Gumball Machines come home

YellowDog

In Memoriam

Donor 2011, 2013
Joined
Apr 12, 2008
Messages
9,851
Reaction score
158
Location
Humble, Texas
I know these aren't video games, but they did (and sometimes still do) have them in arcades, so I bought 2 at the SuperAuctions in January. I got a great deal and a real good deal on getting them transported from Dallas, so the delay doesn't bother me. There are enough reasonable good parts to build one good looking one and the other one will work, but look like crap. So guess which one is going into the April garage sale :).

attachment.php


Please feel free to play I Spy with my unclean garage...


The lock (2nd pic) was a bitch to drill out thanks to that ball bearing in the center of the lock. Whoever thought of that is a cruel bastard. The third pic shows what I found when I opened it up and the 4th pic shows my reward.

I have fixed most of the cracks in the plexi and I'm reassembling them now. I just need to drill out the second back door (now that I know how) and a little paint on the bottom and it will be ready for the game room.

Does anybody have a good source (other than EBay for 1" gumballs)? I don't want a lot because they'll go stale if I fill it too full. Also does anybody know where to get a "cheater" to put these on freeplay? It looks like a standard gumball coin mechanism.

ken
 

Attachments

  • sm_gumball_01.jpg
    sm_gumball_01.jpg
    45.4 KB · Views: 177
  • sm_gumball_02.jpg
    sm_gumball_02.jpg
    12.2 KB · Views: 41
  • sm_gumball_03.jpg
    sm_gumball_03.jpg
    25.7 KB · Views: 53
  • sm_gumball_04.jpg
    sm_gumball_04.jpg
    19.9 KB · Views: 40
That is one big gum ball machine. If I had enough space I'd put one of those or a crane in my GR. I'd love to see a vid of it working.
 
Try Sams Club, that's where I picked up the 1" gumball for my machine.

Thanks. Somebody at work mentioned that they saw them at Sam's. I just checked the website and they have a box of 850 1" gumballs for about $18. I'm all over that. I was looking on EPay and it was $20+ for 100 so I knew there had to be a better place.

I'll try the Sam's on my way home tonight.

ken
 
That is one big gum ball machine. If I had enough space I'd put one of those or a crane in my GR. I'd love to see a vid of it working.

Once I finish getting the "keeper" cleaned up and loaded with some gumballs, I'll try to do a video.

The way these work is the gumball reservoir is on the top (above the yellow "Illusion" plexi). You put a quarter in and crank it, that turns the chain (the black lines going up from the coin knob) which turns the dispenser mechanism in the bottom of the gumball reservoir. Once a gumball is dispensed it drops past a microswitch (I am assuming that it plays some music and this starts it). The gumball then starts rolling back and forth accross the ramps or occacionally bounces into the spiral at the back and eventually is dumped out the gumball door (the black rectangle on the yellow bottom plexi.

It is actually very cool watching the gumballs roll around inside it. There were two "demo" gumballs in one of them so I got to try it out a few times. I still need to find a way to put it into freeplay though. At $0.25 per demo, that could get expensive. :)

I also need to sort out the power requirements to get the music to play. There are 5 'D' cells inside that I am presuming will make the music go once they are replaced. I would like to sort out how much power they produce and to what so I can replace them with a wall pack and run it off AC.

ken
 
It looks like it has a Northwestern coin mech on it.

I did a quick mod instruction on converting it to free play.

PDF file is too large to attach. I put it up on scribd. Here is the link:
http://www.scribd.com/full/29259959?access_key=key-gipi3ivm7mridnaklso

Have fun,
Leo


Leo, Thanks for posting the doc. That looks exactly like the coin mechs. I'll look closer tomorrow, but I think that is exactly what I was looking for.

PS: I did stop by Sam's on the way home tonight. $18 or so later and I have a huge box of gumballs to feed to my machines :D. I don't know why anybody would even bother with EBay if there is a Sam's around (and they weren't too stupid to think of it before they ordered :rolleyes:).

ken
 
Leo, Thanks for posting the doc. That looks exactly like the coin mechs. I'll look closer tomorrow, but I think that is exactly what I was looking for.

PS: I did stop by Sam's on the way home tonight. $18 or so later and I have a huge box of gumballs to feed to my machines :D. I don't know why anybody would even bother with EBay if there is a Sam's around (and they weren't too stupid to think of it before they ordered :rolleyes:).

ken

Good, I'm glad it worked out!!
 
Back
Top Bottom