No harm no foul, that's for sure. But just to be clear, that stuff was for my Drac... here in Ptbo. The mega-project Drac I gave to Brewmanager and he's sending it to Sparky to come back to life.
Appreciate all your help, Rob! I sent you a PM about getting some other 'fish' sent to me here in Ptbo, lol.
Later,
Daniel

Finish a service call, a Gottlieb 9-1-1 with an opto issue... finally a crimp was loose inside a connector, so the opto was always 'on' and never detect ball passing. The machine got another weird new issue, it gives two balls each time?! So I checked all the switches, nothing was wrong to finally realize that the client found a spare ball inside his machine and put it with the other. Take out the ball and now he can play and was very satisfied. I give more money than I was asking him (probably the fact he lives 125km from me). I always fun to be paid to please people

I work a little on was Top Card repair video project... it takes me 2 hrs of shooting for 20 minutes videos... and it still bad Now I'm trying so video editing, half the project done...

And I moved against pins to have qucik access to a pin somebody supposed to pick-up tonight... two others machines less and I will be confortable in the garage!

I installed the slide rails and backbox flasher kit into my Iron Man, and J. Santiago came over and helped install the knocker kit

Oh and I picked up a RBION.

I've got to say I really enjoyed playing IM, and once we fixed the mistake in the knocker kit wiring harness all was well. Gotta say I am still not liking the way DE/Sega/Stern does their PF mounts.

D

What... you mean how they do it exactly the same as they did it back in the 70's? brutal, eh? I didn't like accidentally dropping the PF into the cabinet, that's for sure..

- B

4A-111-W-1 NOT 4A-111-W-2 is the way to the bushing Daniel.
Three will be on a P.O. tomorrow, well maybe more than three, this particular fish part may deserve a location of its own in the deep freeze.

Today was a painful one. Felt pretty angry about all the fish I had to cut and had trouble keeping up with the demand. Then I realized once again that life is better when it is not about running around being pissed off at those mofos who try to make me believe that I am the one falling short, when in fact it is an elaborate scheme on the devil's part to keep one angry and in a reactionary mode. Easier to control and second guess. Well, no more of that, Satan and his buddies can kiss my hairy ass.

Robert
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I can only hope I wasn't one of those mofos... you never fall short with me, Robert.

just spent the last 2 hours tracing and fixing the switch issues ....

Not at all Daniel, just that some people can be a real drain on my "fish brain" sometimes, and I guess that in almost any endeavour including one's livlihood there are deep personal moments of concern that sound in your brain and go something like this - "what the fuck am I putting up with this bullshit for, life's too short to let others fill it with this crap".

Anyway, and then there are the better moments where you feel you are making a difference in other people's lives. Went out on a call after work in what they call a special needs school. They had a pinball donated to them and it had trouble starting, I tried to fix it over the phone with one of the teachers there, but after two phone sessions over the last month it became obvious that we needed to have a "meeting" with this machine. That finally happened last night. Out of whack wireform on one of the outhole microswitches had maybe caused the ball return coil to energize irratically and eventually blew a fuse that is also responsible for slings and thumpers if I recall. No biggie, and happy to see that the rest of the machine was in good working order except for a worn belt on the ferris wheels and a couple of switch adjustments. Have to go back to change that belt once I get it via the next order from Poughkeepsie fish & foul due to build up by weeks' end. These kids are going to be happy to play pinball, and that makes alot of bullshit more bearable for me in my day to day.

Robert
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I finally fixed my Gottlieb system 80a CPU. Huzzah!

Also cleaned up the rubble after TOPL tore through my game-room, snack cupboard and beer fridge from last night. SAVAGES!

Well, it was to be expected. Got alot of calls of my MTL PB line after that "Montrealer of the Week" segment aired in Montreal on the local news.

http://www.cbc.ca/video/#/News/Canada/M ... 2193491504

One of the calls proved to me that the media can work against you in more ways than one. Boy, have things ever changed since the internet, it has definitely upped the ante.

Message on the answering service sounded like this - "Hi, I have an old pinball machine that is not working, and I was wondering if you buy non working machines. Please call me back at ....... the machine is called Sea Breeze." (Cock tease) For those of you in the know, this is one of the two pinball machines built in the late 1940's by the North star Coin Machine Company of Montreal. So ofcourse I am interested. the guy had visited my website and had obviously read the Tremblay brothers' story about this machine.

http://www.montrealpinball.com/blog/sto ... link&id=62

I called the guy back the next day and turns out he is an older gent, in his late sixties. I asked him where he got this thing and he told me that his brother in laws father had this machine in the basement of his restaurant for the past 40 years in Villle Emard. So I make an appointment and head down to the guys apartment. He had repainted the cabinet (good job) and he tells me that he is asking 1500 for it. The playfeild is worn down but the backglass is perfect. I politely said that this was out of my range and that if we did manage to work out a deal I would not be looking to resell it, just restore the "bugger" for historical purposes. So no deal - he then asked me if I could sell him parts so that he can restore it himself to have it play again for his grandchildren. That works for me. So not a complete waste of time. Parts & Service rule !!

Got me thinking on the drive back home about what 1500 bones bought back in 1990. I had reluctantly paid that exact amount for 80 pinballs roughly dumped in a barn out in the country just 22 years ago. They were mostly early solid state machines that were missing boards and were "raped" for parts by a big operator on the south shore of Montreal. There were about 5 EMS, 13 bingos and the rest were mostly late 70's and very early SS 80's pins from the big three. I sold 40 of them on the spot to a collector for 75 bucks a piece and hauled the other forty I wanted back to my basements which I thought would be good for resale once fixed. So over the next five years I repaired and sold most of them to homes and scraped a few of the real desperate cases for parts. Crazy how times have changed in only two decades because of the flow of information and interest that has somehow added value to these machines, they remain essentially pieces of junk for the average sane human being.

Robert
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Rebuilt my Flash Gordon flipper and change the door skin.

Trying to stay calm these days with all that is going on, and I must say that I am handling things pretty well for this period of the year. Must be the warmer weather which will hopefully lead us to an early spring. But then again I wouldn't be so sure. Last year winter dragged its' ass out of town in late April if I care to recall, and that did a number on me. Messed me up big time. Oh well, we'll see as I listen to the snow melt on the roof and drip down through the pipes here at the shop.

Today was productive, but I was very happy to leave work when the time to split came and leave all that jazz behind - what a relief to just walk out of that place and the stuff I find despicable at the store. Regardless of the work one does, a square job gives structure to ones' life and a socially acceptable excuse to be somewhere during the day.

I had a service called lined up tonight, but it got cancelled and I found myself at odds as to what to do with the evening. Wife and kid under control and no real need to stop in on them, so I went to the Atwater market and visited some friends. Helped them clean up their lobster tank and bought some cuttlefish. I have never been able to do justice to cuttlefish like my grandmother use to do when I was young but thought I would give it a try. Damn fish, what a crock, really have to know how to deal with fish. I am still learning, and that is a sign of progress at best.

Robert
466278

Nice and quiet Friday night here at the shop for a change along with my little guy for his weekly sleep over. I am sure that this weekly gig is building memories in his head for the future when he recalls spending one night a week in an old warehouse while his father putzes around fixing shit.

Tonight I changed both flipper caps on "The Wiggler" since one of the originals ones cracked during the test period. Louis loves this game, and is quite good at it. He gets a real kick out of the zipper flippers and the multi-ball feature. I can understand the frenzy it generates when the locked balls pop out of the eject pockets together and race down towards the wide gap between those two inch flippers when they are apart.

Also figured out how to get the Bonanza bingo on a single coin/credit setting instead of the five credits it was wired up to give for a quarter, hence having it operate on a nickel payout scheme. I prefer the fact that one feature flash costs a quarter now, makes you feel the value of the money you gamble as you feed the machine before deciding when you have wagered enough to shoot the first of the five balls and play your round. So now the forty coin limit means you can wager a maximum of 10 bucks per game and not 2 bucks, the latter setting was not risky enough for my mindset. I need to feel that something serious is on the line.

Tomorrow is basically family time, nice change and then Sunday at the shop all day, lots of stuff to get done with Big Dave. Install the missing guts on the inside of the coin door of 4MBC, take those damn weird looking leds off the playfield GI and give them back to Sly in a doggie bag for his Ballys, work on the Luguna Beach bingo job and have a few guys come over for their parts. As well, Uncleboo is coming down from Ottawa to sit in on this repair day, wants to partake in the repair process and just hang out for a day and have pizza and coffee. Should be fun to get some new blood in here and shoot the shit about what we are all working on these days.

Robert
466363

Went down to the Pinball Cafe with my wife, got interviewed by Global News while there, and tried out AC/DC!

Lots more details here.

http://bit.ly/zXETVy

Very much enjoyed reading your thoughts and the events lived Walt. When someone puts themselves in the story like you did, it is a "double whammy" for me. I get the story and get to know another member better, and to me that is the point of why I partake in this forum - info and insight. Thanks for that.

Robert
466452

Traded my Top CArd for a Gottlieb Playball in better shape. In bonus, this Playball was fixed a few years ago by our Master EM R.A.B himself so I know I won't need to do big work on it. One E.O.S to adjust, one contact for a light and now only need to find why single didn't give points.
I was curious about this Gottlieb Palyball... but the gameplay didn't feel like a real pinball or not like typical Gottlieb of the area. Gottlieb was master of good shoot and building bonus but you don't find any of this on the Playball, just racking point like some Williams.
Double scoring save the game if you like to advance the players but nothing great about the shots (for me). Vari-targets are tight (compare to Gottlieb Lariat), double and triple are mostly rebound from pop bumpers. Outlanes are killers, even if they gives a Homerun, a small metal post would have be nice.
So even if the machine really moves and scores the man on base for real, you don't have the fun like a normal pinball

Received a Williams Ringer to fix too, just for fun.

I went down to Montreal yesterday to visit my friend R,A.B at his shop.
And to pick up parts for my new WW pin,I brought him an empty old Bally cab with a charlies angels P/f for parts,It has been about 4 months since I had been as his shop,it's looking better every visit ! It was a great day,and I met a few new friends from Maaca,Suckerfish and Stewart.And was really nice seeing Rob and big Dave again,It was a good mix of just hanging out and shooting the shit with the boys ,and we worked on a few pins,we had great pizza lunch and played some pinball ,I had a chance to play Bally the wiggler,Dodge city and a few other good time oldie pins! It.s really cool for me to go back in time and play some of these beautiful classic pins I grew up playing at the arcades and pizza joints,,,
It was a nice drive back to the nations capital with only one pit stop..
Today Since it is family day I'm going to stay home with the family and relax,,,and maybe spend some time working and playing on my new WW

Uncleboo:)

J. Santiago dropped by today and we tore into my latest project.

It still amazes me how reproduction playfields always seem to miss some dimples, holes or countersinks.

Starting running power lines from the panel to the games area. One breaker running lights & water heater definitely won't be enough. Figure I'll put the outlets on banks of switches so everything can be turned on from one location.

Finally sat down & finished repairing my System 7 driver board.

Fully operational! BK nows runs completely on its own w/o donations from Gorgar!

Ah, sweet, sweet pinball......

We did alright considering that PF was complete top and bottom, and 3 hrs later it's bare.

D

Another home call that should be short but last more than 2 hours.
Men are just big boy, but normally money, familly, girlfriend made us lives like an 'adult'. The client don't have childs or wife at now and got a lot of money so he's returning 20 years back. His man cave is more equip than some bar in amusment and sound system. Even got the dancing pole installed! Anyway great fun to meet him but harder to focus on the job.
Played a few game of Kiss, not a bad game at all, like the way to stack the bonus. Only the price is bad:)

I posted something foul here last night and I am going to make up for it right now damn it !!

There is no point being mean and hurtful in the face of those that we find despicable. Last
night I think I mostly needed to vent here after an extremely frustrating day at the fishstore.
Being understaffed this week and not having those who remain on duty pick up the slack
made me feel the way I did and write the things I wrote. (the post was deleted, so don't look
for it) Well, the reality of the matter is that if others want to be lazy and waste their days, let
them be, it is sadly their loss. The best course of action in the face of these lazy ass losers
is to be nice to them. These poor lost pathetic souls and their inaction can cause unnecessary
grief to come upon those trying to move the boat forward. Regardless, I have to try and be nice
to them, cause being mean is only going to make them revengeful or cry. I guess that I am a god
damn hippie after all, just maybe a sort of part time one.

Work is not a four letter word in my book, but lazy & dumb are. Let it be.

Robert
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