Episode 241 - Bounty Shop Out Complete

For Amusement Only EM and Bingo Pinball Podcast·podcast_episode·11m 41s·analyzed·Nov 7, 2015

Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.015

TL;DR

Bounty EM machine shop-out completed with stepper, switch, and magic screen repairs.

Summary

Nicholas Baldridge completes a comprehensive shop-out restoration of a Bounty EM pinball machine, addressing stepper cleaning, a heavily pitted 16-pole switch affecting red-letter gameplay, magic screen misalignment and wire shorts, skill shot arcade stepping issues, and playfield maintenance. The episode is a detailed technical walkthrough of diagnosis and repair methodology for electromechanical pinball problems.

Key Claims

A 16-pole switch in the Bounty was pitted so heavily it was no longer making contact, affecting red-letter winner functionality and feature unit step-up coils.
high confidence · Nicholas Baldridge, direct technical observation during Bounty shop-out work
Magic screen misalignment was caused by wire bundle short circuiting from rotating disc in the magic screen unit.
high confidence · Nicholas Baldridge, technical diagnosis during shop-out
Skill shot arcade stepper issue was resolved by adjusting the common wiper underneath the spider to improve grip.
high confidence · Nicholas Baldridge, direct repair work on Bounty
Initial stepper disassembly and partial cleaning allowed dirt and grime to accumulate in mechanisms that should have been cleaned more thoroughly.
high confidence · Nicholas Baldridge, self-reflection on previous work methodology
Bounty plays 'phenomenally' after complete shop-out and playfield waxing following Straight Down the Middle show.
high confidence · Nicholas Baldridge, post-restoration playtest assessment

Notable Quotes

“I didn't want to paint over years and years of grime.”
Nicholas Baldridge @ early — Explains philosophy of thorough cleaning during restoration work
“This switch was pitted so heavily that the switch was no longer making contact at all.”
Nicholas Baldridge @ mid — Key technical failure diagnosis for 16-pole switch in red-letter mechanism
“It plays fantastically now. In fact I had a really hard time stopping playtesting.”
Nicholas Baldridge @ late — Satisfaction with restoration results and game playability after shop-out
“I took a small Q-tip and rubbed it on the chain and I just used axle grease, just a little bit.”
Nicholas Baldridge @ late — Details careful lubrication methodology for EM machine maintenance

Entities

Nicholas BaldridgepersonBountygameFor Amusement OnlyorganizationStraight Down the Middleevent

Signals

?
restoration_signal: Detailed account of stepper disassembly, cleaning, and the problem of incomplete initial cleaning allowing dirt accumulation in downstream mechanisms.
high · Nicholas Baldridge describes taking apart steppers, discovering accumulated dirt from incomplete initial cleaning, and the need to avoid 'painting over years and years of grime'
?
restoration_signal: Diagnosis and repair of heavily pitted 16-pole switch causing red-letter functionality failure; switch adjustment restored proper contact and light output.
high · Baldridge identifies 16-pole switch pitting as root cause of red-letter winner malfunction, adjusts switch for proper deflection, resolving issue
?
restoration_signal: Magic screen misalignment causing shorts in wire bundles connecting rotating disc; resolved through rewrapping wires in electrical tape.
high · Baldridge identifies wire bundle short in magic screen unit as cause of bingo card lighting issue, plans rewrap solution
?
restoration_signal: Skill shot arcade stepping mechanism failure caused by loose common wiper not gripping hard enough; adjusted wiper resolved issue.
high · Baldridge discovers stepper would stop lighting after 3-4 steps due to weak wiper grip, adjusts common wiper underneath spider to restore functionality
?
restoration_signal: Playfield cleaned and waxed after receiving play at show event; maintenance improved game performance and playability.
high · Baldridge cleans playfield from Straight Down the Middle show, applies wax to enhance play quality

Topics

EM pinball machine restoration and repairprimary16-pole switch diagnosis and pitting damageprimaryMagic screen unit alignment and wiring issuesprimaryElectromechanical stepper cleaning and maintenanceprimarySkill shot arcade mechanism troubleshootingprimaryPlayfield maintenance and waxing methodologysecondaryEM pinball lubrication and maintenance best practicessecondary

Sentiment

positive(0.85)— Baldridge expresses satisfaction with successful restoration outcomes, pride in methodical repair work, and enthusiasm about final game performance. No negative sentiment about the machine or process.

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.035

What's that sound? It's For Amusement Only, the EM and Bingo Pinball Podcast. Welcome back to For Amusement Only. This is Nicholas Baldridge. If you listened a few episodes ago, we talked about what was needed to shop out the bounty. Well, it's complete. So that's I thought I'd give you a rundown of what exactly I did. This was a working game that needed a little bit of attention and I outlined what needed to happen and here's what I did. So I took apart the steppers which appeared like they had accumulated a bit of dirt. If If you recall, when I got the game, I took the steppers apart and cleaned them and I did not spend a lot of time cleaning the rest of the head. So dirt and dust and grime and whatnot was all able to kind of shake out into these mechanisms. And while they were not filthy, I didn't want to paint always years and years and give and i give both pleaseMedina we have that they've looked for out some participants It would just drop the balls and then die. I had a skill shot that occasionally would never show the number that you needed. I could hear the relays going off but you couldn't see what you needed. And lastly, I had a magic screen misalignment issue. and that required the disassembly of the magic screen unit in order to correct So here what I had to do to fix each of those problems For the OK game issue the red letter game I opened up my manual and I took a look at some of the 16 pulse switches which are located right by the motor on the mixer Now these 16 pulse switches are critical for a lot of the functionality of the game and I get into those in another Wir sind vonicio SR شائч scaff Mobile The game you know you understand that the motor spins at this RPM it's going to drive. The sixteen pole switches at a certain speed and so you understand that. Sixteen times per revolution this is going to happen. Now. What caught my attention about it was in looking at the red letter winner. We Astra- time its fashion or for the section them pulses okay unit step up coil score unit step up coils feature unit step up coils and energizes feature relays. Well, none of that was happening. So, I took a look at the switch and this switch was pitted heavily. In fact, it was pitted so heavily that the switch was no longer making contact at all. So, I took my trusty New game just to see if there was anything else that was funky happening that might be caused by this And what I found was 16D which is a single double throw Here a description When skillshot spin or gold button is made, flashes skillshot selection light or lights. And that's exactly what wasn't happening. So I took a look at that and this switch just needed to be adjusted. And that was it. It was making some of the time, kinda, but I made sure it had good deflection and now that works properly every time. And the lights which appear on the back glass are actually brighter because of that. Now, I talked about the MagicScreen misalignment being cause for the number to light on the bingo card when you start a game. And while this is true, what ended up happening was a short. Each of these units, these MagicScreen units, have wire bundles that go from the disc that rotates. cancersacement кнопiances, very static championship wouldn't change anything like I, and looking around so i really love thisて each photo, I hope that, Downloading aоже, Jehush, So I rewrapped wires in electrical tape And rewrapped the individual wires And we'll see If that holdsup and we'll see if that holds up but for now it's good now in the process of this I mentioned I took apart the steppers well I introduced another problem the problem that I introduced was in the skill shot on this game there's a white button that you play and it will step up a separate skill shot unit now this unit has three and the other one lights the appropriate light on the back glass to tell you how many replays you winning And then the third one is a common or a feed And then underneath there is also a common. Now what was happening on this is that I would step it three or four times and then it would stop lighting the lamp on the backglass. and the the appropriate number of replays so the fix for this was actually to adjust the small uh... common wiper on the inside underneath the spider uh... it was not gripping hard enough and that was causing that to be funky so adjusted that everything's good there and then it was time to playtest and I did play tested a bunch and it worked incredibly well uh... it plays fantastically now uh... in fact I had a really hard time stopping playtesting but um... then I went and cleaned the playfield uh... at the show it got a lot of play uh... and so I wanted to go ahead and wax it and make it play as best as it possibly can and it does. It is phenomenal. So during this time I also oiled a couple of the clutches that needed some oiling and I greased the chain. Now when I say greased I didn't just take a grease gun and fire it in there. I took a small Q-tip and rubbed it on the chain and I just used Axle grease, just a little bit. It doesn't take much, but it's one of those metal on metal points which may require lubrication. I do it just to be thorough. The manual doesn't call it out as necessary, but I suspect it will prevent wear over time, similar to a bicycle chain. All right, well, that's all for tonight. Thank you very much for joining me. I'm going to go play a couple rounds of Bounty here. My name again is Nicholas Baldridge. You can reach me at 4amusementonlypodcast at gmail.com or you can call me on the bingos line. That's 724-BINGOS-1, 724-246-4671. You can listen to us on iTunes, Stitcher, Pocket Casts, via RSS, on Facebook, on Twitter, at bingopodcast, You can follow me on Instagram at nbauldridge or you can listen to us on our website which is formusementonly.libsyn.com. Thank you very much for listening and I'll talk to you next time.