Climate Controlled Sfba, CA
Well, I just got hit with a problem doing my NOS Bounty Hunter playfield swap. I found that one of my ball guide rails was broken at the stamped area. I've seen many broken rails at that same area through the years. Usually, PBR comes through with a new part, not this time. So I was stuck trying to find a good replacement for this part. I looked at stainless steel rod ... too flimsy. I looked at steel rod, strong but it needs to be chrome which makes it expensive for just one. Just as I was feeling a little dejected, it hit me. Use a longer rail guide that I have here that's broken (since I never throw anything out) and bend it to shape. The problem is that without this stamped area, the rail works it's way back out of the playfield, sometimes causing damage. This is my attempt at making a tool to stamp the end so it'll stay in place on the playfield, hopefully someone will like it.
Original stamped area, the break usually happens just above the stamped area
A.jpg
The parts I used to make my stamp tool
B.jpg
Grinding the ends of the 3/4" #8 hardness bolts
C.jpg
Drilling a small hole in the splice nut
D.jpg
I'm missing a pic of the drilling of the bolts once they center to the hole but I have a couple of pics of the small center drill and the larger drill (size of the rail) done from each end. Once the ends are drilled, the splice nut has to be drilled even larger so the stamped area can freely slip out.
E.jpg
F.jpg
Shorter bolt mig welded (poorly) to the splice nut.
G.jpg
Threads grinded off the longer bolt so it slides freely to bottom out.
H.jpg
Trying it out on a broken rail end to see if it was a waste of my time.
I.jpg
Smacking it hard once with a hammer.
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End results, it worked!
K.jpg
Sana'a
Melbourne
