Finally got a Skill Crane!

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I've always thought that any game room can't be complete without a crane game of some kind. The wife apparently feels the same way and happened to find a Grayhound Skill Crane for a reasonable price the other day. She went and picked it up while I was at work today and a buddy of mine helped us move it in the house tonight when I got off work (I have to say, it was quite easier to move compare to all the video arcades I've moved over the years!).

I really would have preferred to have one with a joystick, but apparently these have settings for both buttons or a joystick. Unfortunately, due to how the door swings, a joystick would prevent the door from opening more than a few inches. Oh well.

All of that said, here's a few questions I hope someone might have some input on:

  • Are there any joysticks that can be removed easily from the top side of the control panel (without having to open the door)? I've never seen one, but I figured I'd ask just in case such a thing exists.
  • The wife wants to make her own marquee art for it. Does anyone know of a good place to have a custom sticker made that could be used for that?
  • I don't know much about these types of machines. Is there any general maintenance I should keep up with? Like for the claw, specifically?
Comments? Suggestions? Questions?

skillcrane.jpg
 
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Nice pick up. Looks like it's one where you only get to move twice (back, then right), and can't do any adjustments back to the left or towards the glass.

Now the important question is... what are you going to fill it with?
 
Should've hit me up a few months ago, I just got rid of all that stuff. I guess it was a good concept way back when, but I never cared for them. I though they were basicallly so much junk, but I guess they run okay. If your board dies, I used to know of a guy who fixed them, but I don't know if he's still around or not. Greyhound's been out of business for years. I don't recall ever really having a problem with the claw, just the boards mostly. There is a dipswitch setting for button controls or joystick (sw. 5?) Only thing you can do if you want a joystick is to find another crane, the control panels are not switchable. The boards have 8 relays on them (iirc), they will go bad from time to time. Each relay controls a function of the gantry (claw mechanism). One relay controls the gantry out motor, one for right, one for claw drop, etc. I don't know if you could get a generic replacement or not. Other than that, if it hasn't been done yet, get rid of the original power supply, and replace it with a standard arcade switcher. It'll save you a lot of headache. Only other advice I can give you is to forget about the bill head. Most likely it doesn't work, and would be a real pain to get going again. It's a very poorly designed system, uses a Rowe OBA head, which wasn't very reliable in the first place, and it has a control box mounted in the back on the right hand side of the lower door of the crane. So, basically, you have to squeeze yourself in there, (hope you're not claustrophobic, lol), TRY and adjust the mag head (if you can), oh, and you need a second pair of hands to try and run the bill through as you adjust it, if the bill acceptor is any good. Just a very bad design, I think. On a good note, when they run, they do seem to run okay, so hopefully you got a good one. Looks like it anyways!
 
I actually prefer them without joysticks... In my opinion it takes more skill to time the button presses perfectly.

Really nice find. Although I'm not really looking for one, I certainly wouldn't mind having that. :)
 
Nice pick up. Looks like it's one where you only get to move twice (back, then right), and can't do any adjustments back to the left or towards the glass.

Now the important question is... what are you going to fill it with?
Right, though there appears to be a dip setting to set it to a stick, which I assume would give you at 4 direction control? I don't really know but even if I don't put a stick on there, I'd like to hook one up just to see how it controls.

Technically this is for the wife, so she'll fill it with whatever she wants :) Knowing her, it will be rat related. I imagine I'll be posting pics when it's cleaned up and loaded full of stuffids.

There is a dipswitch setting for button controls or joystick (sw. 5?) Only thing you can do if you want a joystick is to find another crane, the control panels are not switchable.
I haven't had a chance to pull the boards out yet, and from what I could see from the front door, I never saw the dips. I can see three boards - one larger one and two smaller ones. Do you recall about where the dips are? Thanks for all the info, btw!

The boards have 8 relays on them (iirc), they will go bad from time to time. Each relay controls a function of the gantry (claw mechanism). One relay controls the gantry out motor, one for right, one for claw drop, etc. I don't know if you could get a generic replacement or not. Other than that, if it hasn't been done yet, get rid of the original power supply, and replace it with a standard arcade switcher. It'll save you a lot of headache.
I think I saw these on the right wall behind the coinmech - I was wondering what they were. It all looks in pretty good shape - just a little dusty. I wasn't there when she picked it up, but she said the guy was really nice and sort of seemed sad to let it go. He also mentioned it was "kid proof," which makes me think it may not have been on location for a while. I didn't pay much attention to the power supply, but I'll take a look at that tonight. I think I have a spare switcher someplace anyway.

Only other advice I can give you is to forget about the bill head. Most likely it doesn't work, and would be a real pain to get going again. It's a very poorly designed system, uses a Rowe OBA head, which wasn't very reliable in the first place, and it has a control box mounted in the back on the right hand side of the lower door of the crane. So, basically, you have to squeeze yourself in there, (hope you're not claustrophobic, lol), TRY and adjust the mag head (if you can), oh, and you need a second pair of hands to try and run the bill through as you adjust it, if the bill acceptor is any good.
Thanks for the heads up. We haven't tried that part of it yet, and likely won't be using it anyway. I did wonder what that box at the bottom was. When I saw "Rowe" on it, I assume it was tied to the bill collector somehow. I was pretty surprised when there wasn't a door on the back that would open the entire lower half of the machine. Seems like that would make some of this easier because you're right - it's a tight fit in that damn thing! I was also expecting the boards to slide out or be a bit more accessible as well, but it's still not too bad.

I actually prefer them without joysticks... In my opinion it takes more skill to time the button presses perfectly.
Yeah, I can see that. Maybe that's why I prefer the sticks, I don't know :) Either way, I think it'll be cool having one!
 
Technically this is for the wife, so she'll fill it with whatever she wants :) Knowing her, it will be rat related.

Ooh rat terrarium where the Claw of God can drop and grab them at any time!
 
Looks good...nice pickup. :)
Thanks!

Guy had said the coinmech was broken, but it works as far as I can tell! Granted, I'll be replacing it with one that takes quarters and tokens later on.

Trying the bill collector, the bill gets about half way through before it kicks it back. Perhaps he was actually talking about that? Hell, maybe it just doesn't like newer bills? Regardless, I don't really care about that, though I might tinker with it a bit some time just to see how the thing works.

I'm a little surprised this isn't on IAM/KLOV anywhere. Though there don't see to be that many cranes on there to begin with. Lame! EDIT: I stand corrected! A similar model is right here, but only listed as "Grayhound." I had been searching for "Greyhound," so my bad!

Here are some additional photos in case anyone was curious and/or to preserve for future generations of googlers :)

DoorsOpen.jpg


PCBs.jpg


Rowe.jpg


If the images break some time in the future, they should be somewhere in here: http://www.arcadecrusade.com/gallery/v/gamerooms/mattroid/
 
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I had one real similar to that one and the only problem i had was the claw would ocassionaly derail and fall. Sold it to a guy that was putting it in a washateria,nice pick up there fun.
 
If you remove the drywall screws from the piece of plywood mounted directly in front of the board set, you should be able to (after disconnecting everything) slide the whole complete board assembly right out of there. One of the more pro things greyhound did do properly. It also does appear to have the updated power supply instead of the junk that was originally in there, so that should save you some headache anyways.
 
If you remove the drywall screws from the piece of plywood mounted directly in front of the board set, you should be able to (after disconnecting everything) slide the whole complete board assembly right out of there. One of the more pro things greyhound did do properly. It also does appear to have the updated power supply instead of the junk that was originally in there, so that should save you some headache anyways.

Yeah, there was a screw in the front that prevented it from sliding out, but as you can see in the pic I took that out and did check things out a little bit. I just haven't gotten around to actually unhooking it all yet.

Maybe this weekend I'll look at things a little more.
 
Nice pickup!

At the end of parties, the darn crane machine has the most tokens in it! Every time it seems!!


I have to admit to liking the joystick version better myself :)
 
I just noticed that the entry on KLOV is all kinds of wrong, so I'm proposing some changes.

Does anyone know if any of the Skill Crane models actually have sound? KLOV says it has mono sound, but mine doesn't have any kind of audio output from what I can tell and the manual doesn't seem to indicate anything like that either.
 
I can't recall if the ones we've had used sound or not.

BTW - I have a Jumbo one you could have had for free at any time. Needs to be put back together, have a switcher installed, and repainted/relaminated - but it's free! Also - it's about twice as wide as that one.

The marquee on top is actually like window-tint film You should be able to peel it off. You could have a translite made to install, or draw/print your own art and use some clear/tinted film to adhere it to the glass.

Also - the claws on these things are pretty interchangeable, so if you wanted to install a larger claw for larger toys, you can do so pretty easily. You'll have to up the claw strength via a pot on one of the boards, but that's easy to do...
 
BTW - I have a Jumbo one you could have had for free at any time. Needs to be put back together, have a switcher installed, and repainted/relaminated - but it's free! Also - it's about twice as wide as that one.
Yeah, I saw your post in another thread from a while back, but that was after we picked this one up. Also, the wife didn't want one any bigger than this one. If I had taken that thing, there'd have been less excuse as to why I still don't have a T-Mek :p

The marquee on top is actually like window-tint film You should be able to peel it off. You could have a translite made to install, or draw/print your own art and use some clear/tinted film to adhere it to the glass.
I started to notice that the other night when I was replacing one of the bulbs up there. I started to try and peel it off, but I didn't peel off too much as I wasn't sure if it'd stick back or not. I'm still not sure what we're going to do, but I'm sure we'll find something we can use.
 
Also - the claws on these things are pretty interchangeable, so if you wanted to install a larger claw for larger toys, you can do so pretty easily. You'll have to up the claw strength via a pot on one of the boards, but that's easy to do...
This is good to know and I've been thinking about it the last couple of days. I think we're good with the claw that's in there now, but I might keep my eyes open for a larger one in case we want to change stuff out someday. Thanks for the tip!
 
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