Tale of the $50 Pinball

TheEvener

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Donor 3 years: 2011, 2016, 2020
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Location
Ottawa, Ontario
Three months ago, I officially became a pinhead for $50. Now it's time to tell how and why.

I was getting off from work when I was checking my e-mail, and I found a message from OTTOgd, with the subject "Cheap Pin!" He had spoken to a kijiji seller who had an Aztec pinball up for sale; as fortune would have it, the pinball was for sale in Ottawa where I live. Since Kevin knew I didn't have any pins, he kindly offered me the "sale," and asked me to follow up with the seller if I wanted to grab Aztec since he wanted it out of his house ASAP to clear way for a cross-country move. I quickly tapped out a reply to Kevin to let him know that I'd gladly get it. I spoke with the seller shortly thereafter, and we agreed that I'd swing by the following evening to complete the sale.

Being a newbie, I peppered Kevin with questions over the next day, and he shared "Pinball Moving 101" advice with me - tools to have, things to take off, including the need for a driller in case the seller lost the key for the backglass. I lined up the few tools I needed, wrote out his guidelines, and headed over to the seller's house.

I arrived at the seller's house shortly after 8:00pm - he has just got back from a function and was still in suit and tie. Turned out he was moving out west to take a new position at Mount Royal University in Alberta, and was getting ready for the move. Turned out I knew the seller since I worked for a year in the same university department he works in. He was very laid back and glad to help move the pinball.

Speaking with the seller, he confirmed that there were two issues he described to Kevin; one of the flippers wasn't working, and one of the bumpers needed a new ring. Kev mentioned to me that he thought the flipper might be due to a loose wire, and that a little soldering should fix it.
*
Moving the pin from the seller's basement was a bit of adventure. Fortunately the seller had the backglass key, so we took off the header, but after some back and forth, we decided to try and haul the pin out quickly with the legs still on. This was exposed as a terribly bad idea halfway up the steps.*

Since each step had a lip, we had to carry the pin higher to get up and above them; it didn't take long before we hit the wall so to speak and struggled the rest of the way.

It was pure agony. Two frustrated middle aged guys struggling to take a pin up the stairs. Not a pretty sight.

The seller got the short end of the stick since he was at the bottom, and had to support most of the weight! After 20 minutes of cursing and struggle, we finally go the pin up the stairs. With the lesson learned, we removed the legs - with two people carrying the pin at a more natural lower arm length, it was a breeze by comparison to get the pin into the car, followed by other parts. Once I arrived back home, I enlisted a neighbour to help to take it into the house. It sat upstairs in the dining room for a few days until I cleared out some space in the basement:

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With the space identified, the pinball completed its journey to the basement. I fired up the pinball, and everything seemed to work save for the flipper and a few lights were burnt out on the playfield.

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After setting it up, I got to work in inspecting the pinball; after some direction from Kevin, I learned how to lift up the playfield and inspected the flipper; sure enough, there was a loose wire, so I set up to resolder it.

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I was short on a new ring for the bumper, so I improvised by stapling it together. Crude, but it worked.

Fired up it up a second time, and voila! Tested a four player game, and everything went smoothly.

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I didn't know anything about Aztec until I did a little research; apparently it was William's last electro-mechanical pinball before they went solid state (and apparently a few early solid state prototypes exist that involved Aztec pins towards the end of its 10,000 production run). The game field is bright and colourful, and it's a really enjoyable pin. My daughters were hooked on pinball after our visit to the Pinball Cafe in Toronto, so it's fun to have a basement addition next to the arcade cabs:

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A huge thanks to Otto for securing my first pin, plus all the free advice and support (and materials from my last Brampton visit) that followed!
 
Last edited:
Nice pickup! I don't have any EM's but maybe I should check into it.

You've probably noticed, the left flipper is dragging on the playfield, creating a wear spot. I'd try to address that as soon as possible and stop playing it until that is fixed.
 
You know...

I've officially crossed from "sane" to "insane". I knew what pin it was from the first picture...before reading any text. :|
 
The maddness has begun. Your vids will gather dust and you will be seeking pins wherever you travel.
 
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