Marvel Slugger being restored
I just picked up the Marvel Slugger Yesterday. The amount of restoration for such a small machine is colossal!!!
I have been working through for 2 complete days. I got hung up for about 5 hours trying to remove 2 retaining pins. What a drag.
The machine was in really decent shape only the paint is slowly but surely flaking away from the glass and the moving player.
The balls were all rusted and new replacements were ordered from a metal ball mfg they are 5/8ths carbon steel. I cleaned the rusty balls to the best that I could just to test the machine.
The nails have something very interesting indeed on them they have Sound Dampning pieces of rubber tubes slipped over them!!! It actually works no noise from the balls. Only the rubber takes away a bit from the look.
I pulled all of the rubber sleeves off of the nails then removed the nails from the playfield to polish them. They were all loose enough to pull out with finger tips.
All of the playfield was removed and all of the metal was polished. All screws were replaced and everything was cleaned 'straightened and aligned.
The same for the rear of the machine as well as the coin mech ( I never knew how complex these coin slide mechs really are) many parts and many screws and springs. Who designs these things?
The shooter assembly is very odd and the spring that is used on it is way too strong for the application I will have to replace it with a better one.
The Score mech was not working and I had to figure out how to make it work which I did. (turns out it was missing a pushrod and I made one for it)
I still have tons of final adjustments and have to refinish the cabinet.
It too bad the the paint is flaking away from the glass and moving player anyone have ideas how to save it?
The game came with 1cent badge on it but it only takes Nickles? I will search for a 5 cent badge as the machine in the photos has. The pics are not the machine that I have as My machine was in a Hundred parts this weekend being restored and I have had no time to take any pics.
This machine has been tampered with over the years as somethings werent right such as the too heavy spring and how it was located as well as the score mech pushrod missing. Plus some other things.
Its odd that the seller claimed that he had it since the 70s and played it all of the time. Yet he tried to demonstrate it to me using PENNIES? The Coin mech will NOT work with pennies! He also claimed that the counter worked???
The machine seems to have been made sometime in the 40s /Early 50s so it is old and all parts are heavy duty metal and the case is made really well with Real OLD fashioned Wood No press board here.
When I get the chance I will take vids.
Its a nice little machine as you get 4 balls for a nickel ( It probably gives more but thats all that came with the machine) I ordered 10 balls so Ill see if it can dispense more.
You shoot the ball up through the playfield by turning the right side knob to the right. This winds back the shooter arm then releases it.
Then you try to catch the ball with the moving player with the knob on the left. Turning the knob right and left moves the player in that direction. If you catch a ball you move the player to the left side of the machine whereas his deposits it into a hole which triggers the score counter and sends the ball back to the shooter. A ball not caught is then dead and cannot be played again. Try catching a Pachinko ball as it comes through the nails! You get the idea.
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Originally Posted by johntofva
