'Evening All, .... To answer the call about the 15 balls and arms.... I had to replace #s 2,4,6,10,15... as these were missing. The first thing to do is clean the whole unit, as you don't want the grease and crap getting on the balls as you are handling them...I found a guy in the US who sold me a set 1-15 of balls that were the same size as the B A B balls. They were plastic and solid... So they had to be cut in half. I did this with a Dremel mini angle grinder. I firstly taped the half of the ball I wanted to keep, and kept the tape wrapping for a bit, to create something to hold on the ball by. I finished off with sanding (grade 40 would you believe, to cut through this plastic.)
The arms I made by copying the shape of one of the arms I had, and drawing this on the brass metal I had...........Here's a minor confession..When I had my first Bank A Ball (around 1992-2004) I took off a brass cover which is in the head, covering the replay unit. It's just a flat piece around 15 X 15 cm..Needless to say, I never put it back on, and then sold the machine.....Well, it's kind of poetic justice that I used this piece to make my arms...Metal is good as the arms bend, and then straighten. The metal makes it possible to get a very close replication of the arms. Because I was going to a flat surface on the balls, I made some small 'L' shaped bits, and screwed them to the end part of the arm (where it attaches to the ball.) I got some very
small screws and nuts, and drillbit/s from my local Hobby store. I used an angle grinder to cut most of the shape, and finished it off with my mini angle grinder (dremel, I think it's called).
I then stuck the balls to the 'L' shaped bit. I had to treat each ball as special case, as the margin for error is very small. The ball can't be too thin or too thick. The arm with the 'L' shaped bit can't stick out more than the original...the angle and width of the attaching end of the arm has to be about the same...The good news...gluing the L shaped bit to the balls is easy, as you can move the ball around so it's evenly spaced between its neighbours, and the correct height. I used Araldite and let it get real tacky before I joined the ball to the 'L' shaped bit. The pictures of the arms are below, and basically show the whole deal......I was a challenge for me, and I'm relieved that it seems to be working out. I'll get some pics soon. Have a great weekend everyone. Mark
