American Shuffleboard instruction cards

KenLayton

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I have painstakingly scanned & restored several cabinet interior instruction card for the 1950's American Shuffleboard coin-op shuffleboard table. This is the model with the electromechanical overhead score unit.

I scanned all three cards onto one page. They all go inside the score unit and are to be stapled next to the adjustment plug they adjust.

I don't think these are available anywhere and I could not find anyplace on KLOV manuals page to post this file.

Here is a picture of the scoreboard for which these instruction cards were meant for.
 

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The lock that holds the backglass frame shut hooks over a screw. There are two screws under the bottom wood frame piece that allows the backglass to slide out the bottom of the wooden frame.
 

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There are three fuses in a 3 bank fuseholder in the overhead score unit. The fuse closest to the edge is a 15 amp for the 24 volt coils. The center fuse is a 10 amp for the 6 volt lights. The fuse behind that one is a 5 amp for the main line. Sorry the focus isn't the best in this picture. Yes that is a modern Radio shack fuseholder in there now. I had to replace the 60-year-old original fuseholder assembly because the fuse clips had cracked from metal fatigue and old age.
 

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A common problem with these electromechanical overhead scoreboard units is that players often set the cans of shuffleboard "wax" on top of the scoreboard and bits of the sand fell or leaked into the unit. Plus the fact that over the years a buildup of nicotine and dried out lubrication made the stepper units inside it very sluggish. The "red" and "blue" number steppers as well as the coin unit stepper really get gunked up and need a good cleaning. I took an air compressor to the scoreboard first to get rid of all the sand in it.

With the unit's power cord unplugged from the wall outlet, get some paper towels or rags and moisten with lighter fluid. Now wipe off the gunk from the contact rivets. Next, take your fiberglass eraser pencil and brighten/polish those contact rivets. Be sure to put a couple of drops of a light oil on the stepper's gear shaft. Now the stepper units should quickly snap back to the zero position when you trip the reset coil.

You will notice that the coin unit uses smaller diameter plungers/coil sleeves that the other stepper units in the scoreboard unit. These smaller diameter plungers are 5/16". The other steppers (red and blue number steppers) use normal pinball machine sized plungers and coil sleeves (7/16" ).

I understand that the J.H. Keeney Company (pinball manufacturer) manufactured these scoreboard units under contract for American Shuffleboard.

EDIT: Confirmed. Billboard Magazine had a story in the May 21, 1949 issue about the J.H. Keeney Company buying out American Shuffleboard's scoreboard production division. It seems that American Shuffleboard could not keep up with demand for their scoreboards so they sold out to Keeney. Keeney certainly had the facilities to manufacture these electromechanical scoreboards as well as keep up production quotas.
 

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The back side of the coin unit. The coils on this unit use 5/16" diameter plungers because of the smaller diameter coil sleeves. The longer coil at the bottom is the stepup coil which will burn up (short circuit) if the coin switch gets stuck closed.
 

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Marvel Manufacturing Company in Chicago made a coin-operated overhead scoreboard unit that looked exactly like the American Shuffleboard overhead scoreboard except without American's name on it. This scoreboard would retrofit to any brand of shuffleboard table. The Marvel unit also came with a National Rejectors coin box assembly attached to the support tubing. From what I understand, the Marvel scoreboards were manufactured from 1956 through 1967 at Marvel's office at 2847 West Fullerton Avenue in Chicago.
 

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Very Cool Ken - Thanks for sharing this information with us. Not a lot of information out there on this type of EM shuffle board as this post has prompted my search. You can find late models but for me I'd rather own a classic.

Thanks for sharing with the EM community...

OHEMIO
 
That is what I have been discovering myself --- that there is ZERO repair information out there on these old shuffleboard scoreboards. There are still plenty of these old units out there on location. I've had great difficulty in locating ANY schematics for the old overhead style EM scoreboards.

Pretty soon I should have pictures showing how to use the modern S-48-A coil with the normal diameter sleeves and plungers to replace the S-24 stepup coil which has the small (5/16" ) diameter sleeves and plungers. Also, I should have some more information on the old skinny National Rejectors coin box that was used with the old scoreboards.
 
Here are the coil wrappers for the 24 volt American Shuffleboard coils used in the overhead electromechanical scoreboard units.
 

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Well, the S-48-A coil does not work nor fit on the coin stepper unit. What I ended up having to do was to rewind the original small diameter stepup coil S-24-F (also known as SM-106). Fortunately, the original coil was made with a fiber bobbin. For those that need to rewind one of those coils, it is # 23 gauge wire and 800 turns. Rewinding the old coil did the trick. The old American Shuffleboard scoreboard is working on coins once again!
 
From the latest info on Replay Magazine's website:

Valley Dynamo LP: One Name, One Roof
(Posted September 15, 2012 --10PM)

Now that they've combined all their manufacturing under one roof in Richland Hills, Texas, they've created a new corporate "umbrella" name over the whole enchilada. Effective Sept. 1, 2012, it's now Valley Dynamo LP.

Explained president Kelye Stites: "Over the last several years, our Champion Shuffleboard Ltd. has added Sun Glo Corp., American Shuffleboard, Valley Dynamo and most recently, Connelly Billiards, and we've been operating under three different company names. Now we've completely combined all operations and felt it was time to adopt one corporate name to make it easier on our customers and suppliers."

The firm intends to continue branding its individual products as in the past. Link Pendley, the firm's international sales VP, reminds all to update their contacts with the new address: 7115 Belton Street, Richland Hills, TX 76118 (the office phone is 972/595-5312; the fax number is 972-595-5380).

So Valley/Dynamo pool tables now owns American Shuffleboard.
 
I have now scanned and digitally cleaned up the instruction sheet/parts list/troubleshooting guide for the electromechanical overhead American Shuffleboard scoreboard. I tried to upload the manual to KLOV and got a "couldn't connect" message.
 
Coin box and pushbutton wiring

I've now made a list of the pinout of the coin switch and pushbutton switch connector inside the scoreboard. It's a five pin "Jones" plug-and-jack which is for connecting the coin switch and the red & blue pushbutton switches.

When you look at the connector and have the index "peg" on your left, here is the pinout from left to right:

Coin switch common terminal

Coin switch normally open terminal

Blue pushbutton

Red pushbutton

Common to both pushbuttons

Attached is a picture of that connector with the pins labeled.
 

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EM scoreboard overhead support tubing

Hi Ken--thanks so much for the wealth of information! I just found a vintage, American EM scoring unit on eBay, and am anxioulsy awaiting it's arrival. Do you have any idea where I might find the stainless steel overhead support tubing for it? Thanks in advance.

best,
dan
 
Try digging around an old operator or distributor's warehouse/back rooms.

You could also look on ebay.

If need be, you might be able to get a local welding company or metal fabrication shop to make you something out of square steel tubing. Take a copy of an ad for the shuffleboard or a copy of the American Shuffleboard catalog so the shop can see what the original tubing/support looks like.

http://arcarc.xmission.com/PDF_Shuffler/American_Shuffleboard/AS_Company_Catalog.pdf
 
Digging this up to try and get some information on the SM-106 step up coil for the coin count unit. Ken, I see you say it is a 23-800, which is helpful. Unfortunately the coil in the game I'm working on is completely baked and has fallen apart. There's no chance of me re-winding it. Any ideas on where to find a SM-106 coil?
 
American shuffleboard scoreboard

I am looking for a schematic and parts to get my dads scorebboard going again. It looks like the one in your pic. I have pics of the insides too. I can't find a year or model number on it though.
Thank you for any help.
 
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