Vintage Pachinko, today's thrift store find

[Meathead]

Well, I did it again. I was killing time between finishing work and going to an appointment and I wandered into a thrift shop. Lo and behold, there is a pachinko machine, complete with balls in a corner of the shop. I took a closer look, and it appears to be 70's judging from the staples holding the various ramps and trays in the back. The back is thickly covered in dust and various debris left over the years by spiders and other insects. I unlatched the front and discovered the playfield was unstained. The frame is relatively free of rust, and so are the 300 or so balls included. I tried the shooter which worked, and then the tulips, which opened and closed properly. Even the wiring and levers and such in the back all appeared to be intact.

It was $50, and I broke down and bought it. The wife has yet to find out .

My first inclination is to get my compressor and blow off the dust. But considering my first inclinations are typically wrong, I held off. I decided I would read the wealth of advice in this forum. I never thought I would be the owner of a vintage, but I guess that occurs with the addiction, doesn't it?

Attached are a couple photos. Tell me if I did good, or provide me some initial guidance? Thanks!

[Eddie]

Dude if that doesnt have rust on the chrome as it appears in the photos than I think you hit a Jackpot. It looks like its in fantastic condition.
Blow out the dust
Use Windex on all of the ramps, plastic parts, metal and glass
Use tons of Qtips dont be cheap LOL
Use a clear acrylic latex Varnish on the frame to keep the dust down and restore the wood.
Use Brasso for Brass and an old t shirt to polish the pins.
Make sure your wires all all insulated and undamaged if they show wear replace them.
Dont run balls through the machine untill you get all of the dirt out, be patient I know this step will be hard.
If it has a plexi pane in the door you may in the future want to get 2 pieces of glass to replace it and bring it to the way it was designed.
Check that everything on the back is secure. its easy to miss something.
If your anal like me remove all staples if thats how it was assembled and replace them with screws. While doing that you can really notice if anything is broken or loose in the back.
I probably forgot tons of stuff that I would do but cant think of now.

[slotter]

You did good! Congrats on what looks to be a fine machine.

[hanabi]

Wow! !

That's a super find! !

be sure to keep us posted on your progress......

[H20Dreams]

Looks like it is in great shape. Congrats on the find!

[azlew]

Nice theme(Derby) on that classic pachinko. It looks like a great find. Congratulations

[Delgrieve]

Congrats on your find!

[Eddie]

I just remembered some more things
Replace the light bulbs with new ones
Remove the shooter spring and any other spring and soak them in a tub ,pan etc of WD40 overnight then flex them and completely dry them with a cloth before reinstalling.
Spray some contact cleaner into the micro switch assemblies if you have any.
Install corner braces in the frame
use WD40 on the door hinges and lock mech but wipe up all excess. Dont get any on the plastics or anywhere but what you want it on.

[compirate]

Remove the shooter spring and any other spring and soak them in a tub ,pan etc of WD40 overnight then flex them and completely dry them with a cloth before reinstalling.

Just don't forget to remove the piece of newsprint (usually found inside the shooter spring as a damper).

[gottac]

Some people have all the luck

See now if it was me walking around the thrift store I would have stubbed my toe on it and cussed it out and never would have known

Very cool find!

[Meathead]

Thanks for all the great advice. I've not had the time to devote to really getting into the thing yet, but I have taken some of the back apart to clean parts and then put it back together. I'm facinated at how complicated (and actually at the same time, how simple) everything is on the back. All of the delicate rods and weights and trips and levers. It's hard to believe something like this was used commercially around the clock, let alone survive for another quarter century to function again.

It sounds as if I need to avoid wet lubricants on parts in the back to prevent dust from adhering. How about graphite?

I also applied a 9 volt battery to the power leads, not only do all the bulbs work, but all the switches function. I can't wait to devote several hours to cleaning this thing up and getting it operational.

One thing I have noticed is that the balls won't fall down to the shooter. I thought it was just dirt but discovered it was a gate, connected to a long rod in the back to a lever under the reward hopper. I'm assuming that there needs to be balls in the hopper for the shooter to operate. I noticed that manually operating the lever opens the gate and removes a small "victory" flag from the window near the shooting lever. I'm taking your advice Eddie. I won't run balls through until I have it clean.

[jwegger]

Take lots of pictures as you take it apart, you will be glad you did when you start putting it back together. Some of the parts will need to stay out to get to other parts and you will not remeber exactly how it goes when you get ready to reassemble.

On my first machine that I got in the 70's there was a nail at the bend in the rod to hold the flag up so that it could be played with the top hopper empty. Since this machine recycles the lost balls you could play quite some time with the top hopper empty

[portercbl]

Meathead,
You got one of the good vintage machine because it recycles the balls as you play. Clean it up good and it will out live you. Your kids will love it! These are fantastic machines! Just love it to death and it will reward you with years of pleasure!
Good Luck! And Enjoy!

Jerry

[KennithX]

Nice machine, the derby ones go for 100 on Ebay if pimped properly. 70's semi cyclic Nisijin is a good playing machine I have one somewhere. it probably has that much dust on it also, time to go dig it out.