Grandfather's Basement

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Re: Grandfather's Basement

Postby Some Idiot » Mon Feb 12, 2018 4:02 pm

I've spent about ten hours stripping down, cleaning, wire brushing, and reassembling the Castle Front's mechanism. Last night I was able to operate it manually and it more-or-less works. The reels spin freely by hand, but the reel kicker would barely impart enough energy to give them a single rotation.

The toe of the reel kicker is really chewed up, so I dropped it off at my favorite metal fab shop at lunchtime today. They're going to remove and replace the whole foot with a piece of mild steel. Here's a picture.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/R4Hm7591mRhZqR742

One of the reel brakes is not with the machine. I found some tempered steel rod of similar diameter and formed it into a reasonable facsimile, but won't be able to test operate it until the kicker is reinstalled.
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Re: Grandfather's Basement

Postby RameGoom » Mon Feb 12, 2018 7:02 pm

Those are made of hardened tempered steel, probably around 55-60 rockwell. If you use mild steel, it'll wear out in no time.

The stops take a lot of abuse.
Slowly building a knowledge base on E2000 series Bally machines and J400 Jennings. Started with the antique Mills and Jennings. Getting there...
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Re: Grandfather's Basement

Postby OneArmBandito » Mon Feb 12, 2018 7:54 pm

One of my favorite phrases is " it'll work for awhile..."
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Re: Grandfather's Basement

Postby Some Idiot » Tue Feb 13, 2018 9:00 pm

I picked up the repaired kicker today (they only charged me $10) and installed it. It seems to work properly and the reels were spinning better. I went ahead and disassembled and cleaned the axles and stops and now the reels spin quite well. After cycling it about 100 times I am satisfied with the operation of that part of the mechanism. The mild steel foot doesn't show any significant signs of wear after that small number of cycles, but I'm going to go ahead and order a replacement from board member mrslot1.

Next task is to clean up the inside of the case, clean and check the escalator, and see how it does with nickles running through it. Hopefully I reassembled the reel stack and the payout slides properly. =)
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Re: Grandfather's Basement

Postby Some Idiot » Tue Feb 20, 2018 9:50 pm

The Castle Front is ready for clear-coat!

https://photos.app.goo.gl/taYGofxTXZdRG1G33

I bought a Harbor Freight sandblasting cabinet on Saturday. It works very well connected to my dust collector system. Made short work of cleaning off the old paint.

I've never done anything like this before, so repainting has been a learning experience. I sprayed all the castings with silver metallic enamel as a base coat, then masked everything that wasn't going to be blue and sprayed that. Re-masked and sprayed the red. Then I hand-painted the black squares, and finished with a Testor's metallic silver paint pen to do all the gingerbread. That paint pen is a mighty fine tool!
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Re: Grandfather's Basement

Postby YourBestBet » Tue Feb 20, 2018 10:26 pm

Some Idiot wrote:The Castle Front is ready for clear-coat!

https://photos.app.goo.gl/taYGofxTXZdRG1G33

I bought a Harbor Freight sandblasting cabinet on Saturday. It works very well connected to my dust collector system. Made short work of cleaning off the old paint.

I've never done anything like this before, so repainting has been a learning experience. I sprayed all the castings with silver metallic enamel as a base coat, then masked everything that wasn't going to be blue and sprayed that. Re-masked and sprayed the red. Then I hand-painted the black squares, and finished with a Testor's metallic silver paint pen to do all the gingerbread. That paint pen is a mighty fine tool!


I can certainly respect the amount of time and effort you have put into this restoration. May I ask why you decided to paint the castings silver rather than polishing the aluminum?
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Re: Grandfather's Basement

Postby Some Idiot » Wed Feb 21, 2018 7:55 am

There were no polished areas of the original finish, except where it was plated. I looked up pricing for plating and it's surprisingly costly.
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Re: Grandfather's Basement

Postby Some Idiot » Thu Feb 22, 2018 7:51 pm

I had a bit of a mishap with the paint yesterday and had to sand and repaint a small section of the blue above the reel windows. I had also missed a section of the shield that was supposed to be red and fixed that. The first coat of clear gloss enamel just went on, so I'm waiting for it to dry now.
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Re: Grandfather's Basement

Postby Some Idiot » Wed Feb 28, 2018 4:35 pm

After much frustration with my lack of painting skills, it's finally finished.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/Hne5FCMu74ahqs2g1

I'll be replacing the award card and reel strips, but that's it.
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