Thanks Jethro!

EMs will be priced at 25¢ and SS pins will be priced at 50¢. Those are my recommendations only. The owner of the business where the pins will be placed has final say. Unfortunately, most EMs can't accept a second coin so I am pretty much stuck with 1 Coin - 1 Play.

Now there is an idea that never took off...

Lookee what showed up in the mail today:

Tucson Vendor Business License (resized).png

A few issues need to be resolved before I can put my first pins on location - nothing to do with the business license. I am still in wait mode.

I will be persuing new clients as top priority this week.

Vending Machine Operator. Wow! That sure sounds wonderful!

I wish! I do owe you all an update.

I have three possible clients. Two are dragging their feet and one business won't open until July. I told one possible client "I will make you an offer that you can't refuse." I offered to put a pinball machine in one of his locations for a week and he can keep all coins dropped. I told him that if it wasn't the best earning game in his game room, I would remove the machine, shake hands with him and part on good terms.

I am currently looking for the very best of locations. I would prefer to not have my nice pins in a bar. I would prefer to have the location close enough to keep the route time low. I may have to lower my expectations, but for now I am still contacting clients that I would prefer.

In the meantime, I finished up the restoration of a King Pin playfield. I don't do full playfield restorations these days; they just take way too much of my time. But this was a special case. The playfield had already been depopulated more that a year ago and I needed to finish the job so I could trade it for a Jack in the Box.

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/what-machine-did-you-bring-home-today-post-your-pictures/page/176#post-4427078

The playfield restoration is far from perfect but it is 'good enough' and good enough has to do! With the clear coat and Carnauba Wax, it will play screaming fast.

Before:

DSCF1614 (resized).JPG

DSCF1613 (resized).JPG

DSCF1612 (resized).JPG

After:

DSCF3592 (resized).JPG

DSCF3591 (resized).JPG

DSCF3590 (resized).JPG

I had terrible problem with fish-eyes with the Krylon #1303 Crystal Clear Acrylic that I was using - probably putting it on too thick. I spent four days sanding and repainting. The finish isn't perfectly smooth, but should be 'smooth enough.'

I am currently working on restoring Wizard! to it's former glory. I have finally broken down and gotten some Createx paint for some limited playfield retouching. Wizard! is a special game and I plan to route it so others can enjoy it.

I visited two of the three 'possibles' on Monday. The owner wasn't in for one. I tracked down one of the two owners for the other. He explained that as a franchisee they were not permitted to do profit sharing. They were only contractually allowed to own the machines in their restaurants.

I am finding that it is important to talk to the person making the decisions regarding adding pinball machines to their business - and that is not easy! I have sent emails, with no luck. I have talked to managers on the phone, not effective. I have to find the right person and speak to them in person to get a 'yes' or 'no' answer.

I am looking at other venues, some suggested here in this thread to me.

I stopped at a retirement community. The receptionist sounded enthusiastic. I need to talk to their 'Activities Manager.' I left a Pecos Pinball PR package for her and will follow up with a phone call and then in person. Pinball is therapeutic for the 'greatest generation' and my vintage machines are perfect for this purpose. The older EMs are simple to learn how to play and some will remember these games from their youth. Well, that's my sales pitch anyway!

This is a great idea! Right now I prefer to go after the 'big boys' of my choice, close to my home and clients who would want more than one machine. I also don't want my restored pins in bars. This is somewhat egotistical, but I think that a business would be lucky to have one of my restored pinball machines in their place of business. However, as time passes and I can't find clients, I will definitely be posting an ad on Craigslist.

When I got laid off from a computer job, the people paying my unemployment insurance wanted me to apply at places like Circle 'K'. I even lost a few weeks of pay because I wasn't meeting their requirements for number of applications submitted. But I stuck to my guns and got a job at Hughes Aircraft Company doing MIS work. It was the best job I ever had and I was much happier, and richer, than if I had accepted a job in retail.

Thanks for the excellent suggestion. I'm just not ready, yet, to give up my choice of clients and open it up to all businesses.

I am going for the sweet and succulent low hanging fruit first. But, yeah, I am open to my pins in a bar. There are a few locations in Arizona where the more mature bar crowd hangs out that would be just fine. As I see it, anything can be fixed with some time and money. But I fear most the breaking of a $300 backglass in a rowdy bar!

I hear you Nic. I used to work in an arcade called 'Fool Around' next to the University of Arizona so I fully understand the abuse my beauties will be getting. The worst I saw was a broken playfield glass. Anything but a broken backglass I can handle without crying!

You are wise to learn at such a young age that the best place for these restored pins are in the public, where they were *meant* to be. Kudos to you, sir, for sharing your games with so many others to enjoy! You are making memories that will never be forgotten!

Thanks @lyonsden. I'm on a mission, a mission to populate pinball in Tucson - no matter how long it takes.

I found one of @desertt1's locations:

Tucson Indoor Sports Center
1065 West Grant Road

And some of their games I see in one pic:

#south-park
The Machine: Bride of Pinbot
Hook
Special Force
Ghostbusters (Pro)
Super Mario Bros.
Corvette

And some more of their games I see in another pic:

#diner
Taxi
Evel Knievel
Attack from Mars

@desertt1, do you want to list your locations and current games? I would like to stop by when I am in the area. It's great to have pins back on location here in Tucson.

Yes, your pins are newer than my machines, 'formerly known as Project Pins.' The first two to go out the door will be Williams Super-Flite, 1974, and Bally Harlem Globetrotters On Tour, 1979. They may be old but they play great! Who says you can't teach an old dog new tricks?

D & D has two of my machines 'formerly known as Project Pins' - Williams Fan-Tas-Tic, 1972 and Williams Spanish Eyes, 1972.

It's been a long hot summer and it's not over yet. I need to update you on what has been going on over here at Pecos' Palatial Pinball Parlour and Pecos Pinball.

Three months ago:

I am now classifying the pinballs in my collection as 'Routeable' and 'Special.' Routeable games can go out on location. 'Special' pins will be reserved for special events where I can be there to keep an eye on them. I don't want my Special Pins walking off. Wizard! is very special. Consequently, I am giving this copy of this iconic mid-70s classic extra special attention during the restoration. I have spent more than two weeks getting the touch-ups right - and I'm not done yet. I still have some work to do around the letters and numbers.

Before:

before_upper_playfield (resized).jpg

before_middle_playfield (resized).jpg

before_lower_playfield (resized).jpg

After:

DSCF3670 (resized).JPG

DSCF3671 (resized).JPG

DSCF3669 (resized).JPG

DSCF3672 (resized).JPG

Touch-Ups Nearly Finished (resized).png

Wizard! is a complex game with a LOT of relays. I can usually go through the restoration of a pin and end up with fewer problems than I started with. Not this time. I ended up with about 20 mech issues that had to be diagnosed and resolved, one at a time. Five or six were score reel problems, almost always easily fixed. Three problems were real bears to fix. I will pass on the details. Maybe you can learn something that will save you some time in the future.

The Symptoms: The first rollover in the right lane was working only when the game was cold and first turned on. As the machine warmed up, this rollover would no longer work.

I looked at the schematic. You can't find a simpler circuit than the Right Lane Rollower switch to the Right Lane Relay coil lug. It is one wire!! No switches in the circuit, just one wire! Easy fix right? There is a break somewhere in that wire or the Jones plug is dirty. I ran a wire with alligator clips from switch to the correct lug on the relay. No change! Huh? What made the problem even weirder was that it was intermittent. Intermittent problems are typically the hardest to find and correct.

This switch and relay are important, really important. After flipping any or all of the four flip-flags, the Right Lane Rollover switch, when closed, activates the Right Lane relay. This relay collects one, two, three or four of the Flip-Flag features.

I finally decided to take the Right Lane Relay off the mech board and examine it further. One of the tiny coil wires had broken loose at the coil lug, probably when I was cleaning the mech board. These wires never come loose or break! Well, this one did and almost certainly broken during my thorough cleaning. The wire was touching the lug, working when the game was first started and then not working as the game warmed up. A nice new bit of solder and the problem was solved! It's such a great feeling when you have fixed one of these problems and knowing it won't be coming back because you have fixed the root problem and not the symptoms.

The next problem is, again, entirely my fault. I clean every single contact during the restoration process. That includes the contacts on the relay leaf switches. 'Double decker' switch stacks are removed to get to the bottom switches. During this process, it is easy to dislodge the metal piece on the relay that holds one end of the spring. Of course, this was the Eject Hole Relay and it was at the very rear of the mech board. No way I was getting to that. I had already tried that and made a bad situation worse. Sometimes you just have to bite the bullet and take the time to do it right. The mech board had to come out, again!

The Symptoms: The Eject Hole Solenoid was weak, not always kicking the ball out of the hole. The relay was buzzing up a storm - a really ugly sound! Some of the switches were arcing. Not good. This causes pitting on the contacts. The Relay hold switch and the Eject Hole Solenoid switch were the worst - they were chittering and chattering and constantly arcing, first blue and then yellow.

This is what I was seeing after I got some light on the situation:

DSCF3728 (resized).JPG

DSCF3729 (resized).JPG

DSCF3730 (resized).JPG

Can you see what is wrong???

You can see the extra large gap from the coil core to the armature plate. No wonder the relay wasn't working. A plate this far from the core will never work properly.

Then I found that the metal armature wasn't properly seated into the metal coil frame. After fixing this issue, cleaning the contacts and readjusting the switches that I had mangled, the relay works like a charm! Nice and smoooooooth!

The final 'What the Hay' problem was particualarly strange.

The Symptoms: I would be playing the game and, seemingly randomly, the 'Same Player Shoots Again' lamps in the backbox would light. It would happen on the first ball. It would happen on the second ball. You get the idea, it was happening a LOT!

The only way to get an extra ball, or so I thought, was to rack the bonus up to 19000, lighting the Left Lane Extra Ball When Lit rollover. Shoot the ball up the left lane when this lamp was lit and the 'Same Player Shoots Again' lamps would light. Okay you EM experts. Are you done detectivating and have you figured out what the problem was?

The first clue came when I was testing the Stand Up Target Special. I wasn't getting an extra game. The Extra Ball/Special Jones Plug feature was set to extra ball. None of the Jones Plugs on the Mech Board were marked so I had to track down the right Jones Plugs by looking up the wire colors on the schematic. Then I found that every single stinkin' Male Jones Plug had put been put into the ten positions of the Score Adjustment Jones plug in the backbox. When the the score got to 3X,000, an extra ball was awarded. When the score got to 5X,000 an extra ball was awarded. Here, a picture is worth a hundred words:

number 1027 Score Adjustment (resized).jpg

Sorry, it's a tad bit crooked.

I changed the Extra Ball/Special Jones Plug feature to 'Special' and I removed all ten of the Score Adjustment Male Jones Plugs. No more extra balls except for when the Extra Ball When Lit rollover was collected. Perfection is perfectly awesome! This is not something you would ever expect to see. No one puts all ten male Jones Plugs in the Female Score Adjustment Jones Plugs, do they?! The previous owner did. It just goes to show you; You never know what someone has done, as crazy as it might seem, to the Project Pin you are trying to restore. Surprise is often the order of the day.

I'm sure that I will find another problem or two. I still have to work on the coin mechs but this game is now 99% and mechanically ready to go to it's first special event. And what a wonderful feeling that is.

Good things are happening at Pecos Pinball.

Pecos Pinball is pleased and honored to announce their affiliation with the Hotel McCoy. Pecos Pinball is excited to be bringing vintage pinball to the people of Tucson.

Hotel McCoy is a retro hotel. Bryan Coggins and his team have spent a lot of time and money bringing the old hotel Silverbell Inn back to life, as a resort hotel with a 1960s feel. They have 93 rooms at very reasonable prices.

The first machine at Hotel McCoy is a Williams 1973 Travel Time . It will be located in the lobby near the pool, outdoor ping pong table and other recreational amenities.

#travel-time-williams will be set at two games for a quarter as an introductory price. Stop by and support pinball in Tucson and say that Pecos sent you!

It has taken me quite a bit of time getting this up to my standards. This was my first pin on route and I wanted it to look as nice as I could; first impressions are important.

And it takes a lot of work to take a game that is working fine for home use but needs more work to make it route ready. Then there were the missing parts like a total play meter. And then were the unexpected mini-disasters. I had never seen this one before! I heard a crunch when lowering the playing onto the prop rod. Not good. I found that the prop rod had prodded it's way right through the shooter lane. Some wood glue, gorilla glue and a tad bit of clamping and it was fixed.

DSCF3746 (resized).JPG

DSCF3748 (resized).JPG

There was quite a bit of planking on the playfield. It takes me a lot of time to do a playfield touch-up - I'm just not that good of an artist. When I was in first grade I was the victim of teacher abuse. I was paddled for not coloring within the lines. Is it possible that I never got over that? As you can see, I still can't color in the lines.

DSCF3764 (resized).JPG

I didn't have the time to strip the playfield down and clear coat it using my preferred method. Instead, I touched-up the playfield and applied several coats of Carnauba wax. I seriously thought about using Varathane, but I'm not a fan of Varathane and was afraid that it would eventually peel off the playfield. So, I did some serious thinking about what causes playfield wear. If you look at any pinball that has been in play for thousands of games you will see that the pinball, once smooth and shiny, is now covered with tiny nicks. That can't be good for a playfield. What might cause those nicks? The prime culprits would be the kickout hole metal thingy and any other features on the playfield that feature metal on metal contact. This is my solution:

DSCF3737 (resized).JPG

DSCF3744 (resized).JPG

DSCF3750 (resized).JPG

I bought this box of heat shrink tubing not really sure what I would do with all of those larger sizes. I may have found a use! This is experimental. I will have to keep an eye on how fast the heat shrink tubing wears. I will have to watch out for those little colorful tubes that shrink detaching themselves and falling off the metal that they protect. With any luck, my brand new pinball will stay shiny, smooth as a baby's bottom and brand new looking. Will a few coats of wax will protect my playfield? I am going to find out. I will, of course, have to wax the playfield more often and I am not too optimistic that wax will be enough. Time will tell.

As I mentioned, there was a lot of planking on the playfield. Here are some before pics:

DSCF2383 (resized).JPG

DSCF2429 (resized).JPG

After much work, rework and more rework, I finally got the results I was looking for.

DSCF3801 (resized).JPG

DSCF3802 (resized).JPG

The lines you see in these pics are not planking. They are scratches in the playfield glass that the camera picked up.

And finally, what you have been waiting for, pics of Travel Time on site at Hotel McCoy!

DSCF3793 (resized).JPG

My best friend and pin hauler, Dave.

DSCF3795 (resized).JPG

DSCF3800 (resized).JPG

hotel_mccoy_full_playfield (resized).jpg

hotel_mccoy_full_pinball (resized).jpg

When I was a freshman at the University of Arizona I lived on campus at the Apache Hall dorm, or Apache Pit as I so lovingly called it. I did my laundry at a nearby laundromat. If you have ever done your laundry in a laundromat, you know just how incredibly boring that chore is. And what did they have in that laundromat to ease my extreme boredom but a pinball machine, a Williams Travel Time pinball machine! Wouldn't it be something if that very same Williams Travel Time pinball machine is the same Williams Travel Time pinball machine that is now at the Hotel McCoy? Perhaps a freshman from the University of Arizona will one day wander into the Hotel McCoy and play this Williams Travel Time pinball machine. Perhaps said freshman will one day grow up and he will rescue and restore this very same Williams Travel Time pinball machine. Perhaps he will then put it on location somewhere in Tucson where another freshman from the University of Arizona will find it and play it... Stranger things have happened!

Thanks @Ericc123! The hotel's motto is 'Travel for All.' A mural just outside the room that Travel Time is in uncannily mimics Travel Time's backglass and cabinet with it's bright colors and palm trees. I'll have to take a pic of the mural next time I am down there and post it here for you.

A journey full of adventure! Thanks Ryan for the MANY, many congrats.

AND Wow! An animated GIF from @ryanclaytor!

The...

2 PLAYS
<>
QUARTER

...price is not as generous as it may first appear. I planned on one play per quarter on all EMs but the Quarter Relay wouldn't start a game with the Jones Plug set to 1 play per quarter. Travel Time is highly configurable. I changed the settings from:

90 Time Units, Number Match ON, 80,000 points for one replay

to

60 Time Units, Number Match OFF, 61,000 Points for one replay

I can also speed up the Time Units so they click off faster, but most people at the hotel will be pinball newbies. One of the contractors did put 95,000+ on it, but I knew he was a gamer from way back when he asked me if I was going to bring a Galaga in!

I don't like turning off features but in this case it made sense since I was already giving the games away at 12 1/2 cents each! Oh yeah, that and the Match Unit didn't seem to be working and I had no time to fix it!

I signed up for a Trade Name through Arizona's online Website last night and got this Arizona Trade Name Certificate. I should have done this months ago. I tried to do this months ago but when the Website asked for a name, I had to also choose the business type as Inc. or LLC. I must have found the right online form this time because I wasn't asked to include a business type. Now that 'Pecos Pinball' is registered, no one in Arizona can use that name.

Cost: $10.00

AZ Trade Name Certificate Pinside (resized).jpg

The Arizona Trade name certificate is needed to get a business account at my local Federal Credit Union. I also need a copy of my Tucson Business license and an 'ID, credit bureau, ChexSystems review', whatever that is.

This account will be separate from my personal FCU account so I can better track expenses and income.

I cannot get a credit card for my business account, only a debit card.

I will be heading down to my FCU to set up a business account today.

Total business startup costs to date:

Transaction Privilege Tax, TPT: $32.00
Tucson Business License: $62.50
Vending Distributor License: $137.50
Two Passport Photos: $16.29
Fingerprinting: $10.00
DPS Background Check: $22.00
Parking: $2.00
9x City of Tucson Coin Operated Machine Licenses @$6.00 each $54.00
Parking: $2.00
Arizona Trade Name Certificate: $10
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sub Total: $348.29
Liability Insurance (one year) $593.40
Total: $941.69

Today's haul:

DSCF3804 (resized).JPG

A box of pencils for $1.00: One pencil will be kept in each pinball machine on route so I can fill out the Credits and Cash spreadsheet which will also be kept in each pinball on route.

credits_and_cash (resized).png

The clear nail polish is for the metal edge on the top arch where the pinball is guided into play. This is another experiment to reduce nicks on the pinball.

And I got my Pecos Pinball business account today. I even got a debit card on the same day! Now that is service! I can now track my business income and expenses easier.

Thanks @nascarrey! I can use all the encouragement I can get - much appreciated!

Thanks @desertt1. The information I put in the spreadsheet is client confidential and I don't want the Google people to have access to it. I know it is old school. I will be taking pics of the spreadsheet after I update it and transferring the data to my PC with RAID 1, so there is some measure of redundancy.

Good idea. I plan on doing this. It will take a while to learn how much is taken in and when would be the best time to collect. I don't want to leave a lot of quarters in the game nor do I want to have to visit each week. I'm thinking that twice monthly on the same day of the week, probably Friday, is going to work out best.

I got a PM from a local Pinsider. He took up my offer to play Travel Time on site at the Hotel McCoy. As he was about to put a quarter in the machine, he was told, "you don't even need quarters to play!" He told me that, sure enough, the game was set for free play. I am so grateful to my friendly Pinsider! Thank you for CMA - Covering My A**.

I thought I might have put the credit reel on wrong, but when I got there I found this:

DSCF3808 (resized).JPG

Do you know what the problem is and what needs to be done to fix the 'free game' issue? It took me a while to realize that the two wires on the top switch are NOT both white and orange. It is a real problem for me with my old eyes to determine the faded colors of these wires!

I told you about the mural on the outside of the lobby where Travel Time is set up. It looks a lot like the Travel Time backglass; don't you think!

travel_for_all_mural (resized).jpg

DSCF2382 (resized).JPG

I wonder if the artist saw a picture of the backglass before they did the mural??

The latest haul, from eBay:

DSCF3814 (resized).JPG

DSCF3815 (resized).JPG

28 Coin Mechs (resized).png

The Project Pins I buy are often missing the coin mechs. Gotta have these for pins on route!

I always try to save pinball parts, but these plastic coin mechs are not worth keeping. I've never actually used them, but they are missing the magnet and don't seem very robust.

Elmhurst, Illinois is Coin Mech. Is St. Louis Coinco?

So, I should look more closely at the plastic mechs? I didn't realize that there was a small magnet hidden in there. I was looking for a big magnet.

I worked in a game room in the late 70s and we had no problems with the coin mechs. They were in new or relatively new pins. I haven't had any problems with the coin mechs I use. But, I take them apart, clean the crusty coke and beer gunk and SuperLube the metal on metal parts.

I realized on Saturday when I was testing Travel Time after fixing the 'free play' issue that I needed a new column in my spreadsheet.

Games and Cash Spreadsheet Updated (resized).png

The new column is 'SVC Games' so I can track and remove the games I play when testing a pin after service work.

Today's haul:

17 x 7/8" tubular cam locks for the backdoors from @forceflow. Thanks ForceFlow!

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/fs-double-bitted-7-8-locks

I have been buying my coin door locks on eBay and my backdoor locks from Pinball Life in onesies and twosies, but I prefer to spend my money with Pinsiders. With this lot, I will be set for backbox lox for quite a while. I still need higher quality, uniquely keyed, coin door locks. All of the lots I see on eBay and Amazon are all keyed alike. Does anybody have any links to a good 7/8" tubular cam lock keyed differently that doesn't cost an arm and a leg?