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Thread: Turn your balls black and blue!

  1. #1
    Sandwich Shooter SteveFury's Avatar
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    Default Turn your balls black and blue!

    ... Pachinko balls that is.

    Many of us know how fun pachinko machines can be at parties, especially when a door prize is offered for the winning players. Some of us have some gold colored balls for the purpose. How about some black and blue balls to signify a different goal or prize? This is a guide how to blue steel.

    I have a number of dull pachinko balls which I don't really like to run in the machines for appearance sake. These were perfect candidates for my project. Since the process takes about 2 minutes per ball, I don't think doing this for a large batch is practical to do for most of us, but I've done a dozen in 20-30 minutes.

    The process involves holding the ball with light pressure in the jaws of a long handle pliers and heating it with a propane torch until the ball just begins to glow. Once it begins to glow, the ball is dropped into oil where it rapidly cools and turns black-blue. Different shades are possible depending how hot the balls are heated. Some nice platinum colors can be made. Once they cool the oil can be washed off and a bit of acrylic paint dabbed into the engravings.

    If you choose to try this please keep in mind that heated steel can be very dangerous to handle, even with a pliers. I have came across some old balls in machines which were cracked. The crack shows that particular ball had an inner steel core and an outer steel jacket. Theoretically, it may be possible for those balls to have a bit of moisture between the two layers. If that's true then the ball may explode when heated.
    I haven't had any explode in this process, but I just wanted to stress the necessity of safety precautions and absolutely wear eye protection. Also let the balls cool for an hour or so in the oil before removing them. Oh, and use a long handle pliers. If you plan to do a bunch then have an extra pliers because it gets hot to hold after a while.

    Any type of oil can be used, and I had some extra clear silicone-based oil designed for copy machines laying around so that's what I used.

    Once cool, I used acrylic paint to highlight the engravings. I chose acrylic because it's easily washed with water. The deeper engravings came out fairly well with the paint, while the other not-so-deep engravings didn't turn out as well. (But the blue-black color is still cool!) Of course, the paint is not absolutely necessary. Also the balls get a better shine when automotive wax is applied. Oh yea... be sure to wipe or wash the oil off the balls before using them.

    Here's a couple photos and a video.

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    If you enjoy my pachinko, pinball and pachislo YouTube videos, please "like" them at:
    http://www.youtube.com/user/SirSteveFury

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  3. #2
    Pachi Puro Card Shark's Avatar
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    Default Re: Turn your balls black and blue!

    Very cool!!!
    "Life consists not in holding good cards but in playing those you hold well."
    Pachiholic and Proud!!! サメ

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  5. #3
    Eye Shooter Chumsize's Avatar
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    Default Re: Turn your balls black and blue!

    Ever tried using that instant gun blue you can get at gun shops? Having used it on... uh... guns... it doesn't look as good as a real blue job, but its easy. Wonder how it would go on pachinko balls.
    Woof!

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