The gun on my new Operation Wolf works great (which I think is pretty lucky) but I wasn't happy with the slop in the movement. A lot of the problem was solved by disassembling the gun base and tightening the three phillips-head screws that hold the gun handle to the horizontal bearing shaft.
The rest of the problem was in the worn bearings for the vertical shaft that penetrates the control panel. There are two bearings in a housing that bolts to the underside of the CP and is accessed through the coin door. After removing the housing, I pressed out the old bearings using a socket and a poor-man's arbor press (aka vise) like this:
When I measured everything, I found that the bearings have an 18mm ID and a 20mm OD. Sounds pretty standard, right? Turns out the standard 18mm bearing has a 22mm OD. I decided the best path would be to order the correct size OD and bore the ID to size. I ordered some oilite bearings from Mcmaster (6658K24) as well as a thrust bearing, which was not part of the original design but should have been. Tonight I bored out the ID of the bearings on a lathe, and they look pretty good. They fit well into a 51/64 collet.
Hopefully this weekend I'll have time to get them installed and report back on the improvement!
The rest of the problem was in the worn bearings for the vertical shaft that penetrates the control panel. There are two bearings in a housing that bolts to the underside of the CP and is accessed through the coin door. After removing the housing, I pressed out the old bearings using a socket and a poor-man's arbor press (aka vise) like this:
When I measured everything, I found that the bearings have an 18mm ID and a 20mm OD. Sounds pretty standard, right? Turns out the standard 18mm bearing has a 22mm OD. I decided the best path would be to order the correct size OD and bore the ID to size. I ordered some oilite bearings from Mcmaster (6658K24) as well as a thrust bearing, which was not part of the original design but should have been. Tonight I bored out the ID of the bearings on a lathe, and they look pretty good. They fit well into a 51/64 collet.
Hopefully this weekend I'll have time to get them installed and report back on the improvement!
