I have been asked to work on 7 pins for a local company

beerorkid

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I have been asked to work on 7 pins for a local company



A person who follows my blog and messageboard contacted me asking if I wanted to work on a few pins that they are going to set up at their new location for their start up business. Don't Panic Labs is somehow incorporated with the local university and they specialize in developing software to create products. They are located in the historic haymarket part of downtown Lincoln, NE that has been developed a bunch and the voters just approved a new arena to be built. It is some very sought after property. Although these games will not be open to the public, they want them working good to provide a unique environment for future clients.

They knew I was a pinball guy and hoped I would give their machines a good run through to get them playing good. Here is the list of games.

Funhouse

Terminator 2

Mario Andretti from Gottlieb. Not sure what model.

Adams Family

Jurassic Park

Last Action Hero

Lethal Weapon 3

Stargate Arcade Machine – Full manual (16p-3002-101 October, 1981)

I am going to stop by tuesday evening to get the over view of them and see what might need to be done.

From what I know this is the collection of a guy who does not do regular maintenance on his machines. he has the manuals and says they are 80% working. Not really sure what that means, but they say bulbs are out and they just need some general love.

I have not agreed to payment or really know what I have gotten myself into, but think I can handle most of it. Polish or replace balls, clean and wax playfields, replace rubbers, adjust switches, and possibly work on some boards. I would really love a funhouse and have already planted the seed for doing all of the work and parts for free for a discounted chance at the funhouse.

So this thread will be where I document how it goes. Wish me luck. I have never seen an opto, so this should be a ton of fun ;)
 
mario is a system 3, if you work on that machine make sure you do the grounding mod on marvins site

if there are flipper issues on the wpc games that are electrical look at the flipper boards
those optos create problems

as for the data east pins if there are coil/flipper issues first look at the ppb boards as those tip 36c tend to go out especially if fuse f5 is blowing

good luck, and if you need to do alot of repairs maybe you can get the fh free?


dc
 
good luck.. but whatever you do, agree on a price/deal for FH in advance before you do any work.. not just on the promise 'I'll give you a discounted price'..
 








Ugh....

Seems this guy has been collecting machines for a while. They had been sitting in a warehouse for years in non working condition. I went through each one at a time. Checked the backbox for battery leakage and burnt connectors. Turned them on and tried to get them to start. Not a single one of the 7 were functional. All have the orig batteries, but none were leaking.

He said he had another company go through them and then they gave up on the repairs. There are notebook sheets in each game of non working parts.

LW3 started a game, but the left flipper stuck up on the first flip.

Adams Family is missing the power switch, but seems in good condition.

Funhouse has severe flipper wear and Rudy's head is not fully assembled. It almost powers up. GI works, but it is not turning on the CPU.

T2 was almost functioning, but would not launch the ball. The cherry switch is adjusted correctly, but it seems the plunger is not firing.

JP would cycle through the dino test, but I was sorta giving up trying it to start.

I think I am in way over my head on this. I feel comfortable working on the funhouse and Adams family because I am familiar with williams machines. I am leaning towards working on those two and then seeing what I can do for the rest. A lot of parts will need to be ordered to get them all working good. It looks like months of work at my speed and experience.

I guess I am calling for all who want to help in the Lincoln area if there are any takers. I did get a PM and if you want to assist, please do. I did not talk payment at all. They do seem to have money to spend and the guy who owns these is a collector of many things. He has a NIB south park and a BK2K at home that are in good working condition and he does not plan on bringing them to the shop. My gut feeling is he picked these up cheap because they were not working and they sat in storage for a long time.
 
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I get the feeling he would rather hang on to non functioning machines and get someone to fix them than sell. On the notes in each machine you can see the person was keeping track of hours. I will inquire though.

I am dealing with one of his employees who reads my blog and figured I would be a good one to call. Plus they are a windows shop (shudders), so I am already afraid.
 
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Wish I was closer, I'm pretty comfortable with DE/Sega machines and I'd enjoy helping. Don't be intimidated by the DE machines, they're not tough. They suffer from the same common burnt GI connectors and cold solder joints as Bally/Williams. So if you can fix Williams stuff you can fix DE. No optos to worry about with DE, just switches, which is nice IMO. Segas have optos but nothing compared to Bally/Williams.
 
DE machines are basically a System11 copy (which WPC is an improvement of) so you shouldn't be too afraid to work on them.

Talk to the owner and ask if he wants to get them all going (and order parts for them which can be very expensive) - or just focus on getting some going and if necessary cannibalising others.. you can maybe use pcb's out of one game to get another working, focus on getting a few running, and only then work on the worse games and try to fix all board problems.. Ie T2 could be a donor for TAF/FH..
 
Plus they are a windows shop (shudders), so I am already afraid.

This should be no surprise. I expect they actually want to make money with their development shop.

Windows has it's place in the world and will for many years to come.

/professional UNIX admin
 
Lindsey I am a huge linux whore. Glad to know you are familiar with unix culture. I work in IT / systems and we are a linux / solaris shop mostly.

This whole thing has worked out pretty well. Hooked with a KLOV user and we rocked some insane hours at the place over the holiday to get 2 pins up and running for a local shelter for kids party.

They are treating us really good and I have been having a blast working on machines I really wish I owned.



Funhouse is enjoying a bit of time in my BorKade and Rudy needs new jaw gears, which are on their way, as well as a full shop. This machine and the Addams Family I shopped are WD40 victims on all coils. It is messy and there have been issues, but the kids had a great time at the party the monday after xmas. We got a thank you card from the kids. Melted my heart. The older kids loved the arcade machines even though they had multiple xboxes and wii's to play with on 52 inch TVs.

The guy who owns the machines had them at other locations and they got beat to shit. He is not willing to sell or trade for work, but has no problem with us getting them in great working shape. It really comes down to what we think is necessary to get them in good working order and he has approved all the work. All in all I was scared going in, and am now enjoying the challenge, experience, and pride of bringing some machines back to great condition.

I have enjoyed having funhouse in my basement. It needs a lot of work, but the owner is grateful for our work on them and paying a decent price for the fixings.

A 1/2 inch drill bit will get a stuck sleeve out very well ;)
 
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If you were closer, I would be willing to help.

Wish I was closer as well, I still go to Lincoln quite a bit, graduated from the University a while back. Fixing 7 games would be a blast (as long as they're not sys 80 gottlieb's, lol). DE/Williams/Early Bally games I'm pretty good at board repairs.

www.pinrepair.com is the main repair site I use, but the Ninja site was pretty cool this last year.
 
*shrugs* our voip, and various behind-the-scene servers run in *nix environments, but when it comes to Domain Controllers, Exchange, and a few other servers, some times the Microsoft products are easier to set up and go.

LUsers tend to be more comfortable in a windows environment (or even OSX *shudders*).

@beerorkid - have you been following smalltownguy's pizza parlour labour swap thread? He recently did something somewhat similar, but for pizza for life and with vids instead of pins.
http://forums.arcade-museum.com/showthread.php?t=149627
 
Oh I was just being snarky on the windows comment. Those guys are doing some awesome stuff there.

The pizza for life thread was awesome.

Orders are in and I am looking forward to getting that funhouse glistening. Treasure Cove kit showed up yesterday :)
 
Maybe if you're gonna try to get that funhouse, you should worry about all the other machines first. Once you've poured your heart into making sure they all shine, line them up with the unpolished funhouse, and let the owner take a look :D
 
Good plan ;) , but....

He is not willing to let any of them go. He is compensating us well for working on the machines. There are only two left to go after this.

Just buffed a ton of balls, got the Rudy gears in the mail today. Now some bits from GPE to fix the display and the Funhouse is going to shine.

All payment for this work is going to tools and into a fund for me to get a good machine. Looking to sell a baby pacman and an Alien poker soon so I can keep trading up to a more recent pin.

Been following the ninja from a few days after it got started. Glad he hit his goal.
 
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