The door on my Pinky has no hinges and basically fell out when I opened it. Even though I was wearing sandals it missed landing on my feet. This is the way they were.

Yep, no wonder they are often missing on those early games. Get taken off and set aside somewhere. The lock looks pretty standard but appears to be missing the cam that holds the door in place when locked.

The Williams Grand Champion (1953) has hinges on the wood door but the United "Utah" doesn't.

Btw, I look forward to learning from this thread about woodrail restoration.

Bruce

And if it has one of those old push coin mechs there is a good chance it will bust your toe if your feet are not properly protected.

I could be wrong but I thought Gottlieb and Williams used 31" legs in the wood leg era?

Thanks for starting this thread. I am just starting to collect woodies and am excited about learning more.

I'm about to pick up a wood rail, are the dimensions about the same width and height as a modern game? Just curious if I can get it in my Ford Escape with head off obviously.

Single player woodies are smaller. Same size playfield but shallower cabinet and smaller head.

All my Gottlieb and Williams wood legs are 31" My 1952 Genco Springtime has 30.5" legs. Much like my pant inseam.

Regarding hingeless doors: Noticed that there is no hinge on the '48 Barnacle Bill, '49 Buttons & Bows, '50 Madison Square Gardens and Knock Out, and the '52 Springtime. The doors have a jones plug that easily disconnects but the wires may slow the descent of the door toward a toe encounter. All games, Gottlieb, Williams and Gencos that I have do have hinges after 1954...

Joel

door.jpg

Gottlieb woodrails use 31" legs.

Door hinges added late 1953, starting at around Pin Wheel (I think).

Lock is an original style.

Wondering when they started hinging the doors? The flyer for 1953 Grand Champion that I have advertises hinged door for easier servicing.

1953 GC Flyer.jpg

20150805_185049.jpg

DF answered as I was posting.

Pinky has no jones plug. Just a set of contacts that come together when the door closes. Watch out toes!

No hacksaw! First I would use a square to check if that cut is 90 degrees in both directions or if it is angled/tapered. Use a mitre saw or other chop saw so you can get a perfect cut. Back up the bottom edge of the cut with a sacrificial piece of wood so you don't blow out splinters where the saw blade exits. You may want to orient the cut so that edge is facing towards the inside/back of the machine when the leg is reinstalled just in case.

Try to pry up the metal ring with a small prybar enough to allow you to grab the top of that nail with some hefty pliers. Ease them out. Looks like you may need a forstner bit or similar to drill out a recess for the leg leveller after you shorten the leg.

It's not always quite that simple. The leg bolt holes on the other end also have a spacing from the top of the leg, which affects where the cabinet sits relative to the leg.

And Gottlieb legs have a particular bevel to the front outside edges.

So, before modifying these legs, I'd carefully compare to a set of known Gottlieb legs. While these may be a bit longer overall, the cabinet may still sit at the correct height.

And bear in mind that Steve has added repro wood legs back in stock now too, which might be a better alternative.
http://pbresource.com/news.html

(pricey though.)

But if you do opt to shorten the legs, it really needs to be done with a power tool, not by hand. Table saw or chop saw. A tack puller for the two tacks and then pry out the leveler insert. A big box home improvement store can probably do the cuts for you.

You may find though that the game sits at the correct height with them as is.

The '52 SpringTime has contacts, and no plugs, also.

door_contacts.jpg

You should use a miter box, hand powered or electric, in order to hold the leg in line with the blade in both planes. This can be achieved with a carpenters hand saw alone, but only after much practice.

Carefully mark the leg, set the angle on the miter saw, clamp the leg in place and make the cut.

I think you really need to use a drop saw (not a hand device) with fine tooth blade so you can get a perfect & precise cut including if necessary appropriate angle.

Does anyone know pls what creates these abbreviated posts (as above for me) which have a rectangular box & three dots to click to get the full post. They are a pain!!

Hit the " sign in the lower right side of the post that you want to quote. The reply box will put a block quote at the top of your reply. If the original quote is several sentences long, it will abbreviate the quote in a little window that will expand if you click on the 3 dots.

They can be!

A new hingeless door can be fairly easily made using only a tablesaw- and Dremel tool for routing. I made mine out of pine shelving material. It's soft and easy to work with.
Strong enough in a non-public arcade.

I have never seen that style leg leveler before. They are neat. I'm guessing you will have a hard time finding new ones.

Dave Sorenson (a local woodrail collector) has some listed in a Mr. Pinball ad that may be the same thing?
"4 Vintage Leg Levelers 40s/mid 50s blasted-clear coated--$12.00"

Yes, those are the old style of leg levelers, and are more a cast piece than the newer ones that are pressed together. They've not been repro'd (that I know of). Best bet is to find used (like the ones Alex points out, which have been available for ages).

It may be worth checking. He has been reposting his ad for a long time with those still in it.

Those look like the legs that came with my United Singapore.

I just measured my only game with wooden legs. It is a 52 William's Jalopy. The leg length without the leveler is 30" long! This makes the game stand about 37" from the floor. Line perfectly with the other games in the row. I think there are game length anomalies depending on the cab depth.

I measured the legs on my two woodrail games without the levelers.

United Utah - 31"
Williams Grand Champion - 32.5" (sounds like your legs are from Williams too)

I just wanted to add, that wood legs are a MUST on pre-flipper games (IMHO). I've seen pre-flipper games fitted with steel legs and believe they are missing out on an important aspect of it.

The reason are they are tall and spindly not rigid and secure like steel legs.
You can really fine tune your nudging skills on a pre-flipper game with those wood legs. Then you move to a 70's era heavy 4 player game with steel legs and it seems almost un-nudgeable.

Leave the white legs alone. Clean them up and be happy you have them in the shape you do. Steve at PBresource sells reproductions of these that have been powdercoated.

Those vintage leg levellers are pretty cool and pop up on Ebay pretty regularly. I know they were used on Bally and Chicago Coin Machines as I've come across them still intact on those. Not sure whether or not Gottlieb used them at the time, but they were pretty standard at the time. Old pub tables will sometimes have those on them as another avenue for searching.

Here's some old pinball feet.

DSCN3848.JPG

It is not.