Photo: pinballphotos

» Forum
» All Pinball
» Why has no one developed a better way to level a pin?

(Topic ID: 145723)

Why has no one developed a better way to level a pin?

By cooked71

8 years ago

Topic Heartbeat

Topic Stats

60 posts
32 Pinsiders participating
Latest reply 8 years ago by cooked71
Topic is favorited by 6 Pinsiders

You

You are not signed in!

Find in topic

Linked Games

No games have been linked to this topic.

Topic Gallery

View topic image gallery

You're currently viewing posts by Pinsider cooked71.
Click here to go back to viewing the entire thread.

#1 8 years ago

MCC

cooked71

Pinside member

Sydney

10y 155K 9,250 19 39

After reconfiguring my games room tonight, I had to also re-level all my games as I had moved machines from one wall to another.

Another 1/2 hour crouched under the games leveling the legs. Now my back is killing me.

It's got to be one of the most annoying parts of owning/operating a game, yet leveling is also the most important part of setup. Must be a huge pain for operators.

Why has no one developed a better leg leveler system? (I know.....cost).

A simple idea such as having the bolt from the levelers extend all the way up the legs. Then having some sort of screw mechanism where they could be adjusted with an Alan key from the side. Or like a dishwasher that you can adjust all the levels from the front using an Alan key.

Or having the playfield itself adjustable.

Has anything new ever been tried?

#18 8 years ago

MCC

cooked71

Pinside member

Sydney

10y 155K 9,250 19 39

Quoted from dsuperbee:
There used to be several ways, including using a drill. Very easy. Wish I could remember more but it's late
Here it is, sold out for years
http://bayareaamusements.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=PL-ZIPLEV

Thats kind of what I was thinking - but looks like its not available.

Quoted from pinballdork:
Is there a level or Inclinometer that talks, beeps or farts giving you information that you can hear while under the machine?

I use Pin Guy app - invaluable.

Quoted from JoeGrenuk:
<blockquote cite="#2828977"Must be a huge pain for operators.
Yeah, that is top of the to-do list for operators.

Sarcasm? Sorry. I forgot. Most operators couldn't be bothered levelling their games.

Quoted from Mbecker:
I'd love to see small electric motors you could quickly secure to each leg that would interface with bolts via gearing. Maybe 20 to 25 per leg. Then Bluetooth control to phone app or direct wire to couple buttons to control them. Nothing ops would buy but I'd invest for small home collection. I hate leveling manually

That would be awesome. Id definitely be in for a set.

Quoted from Toasterdog:
Get a lift cart from Harbor Freight. I eyeball level when I lower the pin, then I make fine tuned corrections with the assist of my lift cart. Raise just enough to lower or raise castors.
How do you move your games?

I have 1/2 my machines at home and 1/2 at work. I have a lifter at work where we have concrete floors and I use that for levelling. At home we have wooden floors which are quite soft. Any type of lifter damages the floors. I have rubber feet under the legs that have felt under them, so I can slide the games to move them.

Quoted from Chambahz:
You can turn the bolt with a wrench, lifting the machine on its own.
You turn the bolt downward, closest to the floor, and only spin it backwards, up to the leg, once it's level, then tighten.

Quoted from o-din:
Either you should trade in your back for a stronger one or you could try double nutting the levelor shaft at the top and this will allow you to turn them without lifting the machine.

Tried this and it works, but my back legs are at absolute max extension, so I have to remove the top nut. (And that's with the long 3" Levelers).

I still don't think it would be too hard to improve the existing system. Obviously cost is the big issue - but technically it's really simple. I guess if pinball was bigger, there was more volume, and more competition, it would have happened already.

#21 8 years ago

MCC

cooked71

Pinside member

Sydney

10y 155K 9,250 19 39

Quoted from o-din:
They are. But if you lock two nuts together then you can put a wrench on one and turn the leveler .

Tried this and it works. But my back legs are at absolute max extension, so I have to remove the top nut. (And that's with the long 3" Levelers). Can you get longer Levelers?

#26 8 years ago

MCC

cooked71

Pinside member

Sydney

10y 155K 9,250 19 39

Quoted from DanQverymuch:
I'd like to see a friendly robit that picks up the game, talks to a phone placed on the pf, adjusts the level just so, then waits for you to adjust the levelers down to the floor before retracting.

That's pushing it a bit too far. Really, does the robot need to be friendly?

#29 8 years ago

MCC

cooked71

Pinside member

Sydney

10y 155K 9,250 19 39

Quoted from jkroeck25:
I use a flat pry bar under each leg, one at a time, to assist with the weight of the machine. Pry off the ground and spin the leveler in or out by hand easily. Set it back down and check if it's good, pry and adjust again if necessary.

That's a good idea. Going to give that a go.

#30 8 years ago

MCC

cooked71

Pinside member

Sydney

10y 155K 9,250 19 39

Quoted from OLDPINGUY:
I actually added self leveling mechanisms that are sold for washing machines to some legs...it worked fine, but looked Ugly.
Not enough of a market to re-engineer.
In checking, here is something new that I havent seen:
levelers.jpg

That's the kind of thing I was thinking of - but you're 100% right - the market is not big enough. Adapting washing machine Levelers is probably as good as we'll get - same concept bigger market. Having said that, the pinball collector market are more obsessed and have deeper pockets than the average washing machine collector.

#31 8 years ago

MCC

cooked71

Pinside member

Sydney

10y 155K 9,250 19 39

Quoted from shlockdoc:
there was a dude on RGP developing a leveler that used a drill to raise and lower - looked cool

Where is this dude now? Wonder if that's the one from the first link to Marco:

http://bayareaamusements.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=PL-ZIPLEV

#36 8 years ago

MCC

cooked71

Pinside member

Sydney

10y 155K 9,250 19 39

Quoted from DanQverymuch:
"Friendly robit" is a Mr. Show reference. Now get off my land!

Mr Show? Never heard of it. You Americans and your 4000 TV channels.

#42 8 years ago

MCC

cooked71

Pinside member

Sydney

10y 155K 9,250 19 39

Quoted from Aurich:
Aside from flies as large as cats do you Aussies also have to suffer with no HBO?

No HBO, but Foxtel (our main pay TV provider) gives us some of the bigger shows.

However, it's possible to use Apple TV with a US account. Until recently, you could also get US Netflix with DNS re-direct. Not sure if it's still possible now NetFlix has set up here.

#43 8 years ago

MCC

cooked71

Pinside member

Sydney

10y 155K 9,250 19 39

Quoted from OLDPINGUY:
I get a bunch from my Mate in Cairns, Aurich!

Bird_Eating_Spider.jpg

He was in my backyard yesterday

These are the ones you need to worry about (and they really are in my backyard) Red Backs and Funnel Webs:

red-back-spider_465px.jpg619418-4da919d0-37ed-11e4-a694-451fbd592c5f.jpg

Especially when you are leveling your pins, because thats where they hide. And it's why we need a better solution.

#49 8 years ago

MCC

cooked71

Pinside member

Sydney

10y 155K 9,250 19 39

Quoted from koops:
I looked at that design for a while and looked to see if I can replicate it. Didn't seem much to it on first glance.
My getto solution is another nut of the same size. This puts an extra spare nut at the top of the threading. Get two spanners and force the two nuts to lock into each other. I couldn't find a locking nut at bunnings so I just used an extra which would do the same job just so I could test it out.
I used a flexible drill extension plus a socket adaptor.
http://www.bunnings.com.au/craftright-280mm-flexible-quick-drill-extension-_p6320510
socket adaptor
http://www.bunnings.com.au/craftright-3-piece-socket-adaptor-set_p6320452
add on the socket itself and give it a go.
» YouTube video
The main issue is that the BAA ones use special feet. Stock ones have a square rod base where it goes into the pressed steel footing. The problem here is that normal ones will spin the entire foot if the rod is turned. You can see this happen in my video.
In my case I have carpet protectors under the feet of all my pins anyway so they just spin in place on plastic so its not an issue.
So tried it again on feet with the entire pins weight on it. Maybe the double nuts would come undone.
» YouTube video
Nope! Worked like a charm!
Just need to hunt down some locking nuts now!

Thanks Koops! Off to Bunnings this weekend to test it out.

#50 8 years ago

MCC

cooked71

Pinside member

Sydney

10y 155K 9,250 19 39

Quoted from Aurich:
Damn, I want to flag those pictures, f—king spiders. What we have now in SoCal are Brown Widows, they came over from Florida, and have apparently been killing off the Black Widows and taking their territory. PITA spiders. Webs are tough as steel too.
Brown Widow
If Peter Jackson had wanted to make Shelob the way I would love to have seen her, she would have been smooth, and black, and shiny, with an awesome skull shaped red patch. Your Red Backs and our Black Widows, prime examples.

Those Brown Widows look almost the same as Red Backs. Turns out they're the same Family and you guys exported some Brown Widows here also. Thanks!

http://www.qm.qld.gov.au/Find+out+about/Animals+of+Queensland/Spiders/Modern+Spiders+Infraorder+Araneomorphae/Redback+and+Brown+Widow+spiders#.VmGDLIo8anM

#58 8 years ago

MCC

cooked71

Pinside member

Sydney

10y 155K 9,250 19 39

Quoted from king-pin:
Why do people insist on doing this to their games?Not sure about the new Sterns but every Williams/Bally game I own from Swords of Fury through to Star Wars Ep1 states in the game assembly instructions section of the manual
"Extend each leg leveler slightly below the leg bottom,so that all four foot pads are extended about the same distance."
"Adjust the leg levelers for proper playfield level(side to side)and playfield pitch angle(incline)of approximately 6 degrees."
When you go back as far as Pin.Bot the manual states
"Extend the rear leg levelers to approximately 2/3 length below the leg bottom"
All the manuals also have a close up drawing of a leg showing it wound down and a picture of both back and front legs wound down.The Pin.Bot manual shows the back legs partly extended.Why not set the game up as it was intended?

I like my games 6.5 - 7 degrees - any less and it just feels too "floaty". Especially for newer games. Combined with the fact my floor slopes down to the back of the games, I'm at max extension on the back legs.

#59 8 years ago

MCC

cooked71

Pinside member

Sydney

10y 155K 9,250 19 39

Quoted from dasvis:
What about hydraulics? A pair of small simple cylinders could be attached to the rear legs. A bit Rube Goldberg-ish, but it would be cool..
http://www.mcmaster.com/#1304k2/=103bjm1

Perfect. Should be standard on all Stern LE's.

#60 8 years ago

MCC

cooked71

Pinside member

Sydney

10y 155K 9,250 19 39

Quoted from Sheprd:
I just have my neighbor, Walt Kowalski, come over and he runs around and levels things up... with some Duck tape and WD40 he can fix anything.
Grand Torino

Great movie. Have to go and watch it again.

You're currently viewing posts by Pinsider cooked71.
Click here to go back to viewing the entire thread.

Reply

Wanna join the discussion? Please sign in to reply to this topic.

Hey there! Welcome to Pinside!

Donate to Pinside

Great to see you're enjoying Pinside! Did you know Pinside is able to run without any 3rd-party banners or ads, thanks to the support from our visitors? Please consider a donation to Pinside and get anext to your username to show for it! Or better yet, subscribe to Pinside+!

This page was printed from https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/why-has-no-one-developed-a-better-way-to-level-a-pin?tu=cooked71 and we tried optimising it for printing. Some page elements may have been deliberately hidden.

Scan the QR code on the left to jump to the URL this document was printed from.