Buying a pinball machine

Buying a pinball machine, especially your first one comes with one immediate question. Are you looking for a project now or a project down the road? Every machine, no matter how new will breakdown at some point. If you are not willing to put in the time to maintain them, they will breakdown faster.

We are going to look at some items to make note of when determining if the condition of the pinball machine is right for you.

• Words to understand:

  • Operator = owner of a machine

  • Playfield = the large main wooden part of the machine the ball rolls on, all the playfield parts are mounted to it, it is covered in art work and light up inserts.

  • Mylar = clear plastic stick on shapes that are there to protect from ball damaging the playfield

**Playfield paint ware is the number 1 thing to look out for. Art cannot simply be painted back on perfectly. The process of repairing this is either finding a reproduction or better condition playfield, removing everything attached to your game and installing it on the new playfield. trust me, this is one of the most advanced procedures you can do on a pinball machine. It takes skill, shop space & tools as well as a lot of time.

1) Asses the previous owners maintenance. First signs of neglect are in the form of playfield ware. Paint is missing, rubbers are dirty or broken. Grinding on the playfield under where the flipper bats swing. These are all signs of neglect. Check the high traffic areas for the ball. This would be in and around pop bumpers. (The round features in a game that bounce the ball away in any direction as soon as they are hit. The violent nature of pop bumpers cause playfield damage. See if there is still mylar circular plastic around the pop bumpers. If there is not, someone removed them and did not replace them. Meaning they were lazy. If they are laze about this, what else did they not take care of on their machine.

Look at the coin door. Are their holes on either side? This would indicate the game was “routed” meaning put in arcades, bowling ally, local restaurants. A routed game is a heavily played game. The most skilled operators of routed games still cannot avoid playfield ware.

Broken mini posts. while not caused by operator neglect, they are something that needs to be addressed. Mini posts are not installed to make the game look nice, they are installed to protect another feature in the game. Playing without these will certainly lead to broken plastic art or drop targets, bent wire forms or spinners and more. You can see in this photo, the post broke at some point and the bottom is lodged in the playfield. You will have to drill this out. Do not just make a new hole next to it. These are in a position for a reason.

One trick that does not always work, use a small drill bit and make a pilot hole in the center of the post piece in the playfield. Gently tap a screwdriver into the pilot hole with a hammer and try to back it out. If this does not work, you need to drill it out.