Guide for First Time Pinball Buyers
Hauling a Machine
Another aspect of buying a machine is
of course hauling it home. Is your car/SUV large enough to fit a
machine into? You'll want to figure that out before arriving at the
seller's house and wasting both of your time when you can't fit the
machine into your vehicle. You don't want to have to resort to mangling
your machine because you took something apart that wasn't meant to come
apart in order to fit it in your vehicle. If your vehicle isn't large
enough you'll have to rent a truck/van or get a friend to help out.
You should get rough dimensions of the inside of your vehicle and compare with dimensions of the machine's cabinet/head from the seller or online resources. Machine dimensions can vary quite a bit, especially wide-body or newer machines with heads that fold-down instead of being removed form the cabinet.
This article may help in determing if your vehicle can haul a machine:
http://pinwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Vehicles_for_Moving_Pinball_Machines
There are some common tools you should consider bringing along.
- Hand truck - if moving machine up steps or long distances (ie. back yard to front yard, etc)
- Wrench for leg bolts (5/8 inch and 9/16 inch)
- Wrench for head bolts
- Furniture pads / Blankets - to rest fold-down head on or protect head/cabinet inside vehicle
- Flash Light - to look for battery damage
- Friend to help move if seller is unable to help
Since you'll likely be buying a working machine as your first machine
and wanting to see it work, the machine will be fully assembled when
you buy it. This means in order to take it home you'll need to
disassemble some of the machine. The seller *should* help you do this,
but if the machine is in someone's home they may have bought it and had
it setup for them. So if you don't know the steps in disassembling a
game, you'll want to learn the process and/or verify with the seller if
they can help with disassembly and loading of the machine. Usually
people remove the balls from the machine before transporting to prevent
any damage caused by the ball dropping down on the playfield when the
machine is tilted vertically. The legs come off and the head of the
machine usually folds down or is completely removed. If the head is
completely removed, you'll also have to disconnect wire harnesses in the
backbox of the machine prior to removing the head bolts and head.
You'll want to find out if the seller can help load the machine or if
you'll need to bring additional help. You can't plan for every
situation so you may just need to check the machine out on a first visit
and then come back later with help, the appropriate vehicle and tools.
Setting the Machine Up
Once
the head/cabinet and legs are safely in your home, you'll be
reassembling the machine. You'll first get the legs on the cabinet.
Once the head is bolted in again, you'll need to reconnect any wire
harnesses that were unconnected. Usually these connectors are pinned so
you can't plug them in wrong, but take care to match up the correct
male and female harnesses. Look for anything that might have moved or
been knocked loose while transporting. Take the playfield glass off and
put the ball(s) back in the machine. Inspect the playfield to see if
there are any pieces of plastic, glass, etc that may need to be removed
or wiped off. You should then be ready to play some pinball!
Maintaining the Machine
If
you bought the machine "shopped" and fully working, you shouldn't have
much in the way of maintenance for a few years. Just make sure if there
are batteries in the machine, you check the date on them and replace
them once a year. If it's an original battery (often soldered onto the
board) you'll probably want to cut it off and solder in a remote battery
pack or use the machine without the battery.
Having Issues? No Fear!
If
you have issues with the machine there are plenty of resources to help
you diagnose and repair the problem. You may not be technically
inclined to fix the issue, but with these resources you should have a
better idea of how to proceed. Depending on the issue, it may be an
easy fix you can attempt yourself or you may need to hire a repairman or
purchase a new circuit board. In any case, that's all part of owning a
pinball machine.. they hold up surprisingly well most of the time since
they were used in a commercial setting and couldn't be breaking every 5
minutes or the arcade operators would have never made any money! But,
as mentioned.. things do break from time to time, even when you buy a
fully working machine.
Below are some great resources for repairing & learning about pinball machines:
rec.games.pinball (RGP) Newsgroup
This pinball newsgroup has been around for well over a decade and is one
of the premier sources for the pinball hobby. Need help troublshooting
an issue? Want to find out the latest news in the hobby? There is a
very large community here to help you on your way.
PinWiki
PinWiki is a wiki designed for any information about pinball
machines. Repair guides, history, and much, much, more is constantly
being added to PinWiki.
pinrepair.com
A good collection of pinball repair guides. There used to be a lot more of them here, hopefully they return some day.
THIS OLD PINBALL (Pinball, Shuffle Alley, Pitch & Bat Repair DVDs)
These are *GREAT* dvds if you're new to the hobby. They will help you
repair anything from old mechanical EM machines to the newer solid state
pinball games, with some additional dvds dedicated to shuffle bowling
& ball bowlers, pitch & bat and manikin arcade games.
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