(Topic ID: 85981)

Big Game Club - The Safari has started!

By Xenon75

10 years ago


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  • Latest reply 21 days ago by chuckwurt
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#301 8 years ago
Quoted from TGIPinside:

LOL! I just bought it from a flipper earlier this summer.
My BG isn't going anywhere anytime soon.
The best thing the guy did for me and the game was to tell me about Pinside!!!

as your screen name would indicate and absolutely! the fine folks here pinside have saved me countless hours of discovery and I have been through 32 games in 16 months

#302 8 years ago

Haven't had a chance to play much this week. Gonna' ROCK this bad boy tonight though!
Last time I fired up my pins I had a very, very good run. I was in it.. flow... zone... whatever. The millions were flyin'.
How about tonight? Will I nail 1.8? Is there 2m in my future?
Off at2:30 and playing by 3.
Hey! What's that smell?
It's my Big Game burnin' up!!!

#303 8 years ago
Quoted from rollitover:

Haven't had a chance to play much this week. Gonna' ROCK this bad boy tonight though!
Last time I fired up my pins I had a very, very good run. I was in it.. flow... zone... whatever. The millions were flyin'.
How about tonight? Will I nail 1.8? Is there 2m in my future?
Off at2:30 and playing by 3.
Hey! What's that smell?
It's my Big Game burnin' up!!!

My wife's txt today "$0.50 Age of Ultron at Red Box tonight". My mind, Age of Ultron (again) or Big Game?????? Luckily they were all sold out so my decision is made. Time to go Hunting!

#304 8 years ago
Quoted from TGIPinside:

Time to go Hunting!

Atta' boy. Get after it!

1 week later
#305 8 years ago

1.9m+ last night boys.
That was without reserve bonus lit!
Near impossible? Certainly improbable!
2m+ here we come!

#306 8 years ago
Quoted from rollitover:

1.9m+ last night boys.
That was without reserve bonus lit!
Near impossible? Certainly improbable!
2m+ here we come!

Nicely done Rollit!!! Without the reserve lit you must have been hitting the Big Game spinner like crazy.

I did not see a Big Game up at the York, PA show. But I did get to play some new tables. It was pretty cool, and the kids liked it too. I'm thinking of using a hall pass to enter into a local tourney. We'll see.

I'm also thinking of posting some close up play field pict's to one of the Vid Restoration threads. My play field by the flippers really needs some help. It looks like it was down to the wood and then had some paint applied that has now become a blurry mess. I think I may try a touch up and then put some mylar on top. But will need some instructions. I'm definitely not up for a full blown restoration.

The Big Game is still up and running though. I'll be wrenching on it tonight. Got some more lights out on the cards. I'm replacing them as they go.

#307 8 years ago

Thanks bud. Was a great game. Ball three seemed to last for days. I love when that happens.
Speaking of restoration I hope yours comes out great. Chuckwurt is in the process with his.
Now that I think about it, haven't had an update in a while.
Mine could use some touch-ups for sure but I am a bit reluctant as I have never done it before.
Don't want it to look worse than when I started 'ya know?
Besides, I call it the "The Beast" and having some wear on it helps it to live up to it's nickname (I think anyway)

You want to see a beauty? Go back through this thread and look at the pics of Redketchups machine.
BY FAR the nicest example I have ever seen!

#308 8 years ago

Mines in s holding pattern. I have a friend helping me restore the cab, but since she works for free, it's going to take some time haha. Then I'm getting a repro backglass, then restore the playfield last. Might not touch the playfield though. We will see.

#309 8 years ago

The Tiger has been branded.

Just idle curiosity....I wanted to reach out and ask you Big Gamers out there if you have a number branded into the back box of your games (mine is on the upper left side). I looked up Big Game here on Pinside and it has listed that 2,713 were produced. But check out the picture from mine.

What's with this?

It looks post production but the machine is pretty rough all around.

PA140871.jpgPA140871.jpg

PA140872.jpgPA140872.jpg

#310 8 years ago

I think it represents a code, as in information, about it's production.
It does not represent the literal number of the machine as far as a production number.
I think I think

Keep snooping. Somebody on this website would know for sure.

#311 8 years ago

Yeah. Doesn't mean the number produced, but more of a serial number. A lot of collectors like the ordinal games to have matching numbers on the cab back box and boards.

Mine definitely don't match. Good ole Frankenstien game. Haha

#312 8 years ago

Frankenstein game... nice

#313 8 years ago

Cool. Tks. I'll keep snooping some.

My Grandpa Crab used a cipher for the purchase price for all of the goods in his grocery store. Way back in the day. My Dad still uses it when socking away stuff in his bomb shelter.

Next time I have the old girl open, I'll check the boards.

2 weeks later
#314 8 years ago

Still looking for a Big Game Spinner...........

#315 8 years ago

Great group.. Proud to be a member-owner for sure. We have a Seawitch also.. We moved the BG down to the basement recently... Now the old girl won't boot back up... We have the dreaded red led light stuck on now..

We removed the ribbon cables and installed the Seawitch redone cable and got 6 lights or beeps now... So forward we go.. No displays and or booting up yet.

Nick. Victoria.

#316 8 years ago
Quoted from NicToria:

Great group.. Proud to be a member-owner for sure. We have a Seawitch also.. We moved the BG down to the basement recently... Now the old girl won't boot back up... We have the dreaded red led light stuck on now..
We removed the ribbon cables and installed the Seawitch redone cable and got 6 lights or beeps now... So forward we go.. No displays and or booting up yet.
Nick. Victoria.

Bummer man. Luckily I have always had good boots on mine. Well at least worst case scenario you can send it away to be repaired or get an alltek. Good luck!

#317 8 years ago

All good we are still learning the ropes of WTH is wrong with our pins.. LOL.... Thank goodness we have others... A work in progress with the Ms and I .... Slow and steady. We have good friends that help us out...Just a little drive for them..

So reading the Pinside and learning as we go. NT.

2 months later
#318 8 years ago

Can I join this club with my newly acquired Big Game?

This was not one of these," hey, some guy has on old pin in his garage that he wants to get rid of" deals. This was me actively looking for a BG. After considering Mata Hari, Joker Poker, Fire, Sinbad and a few early SS pins, BG went on my wish list. I suppose that as far as wish lists go I was lucky because I have only been looking for a BG for about 6 months.

After watching a lot of youtube pinball videos for almost a year and thinking I want this pin, or I want that pin, eventually, I came to the conclusion that BG is the pin I want. A few weeks ago I got lucky when I was doing a semi-regular within-driving-distance-Craigslist-search turned up a BG in Oklahoma City. The ad had been up for 19 days. And he still had it ! And he was willing to negotiate on price. I felt like I had been rained on by the pinball gods. I went to see and the game checked out. So, for $30.00 worth of gas and 6 hours of time I was home with a BG in the house at a decent price.

I have had it since Thanksgiving and have been going through all the cleanup stuff that needed done. It was a dirty machine. I have overhauled the pop bumpers, removed and cleaned the drop targets, re-sleeved all the coils and rebuilt the flippers with all new parts. I have 3' levelers on and have the back jacked up all the way and the fronts all the way down. It is steep slope and it plays fast. No. It plays very fast. And I'm loving it.

I have made a couple of mods for it and have more planned.

1) I have made a polycarbonate play field protector and now that I have a few hours of playtime I am very happy with the results. All the sunken inserts are covered up and the ball does not get hung up by play field imperfections. Eventually, I would like to restore the play field and clear coat but my custom made (ahh...homemade protector) means I get to really enjoy the game NOW!

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2) I read someone else's post about the teardrop breaking off of one of the plastics by the 1-2-3 drop target. Someone else suggested some sort of washer. Because this PF plastic is close to the spinner a washer would not work. I made a protector from some scrap poly that completely surrounds the plastic. You see it with the white protective paper still on.

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3) That big piece of plastic in the upper left by the BIGGAME lights look like it takes a lot heat from the four bulbs it covers and mine was/and is still warped badly. So, from more scrap poly, I made profile of that plastic and raised it up from the lights. Like this:

lower_plastic_(resized).JPGlower_plastic_(resized).JPG

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I also see where someone else is (still) looking for a spinner. Since Stern shared a lot with Bally, I may have found a spinner here. No guarantees but if you need a spinner it might be worth it to call and get some measurements.

Thanks for reading.

http://www.lakesidepinballparts.com/playfield.html
http://www.lakesidepinballparts.com/blya3460.jpg

#319 8 years ago
Quoted from cottonm4:

1) I have made a polycarbonate play field protector and now that I have a few hours of playtime I am very happy with the results. All the sunken inserts are covered up and the ball does not get hung up by play field imperfections. Eventually, I would like to restore the play field and clear coat but my custom made (ahh...homemade protector) means I get to really enjoy the game NOW!

Can you show us what kind of material you used? Is it hard or flexible? What thickness? How does the ball interact with the rollovers?

thanks,
-mof

#320 8 years ago

Very nice Big Game cottonm4! Very handy with home remedies also.
Mine's a bit of a beater, strictly players condition. But..
I LOVE this game, it was also my first. I have had it over two years now and still play it regularly. It will never leave.
Hope you enjoy yours as much as I have mine.
Many happy high scores my friend and congrats!

#321 8 years ago
Quoted from mof:

Can you show us what kind of material you used? Is it hard or flexible? What thickness? How does the ball interact with the rollovers?
thanks,
-mof

The material used is polycarbonate, the same stuff like the play field protectors for some pins that are professionally made. Polycarbonate is the scientific name for the material. You will probably recognize the brand name of Lexan. Or Macrolon.

For the play field and the teardrop plastic I used .030 thick Macrolon. For the profile piece I made for the big plastic I used .050 thick material. .030 thick is about as thick as I would want to go for the play field. Any thicker and that and you are going to start messing with how the ball interacts with the play field parts, IMO.

The poly is very flexible. It is tough stuff. It does not crack or tear. But it does scratch easily. I already have some scratches on mine just from handling it so much while I was getting it fitted. I don't know how many hours, days, weeks, or months of game play I will get before it gets ugly from scratches but some time out there in the future I will probably need to cut another one. One thing is certain, though. I don't want to be one using some old worn out, dinged up ball or it will scratch the living daylights out of it. I figure I will replace the ball once a month just to be safe.

For the rollovers, I had to knock out the original rollovers and rout out matching holes in the poly and then I set the new rollovers to match the height/thickness of the poly. The ball rolls smoothly over the rollovers. I, also, had to re-adjust the points/switches to compensate for raising the rollover.

The rollovers work fine with one exception with the three rollovers in the upper right orbit (and I don't think my play field protector is causing the problem).

What I am seeing is if the ball moves too fast over these three rollovers and the ball is riding the outside of the orbit lane the ball will only touch the the edge of the rollover star and not push it down far enough to make contact and give me score points. As I said, I think this would be happening even if I had not put the protector down. It's like the rollover star needs to be peeking out just a bit more from the play field. What I am going to try is take my old stars and lengthen the shaft by using two stars to make one and see if I can raise the star up higher from the play field. Will that work? Don't know. And it will be a few weeks before I have time with that.

Other that that one issue, the protector is working fantastically. With the money I spent to make it happen, it damn sure needed to perform. The material cost $40.00. And I had to buy two different Dremel Tools to make the cuts. The Dremel Tools were pawn shop bargains. One cost me $30.00. The other Dremel that I needed to rout the rollover holes was discontinued and I was real lucky to find one in a pawn shop for $35.00. But the one cutting bit I needed only comes as a kit of five bits from Amazon and the bits cost another $35.00. So, to cut five holes cost me $70.00 (sigh). For the love of the game, right

#322 8 years ago
Quoted from cottonm4:

What I am seeing is if the ball moves too fast over these three rollovers and the ball is riding the outside of the orbit lane the ball will only touch the the edge of the rollover star and not push it down far enough to make contact and give me score points.

This is the case on all Big games I believe. If you blast that right orbit I don't even think the ball touches the playfield. It just hugs that ball guide. I wouldn't kill yourself over trying to get those rollovers to register every time the ball runs through that area.

#323 8 years ago
Quoted from rollitover:

Very nice Big Game cottonm4! Very handy with home remedies also.
Mine's a bit of a beater, strictly players condition. But..
I LOVE this game, it was also my first. I have had it over two years now and still play it regularly. It will never leave.
Hope you enjoy yours as much as I have mine.
Many happy high scores my friend and congrats!

Thanks man. Mine will never leave, either. Mine is a player's condition, too. Some inserts are sunken and cupped real bad. The paint is alligatored and there is some slight planking. The play field protector helps hide the paint flaws and makes a smooth play field.

I know I am going to get myself buried in it price wise Today, I ordered a new play field glass. And I need a back glass that is not all flaked. I'm also going to light it up with LEDs.

Here is a another mod I did: My mini-post up between the spinners was bent back from years of ball impact. It had cut into the play field and the threaded shaft was bent. I replaced it with a more robust post and locked it in with a T-nut from the lower side of the play field.

mini_post_(resized).JPGmini_post_(resized).JPG

#324 8 years ago

BG resto has back glasses for sale. This game looks great with LEDs if you use warm white and color match the inserts. I went a little crazy with LEDs in mine, but I've gotten mostly good feedback on them from people that have seen it in person.

I'm way under water on my big game too. I can't help it, I just love it so much! Haha

#325 8 years ago
Quoted from chuckwurt:

BG resto has back glasses for sale. This game looks great with LEDs if you use warm white and color match the inserts. I went a little crazy with LEDs in mine, but I've gotten mostly good feedback on them from people that have seen it in person.
I'm way under water on my big game too. I can't help it, I just love it so much! Haha

Yeah, I saw your posts with your LEDs and that inspired me I like your orange for the bingo cards. But I'm thinking I want to use orange for all the BIGGAME letters and maybe use Cyan for the bingo cards. Any feed back for color and brightness choices you would be willing to offer would be much appreciated.

#326 8 years ago
Quoted from cottonm4:

Yeah, I saw your posts with your LEDs and that inspired me I like your orange for the bingo cards. But I'm thinking I want to use orange for all the BIGGAME letters and maybe use Cyan for the bingo cards. Any feed back for color and brightness choices you would be willing to offer would be much appreciated.

I have frosted amber/orange intense brightness bulbs. I got standard orange bulbs but they were too dim. These are much better.

image_(resized).pngimage_(resized).png

I am not sure how the cyan ones usually look but I bet those would look good too in the same type bulb and frosted.

#327 8 years ago
Quoted from chuckwurt:

I have frosted amber/orange intense brightness bulbs. I got standard orange bulbs but they were too dim. These are much better.

I am not sure how the cyan ones usually look but I bet those would look good too in the same type bulb and frosted.

Are you having good luck with the Comet bulbs?

#328 8 years ago
Quoted from cottonm4:

Are you having good luck with the Comet bulbs?

For sure. Not sure I would ever get another brand. They have tons to choose from and Art's customer service is top notch. I have only had a couple bulbs go bad on me and Art replaced them for free in my next order. I've bought 100s of bulbs from him.

#329 8 years ago
Quoted from chuckwurt:

For sure. Not sure I would ever get another brand. They have tons to choose from and Art's customer service is top notch. I have only had a couple bulbs go bad on me and Art replaced them for free in my next order. I've bought 100s of bulbs from him.

1) Art does not have a phone number that I can find. If his service is top notch, I am safe to assume he works his emails promptly?

2) Are you using any of the non-ghosting bulbs? Or do "regular" LEDs work OK.

3) Have you already sent your back glass to BG Resto? If so, are you happy with the results? Mine has some flaking but all of the paint all across the glass shows hairline cracks.

#330 8 years ago
Quoted from cottonm4:

1) Art does not have a phone number that I can find. If his service is top notch, I am safe to assume he works his emails promptly?
2) Are you using any of the non-ghosting bulbs? Or do "regular" LEDs work OK.
3) Have you already sent your back glass to BG Resto? If so, are you happy with the results? Mine has some flaking but all of the paint all across the glass shows hairline cracks.

1) art has always been prompt with me if I just message him on pinside. User name is https://pinside.com/pinball/community/pinsiders/oldpinguy

2)none of my bulbs are non ghosting. You will need a mod to allow for LEDs in the controlled lamps/inserts. Alltek has a lamp board that works and there are a couple other options for a bit cheaper that eliminate the flicker that happens with using LEDs in the inserts with the stock lamp board.

3) I have not ordered my BG resto backglass yet. However he will not need you to send in yours. He already has big game on file so he can make you one. Kinda nice cause you can use your existing one until your new one arrives. Be prepared to wait. I've heard it can take up to 6 months to get your new backglass. I would email him your request and he should give you instructions on how to order and pay.

Good luck!!

#331 8 years ago

Well, my play field lights just went out after some spirited playing. Flicker, dim, flicker, dim, flicker, off. Phooey.

I'll have to trouble shoot that before progressing. It might be an excuse to get that Alltek lamp board. The money train is starting to gather speed as it leaves the station

One thing is for sure if you have a pinball machine: You must have a sense of humor.

1 week later
#332 8 years ago
Quoted from cottonm4:

Thanks man. Mine will never leave, either. Mine is a player's condition, too. Some inserts are sunken and cupped real bad. The paint is alligatored and there is some slight planking. The play field protector helps hide the paint flaws and makes a smooth play field.
I know I am going to get myself buried in it price wise Today, I ordered a new play field glass. And I need a back glass that is not all flaked. I'm also going to light it up with LEDs.
Here is a another mod I did: My mini-post up between the spinners was bent back from years of ball impact. It had cut into the play field and the threaded shaft was bent. I replaced it with a more robust post and locked it in with a T-nut from the lower side of the play field.
mini_post_(resized).JPG

Mine was gone entirely. Just a little hole sitting there, until I noticed it and stole a post from the top of the game. Lucky I still have a spinner.

Unfortunately my BG is out of action just now. I need to jump the traces on SDU for the left side flippers. The previous owner had jumped the one of the left ones, and I ended up having to jumper both the right ones, but I didn't do the remaining left. Time to get my solder on again. You can find pictures of the burned out traces here on pinside somewhere, I've misplaced the previous owner's post.

Missing my BG.

#333 8 years ago

I feel 'ya man...

3 months later
#334 7 years ago

I'm having issues with the saucer kickout mech on mine. It doesn't clear the gate and the ball ejects into the gate, sometimes taking 3-4 attempts to pass under the gate, or sometimes it will eject to the left or right and the ball hops onto a plastic.

Don't know if the kicker arm has worn down and needs replacement. I see that Chuck shortened one of the springs to get his to kick out faster.

Can someone post a picture of the mech from the underside of the playfield?
Or, is the part number(s) for this known?
I asked pbresource if they had the parts, but what I have doesn't match what they have.

photo568664154461808700_(resized).jpgphoto568664154461808700_(resized).jpg

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#335 7 years ago

Here's mine

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#336 7 years ago
Quoted from bitCurrier:

I'm having issues with the saucer kickout mech on mine. It doesn't clear the gate and the ball ejects into the gate, sometimes taking 3-4 attempts to pass under the gate, or sometimes it will eject to the left or right and the ball hops onto a plastic.
Don't know if the kicker arm has worn down and needs replacement. I see that Chuck shortened one of the springs to get his to kick out faster.
Can someone post a picture of the mech from the underside of the playfield?
Or, is the part number(s) for this known?
I asked pbresource if they had the parts, but what I have doesn't match what they have.

photo568664154461808700_(resized).jpgphoto568664154461808699_(resized).jpg

I have had intermittent problems with this myself. All I have ever done is clean the mechanism and the coil sleeve (although I am sure it could use new one). Seems like that is all it needed as it works just fine after that.
Saves $$$ too.

3 weeks later
#337 7 years ago

ok, things I have since learned, you have an extra leaf on the switch that is bent backwards at a 90 degree angle that is longer than the conductive leaf. I have found that often enough that the red plastic thing gets stuck on the switch and a longer leaf may prevent that..

two, I'm not sure how much up out of the kickout hole the kicker is supposed to extend and that the base of the kicker arm that the ball touches is worn down. So it seems like the ball doesn't sit properly and I get chaotic trajectories.

but I have replaced the sleeve and cleaned the metal joint

1 week later
#338 7 years ago

I made a mod for my Big Game you all might be interested in. Since BG is a wide body it has a heavy play field to lift and support. Somewhere a few months ago I read where you should turn the sharp tip of the play field prop stick under as it has a habit of eating they the play field. I did that but it was not enough.

The play field sags like crazy when using the prop stick that I started using my vacuum cleaner hose wands to prop up the play field. That has problems, as well, so I came up with a permanent solution.

I went the the hardware store and bought some 3/4 inch copper plumbing tubing and came up with this for a play field prop. On the lower end is a unit made of plywood to hold the prop into position. To the under side of the play field I attached a PVC end cap with three screws.

It works like a charm. The play field has good solid support in the center and does not sag. I made it so the play field is lifted up more than with the factory prop. The play field is now lifted up higher and the prop stick is no longer in the way which makes it easier to do work on the lower side.

It cost me about $15.00 to build. I had to drill two holes in the cabinet cross-support for the plywood and three screws in the lower side of play field for the PVC end cap. Remove the end cap and the plywood and you will never know it was there.

This has worked so well that I have made similar props for my two other pins.

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#339 7 years ago
Quoted from cottonm4:

I made a mod for my Big Game you all might be interested in. Since BG is a wide body it has a heavy play field to lift and support. Somewhere a few months ago I read where you should turn the sharp tip of the play field prop stick under as it has a habit of eating they the play field. I did that but it was not enough.
The play field sags like crazy when using the prop stick that I started using my vacuum cleaner hose wands to prop up the play field. That has problems, as well, so I came up with a permanent solution.
I went the the hardware store and bought some 3/4 inch copper plumbing tubing and came up with this for a play field prop. On the lower end is a unit made of plywood to hold the prop into position. To the under side of the play field I attached a PVC end cap with three screws.
It works like a charm. The play field has good solid support in the center and does not sag. I made it so the play field is lifted up more than with the factory prop. The play field is now lifted up higher and the prop stick is no longer in the way which makes it easier to do work on the lower side.
It cost me about $15.00 to build. I had to drill two holes in the cabinet cross-support for the plywood and three screws in the lower side of play field for the PVC end cap. Remove the end cap and the plywood and you will never know it was there.
This has worked so well that I have made similar props for my two other pins.

Is there no end to ingenuity...?
Outstanding!
Thanks for the post.

2 months later
#341 7 years ago

I know we have talked about this before, but has anyone came up with a way to have the bingo card lights more reliable and have a stronger connection? I have tried cleaning the sockets with no luck. I have an extra set of the socket boxes, but I assume those are going to be flaky too if I put those in.

Has anyone tried to rig up individual sockets, or is there a way to reliably service the existing socket boxes?

#342 7 years ago

we need someone making a board for this, with 555...

#343 7 years ago
Quoted from chuckwurt:

I know we have talked about this before, but has anyone came up with a way to have the bingo card lights more reliable and have a stronger connection? I have tried cleaning the sockets with no luck. I have an extra set of the socket boxes, but I assume those are going to be flaky too if I put those in.
Has anyone tried to rig up individual sockets, or is there a way to reliably service the existing socket boxes?

I stripped my BG down and sent the play field out for restore and clearcoat so I won't have a solid answer on this for awhile, but I have thought on this alot and will share what I am doing and thinking.

1st) I removed my socket assemblies from the wiring harness and ran them thru my tumbler to try and remove crap, corrosion, and just shine them up. Will this help? It will several months before my play field comes back before I can speak with confidence. But at least they are shiny

2nd) Today, I just finished with soldering the sockets to the metal plate so I can at least install and remove a bulb without the socket spinning on me. I have a big 100 watt soldering iron so doing this task was not a problem. Will it help with connectivity? Won't know until I get my game back together. But it sure sounds good

Before you solder them, if you do, you will need to try and rotate them as you will read about below.

3rd) Follow my thinking here: If you are like me you have one of those abrasive sticks that you spin inside the socket to clean it up. You have one, correct? And so you sand all the crap from the inside. And you make sure that little spring loaded nub for the positive wire is nice and shiny, correct? And you still have problems, correct?

I got to thinking on this several months ago so follow my logic: You push your #44 bulb into the socket and give it a twist and lock in the two small tangs on the side of the bulb. Where are your contact points? Aha. Gotcha didn't I?

We like to think of the inside of the socket as being one big contact point and it is to a degree. But in reality there are three contact points on the bulb and socket. The bottom of the bulb with the soft metal is your positive contact point and has be be clean. And the two tangs on the side of the bulb are the negative contact points.

Try taking a small round file and make a couple of light passes on the socket area where the bulb tangs lock in and run some sandpaper or a wire brush across those tangs on the bulb. Now you have three clean contact points. When I did this to some of my dirty sockets my lights-out problem went away.

You may need to rotate your sockets on those bingo card bulb holders so you can access them from the open ends with a small file. You might even be able to do this with a pipe cleaner.

************************************

On the other hand, let's say you want to make some new bingo card bulb holders. I have thought about that a lot, too. And if I still have problem when I get my BG back together and want new sockets, there are three ways to do it.
----------------------------------------------------------------------

FIRST WAY

1) If you have a spare set of bingo card bulb holders you can take this risk---because it might not work Get your grinder and grind off that spring loaded button on the bottom of the socket. Next, drill the brass ring that holds the socket to the bulb holder. This should release the socket from the holder. Repeat eight more times.

2) For this step, you really should have a drill press and some clamps. Drill out all nine holes in the holder to a size that will a #44 bulb socket to pass thru the holder.

3) Get new #44 sockets that are the same barrel length as the ones you just removed. You will want sockets with the longer bendable tabs. Bend the tab back and flatten it out perpendicular to the socket and slide this into the hole you just enlarged in the holder. Do this with eight more sockets.

4) You will need to align and trim the socket tabs so they will all fit to the holder (I'm fairly certain there will be enough room).

5a) You can now solder all the tabs to the holder

or

5b) You can match drill a small hold in the tab and the holder and screw them together with a sheet metal screw, or better yet, a machine screw and nut. And for extra measure, solder this as well.

5c) Now, if you have a socket go bad in the future, you can remove and replace.
-------------------

SECOND WAY

1) Go to a sheet metal shop and have the shop bend up some new holders for you.

2) Measure and drill nine socket holes in your new holder and attach new sockets as listed above.
---------------------------

THIRD WAY

If you do not have access to a sheet metal shop, or any other way to make 90 degree bends in sheet metal, then ......

1) Procure three squares of sheet metal the same size as the factory bulb holder. Actually, they will not be square. They need to be rectangles. Where the factory angles are bent and screw to the play field, you will need to cut two pieces of wood that will screw to the play field and then you will screw your new rectangles (after you have drilled an installed new sockets talked above) to your wooden standoffs.

Now solder all your wires back on.

Will any of the above work? Other than cleaning the sockets and bulbs tangs which has worked for me, I don't know. I have not tried installing new sockets or building from scratch, but at the risk of sounding rather cheeky, if you are a halfway decent technician I think you could do either #1, #2, or #3 and have good results.

P.S. If anyone tries this on their set of BG factory bingo card bulb holders and you screw it up, I am not responsible.

Good Luck.

EDIT: REDKETCHUP, I think #2 or #3 above could be done with 555s

#344 7 years ago

Whoa baby. Thanks for the info!

I do have a spare set of socket holders. I'm gonna see how cleaned up I can get them and try them out. Those other solutions you listed I have no skills whatsoever to do those. Haha

#345 7 years ago

I was thinking something like that...

image_(resized).jpegimage_(resized).jpeg

#346 7 years ago
Quoted from chuckwurt:

Whoa baby. Thanks for the info!
I do have a spare set of socket holders. I'm gonna see how cleaned up I can get them and try them out. Those other solutions you listed I have no skills whatsoever to do those. Haha

Keep us posted on how it works.

#347 7 years ago
Quoted from Redketchup:

I was thinking something like that...

Red Ketchup, can you remove the 555 holders and show a pic of just the holes in the circuit board ?

Would you be willing to remove that board from your play field and take a pic from the side showing both the bulb holder and the bulb poking thru the board?

What would we need to do? Get a square of blank circuit board, drill some locking type holes and put down some copper tape?

#348 7 years ago

It' s a pic from the internet to show what i think should be a good alternative... I don't know nothing about board, maybe not so difficult to do, maybe impossible!

#349 7 years ago

We would need a board that looks something like this but with dimensions for Big Game. This board is for Bally Kiss and the holes measure different. Could it be made? I think yes---with difficulty. Would it be economical? Probably not. Would a company that makes boards come to our aid? Not likely.

Any body with ideas, please offer thoughts.

bly-kisslamp_(resized).jpgbly-kisslamp_(resized).jpg

#350 7 years ago

this is exactly what we need!

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