(Topic ID: 137025)

EMs: What's that smell?

By Craig

8 years ago


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    There are 59 posts in this topic. You are on page 1 of 2.
    #1 8 years ago

    Okay, another embarrassingly basic question from an EM neophyte. I've noticed that all of my EMs have a common and distinctive smell. It's not at all offensive. In fact, I have grown rather fond of it since I immediately associate it with the pins. But what is it? (A particular kind of grease; something else?) None of my solid-state pins have that same smell.

    #2 8 years ago

    Yeah I have no clue. Antique store smell.

    #3 8 years ago

    Incense and peppermint.

    21
    #4 8 years ago

    Old wiring, wood and ozone. It's intoxicating isn't it?

    #5 8 years ago

    The electric smell hits my nose as soon as you start walking down my basement steps. LOVE IT!

    #6 8 years ago

    Totally intoxicating. The faint "old cigarettes and spilled beer smell" as well.

    14
    #7 8 years ago

    That's how the 60's and 70's smelled.

    #8 8 years ago

    cat pee

    #9 8 years ago

    I was driving back from Florida with the latest wedgehead in the car with me, and the smell filled the air. I recognized it immediately. I notice it now every time I walk into our basement.

    #10 8 years ago

    Been there, smelled that. This is different, I promise!

    #11 8 years ago

    It is the smell of all those that have been burned by my high score....

    #12 8 years ago
    Quoted from dontfeed:

    That's how the 60's and 70's smelled.

    Really Don't remember that. Everywhere I guess my old timers disease is kicking in.

    Ken

    #13 8 years ago

    It's amazing how all of my games have a unique-yet-somehow similar smell. I only have 5 games right now, but blindfolded I could tell you which game is which just by the smell.

    #14 8 years ago
    Quoted from EM-PINMAN:

    Really Don't remember that. Everywhere I guess my old timers disease is kicking in.
    Ken

    My 72 Buick has a similar smell as my Space Mission.

    #15 8 years ago
    Quoted from AlexF:

    Old wiring, wood and ozone. It's intoxicating isn't it?

    Yea, this is the most common element IMO, but the wood can often be fouled with a musty/moldy odor from being stored in damp locations, as well other less pleasing things like the Quick Draw I restored a few years ago that was direct from a house full of smokers, with several cats as well. I sometimes 'refresh' the paint inside to give it a bit of 'new-pin' smell and mask those nasty odors. The coils still add that classic EM smell all the same.

    #16 8 years ago

    Sometimes the smell reminds me of old peoples homes I used to visit back in the 70s when I was collecting for my paper route.

    #17 8 years ago
    Quoted from dontfeed:

    That's how the 60's and 70's smelled.

    We were either too drunk or too stoned to smell anything, nevermind remember it.

    #18 8 years ago

    The 1 part death, 2 parts old wood, 1 part dust smell that infests perfectly good condition EM's and shop job's alike?

    Always wondered myself.......

    #19 8 years ago

    The cloth on the wiring perhaps?

    I'm strangely attracted... but also a little put off by that smell, hard to explain.

    But that is my best guess.

    #20 8 years ago
    Quoted from AlexF:

    ozone. It's intoxicating isn't it?

    I love the smell of "Ozone" in the morning........smells like victory! (from a High Score)

    Ken

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    #21 8 years ago

    Or maybe the catgut that binds the bundles of wires together?

    #22 8 years ago
    Quoted from Pinballprowess:

    Or maybe the catgut that binds the bundles of wires together?

    Probably a better guess.

    #23 8 years ago

    Eau de o-din

    #24 8 years ago

    Heaven!

    #25 8 years ago

    Hot old wiring and old wood. I LOVE the smell of EMs.

    That smell is one of the most quintessentially "pinball" things ever, in my mind.

    #26 8 years ago

    I love that smell. I've wondered what the smell is also.

    Stings the nostrils...

    -1
    #27 8 years ago

    Decaying cloth wire. It would make a great cologne.

    #28 8 years ago

    Hard to go wrong with 'that' comment, TD

    Since it could be taken either way.

    (he lays in the weeds... waits for 'just' the right moment... then strikes!!)

    : )

    #29 8 years ago
    Quoted from AlexF:

    Old wiring, wood and ozone

    Along with warm grease, and the shelac on the coil and motor wires cookin, solder resin, ink on the paper, whatever comes out of bakelite when it drys out, the paper and string wiring and the wood all absorb all these wonderful smells to make a cocktail of old funk....
    just love that smell!

    #30 8 years ago

    When the game is just opened that's when the aroma is the most.

    #31 8 years ago

    There are two pinball smells....the good one that just makes you feel sixteen again. Such a great aroma it's almost indescribable.

    Then there's the bad one....the mustiness that comes from years in a damp basement combined with mouse urine and God knows what else. I've had to get rid of machines I liked because I could never fully lose that bad smell. I'd love to know if anyone ever had success using an ionizer.

    #32 8 years ago

    No bad smells here. Just the sweet aroma of nostalgia.

    #33 8 years ago
    Quoted from Topcard:

    There are two pinball smells....the good one that just makes you feel sixteen again. Such a great aroma it's almost indescribable.
    Then there's the bad one....the mustiness that comes from years in a damp basement combined with mouse urine and God knows what else. I've had to get rid of machines I liked because I could never fully lose that bad smell. I'd love to know if anyone ever had success using an ionizer.

    I used an ozone machine on my first pin, a 74 Williams Super Flite. It smelled like it had been used as an ashtray its entire life. After cleaning it as best I could I blasted it directly through the coin door for 24 straight hours. Cigarette smell obliterated.

    #34 8 years ago

    smell=nostalgia!

    #35 8 years ago

    Nothing like that pure EM aroma, particularly from Gottliebs. Ballys have a different aroma. They're more like old electrics and grease. Pleasant and distinctive in it's own way.

    #36 8 years ago

    Seem like that there's not a lot it 'could' be... basically, you're talking about something made of wood and metal. I guess you could always throw glass in there too. But even if you did, I've never had glass that smelled like that. Never had wood that smelled like that. Never had metal that smelled like that.

    ¿Que no?

    #37 8 years ago

    Smells exactly like my great grandparents' house used to smell. I didn't realize how much I missed that until I bought my first EM.

    #38 8 years ago

    I figured it out. The smell comes from the phenolic wafers that separate the contacts on all of the relays and the stepper contact board.

    I have that same smell in my 1957 Bally ball bowler, and an even stronger aroma that's almost identical in my 1953 United puck bowler. It's the same as my 1948 United WISCONSIN pin.

    I picked up a relay rack off of Ebay as a spare, put it in my office, and after the weekend in there, the whole office smelled like the other machines. That rack has 16 relays, and a ton of those phenolic spacers, so it's GOT to be the source.

    I wish they made a candle with that scent...I'd keep it burning in the game room all the time.

    #39 8 years ago
    Quoted from ramegoom:

    I figured it out. The smell comes from the phenolic wafers that separate the contacts on all of the relays and the stepper contact board.
    I have that same smell in my 1957 Bally ball bowler, and an even stronger aroma that's almost identical in my 1953 United puck bowler. It's the same as my 1948 United WISCONSIN pin.
    I picked up a relay rack off of Ebay as a spare, put it in my office, and after the weekend in there, the whole office smelled like the other machines. That rack has 16 relays, and a ton of those phenolic spacers, so it's GOT to be the source.
    I wish they made a candle with that scent...I'd keep it burning in the game room all the time.

    Glad 'somebody' figured it out.

    "phenolic wafers".... never heard that term before.

    But if you Google... phenol smell... it says Phenol has a distinct smell that is sickeningly sweet and tarry.

    I don't know if I would call it "sweet"... but it 'sounds' like you probably got it. Good detective work!

    #40 8 years ago

    It's not the wood at all?

    #41 8 years ago

    It could be a mixture of the phenolic, the wood, and the wiring. It's not necessarily a phenolic smell, but a combination of unknowns. Whatever it is, it makes up the most unusual, and pleasant "early-days" smell that just seems right.

    Kind if like sticking you head into the interior of a 1950 Ford that's been unrestored with mohair fabric...can't mistake the smell and it brings you back to the past (assuming you were around back in those days).

    #42 8 years ago

    Thanks for all of the replies. I feel a lot better about my question now, seeing the variety of answers proposed! Very interesting.

    #43 8 years ago
    Quoted from Topcard:

    There are two pinball smells....the good one that just makes you feel sixteen again. Such a great aroma it's almost indescribable.
    Then there's the bad one....the mustiness that comes from years in a damp basement combined with mouse urine and God knows what else. I've had to get rid of machines I liked because I could never fully lose that bad smell. I'd love to know if anyone ever had success using an ionizer.

    I have 2 games that have smell of pee in them. I may just stick air fresheners in them! So looks like it's the mice to blame...

    #44 8 years ago
    Quoted from ramegoom:

    I wish they made a candle with that scent...I'd keep it burning in the game room all the time.

    Why bother with a potential fire hazard? just leave the door to WISCONSIN open...

    #45 8 years ago

    Yeah, it's strange. I have two bowlers in my garage, one from 1957 and the puck bowler for 1953. If I keep the overhead door closed over the weekend, the whole garage smells like those machines. And, if I open the alley up on either one, it radiates within a few hours. That smell won't disappear, and I've grown accustomed to it. Nice vintage and antique smell mixed together.

    #46 8 years ago

    phenolic wafers? Aka Bakelite?

    #47 8 years ago

    Nothing like a box of Keebler Phenolic Wafers and some beer for an evening of pinball.

    #48 8 years ago

    Bakelite is different, although it stinks when burned, just like phenolic.

    Phenolic is light tan or brown, bakelite is black.

    #49 8 years ago
    Quoted from ramegoom:

    Bakelite is different, although it stinks when burned, just like phenolic.
    Phenolic is light tan or brown, bakelite is black.

    No.... Phenolic sheet is made with Bakelite resin. And Bakelite is not just black.

    #50 8 years ago

    Love perfume!

    There are 59 posts in this topic. You are on page 1 of 2.

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