It's Spring: "Bike On!" (RAGBRAI reference)

I decided it was time to buy Char her first real bicycle. She's 45 inches tall, so I checked for online advice and decided she needed a bike with 16-inch wheels.

If I was shopping for myself, I'd go to a thrift store, but because my daughter doesn't have to have used stuff, I took her to Walmart to see what they had. I couldn't tell if we were early or late, but the bikes we're pretty picked over. The only bike with 16-inch wheels was a boys bike, but I had her stand over it to check for size anyway. It looked a little small to me, and a mother passing by confirmed my suspicions, "That bike's too small. She'll outgrow it in a week."

"You think so? She's only four."

"I'm four and a half, Dad!" Char interjected.

"It doesn't matter how old she is. She'll outgrow it in a week."

Sometimes you can trust the advice of strangers, especially when they have nothing to gain, so we looked at the bikes with 20-inch wheels. They were too big.  We didn't see any 18-inch wheels.

Super Target had even less bikes, so we went home.

Last Saturday we stopped by Toys R Us, and they did have some 18-inch wheel bikes, but they were made with so much plastic, it was hard to hand over $120 for something that would surely break in a few days. I thought about shopping Goodwill, but if I did find the right size, then I'd probably have to buy new tires, tubes, and whatever else would be needed.

That's when we decided to check out the Des Moines Bike Collective. Sure, the Bike Collective and Goodwill both sell used bikes, but the Collective sells bikes that have been inspected by a bike mechanic and are certified safe. In the front of the building there are some vintage and desirable bikes, but in the back there is a ton of everyday commuters.

They didn't have any 18-inch wheels ready, but we were assured they have some by next week. We went back yesterday, and they had one.

But that one was enough.

For $19.98 we had a bike with new tires and tubes for Charlotte. You might notice that there aren't pedals on the bike. That's because we were told that 18-inch bikes are a bit too big for training wheels, and it's better to remove the pedals and have the child practice their balance by scooting along with their feet touching the ground. We'll see...

When we got the bike home I noticed the bike seat was broken. It would work for a while, but I was afraid that eventually Char would twist it loose. That would be painful.

The handlebar grips were also pretty gross.

 I checked Amazon for replacement parts.

$17.10 isn't bad, but before I hit the "buy it now" button I remembered Goodwill. Maybe I could find a seat and grips there? 

This morning Char and I took a three hour tour of the local thrift stores. We struck gold at the third Goodwill. I brought along the original seat post to make sure the parts bike would be suitable. 

This Schwinn bike had a purple-lined seat and purple handlebar grips, and its price of $15.99 beat the price of the Amazon parts. Plus, the bike had all kinds of extra parts we could use. Score!

Best of all, I had a $20 gift certificate to Goodwill, so the parts bike was free to us. Awesome!

Side by side, I could tell the Schwinn bicycle was in better shape than the Kent bicycle from the Collective (except for the tires), and it would be a simple matter of switching wheels to make the Schwinn bike complete. But when given the choice, Char choose the "purple one!"

Exchanging the seat and the seat tube clamp was simple.

I couldn't add the rear brake from the Schwinn to Char's bike, but I was able to switch the handlebars and the pads, the front brake assembly, and the pedals (which I'll remove for the training).

It's a "Kent-Winn"!

A few years ago I accidentally bought a bell on eBay without knowing it was for a children's bike, and I added it and a new Walmart basket to Char's bike. I like the results! And we won't misplace this one on the playground.

Putting this Frankenbike together was fun. Teaching Charlotte to ride it will be a whole different thing...

Last Night's Dream

I'm standing in the doorway to our house. From the sharp angles of the shadows, I'd guess that the afternoon light is about to die, and the leaves pooled on the top step indicate it's fall.

The house is ours, but I do not recognize some of the furnishings. There's a painting on the wall that looks like something my wife would buy, but I haven't seen it before. 

I have time traveled again, and this time I am in the future.

Daphne is unloading the dishwasher, and as I enter the kitchen she doesn't turn to me. I can't feel the presence of the third member of our family, so I say, "I don't see Charlotte."

With a voice that is slow and tired, Daphne replies, "You just have to call her."  The answering machine has been replaced with a wall-mounted box that glows with a soft, white light. Again, without looking at me, Daphne waves her hand in front of the box and whispers, "Call Char."

Within seconds I can hear Charlotte sliding on her bottom, bouncing down the carpeted steps from upstairs. As she wheels into the kitchen, Charlotte spins, dances, and sings, "Hellloooo Dadddeeee!" It's a performance that I've seen before, and it makes me smile, but something is wrong.

When Charlotte asks me how school was today, her eyes are looking over my shoulder. And her body position doesn't match mine, either. Although the house is fitted with appliances that are smaller, smarter, and more streamlined - I don't see a TV anywhere - Charlotte still appears to be four years old.

This isn't Charlotte. I'm looking at a hologram. It's a 3D rendering of a video I shot years ago. The clarity and sound is astounding, but this illusion is not my little girl. Why did Daphne call this instead of the real Charlotte? Where is she? What has happened to my daughter? 

Daphne has left the room, and I've yet to see her face. I don't want to. I'm afraid of what I'll read there...

It was such a relief to wake up, walk to Charlotte's door, and hear her snores rumbling in her bed.

I used to think the dreams where I'm teaching without pants were terrible. Although nothing really happened in last night's dream, it was the worst one I've had in years.

Pinball Update: Learning Curve (part 1)

I haven't posted in a while because I've been staring into the abyss that is a pinball schematic. Here's a corner of it:

The schematic tells you how the electricity flows through the circuits, but it isn't a map of the wiring. Items placed next to each other on the schematic are probably nowhere near each other in the machine.

Let's say I want to drive from Des Moines, Iowa to Sioux Falls, South Dakota. The route on a map would look like this.

On the pinball schematic it would look a bit like this:

 •dm--i80-----I\I----i29--sf•

I am starting to understand how to read the schematic. But what I'm actually discovering is how complicated pinball machines are, and how much I don't know about them.

Here's one small schematic success:

Do you see a circle with a squiggle in it? That's the symbol for a light bulb. Do you see the lamp symbols that descend from left to right? Those are the lamps that wouldn't light up on the Royal Flush.

This is where they are located on the playfield.

I noticed on the schematic that the wires for the lamps can be traced to a common switch.

The black dots represent wires that are connected. Two vertical lines next to each other represent a switch. If the lines do not have a slash through them, then the switch is called normally open (NO). If there is a slash through the lines it is normally closed (NC).

The word "motor" means the switch is next to the motor, and "3D" tells you the place and position to find the switch.

The number directs you to the switch stack. 3 is in the ten o'clock position:

The letter tells you where the switch is horizontally on the switch stack. E is the at the top of the stack.

Now to find the switch. The switch stacks are numbered on my motor, but there's a chance the stickers could have fallen off. I could use switch 3 1/2 as a lighthouse to point me in the right direction. In this picture the 3D switch is located at 1 o'clock, and its long wiper blade closes the switch when that small pole pushes against it.

I used the above picture that I found online to help me correct the bend in my switch. I didn't have that "s" looking bend at the tip. Somebody had bent it back and straight. The switch blades couldn't make a connection, so instead of being NC, they were NO. A few twists with a needle nose pliers put the blade back into a proper shape, and the lights popped on.

At this point I thought, "Yea! I can do this! I can fix a pinball machine!"

I was wrong.

We Do a Lot of Food Stuff.

Daphne's band students had solo contest on Saturday, so Char and I had a daddy-daughter morning.

We started the day at the Doughnut Hut.

Then we headed to the Ace Hardware in Beaverdale. I wanted some replacement springs for the pinball machine, and Char got some popcorn. Tiggers like Ace Hardware popcorn, too.

Then we hit the Science Center. Char made a stack.

We talked about the weather.

We made a rocket that shot across the room and got stuck in the net. That's not as easy to do as you might think.

Char made me a fruit salad while she played in the Science Center's play kitchen.

Then we headed over to Burger King for lunch.

We do a lot of food stuff.

Pinball Update: Cleaning Up

Along with Clay Harrell's online repair guides, I've been reading B.B. Kamoroff's book about pinball repair and care.

According to  Mr. Kamoroff, one of the first things you should do when you start a pinball restoration project is to check the machine's fuses. Fuses are safety equipment. Using the wrong fuse can allow the machine to burn out or your house to burn down.

Since four of the seven fuses in my machine were wrong, I didn't dare leave it powered up for very long. While I waited for the postman to bring the right fuses, I got busy with a few cosmetic issues.

Here's the plunger and the trim plate before I put them in the brass shell tumbler.

That tumbler was such a great investment:

The apron was rusted in two areas, so I sanded the rusty spots and used some Testors enamel paint to cover the mess.

Since the whites don't match and a large chunk of the Gottlieb logo is missing, I'm using a cheap sticker to mask it.

Under glass and tucked beneath the edge of the lockdown bar, the sticker doesn't look too bad. I could  apply a reproduction decal after sanding and repainting the entire apron, but it's too cold in the garage to use spray paint. For now, this cheap fix will work.

The same goes for the touch-up around the ball gate. You don't really notice it; the gate is so far from where you stand.

Here's the right sling-shot. The rubber is old and cracked, and the decorative plastic is warped from the heat of the light bulbs.

I replaced the rubber ring, the broken field post, and the two acorn nuts with new items. I also used a trick I learned from watching This Old Pinball: Volume 1. I placed the warped plastic on a piece of glass and aimed my heat gun (set on low) at it for 15 seconds. The plastic will curl up and look ruined, but then it will drop and lay flat. I tossed a phone book on it for 20 seconds, and it cooled flat. This looks much better.

I did the same on the other side. Before:

After:

It's a work in progress.

For sure.

Pinball Update: How Much Trouble Am I In?

Sure, like a lot of people, I have my weaknesses. I'm not going to air out all of my dirty laundry in this post, but I will tell you that gambling isn't one of my problems. There is no way I'd walk into a casino and make a $300 bet. In my world that would be crazy. I don't even kick in for the dollar upgrade when I buy a Powerball ticket. But right now I've got a 300-pound gamble in my basement. 

Is it going to be a pinball machine, or is it going to be a coffee table? 

As you can see in the previous post's pictures, my pinball machine came in two large pieces: the cabinet and the light box. 

It also came with four rusty chrome legs. I used my bench grinder's wire brush to remove the worst of the rust, and then I buffed out the legs with chrome polish. I also installed new leg levelers.

The next step was to tilt the cabinet onto its front legs, and then lift the back high enough to get the rear legs attached. I used a coffee table and a thick phone book to hold the machine level while I turned the leg bolts into place.

Daphne helped me lift the light box onto the back of the cabinet - I was afraid of slipping and breaking the back glass. I bolted the light box onto the cabinet, and then connected the two cables and the four jones plug connectors.

Now it looked like a pinball machine. But would it play like one? I plugged it in, held my breath, and pressed the power button underneath the cabinet.

About 70 percent of the lights came on, and I could hear a faint hum coming from within the beast. I sucked in my breath for the second time, and I pressed the credit button on the front door.

It whirled, whirred, banged, and coughed out a filthy, silver spitball. Only three of the nine drop targets popped into position, and the flippers buzzed like an electric razor. One of the score reels for player one showed half of an eight and half of a nine.

I spun around and gave Daphne a high five. It was limping, but it was alive!

Look What Followed Me Home

My Mars Trek pinball machine was in working condition when I bought it, but it still needed attention. With the help of various online resources, I learned how to properly clean leaf switches, and how to solder the lamp sockets to brighten flickering bulbs. I adjusted the End Of Stroke switches, and I cleaned the coil stops and to give the flippers quiet strength. My Mars Trek is now fast and fun to play.

But I was motivated to buy another project after reading Pinball Machine Care and Maintenance and watching This Old Pinball's Volume 1 DVD. I returned to David Gray's basement (iowapinball.com) to check out a couple of old pinball machines that he has. One was "Straight Flush" (1970) and the other was "Mustang" (1977). He sells newer machines, but if I want to do the repairs I need an "electro-mechanical", that is, a machine made before 1978. In 1978 pinball machines became "solid state" with operating systems and computer chips. Repairing those machines requires a skill set I don't currently have.

It was a disappointment, but after several plays I decided to pass on both machines. I just didn't connect with either of them. I asked David if he had any other EMs around as I was putting on my coat. He replied that he had some machines "in the trailer."

The trailer was parked next to his garage, and inside the small confines he had four dismantled pinball machines. The one that jumped out at me was a Gottlieb Royal Flush (1976). It was really beat up - the chipped paint on the playfield was worn away in many spots - but it's on the top of a short list of pinball machines I'd like to play. I keep the sticky note on my work laptop in case something pops up on craigslist during lunch.

The other game was a Magnotron (1974). David quoted me a price that was only a third of what I was going to pay for the Mustang pinball machine, but he also added, "All I can tell you about these two is that they came out of houses, and the Magnotron is in better overall shape." He couldn't tell me if either worked or not. I told him I'd think about it.

According to the Internet Pinball Database, Royal Flush is more fun to play than Magnotron, but the Magnotron machine had a much nicer playfield. Which one should I choose?

You visit a town with two barbers. One has a terrible haircut; the other looks great. Who do you pick cut your hair? You go to the guy who looks terrible because the other barber gave him that bad haircut.

I picked the Royal Flush. It didn't get beat up because it was boring to play.

David will bring a pinball machine to your house, get it inside, and set it up for you, but he'll charge you for his time. Since this might be a total waste of funds, I saved money by transporting the Royal Flush in our Toyota. If you can drop the backseat, then you can get a pinball in most SUVs.

Daphne and I slid the cabinet out using the cardboard as protection against the car's bumper. We then carefully stood the cabinet on its back. The four round "feet" keep the back from being scrapped on the concrete.

I stopped by Northern Tool on the way home and bought a hand truck. The cost was a third of what David would have charged me to deliver the pinball, so I still saved money, and I get to keep the hand truck. That's a double win.

I already owned the tie-down strap, but next time I'll use two and add the other strap around the bottom.

Daphne guided the bottom of the cabinet as I wheeled the machine over the snow bank and through the yard, to the Monson basement we go. Once we got it inside I turned to Daph and confessed, "I can't believe I'm gonna try to fix this." Then I giggled,  "This is kind of crazy."

I think it's important - every so often - to choose to do something that makes you nervous. It's how you know you're living and not just idling.