Here I go again, building another area for EM pinball machines, but this time it is specific for repairs only, for my pins and other folks as well. Labor will be an hourly fee of $40.00 for small jobs or a flat rate for large jobs. I will be equipped to do playfield swaps as well, old to new or old to better, does not matter. Pinball drop offs only, no offsite repairs. I can generally service the big 4 manufactures (Gottlieb, Williams, Bally, Chicago Coin) from 1964 on up, just contact me to let me know what you have.

Started the project a few days back putting in a few hours into it here and there generally 6-10 pm when it is not as hot. Converting 2/3 of our garage for the space in which the wall will house a new a/c -heater unit along with a door and extra wall plugs. Doing all the work myself and will have 3 spots available to work on machines at any given time with plenty of elbow room, storage, plus room for tools and work tables.

Hope to get the shop up and running but not completely finished sometime in mid July and just keep improving the work area as time and funds permit. I'm pretty excited to get this finally going.

Gotta start somewhere............

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Thanks so much for the endorsement and the best wishes Wayne!

Good one Darcy. But I think I will stick to solving mechanical issues for now rather than doing full restores as that is really what I like doing plus there are already a couple guys in the area doing those already.

Thanks Alex, it is a first for me too as I have always had to share the space as well. I will still maintain a small room in the house for my arcade which will hold 4 machines as it will now be my office and exercise room now, so I did lose space for another machine but it will be worth it. Lots of changes here, but all good.

Here is an updated picture of the repair shop tonight as I was able to put a few more hours into it. The main wall is done, just need some blocking as well as building a couple wood frames for the heater and A/C hopefully tomorrow. Ran out of lumber and burned through 20 pieces of 2 x 4's already and need to pick up 6 more to finish. We will see how far I get as I have other errands I need to do as well.

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Thanks for the vote of confidence and well wishes Bruce!

Looks like no progress today on the shop, I have sinus issues and need to pick up some medication Wednesday or Thursday.

Ken

Thanks phil-lee for the encouraging words! Hope your dream comes true as well to get a repair area one day too.

Ken, The A/C unit is just your basic window mount LG model which cost me $130.00 at Home Depot. I should have checked with Walmart first as they have GE models for only a $113.00. I like window mounts because they are way cheaper than wall mounts and you just simply build your own frame for them which works great for a wall anyways. 5000 BTU covers up to 150 sq ft which is plenty for my shop.

If I ever decide to take over the whole garage I will simply have two ducts installed from our main HVAC as we recently upgraded to a larger model furnace and A/C which would accommodate the extra space and would be fairly cheap and easy to do as we have a single level home. Before I did it I would have to do quite a bit of insulating first. Looks like your model will work great for the space you will have.

Note: The A/C will be in the new wall and vent to the other side of the garage which is not a problem as that still represents 1/3 of the garage and I can just open the big garage door to vent out any built up humidity once in a while. I could not vent directly to an outside wall because the exterior of the house is brick and I am not going/willing to cut a hole in it.

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We almost moved to San Antonio from Idaho originally but prices were going up and the Fort Worth area had the better deals at the time.

Well once I get the shop up and running you are more than welcome to come on by and check it out and play some pinball while your at it. If you ever get stumped working on a machine or just need to offset the work load a bit and plan to be in the area just load it up and drop it off.

Thanks for the kind words goldenboy232, and hope you get to one day get your own space for repairs. Hope to meet you in the near future.

Thanks for the well wishes Chum43. Orange cats rule, just ask them.

Well got some more work done tonight, picked up supplies yesterday and I think I have everything I need to get the basics finished on one side of the wall (shop side). Adding another 20 amp circuit for outlets (so 2) and a 15 amp a/c - heater. Also have a 220 outlet that was already there for....well, whatever. Got the door in too, works great.

I feel good and I am just taking my time as I am only a little over 10 weeks out from open heart surgery and only supposed to lift 10 lbs anyway. Luckily my wife helps me move the bigger stuff unless I can just drag it.

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As of 6/28/17:

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Thanks buddy.

PM sent.

Thanks Darcy.

Need to get more materials, hard wired in the a/c in yesterday.

Update: Slow going because of our Texas heat. Garage just gets too hot, most likely 120 degrees and I can't run the a/c as I need to access both sides of the wall. Ended up getting Heat Exhaustion a few days ago working out there and was laid up for a couple days almost needing to go to the hospital which is not good right after heart surgery. So basically I am going to delay this project until September when it cools down and switch gears as I have my 1973 Gottlieb King Pin full restoration which I get to work on inside the house with nice cool a/c...aaahh.

Here are a couple photos of where I am currently with the shop as the electrical is almost done and I just need to set the a/c and cut/install the wall heater.

Update ya'll again in September!

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Will do and Thanks. Turns out my heart medication for my pulse makes me susceptible to Heat Exhaustion which I did not know until after I had the episode, but now I'm the wise to it.

Ha! Nice try with the Coney Island, still not quite an EM but it does bring up the idea that down the road I may get into early SS repair as well but would need to get my learning curve up to speed and invest a lot more money into tools which at this point will have to wait. Thanks for "wish you were closer" statement, it always nice to be wanted.

So does this qualify as a repair??? Actually its what I call the "Silver" Restoration, kind of like how CPR grades their stuff. Going to be 4 different people working on this full resto in which it will get cabinet repair, paint, playfield touch ups/clearcoat, and the mechanical overhaul by yours truly. Just cool when a group of guys can turn a POS into something like new again, and so it begins.

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You really are good................hummmmmm

It' on a long term loan............

Good to know, need to get there in the near future.