My Latest Project: 1977 Mizuho “Crab”

[JACKSJE4]

Well, after feeling the ‘itch’ for a while now to see a new pachi in my game room, I decided to dig deep into my stash of rescued machines sitting in the garage and see if could find a fun one to restore. I looked at all of the dusty, dirty and sad looking machines that seemed to be staring back at me with sad “Bambi” eyes and begging “Pick me! Pick me!”, and found one that I bought off of Craigslist not long after I was first bitten by the Pachinko bug about two years ago.

I recall the night like it was last week - I drove 35 miles through the blinding snow after work to evaluate and possibly rescue a pachinko machine that was advertised for $45. I arrived at the home and was immediately greeted by two large St. Bernard dogs and two other large, long hair dogs. The machine was down in their cluttered basement. When the owner pulled the machine out for me to see, I was instantly in love! It was a very colorful Mizuho with a large crab as the center piece and a China man directly above. The back of the machine was in pieces because their 13 year old son had taken it apart to try and get it working, using lots of WD-40 in the process, but gave up not long after taking it apart (they failed to mention that in the ad). The dogs also tried to help by shedding their long hair all through the machine. J

The mechanics were similar to a model B machine, but the pieces were unlike anything I had seen before (or since) so I negotiated the price down due to the “some assembly required” condition, telling the owner that I had no way of knowing if all of the parts were there (I learned this week that some were not included).

So last week I grabbed the machine and the box of parts from the corner of my garage and quickly got to work laying out the pieces of this jigsaw puzzle. I quickly came to realize that this model of Mizuho was designed for very quick disassembly and reassembly (I presume for cleaning and repair), so figuring out how the back went together was rather easy – it essentially snapped together into one large piece that attached to the back of the machine:

031 Mizuho B Series - Crab 002.jpg

The challenge I faced was how I was going to replace the missing parts!! (I have not yet attempted fabricating parts yet as others have, so it was new territory for me.) During the cleaning process, I was amazed at how easily and completely all of the ball tracks and components came apart – I truly think the intent was for easier cleaning. There weren’t any hard-to-reach places to scrub at all like I always encounter on all other machines. Also, the jackpot payout mechanism detached from the machine after removing just two flat clips – no ‘E’ clips to remove or linkages to disconnect.

031 Mizuho B Series - Crab 017.jpg

Once I had all of the mechanics for the back cleaned and assembled, I simply clipped the entire assembly into place on the back of the machine using six rotating clips (in yellow) and the machine was essentially ready to play!

031 Mizuho B Series - Crab 019.jpg

During the cleaning process on the front of the machine, I noticed that the Mizuho badge on the front of the machine had lost most of its silver coloring, so I decided to use my silver leafing kit to restore it back to its original condition.
I started by using some #0000 steel wool to gently remove the remaining silver leaf so that the adhesive would stick to the plastic.

031 Mizuho B Series - Crab 027.jpg

Next I used the adhesive pen with a chisel point to apply adhesive only to the flat surfaces.

031 Mizuho B Series - Crab 028.jpg

After letting it dry for 5 minutes, I applied the silver leaf with pressure, then pulled the leaf sheet away.

031 Mizuho B Series - Crab 031.jpg 031 Mizuho B Series - Crab 032.jpg 031 Mizuho B Series - Crab 033.jpg

Next I used a soft brush to remove the portions of leaf that did not adhere, then sharpened the edges with a pointed tool (you can also use an Xacto Knife). I then sprayed the final product with a sealer to make sure it lasted.

031 Mizuho B Series - Crab 038.jpg

{continued next post}

[JACKSJE4]

I used the same technique to touch up the Mizuho logo in the upper right corner of the play field:

031 Mizuho B Series - Crab 021.jpg 031 Mizuho B Series - Crab 022.jpg 031 Mizuho B Series - Crab 025.jpg

There were several parts that were missing that I had to replace. One was the wire that connects the upper ball hopper “empty” lever with the ball shooter stop gate on the front. I thought that would be easy, but finding the correct gauge of wire was challenging. I went to three stores before I finally found what I needed at ACE Hardware. There also was a missing post for the Lower Jackpot Tray Full lever (the one that stops the shooter if there are too many balls backed up in the bottom tray). The original post was molded into the green plastic panel on the back, but for some reason had been sawed off. I ended up finding a self tapping screw and a plastic spacer to create a new post that would allow the mechanism to function correctly (only took two stores to find what I needed. The last pieces missing were all of the light sockets and wiring – I had to start from scratch! That part wasn’t very difficult, just a little time consuming. J

The last challenge was finding the correct size screws to reattach the tulips to the playfield (that is, once I figured out that they had been attached with screws and not escution pins). After a bit of trial and error, I found some #2x 3/8 oval head stainless steel screws at ACE Hardware that fit perfectly and looked nice.

The machine is now restored and plays well. I really love the colors and ornamentation – it looks nice and bright in my game room!! The crab center feature is also interesting. When you get a ball in the very top pocket (China man), it drops into the top of the crab and moves his eyes from one side to the other. Then it reached his claws, which move as the ball drops into the tulip directly below. If you look deep into the holes in the crab, you can see fishes within.

031 Mizuho B Series - Crab 050.jpg031 Mizuho B Series - Crab 052.jpg031 Mizuho B Series - Crab 053.jpg 031 Mizuho B Series - Crab 065.jpg 031 Mizuho B Series - Crab 066.jpg 031 Mizuho B Series - Crab 068.jpg

The machine plays like a champ and is somewhat “loose” with the jackpots (two pins are missing above the left and right tulips). My wife enjoys it and I’m sure my guests will too since it rewards jackpots pretty frequently. J

My apologies for the lengthy post, but I learned a lot during the restoration of this machine and wanted to share.

Jeff

[emmadog]

I had a Mizuho once that came apart the same way. I t was so efficient and ingenious that I wondered why more machines weren't like that.
Great tip on the silver leaf and adhesive pen. I use a product called "bare metal foil" which is self adhesive but I like your way better. I've never seen an adhesive pen before, are they at craft stores?

[Moparformances]

great looking Pachi...

outstanding work

[pachinkojeff]

I've also had good results using a silver leaf pen, too. Got it at Pat Catan's...craft store.

[JACKSJE4]

I've never seen an adhesive pen before, are they at craft stores?

Yes - any arts and craft store will carry them. You want a kit with real silver or gold leaf sheets and a pen that offers a chisel point. Here is the kit I'm using:

031 Mizuho B Series - Crab 040.jpg

[Microbus99]

Outstanding!!!As usual!!

[BG1996]

Nice work!

[Hope Chest]

Resurrecting an old thread here...

JACKSJE4, I was wondering if you'd mind posting a few close-up pics of how the lights are wired on this machine. I have a Mizuho that I'm trying to electrify and I've no idea whatsoever how they should be done on these machines. Your pics above are a help but close-ups would be a godsend.

Also, I'm wondering if the person at the top of your centrepiece is supposed to be someone in particular. Instead of a crab, my Mizuho has a depiction of two of the Seven Lucky Gods, Ebisu and Daikokuten, with their ship Takarabune just above them. However, looking down on them is the same person - I just assumed it was supposed to be a Japanese boy.

[JACKSJE4]

Pic #8 in the second post is the best picture I can provide you since I no longer have the machine. It went to a friend in California who fell in love with it while visiting.

[Hope Chest]

Ahh, thanks anyway! I'm a complete idiot when it comes to electrics but I should be able to cobble something together from those.

[JACKSJE4]

The electrical connection is so simple, once you figure it out. I was all thumbs with electrical on my first few machines, but once I learned the basics, I found it was really simple.

Check out this link for diagrams in posts #1 and #9: http://www.pachitalk.com/forums/pach...-nishijin.html

[Hope Chest]

OOOH - thanks SO MUCH for that link!! There's some seriously great info there. I've got to really study that and wrap my head around it - especially since my Nishijin A is almost at the top of my list to electrify. That's a great thread.

After all these years, it's only just this week that I've started trying to learn how to wire them for functioning lights. My level of electrical expertise is pretty much limited to 1) plugging cords into sockets, and 2) turning light switches on and off. Oh, and resetting the breaker outside when it trips. Night before last I got an old Nishijin's "ball tray empty" light on, my first success in that area - I'd be surprised if you didn't hear me yelling for joy all the way out there in Denver. My goal is to have all my vintage machines lit up by the end of the month.

[JACKSJE4]

It's a simple loop circuit with a bulb at one end of the loop and a battery at the other end. Oh, and there is a micro switch on one of the wires between the two to break the connection until needed.

Here is a very crude drawing that explains how the circuit works:

Pachi1.jpg

Don't let the various wire colors confuse you. I found it easier on my first few machines to remove all of the existing wires and replace with new - Black (neg) and Red (pos) - to create and understand the circuit I was wiring. You can get wire cheaply just about anywhere - I bought small spools of it at Radio Shack.

~Jeff

[Hope Chest]

Yeah, the variously coloured wires just do my head in! What you've written there makes a LOT of sense.

Radio Shack is about to get a LOT of my money.

[Moparformances]

Hope,

if ya need a hand with vintage lights let me know im perty good with them..