1st Pachi - Nishijin C - Arrived today!

[marietta_ken]

Well, my wait to join the "owner's club" is now over. My craigslist purchase finally arrived and thankfully pretty much as expected condition-wise. It was pretty darn clean and mechanically sound compared to many I've seen. Did have some jammed balls, but got those out without too much difficulty.

I spent about an hour or so doing general clean-up, polishing of chrome (which is generally excellent!), getting familiar with mechanisms, etc. Significant scratch on plexi. Missing other glass. Will likely just put a new set in, but that's not holding me back where I am right now. Looks reasonable.

All the tulips work. All linkages and such seem intact. Balls launch fine. Having a little trouble with payout, but I think that may be because I don't have enough balls to trigger all the necessary points along the way. It only came with maybe 40 balls or so. I bought 1000 on e-bay tonight.

Only other point of note is that it seems that I'm having some balls stick on the lower pathway, not reaching the plastic thingy that lets them fall into a lower chute that I don't know purpose of. I have learned that that chute must get a ball to it to release a catch that allows payout. I can make a payout happen if I twiddle everything in the right sequence. That's why I'm thinkin I just need more balls. Can't wait to get them!

Oh, one more thing. I'm a bit concerned that my playfield may have some water damage in the top area. Whe I saw the detailed pics prior to buying, I thought those were just ball path marks. However, other stuff is cleaning up with relative ease while the more jagged stuff at top is...I can't tell yet. Regardless, I'll still be very satisfied if I can't get that perfect as there's so much else to look at that you really don't see it too much.

Will update as I get further along.

[luckydog]

thats a really nice looking pachinko, thanks for posting the pictures

[JACKSJE4]

Way cool machine!! Welcome to the club and thanks for the pics! I love the colors on the cell.

[marietta_ken]

Way cool machine!! Welcome to the club and thanks for the pics! I love the colors on the cell.

Thanks. I wanted something a little unique. This one fit the bill for me. I'm going to be building a wall mount cabinet soon. Thinking of going with a dark sage type paint to tie into the playfield and lower ball tray colors.

[outdoorenth]

Thanks. I wanted something a little unique. This one fit the bill for me. I'm going to be building a wall mount cabinet soon. Thinking of going with a dark sage type paint to tie into the playfield and lower ball tray colors.

Oooo, that would look nice. Congrats on the nice looking machine.

[hanabi]

Hey congrats!!

That's a nice looking vintage, I like the face with the big toothy grin!!

and there's some great looking characters there too!!

[wrkey]

That is a way cool machine! Can you see the dates on the expiration stickers? I'm curious to know when it was made.

Good buy!

[marietta_ken]

My expiration sticker has a 54. As I understand it, that means my machine was to be removed from service in 1978 -- correct? I've also read (vintagepachinko.com, of course) that typical service life was 12-18 mos. So, add it all up and this machine was probably made in 1976 or 1977. My guess is that most folks would just call it a 1978 model.

I'm in interpreting this correctly?

[bill812]

Very cool machine, best of luck!

[marietta_ken]

Question -- my shooter is awfully powerful. Has a nice feel, but easily launches balls past the playfield and down the "foul" chute if you press more than about 1/3 of the way. BTW, mine doesn't have a stop bumper to punch it back into the playfield area.

My sense is that the spring should probably be set to where the shooter will consistently hit a "foul" if you fully load, but that anything short of a full load should mostly stay in the playfield. That way there is more resolution to shooting power than I currently have. Does that sound right?

Through a little research here on the site, I learned of the spring tension adjustment plate/bar with holes. To my surprise, mine is set at the weakest hole already. The spring appears original, as does the old nail that sticks through the adjustment holes. It would be very simple to add another nail/screw a little further left to allow me to shift the whole adjustment bar. My only reluctance in doing that is that it's bugging me that it shouldn't be that way if all original. So, I just want to make sure I understand what the "correct" shooter behavior should be before I mod.

[mudfud]

Question -- my shooter is awfully powerful. Has a nice feel, but easily launches balls past the playfield and down the "foul" chute if you press more than about 1/3 of the way. BTW, mine doesn't have a stop bumper to punch it back into the playfield area.

My sense is that the spring should probably be set to where the shooter will consistently hit a "foul" if you fully load, but that anything short of a full load should mostly stay in the playfield. That way there is more resolution to shooting power than I currently have. Does that sound right?

Through a little research here on the site, I learned of the spring tension adjustment plate/bar with holes. To my surprise, mine is set at the weakest hole already. The spring appears original, as does the old nail that sticks through the adjustment holes. It would be very simple to add another nail/screw a little further left to allow me to shift the whole adjustment bar. My only reluctance in doing that is that it's bugging me that it shouldn't be that way if all original. So, I just want to make sure I understand what the "correct" shooter behavior should be before I mod.

using the shooter pulled at about 1/3 of the arc is about right for my machines. if you rest your fingers on the post and pull the lever with your thumb, you can adjust the impact and "aim" the balls.

on each of my machines, there is a sweet spot for getting the most jackpots. I have to play them at least 5 minutes to get into the "groove", but they tend to be a release at 1/3 to 1/2 the full arc.

[who922]

Is it not possible to add that bumper? All of my vintages have the bumper in place. Just one of my older moderns has the opening on the other side.

[JACKSJE4]

Regarding the issue about adjusting the tension on the spring:

One machine I restored was missing the notched plastic piece that was connected to the end of the spring and hooked over the adjustment nail. I went to Lowes and cut a four inch length of small gold chain (similar to what you would find hanging from a Cuckoo clock) and used that in place of the missing plastic piece. The loops in the chain allowed me to adjust the tension on the spring to whatever setting I wanted.

Another machine I restored was missing the launch spring altogether. I searched high and low, but could not find an exact match for the missing spring (comparing it to the springs on my other machines). I did find the same size spring at Ace Hardware, however it was made from a heavier wire and the tension on it was much tighter. I found another one at Lowes that seemed to be made from the same gauge of wire, but it was a little fatter in diameter. The tension was nearly the same. Fortunately, this machine had enough room to accomodate a fatter spring so I used it.

Try using a small length of chain to adjust the tension. It works pretty well.

[mudfud]

Is it not possible to add that bumper? All of my vintages have the bumper in place. Just one of my older moderns has the opening on the other side.

I think the point of not having the bumper is that you have to be more subtle with the flipper.

my sophia A single shots don't even have a flap, so if you give it a full flip, you can go around twice before it falls into the play field.

[marietta_ken]

using the shooter pulled at about 1/3 of the arc is about right for my machines. if you rest your fingers on the post and pull the lever with your thumb, you can adjust the impact and "aim" the balls.

on each of my machines, there is a sweet spot for getting the most jackpots. I have to play them at least 5 minutes to get into the "groove", but they tend to be a release at 1/3 to 1/2 the full arc.

Thanks for confirming that my machine isn't out of whack. I MAY choose to tweak it a little in that respect to make it more guest & kid friendly. I can add a second nail to allow a shift to a little less pop, leaving the original intact for posterity.

[dattia]

IT definitely has a LOT of character! er, characters! Nice find!

[luckydog]

maybe you can find a weaker spring at the hardware store???

[bill812]

Have you considered installing a pin with a rubber bumper to avoid the problem?

[compirate]

How do you hold the shooter? The pin goes in between the middle of the four fingers on your right hand (kind of like the Vulcan greeting thing), then the lever is pulled down with the thumb to rest on your pointer finger. Rotating your hand around the pin clockwise to shoot farther, counterclockwise to shoot shorter. If the tension is still too much, try stretching the spring just a little bit, then try again. An interesting note, the manufacturers usually put a rolled up bit of newsprint inside the spring for dampening/noise reduction.

[wrkey]

Here's my suggestion on the spring tensioning. I agree that there should be more control over how hard it hits and it should be just as easy to 'not go far enough' as it is to 'go to far'. On one end of the spring, use a small section of solid wire to connect between the spring end and where it is currently located thus lengthening the "spring". I would think that the 'best connection' would have the adjustment bar set as close to the middle hole as possible. Thus you'll still have some adjustment either way. As you and other players become more accustom to the machines, you'll want to adjust these accordingly. We made adjustments on our machines several times before we found the right setting for each machine that makes them relatively consistent across them all.

Good luck... and I am really jealous of this machine. It's a vintage and yet colorful and flashy like a more modern one.

As for the dates. It was was my understanding that the year on the sticker is the expiration date and that the generally accepted theory is that the expiration was 3 years from manufacture. Thus a machine with a date of 54 work like this: 1926 (start of Shoya) -1 plus 54 = 1979 expiration minus the 3 years term equates to 1976 manufacture. If anyone knows the REAL expiration term I would love to know it or if my math functions is erroneous, please set me straight!

Thanks for all the post!