tech: Whirlwind Shooter

Has anyone mastered the art setting up a great full plunge orbit shot in Whirlwind?

I've gone and re-positioned my shooter for a near dead-center shot. I put a stronger spring on there. I've waxed the shooter lane. I've adjusted my shooter lane rail. I've waxed the bottom edge of the one-way ball guide. I've polished the mylar PF.

My symptom is that the range of motion (left to right) is too great when the ball leaves the shooter lane at full plunge.

33% of the time the ball goes up the ramp (bad)
33% of the time the ball goes into the orbit (desired)
33% of the time the ball donks into the standup (bad)

That is a HUGE range, and as a player, I can't seem to impact what happens.

I'm wondering what the variables are:

1. shooter lane
2. shooter alignment
3. ball
4. shooter lane ball guide (and how well it's secured)
5. one-way ball guide
6. playfield as the ball exits
7. shooter spring
8. inner ball guide

I would say of these, #5 introduces the most variance -- it can be in a few positions which I imagine can change the trajectory of the ball.

Has anyone got a perfect 10/10 full plunges make the orbit shot? Is that unreasonable?

thanks,
mof

#2 9 years ago

JLH

Hougie

Pinside member

Marysville, IN

11y 103K 3,102 12 34

I put in a CPR playfield and had some trouble after installing it. I was having balls hit the post below the bumpers or even the ramp sometimes.

I wound up bending the inner ball guide out quite a bit and replacing the shooter housing. It (the original housing) had way too much play in it. Now maybe 1 in 10 plunges don't make it all the way around to the flipper. Ran Horton had this issue also. Feel free to shoot me a P.M.

-Hougie

#3 9 years ago

MOF

mof

Quoted from Hougie:
1. bending the inner ball guide out quite a bit
2. replacing the shooter housing.

1. Interesting. I didn't shoot a video, and I assumed the ball travel was along the outer edge only. I'll have to look into this.

2. My shooter housing wasn't hitting true in the middle of the ball. I sanded down the bottom-most of the 3 corners of my "shooter hole" in my cabinet and earned an extra 1/8" and that helped a lot with the alignment. I feel good about the shooter alignment now.

-mof

#4 9 years ago

BAK

dsuperbee

Pinside member

Sacramento, CA

11y 82,550 5,597 6

Huh. Mine makes it all the time if that is what I am looking for. But I prefer to go for the full sweep skill shot on the drops

#5 9 years ago

JLH

Hougie

Pinside member

Marysville, IN

11y 103K 3,102 12 34

OP
Quoted from mof:
1. Interesting. I didn't shoot a video, and I assumed the ball travel was along the outer edge only. I'll have to look into this.
2. My shooter housing wasn't hitting true in the middle of the ball. I sanded down the bottom-most of the 3 corners of my "shooter hole" in my cabinet and earned an extra 1/8" and that helped a lot with the alignment. I feel good about the shooter alignment now.
-mof

Bending that inner lane out made the biggest difference for me. Is your playfield a repro or original?

#6 9 years ago

MOF

mof

Quoted from Hougie:
Bending that inner lane out made the biggest difference for me. Is your playfield a repro or original?

Original.
-mof

#7 9 years ago

MOF

mof

Quoted from Hougie:
Bending that inner lane out made the biggest difference for me. Is your playfield a repro or original?

I removed the plastics and see that the inner ball guide has a pin that aligns it into the PF where the ball exits. non-adjustable. How did you adjust it?

-mof

#8 9 years ago

RandyV

Pinside+ Frequent

Denver, CO

11y 57,550 360 18

I've had my WW for almost two decades (man that sounds weird) and I had to bend the ball guide to adjust mine. Despite that alignment pin, you can bend the guide to influence the ball path a bit. It doesn't take much -- remember, the ball is contacting/riding the center of the ball guide, not the bottom. Even with mine tweaked, I still never get a perfect orbit shot. I just consider it part of character of the game.

#9 9 years ago

JLH

Hougie

Pinside member

Marysville, IN

11y 103K 3,102 12 34

OP
Quoted from mof:
I removed the plastics and see that the inner ball guide has a pin that aligns it into the PF where the ball exits. non-adjustable. How did you adjust it?
-mof

I used pliers and a rag to not scratch the guide/pf. I gave it some elbow grease and had a drastic improvement.

#10 9 years ago

MOF

mof

Quoted from Hougie:
I used pliers and a rag to not scratch the guide/pf. I gave it some elbow grease and had a drastic improvement.

Yeah, I just put a pop metal yoke part into the corner and used pliers and bent it, now I have a 1/16" gap when the ball goes through. It's now making the orbit it 4-to-6 out of 10 times consistently.
Much much improved...

I'd love for it to make it more like 5-to-9 out of 10 times...

Thank you!
-mof

#11 9 years ago

MDH

lurch

Pinside member

Leesburg, VA

10y 64,300 1,301 2

Biggest thing i did to get it to orbit almost 100% of the time was replacing the shooter rod assembly. Tweaking the guide helped get it right in the sweet spot (just grab some needle nose pliers and give it a slight nudge). But having the shooter giving consistent hits to the ball really helps.

#12 9 years ago

MOF

mof