Here are a few zip tie moments at Canada Pincon 2018. The event was held on June 2nd and 3rd in Vankleek Hill Ontario.
I had a few games in the free play area and a couple more in the history section.
Free play area
I did a few shifts of guide duty in the history section.
History section
The first Zip ties moment is out of my 1966 Bally Capresville. It was the simplest way to put the game on free play. A loose zip tie stopping the credit wheel to go down to zero. No bending switch blades, no messing with alligator clip test leads. Temporary. Does the job.
Zip tie in Capersville
The second one was out of my 1939 Keeney Thriller. The machine kept tilting because of low line power issues. Too many machines. Too long extension cords. The "hold" relay kept dropping out.
Solution: Zip tie on the switch for the relay hold in circuit.
Zip tie in Thriller
Sometimes, you have to improvise.
In french speaking Quebec, we call zip ties "Tie wraps". No to be confused with Thai Rap.
Here are 5 tools I consider a must have if you are serious about EM pinball repair
That is on top of the regular complement of tools you usually find in a toolkit.
1. Switch blade adjustment tool
The essential must have tool when adjusting switch blades. Accept no substitute. Also note there are different quality adjusters out there. I recommend the ones with narrow ends. The ones with flared ends don't work very well especially on short switch blades, and kkn "G" type relays.
2. Flexstone
Flexstones are used to clean switch balde points or contacts. They sand off the dirt, and oxidization on the points. They come in a variety of grit sizes, some more abrasive than others.
3. Chapman miniature Ratchet kit
Very useful all around. Quality bits, The ratchet is excellent in tight spots. Also the ratchet is just the right size for hex head post screws. The chapman tool sets are expensive, but they are well built and manufactured in the USA. Well worth the money.
4. Split blade screwdriver
A must have when working in EM Gottliebs or older games with flat blade screws. The Split blade and wedge system allows you to lock the screw on the tip of the screwdriver for easy threading.
Note that the screwdriver is next to useless for removing screws of tightening screws. It is solely an aid to start the screw. Saves you a lot of time and aggravation. Avoids the old dangling the screw at the end of the blade act.
5. Hemostats
The can lock tightly in closed position. Excellent as a third hand. Saves you from burning your fingers while soldering, their long and thin shape allows them to go places where Needle nose pliers can't. Also very handy for inserting and removing springs in score reels, mixers and steppers.
Honourable mentions
Headlamp
Self explanatory. Strap to your head and light up wherever you look. Ideal for repairs on location.
Small precision file set
Although controversial (More controversial than Oolon Coluphid's trilogy of philosophical blockbusters). Sometimes it's necessary to file down a switch point when it's excessively pitted, conducts poorly. and it's not convenient to change the whole blade. Proceed with care, you can easily do more harm than good.
Dentist tools
Excellent for cleaning and scraping. Also, the hooked ones are very useful as a spring removal tool.
Telescopic magnet
Eventually, it has to happen, you drop a part in a tight spot. Here comes the telescopic magnet to the rescue. Also very useful as an aid for threading or removing screws in tight spots.
JIS screwdriver set
JIS screws are used in zaccaria pins. The head of the JIS screw looks almost exactly like a phillips screw, except for a small dot close to the +. Using a phillips screwdriver with a JIS screw results in stripping the head, frustration and swearing. Look like a pro when working on foreign games.
Always remember that for tools, you get what you pay for. Better tools allow you to work more efficiently. Less frustration, more enjoyment.
When I started working on On Beam. I noticed some of the trip bank armatures looked a bit weird. Some were broken, some were replaced with some strange mystery part that sorta did the job.
More importantly, I noticed that the first armature, on top of being all messed up, was missing a small 90 degree piece of metal that would stop half of the trip bank from resetting when the reset motor was running. Without that small 90 degree piece the game would never work properly.
The other trip armatures were not a problem to replace since I had a bunch of spares from parts machines as they are commonly used in later bingo machines.
The first armature is cactus but the 4th trip has the part I need
Serendipitously, I also noticed that the 4th armature was the wrong kind installed for that trip, but it was the correct armature I was missing for the first trip. The 1st trip required A-261-12. The 4th trip had a A-261-12 but required a A-261-11. So my missing part problem was solved...
A hodgepodge of armatures
From the Bally 1976 parts catalog
This whole story of the A-261-12 in the wrong place got me thinking. How or why was it installed in the wrong place, yet so conveniently...there for me to use it to fix the game?
Maybe it goes back to when the machine was assembled at the Bally factory. Maybe the factory worker assembling the trip bank ran out of A-261-11 and installed a A-261-12 instead.
Maybe that factory worker was really a latent precog. That he subconsciously knew that by installing that part, he would save a lot of grief to one of the future owners of the game that would be stuck with the broken missing part. Maybe the factory worker's precog ability subconsciously guided his hand to the wrong parts tray.
Maybe I got the part in there. That is the future me, reflecting on how I once had this On Beam game but that it never did work properly because of the missing part. But fortunately for the future me, Time Travel technology would be available, allowing the future me to go back in time, get that armature, hastily install the part in the game before I would first acquire the game...
Maybe it's a different me. That is, an analogue of myself in a parallel universe. Very similar to this one except that the Time Travel equations and all the other technological details are commonly available. In this parallel universe, time travel tourism is not illegal but strongly frowned upon. Unfortunately for my parallel self, the missing armature is no longer available in his universe. Therefore, it was simpler to go back in time to get the missing part. Maybe this other self from the parallel universe built a time machine to go back in time to the Bally factory in 1969 for a tour of the plant on the day that my On beam was being assembled. Maybe my other self distracted the factory worker at a critical moment, resulting in the wrong armature plate being installed. Unfortunately for my parallel self, he built his time machine from cheap eBay parts. Resulting in a faulty time machine that not only travels through time but also through parallel universes. He ended up in this (my) past timeline, similar enough to his own timeline for him not to notice the shift until he travelled back to his own present where he would find his On Beam still missing the part. Thinking his time altering actions were all in vain.
Eventually the Time police caught up with all these timeline altering shenanigans. To return the equilibrium to the timeline, a Time Police constable installed in my On Beam a faulty A-261-12 armature that broke soon after I got the machine working.
Fortunately for me in this timeline, Pinball Resource has the part in stock. I ordered a bunch. Apparently, PBR bought a parts inventory from a defunct amusement operator, the armature was part of that inventory lot, but maybe there's a lot more the this story....
Maybe one of my time travelling parallel self stepped on a cockroach in 1969 that wasn't supposed to die. It died only because of the On Beam armature saga. Maybe it resulted in a similar timeline chain reaction as in Ray Bradbury's short story A sound of thunder?
But I think the most successful canadian pinball manufacturer, or the one that produced the most electromechanically complex games was the North Star Coin Machine company of Montreal Canada.
Robert Baraké wrote a good article one the North Star coin machine company: Montreal's silver marble games If you want to read a bit on the history of Montreal's pinball manufacturer and his personal adventures, I highly recommend it.
If you don't want to go through the whole article here's a condensed version of the story of the North Star coin machine company:
On November 17th 1947 a ban on the importation into Canada of all non essential goods was ordered to conserve a dwindling US dollar supply. Pinball machines and other coin operated devices were included in the list of non essential items affected by the embargo and could no longer be imported into Canada. The importation of metal pinball parts was still allowed however.
The brothers Jacques and Gerard Tremblay, that were Laniel employees at the time, saw the ban on importation of pingames as a business opportunity. They founded the North Star Coin Machine Company of Montreal Canada.
North Star Released two models, Sea Breeze and Richelieu. The machines were assembled in old army barracks. The company re-purposed Gottlieb cabinets and parts from 40's games. The art was done by their brother in law Louis Leger. Less than a thousand games were produced in total.
The gradual lifting of the embargo started July 1st 1950. Nonetheless, the canadian market was quickly flooded with low priced used US games. The orders for North Star pingames dwindled and the company folded. The Tremblay brothers remained in the Amusement industry as operators for decades to come.
So this is the History of the North Star games.
My history with the North Star Games started somewhere in 2012 or 2013. I dont remember how or when, but I think it was while perusing the IPDB. At that time, I thought it would be completely impossible to own a North Star Game.
Then in December 2014, I decided to show up to a Friday night pinball meet at Robert Baraké's loft. At the time I didn't really know Robert, but we later became good friends.
Here's a short video from youtube that gives an idea of how those Friday pinball meets colloquially known as PowWows (PW) could be. Anyway, It was at Rob's loft that I first saw a North Star pingame in person. The game was Richelieu
On January 23rd 2016 I went to the North Star machine a Piastre's grand opening. The pinball bar is named in honour the the defunct Montreal pinball manufacturer. For the occasion, both the Sea Breeze and the Richelieu were on display. Thinking that would be the closest I would ever get to the North Star games, I had a picture of myself taken with the games.
In April 2016 I got my own North Star Richelieu. My friend Rob had a second Richelieu. He wanted a good home for it and he offered it to me. Obviously I took the game. It's sitting in my office as I write these words. It's a very slow project. It's missing a few parts and I insist on finding period correct parts for it. Hopefully, I will find the right parts in the near future and get this gem to play again.
Richelieu in my office
In May 2016, I had the chance to meet Mr. Jacques Tremblay. I listened to his stories and got to ask him a few questions about North Star's manufacturing techniques. I'll save that story for another day.
Mr. Jacques Tremblay with James Schidlowsky by Williams Major League at the North Star pinball bar
In September 2016 I had a very special repair job. A North Star Sea Breeze. Only 2 are currently known to be still in existence. The other one is at the Musée des Civilisations in Quebec City. This Sea Breeze is going to a private collector who wanted the game to be fully working. My friend who was selling the game couldn't work on it due to time constraints so he brought the game over at my place so I could take care of it.
Sea Breeze in for repairs at my place in the middle of the living room
So 2016 has been a very interesting year for me in regards to the North Star pingames. Less than a year before, I thought I would never own one. Now, at the end of this year I've had both models in my house and I'm the owner of one of the few remaining Richelieu games. Feels like I've gone full circle. I goes to show what kind of crazy and interesting hobby pinball repair can be.
