Last week a small package from the USA arrived.. a set of Cliffy protectors for my Cactus Canyon !
Haven't had time yet to install them but will do one of the next days.
If you have a pinball machine of which you want to keep the playfield (especially the edge of scoops) in good condition, (or they're already worn and you want to hide the wear and prevent more wear) then these metal protectors are a must !
You can order them at several pinball parts shops or from Cliffy directly at:
CliffysProtectors.com and PassionForPinball.com
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
Thursday, October 14, 2010
arcade cabinet parts and custom mame cabinets
Had a friend over this week, came to pick up some parts and play pinball.
Peter also has a shop, rastermania, where he sells arcade parts.
He can also build you a custom mame cabinet.
Peter also has a shop, rastermania, where he sells arcade parts.
He can also build you a custom mame cabinet.
Monday, October 11, 2010
Next Stern game is Mortal Kombat ?
Was just checking out the Stern page at wikipedia and there someone has just added 2 days ago that their next game will be Mortal Kombat ?!
Haven't heard any confirmation about this, i'm curious if this will be true..
MK was rumored but so is Tron as a theme.. but if it's on wikipedia it shouldn't be just a rumor ?
Haven't heard any confirmation about this, i'm curious if this will be true..
MK was rumored but so is Tron as a theme.. but if it's on wikipedia it shouldn't be just a rumor ?
Friday, October 8, 2010
CV standup target replaced
I intend to log all repairs I do to my games here, no matter how small they are..
writing down all repairs is a good thing to do if you own a few games, as you can't remember all details of what you did in the past, and sometimes it's very useful to know you had a similar problem before with the specific game (see my MM / AFM cpu problems).
A few operators I know keep a repairlog in each game that notes what had to be repaired. (especially when more than one person repairs the games this is a very good thing to do, to keep track of the specific issues and weak points of a machine).
Anyway, my repair of this week was replacing a yellow standup target on my Cirqus Voltaire pinball machine.
The yellow standup target left of the ringmaster was broken, the yellow plastic tab had just broken off, clean right above the playfield.
It's the first time I have a broken target on any of my pinball machines..
Some games I bought with broken targets and I can imagine that in commercial use they get a lot of abuse, but never had one break at my house.
I don't know when or who did it, we had a pinball party a few weeks ago, and later a few friends have also come over and played the game..
no-one had notified me of the broken plastic :-(
Only when I cleaned and waxed the playfields of all my pinball machines I noticed this damage.
Easy thing to replace you'd think ? Just unsolder 2 wired, remove 2 screws, and replace the target with a new one.
Well, that was the plan. In reality it wasn't that simple.
Being so close to the ringmaster assembly, the whole metal cage of the ringmaster was in the way. I really didn't want to remove this huge assembly, so had to be a bit creative (and had to use a very short nut driver).
Desoldering 2 wires ? No, 5 wires. Seems both yellow standup targets are wired up parallel, one tab had 2 wire and the other 3. So desoldering and resoldering was a bit more tricky..
Finally I wanted to screw the new target back in place. Aaaaargh.. even though I'm pretty sure it's a NOS Williams standup target, screw holes were just a little bit smaller than on the broken target. The thick screws didn't fit very well, I had to force them into the metal tab first, and only then screw the whole part into the wood of the playfield.
What I thought would take 15 minutes took about 3 times as long in the end..
writing down all repairs is a good thing to do if you own a few games, as you can't remember all details of what you did in the past, and sometimes it's very useful to know you had a similar problem before with the specific game (see my MM / AFM cpu problems).
A few operators I know keep a repairlog in each game that notes what had to be repaired. (especially when more than one person repairs the games this is a very good thing to do, to keep track of the specific issues and weak points of a machine).
Anyway, my repair of this week was replacing a yellow standup target on my Cirqus Voltaire pinball machine.
The yellow standup target left of the ringmaster was broken, the yellow plastic tab had just broken off, clean right above the playfield.
It's the first time I have a broken target on any of my pinball machines..
Some games I bought with broken targets and I can imagine that in commercial use they get a lot of abuse, but never had one break at my house.
I don't know when or who did it, we had a pinball party a few weeks ago, and later a few friends have also come over and played the game..
no-one had notified me of the broken plastic :-(
Only when I cleaned and waxed the playfields of all my pinball machines I noticed this damage.
Easy thing to replace you'd think ? Just unsolder 2 wired, remove 2 screws, and replace the target with a new one.
Well, that was the plan. In reality it wasn't that simple.
Being so close to the ringmaster assembly, the whole metal cage of the ringmaster was in the way. I really didn't want to remove this huge assembly, so had to be a bit creative (and had to use a very short nut driver).
Desoldering 2 wires ? No, 5 wires. Seems both yellow standup targets are wired up parallel, one tab had 2 wire and the other 3. So desoldering and resoldering was a bit more tricky..
Finally I wanted to screw the new target back in place. Aaaaargh.. even though I'm pretty sure it's a NOS Williams standup target, screw holes were just a little bit smaller than on the broken target. The thick screws didn't fit very well, I had to force them into the metal tab first, and only then screw the whole part into the wood of the playfield.
What I thought would take 15 minutes took about 3 times as long in the end..
Thursday, October 7, 2010
I have an ultrasonic cleaner
When we visited Henk de Jager to drop off our Gottlieb Majorettes pinball machine (see post here a few weeks ago), we talked about cleaning and restoring pniball machines and exchanged some tips.
I had cleaned the playfield and tumbled all metal playfield posts and screws so they were clean and shiny. Henk and Ramon showed me a similar Gottlieb woodrail they were restoring (which is going to be for sale at the next Rosmalen jukebox show btw).
They had also cleaned the playfield posts on their game but did not use a tumbler.
Instead they showed me their ultrasonic cleaner and explained me a bit more about how it worked. I've heard about these machines before (I know some collectors who already use them for a few years) but never had a detailed look at how they worked and how the results were.
Well I was convinced by the results !
They bought theirs at Conrad, where they have a few different models for sale.
Nikky must have seen me look too interested at their ultrasonic cleaner, so imagine my surprise when a few days ago the postman brought me a large box !
She had done some research and bought me this ultrasonic cleaner.
An early present for our wedding anniversary that's coming up in a few days !
Thank you honey !!
Haven't been able to test the machine a lot, but once I have some more results I'll make an article about it..
I had cleaned the playfield and tumbled all metal playfield posts and screws so they were clean and shiny. Henk and Ramon showed me a similar Gottlieb woodrail they were restoring (which is going to be for sale at the next Rosmalen jukebox show btw).
They had also cleaned the playfield posts on their game but did not use a tumbler.
Instead they showed me their ultrasonic cleaner and explained me a bit more about how it worked. I've heard about these machines before (I know some collectors who already use them for a few years) but never had a detailed look at how they worked and how the results were.
Well I was convinced by the results !
They bought theirs at Conrad, where they have a few different models for sale.
Nikky must have seen me look too interested at their ultrasonic cleaner, so imagine my surprise when a few days ago the postman brought me a large box !
She had done some research and bought me this ultrasonic cleaner.
An early present for our wedding anniversary that's coming up in a few days !
Thank you honey !!
Haven't been able to test the machine a lot, but once I have some more results I'll make an article about it..
where to buy electronic components
New article online:
buy electronic components to repair pinball machines.
I made a list of useful tools and electronic components available for sale at
Conrad.
buy electronic components to repair pinball machines.
I made a list of useful tools and electronic components available for sale at
Conrad.
Sunday, October 3, 2010
Space Invaders carpet
Just copied some pictures from my phone over to my pc and found this one I took a long time ago.. went shopping with Nikky in a furniture store and saw these cool Space Invaders carpets. Cool eh ?
Spooky ready for transport
I'm not a pinball dealer. We don't have games for sale. We just want to help people.
And the problem is we always say yes if someone asks us something.
So when we were contacted about a month ago by someone from the USA if we could help to arrange some shipping for someone who bought a game in the Netherlands, we said yes. How hard could it be ?
Find a shipping company that picks up the game and ships it to the usa, easy, no ?
Well, not really. The seller didn't really want to cooperate (just open his door and let someone pickup a game, but no palletting or anything).
So in the end we drive ourselves to the Netherlands to pick up the game.
But then it's for 2 weeks in our living room (no space to store it somewhere else) until it's driving Nikky nuts. Contacted a lot of shipping companies, almost no-one wants to do it. Most even don't bother to reply us. Finally we found someone who will do it. Not cheap but there aren't alternatives. The buyer in the usa gave the order to the company, now we have to prepare it for pickup later this week.
Problem is we don't have a garage at our house, so we had to bring the game to someone elses house where it can be picked up.
It needed to be set up on a pallette. Problem is, a regular euro-pallet won't do for shipping to the usa, the wood has to be fumigated (like for shipping to Australia). Another problem we didn't know about. So last thursday we ordered a plastic pallet.
This arrived in time, and today we've wrapped the game onto the pallet. A lot of cardboard, about a mile of plastic straps, and finally coccooned the game in plastic wrap. Took us about 2 hours. Now it's ready for transport, byebye Spooky !
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
