OT but related... Ball bowler

[vinito]

Haven't messed with pinnies for a long, long time now. But I just enjoy hanging out with you guys so I keep visiting anyway.

But lately I've been "bulldozing" the hoarded clutter around here and made a great big flat clear area in the basement. Haven't seen the floor in some time.
So this evening I took advantage of the elbow room and opened up the back of a 60's vintage ball bowler I bought several years ago.
After about an hour of wishing I had a schematic to give me some idea what the hell I was doing, I remembered that I bought one from Marco about 6 months ago, and it only took about 2 minutes of looking to find it too !!

So I re-soldered a broken wire, replaced a blown fuse, looked things over (nothing obvious), plugged it in and - Disco! It lit up and clickety kind of homed itself out. Flipped the credit switch and it clicked some more. I was encouraged that after some clicking, it would stop !! Tossed a ball down the lane and the pins swung up and it tried (unsuccessfully) to count up a score. OK, not a big deal so far. Threw two more balls and the score reel even moved a little this time, but no balls came back. The ball return motor was trying to turn but just didn't have any poop. I went ahead and just sprayed a little WD-40 just to see if it would help any and it did !! Balls returning good too.

So this is all very cool. I threw a few more balls and watched the pins flip up and the ball roll back to me. How fun ! And it doesn't even work right yet.

Looks like I just need to sweep through stuff and clean so it all moves free and make sure contacts are clean and I think I might be in business.
This is MUCH better than I expected. I can already see that this machine is going to be a lot of fun to play.
I might even get that one EM pinnie I kept finally going for another excuse to get a couple friends over for beers.

[goodolddays]

Great to hear your bowler has fired up OK . You Must get that EM pin going to keep it company .

Would love to see some pics of both when you get a chance

[vinito]

Would love to see some pics of both when you get a chance

Will do.

The bowler isn't pretty. The top backglass is cracked and the bottom one has a hole broken through it - no doubt the victim of an airborne ball somewhere in its history.
But I can patch it up some and at least make it work right, so it should be tons of fun and look decent enough even if it isn't museum quality.

I keep having to walk down to the basement to fire it up and roll a few more balls and make it clickety-click. I feel like a goof. hehe.

[goodolddays]

[I keep having to walk down to the basement to fire it up and roll a few more balls and make it clickety-click. I feel like a goof. hehe.

Not to worry, I would be doing exactly the same 

Shame about the BG but sounds like you have a plan

[Steevsee]

Great work getting this machine up and running.

+1 for the pics.

[vinito]

For those that requested pictures, here's a couple quick snaps:

[Homepin]

Great stuff BUT give the WD-40 a VERY WIDE BERTH as it can cause a fire in an EM machine.

[vinito]

Yep. I appreciate your concern and share it. The motor I lubed has two little copper tubes for directing lube to the bushings, so I just squirted some of it in there more as a solvent than a lube in the hopes it would loosen and wash out some of the bubble gum. I cleaned a couple reels today and I pretty much follow Clay's directions for that. I used just a bit of synthetic oil on parts that benefit from it and left what I could just clean and dry.

It's working a little better now. The frame advance, game select and player select works now. Only about a dozen function reels and some 25 score reels to go  

[faza]

Looks great would need a big room for it but would certainly be a feature

[goodolddays]

What a machine  You'll  have to post a pic of inside the head with all those mechs. Have fun overhauling all those reels . Will be worth it though , as you've seen already with the bits you've done .

[Retropin]

LOVE the bowlers!!! I paced out my room when once offered one.. figured id have to lose a wall to fit it in so a no go there..

... would be pretty keen on a shuffle instead

[ralph67]

Nice stuff a good wax and it would look like new and is that a bullet hole on the left? you crazy yanks!

[vinito]

...and is that a bullet hole on the left? you crazy yanks!

I will NOT deny that we yanks are crazy. But it's possible that hole might have been caused by one of the bowling balls. The little black hole behind is a bulb socket. There are so many bulbs behind the glasses on this thing, you couldn't toss a dart at it without hitting one I think.

[Strangeways]

Very rare to see these in Australia. If I had the room, I'd love to own one. Thanks for sharing the pictures 

[Pinprick]

Very rare to see these in Australia. If I had the room, I'd love to own one. Thanks for sharing the pictures  

Second that.
Great to see you are doing a resurrection on it