Pinball Update: Taking a Spin

My Mars Trek pinball machine has two spinning targets. They're fun to hit, and you can see they have taken a beating over the years

I was really surprised to see that I could buy new decals to freshen them up.

I was also able to straighten the support bar a bit while I was in there.

I didn't notice that I put the left decal on upside down, until I took this picture. Oh well, I'll just call that "artistic license".

A different problem I have with the spinners is that sometimes they get stuck in a horizontal position, and the ball rolls underneath without making them spin. Or worse, they get stuck upside down, and the switch they activate stays in the "on" position.  If this switch stays on too long, then the DC current will burn out the components.

The secret is to keep the wires that extend from either side of the spinners as straight as possible, but it's not hard for the pinball to bend them when it gets up to speed. One solution posted on the Pinside forums suggested sticking adhesive lure weights to the bottom of the spinner to keep it returning to the proper position. That sounded interesting, so I drove out to Bass Pro to buy the weights.

Here's a weight. The adhesive strip is on the back.

Here it is on the bottom of the spinner. The weight's made of lead, so I washed my hands right after taking this piscture.

The weight doesn't seem to have any effect on the spinning action, but the spinner stops in the right spot much more often. After some trial and error I found that a weight cut in half works best.

While I was at Bass Pro I also bought a brass shell tumbler.

It's sold for cleaning up spent, brass cartridges, but it will clean up other types of metal. You fill it with "media" (I like the crushed walnut shells that they sell at Petco) and a few drops of metal cleaner. Throw in what you want polished, and the machine do its work overnight while you sleep. It is a little loud, so I keep it in the garage.

So far I've used it to polish up the leg bolts, the plunger, and an old padlock I found. I can see myself using this machine on all kinds of different projects (bike parts, car parts, skateboard trucks...) for years to come. To quote Ron Popeil, "Just set it and forget it."