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Old 09-23-2010, 12:01 PM
tedzan tedzan is offline
Ted Zanidakis
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Join Date: Apr 2009
Location: Pennsylvania & Maine
Posts: 10,053
Default An interesting pinball machine story......and, let's hear yours ?

Here's a story you "pinballer's" will appreciate.

Everytime any of our 3 grandchildren are visiting us, they go straight to the Super Slugger. Six years ago, Kurtis and Madison (then
11 and 8 years old, respectively) were competing with each other....running up their scores on the machine.

Suddenly, I hear them calling...."Grampie, Grampie "

I run down to our lower garage to see (and smell) smoke emanating from the machine. Apparently, they had held down the Batting
button too long; and, this caused the Bat actuator solenoid inside the machine to burn up. I had instructed them to always moment-
arily press the Bat button. But the're just kids, these things do happen. My daughter Debbie was really upset, she knows how much
I enjoy this pinball machine.

I lifted the top of the machine and unsoldered the electromagnet coil that energized the bat mechanism. I acquired an exact replace-
ment coil from a supplier in upstate New York. Soldered it into the machine and turned on the power.

"SLAM-BAM".....now I really had a "Super Slugger", as the Bat was significantly more powerful than before. My grandchildren did me a
great favor (although they sure didn't think so that day). Obviously, the original solenoid had lost some of its juice over the past 50+
years.

What was more satisfying than realizing that I had revitalized my machine....was the glee on Kurtis' and Madison's faces, when I told
them that they had inadvertently did us all a great favor.


TED Z
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