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Just picked up this shuffle alley. I'm trying to restore it for a Xmas present for my daughter. Overall it's in good shape. All of the mechanicals are in good working order except for the burnt out start relay(new one on the way). My biggest issue so far is the fact that I'm missing a pin. I didn't realize these were so hard to get but I'm a newb to this.
I've looked everywhere, contacted a few shops. Good idea with moving it to the back. I can always do that until I finally find one. I'll keep updating the progress as it happens.
Ya I contacted them, they did have the bow tie gears for the pins which I needed but no pins. The search continues.
I need the 8.5 inch pins made in the mid 50s
Quoted from bintzknocker:What size pins do you need? (Length and how the connect to the mech)
Quoted from bintzknocker:Ah, I can't help ya with that size. They pop up on ebay every once in a while
Ya I keep checking. I'll find them eventually
Does anyone know what this bar is called that crosses near the middle of the alley? I have the bar near the pins that I'm guessing is to keep a wobbling puck from hitting the pins. I'd like to find this other bar but have no idea how to search for one or if it's a waste of time to try and find it. Thanks
Quoted from Budman:You might try Chris at St. Louis Ball Bowlers. They restore ball bowlers as well as puck shuffle alleys.
OK, thanks I will
Quoted from OCD_pinball:I call it the foul line bar. You notice it's right above the foul line on the playfield. I think it was to stop your hand going past the foul line = no cheating.
The bar near the front of the pins was actually the lead edge of a piece of plexiglass that covered the switches. Protected the pins, maybe, but I think it was another anti cheat device so you could'nt trip the switches manually.
The last piece to the puzzle is the pin surround/protector. It was an integral part of the assembly and prevented the dreaded pin assembly droop you see on so many of these old games. The surround attached to the lift up cover, and rested against the left and right rear uprights, and on top of the plexiglass switch protector when in the down position. This gave support to the cover, and then that screw through the top cover would give support to the pin rack , thus preventing any sagging of the pin rack.
Foul line bar.
I was missing mine, just made one out of 1/4 inch brass rod from Menards, fabricated two brackets, painted gold, done.
Thanks Again OCD, really apprecite the input.
So my back glass is missing paint in a few spots and cracked and peeling in others. I was thinking of fixing it on photoshop and having it printed out on a thin piece of plexiglass and then sandwich it with another thin piece of plexiglass. After that was done I was going to send out the original to bgresto when I have the time. Any thoughts on if the plexiglass idea will work for now. I've been fixing it in photoshop all night and still a bit to go. I'll post the photoshop repaired version when I finish.
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Starting to put some parts back together. Replaced the broken bowtie gear on the 1 pin. Found it at St Louis Ball bowler company. Still searching for a couple pins but still hopeful. I've been "fixing" my back glass on photoshop. I probably have more hours into that than anything else at this point.
Almost done, still need to make a plexiglass pin guard. A few more scoring reels to take apart and clean too. Made some brand new oak legs last night and having a new backglass printed today. Here is a preview the printshop printed out on posterboard for me to take home and see if it matched up. The photoshopping on the backglass took me longer than any part of this restoration.
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Quoted from bek1966:Beautiful work!
If you have the time, would it be possible to give a more detailed description of the process you followed by fixing the backglass in photoshop? I have never seen this done before (typical newb) and am intrigued. The print you in the final picture looks great.
Thanks for sharing your project.
Brad
Ya I changed the colors a little on the top. First step was to take out the glass, then put white paper behind it so the areas that needed to be fixed showed up. Then I took a bunch of hi res pics with a dslr camera, loaded them on my computer then used photoshop to "fix" the areas that had flaked off and recreate it to mostly original condition. Then I put the final fixed image on a thumb drive and dropped it off at my local printshop. I also dropped off a thin sheet of plexiglass that they are going to adhere the vinyl sticker to. When I get it back tomorrow I'm going to put another piece of plexiglass over that piece so it looks like it's printed behind the glass like original. I'd like to get it eventually remade at bgresto.com but for now this will work and all together only cost me about $75 and my time. The photoshopping does take forever though. I had quite a few hours into it.
That glass looks awesome Mopar! Did you have it done at bgresto or somewhere else? I battled the plexiglass pin surround tonight and I think I won. Wish I went with a little bit thicker plexiglass but I'm pretty happy with the result. It's still cloudy because the protective film is still on it.
Quoted from Mopar:The glass shield came out nice. Years back I used 1/8" plexi and had to heat it so it would bend without
breaking. Since, I've been using what is known as 60 thousands lexsand. Its lexsand that's about 1/16"
thick and works beautifully. It bends to a very tight circle without breaking..
The glass I had done with my Graphic Designer. He digitizes it and then puts it in reverse on clear vinyl
so when stuck on the back of the glass, it's facing properly..
I had the Small Ball United "Bowling Alley" glass done also.. I restored many United Bowling Alleys which is
why I looked for something other than plexy, and the 1/16" lexsand nicely did the trick..
BTW, this is Tim Jason. That's why I know your Daughter will be pleasantly surprised when she first sees
the Capitol.. (I believe lexsand is spelled wrong, but that's pretty much how it's pronounced).
Lol, hey Tim. Ya your backglasses look great. I had to use a heat gun to get the bend in the plexiglass for the pin surround . It was kind of a pain but came out nice. A few more score reels left and put the pins back in and I'm pretty much done. Just waiting on the new #s for the pins. I'll send you a pic when it's done.
Well I'm just about finished. The scoring on this machine was a little confusing to figure out because you also have to time your shots for the highest score. The frames only advance after a miss. If you throw a strike or a spare you keep shooting. Im not sure if this is correct or not. What do you guys think? Besides that, the game seems to work 100% except for a couple lights that don't fully illuminate sometimes.
Thanks Tim and dasvis. Ya I am wondering
if that's how it is supposed to work. If you remember I also have the other skill jack. I'm going to move the plug to the non skill side and see what the difference is when I get home from work later. I am putting the pins on tonight, the numbers i ordered haven't been delivered yet. If they aren't there when I get home I'll just put the pins on without them. I figured it would be easier to apply the numbers with the pins off the machine. Oh well
Quoted from wayner:That is a beautiful resto you have completed-congrats
Thanks Wayner
Quoted from OCD_pinball:And I thought I had alot of score reels to clean ! Dying to know how the missing pin mystery got solved, where did you find one? Looks First Class all the way. Always gets the most play at family and friends get togethers.
Thanks a lot everyone. The score reels were a little depressing to clean knowing how many there were. Lol. I found someone fairly local that had two pins. I called Mickey at Coinopny.com and he gave me some places to try. I even thought of trying to get it 3D printed at one point but the cost of getting a 3d file made and then printed was a lot. Hey OCD, did you see Mopar comment where he said he may have the coin return bucket? Anyway, this project was a lot of fun and so worth it to see my daughter having fun playing it. Thanks for everyone's help and input. Now I need to find another project.
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Catskill, NY