward.  If it  is just one channel being activated the charger set at 6 volts works fine but when the Super Hole is hit, the 6 volts seemed to be not enough.  If I set it on 12 volts though it is so powerful it propels the balls so hard they fly out of the channels. I am hoping it is a simple as the glass keeping everything contained.  I am concerned though that the balls will be popped up and even though the glass will contain them, that it will cause the balls to land back in the same channel and not get propped to the next. Once I have the glass I will know for sure.

Another issue is that the metal around the ball track that now has a brushed look is extremely loud as the ball rolls around it. I am assuming because it is brushed and so not entirely smooth. I waxed it tonight and will see if that helps.

In the home stretch....

The Magic Button

The Super-8 has a feature dubbed the Magic Button.  I am not sure why they advertised it as such as it is not a button at all but maybe it is magical... :)

This is how the feature works. 

If you are having a really good game and you have used up all your balls and most are in high scoring holes but a few landed in the bottom where they all are valued at 100 each (there are no zero spots), you can push in a rod (the magic button/rod) under the coin slide before entering another coin and it will only return the balls in lower 100 spot and leave the rest on the playfield so you can continue your game.

The way it works is this. Under the playfield there is the shutter which when pushed forward by the coin slide returns all balls other than the ones in the lower 100. At the same time the slide pushes on a metal piece under the 100 hole which swings towards the front of the machine and drops any balls held there.  

Under the shutter there is a metal piece that when the slide is pushed in, it pushes the metal piece forward and moves the shutter towards the back of the machine as normal.  The metal piece under the shutter is hinged however so when the magic button rod is pushed in, it tilts the metal piece back and up so that when the slide is pushed in it goes under it and thus only releasing the bottom 100 hole captive balls. 

In the attached pictures you can see the hinged part under the shutter and the metal piece under the 100 hole. 

Hinged piece attached to the shutter. When lifted the coin slide cannot push it.

100 hole ball return piece

The machine was missing the magic button rod so had to make one out of 1/4" steel rod.  I needed knobs both for it as well as the ball loader rod as it was missing.  I could not find plastic ones to match the one on the plunger so used wooden ones which are very close in shape and will paint them black when it is warmer out.  To prevent the magic button rod from being pulled all the way out, I drilled a 1/4" hole in a superball and slipped it on.  It is snug enough to keep the rod from being pulled out but can be slid off if I need to take the rod out.

Where the rod pushes on the hinged part under the shutter.

New magic button rod and knob

New knobs

The knobs do look kind of like mushrooms, maybe that is where they came up with the name magic button....

P is for Pigpen

So I have been busy getting the machine as clean as possible and am nearly done.  I have a few things to still order but mostly there. 

One of the issues I had was the coin slide was so dirty that to push a coin through was nearly impossible.  I felt I was actually going to break the slide doing it.  So I disassembled it and I think that the P carved in the front was done by none other than Pigpen himself.  When taking it apart there were piles of dirt, not sure a film of dirt.  I was shocked it was that bad. 

 Here is what it looked like prior to cleaning it.

Si after taking it apart I cleaned it all with Simple green and then I sprayed it out with carb cleaner and then again withe Simple green.  After cleaning it moves freely and accepts coins the way it was meant to.  It did not spring back like the one on my Signal and realized that it is missing one of the two springs it needs and the one that is there is hooked up incorrectly.  I will search for a spring later today.  I also discovered why I have an issue with the slide on my Signal.  The Signal has an issue where the coins after being pushed through just sit on the slide and on occasion when the slide comes back out the coin jams as it gets pulled back in.  It winds up there is a piece that was removed from the slide that holds the coin when the slide is pulled back out.  As more coins are inserted, it pushed the coins down a small track which directs them into the coin box below.  I have started to look to see if a replacement part from a damaged slide is available but at this point, no.  So for now I have disabled the feelers on the Signal's coin slide that check for coins which allows the slide to be pushed in with no coin.  If I find the part, I will set it back to accept coins.

This is after pictures of the slide as well as a picture of the missing part from the other slide.

More to come....

The missing pieces

I have been busy figuring out what I needed to replace either because it is damaged or missing.  I have searched and purchased a few items locally and the rest I have had to purchase online. 

Plunger tip - the original was missing and the end of the plunger was pretty dinged up.  I believe that when it went missing, the game was still used and damaged the end.  I was able to grind down the end to fix the mushrooming that occurred and purchased tips meant for a new plunger.  It did not fit perfectly and was loose.  I wrapped a small piece of electrical tape around the end of the rod before slipping on the tip and it seems to have done the trick.  It is a little different material than it would have originally been used but it will do the trick.  Source: ebay.com

Various screws and bolts - the machine was missing several screws and bolts.  I could not find what I needed locally as all that is left really are the two big boys in the hardware game and they both have limited sizing.  So I looked online and found a few options.  Source: boltdepot.com

Magic Button rod -  the game has a feature dubbed "the Magic Button" which is a rod that when pushed in lets you insert a coin that returns only the balls in the lowest scoring hole and keep your game going.  The rod was missing on my game.  My two options I found were aluminum rod and steel.  I went with aluminum first thinking, no rust.  The moment I got in the car and headed home I realized I made a mistake.  Although it won't rust, it won't look right being a brushed aluminum rod.  I returned and purchased a 1/4" diameter steel rod.  I will polish and cut to size.  I need to figure a way to keep it from being pulled completely out of the machine.  Source: Lowes

Knobs - the knob for the ball loader is missing and I needed a new nob for the Magic Button rod as well.  I looked for plastic knobs online but could not find what I needed.  Also most knobs have a smaller diameter hole.  I wound up going with wood knobs that look very much like the one on the shooter and will paint them black to match.  I will try satin first and if not shiny enough will move up to semi-gloss.  I do not think I can get it to match perfect but pretty close.  Source: Lowes

Leg bolts - luckily the legs were with the machine when I purchased it but the leg bolts were missing.  There was 1 rusty beat up one inside the game but it is no good.  I am doing the same thing I did with the Signal.  I purchased steel allthread rod and nickel plated acorn nuts and will cut the rod to length and glue the acorn nuts to one end to make my own bolts.  I was going to cut them yesterday but unfortunately I cannot get into my shed due to ice that is built up and completely blocked the door.  Rather than kill myself hacking the ice out or waiting for it to thaw, I will go and buy a new cheap hacksaw on the way home today.  Source: Lowes (allthread rod), Acorn nuts and washers (amazon.com).

Playfield springs - there are 2 playfield springs that need to be replaced on the machine.  One was damaged and one along with it's nail were missing.  I started looking into replacements and was striking out.  Michael Schiess from the Pacific Pinball Museum reached out to me after seeing my posts looking for replacements and believes he has something that will work in a box of springs that he had purchased and is sending them to me.  The Pacific Pinball Museum is a non profit organization that is working hard to preserve and promote the game of pinball.  You can read more about them here  Source: Pacific Pinball Museum

Playfield glass - the glass was missing when I got the game and that is why the machine was a dirty as it was.  I still need to measure and order, hopefully will do that tomorrow.  Source: TBD

 Power - the machine was originally built to run on batteries but at some point was powered by AC as there were two old transformers inside the machine.  One very old one from a doorbell and one train transformer from the 1970s.  Both have cracked wires and are not trustworthy.  I need to find a new transformer.  Source: TBD

More to come....