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Pinball logistics - around the home

ShootAgainChris

ShootAgainChris

Registered
1 10 Years
Joined
Feb 24, 2014
Messages
253
Location
Chingford, london
Although I'm not yet in the position to own a pinball machine (because I'm ploughing all my money into a wedding) I am looking at getting one around September/October time once the wedding is all done and dusted.

Could you give some feedback on how wide doorways need to be, logistics of getting pinball machines up staircases, how much room is needed in front of the machine to get he glass off ETC ETC basically anything a noobie might miss when planning a pinball escapade!! Also tips for getting the idea past the wife to be!!

I'm thinking a white water or CFTBL but would also like recommendations on machines that are smaller/narrower ask I live in a 1st floor flat.

Sorry a lot here I know! :eek:
 
My Bally games are all 29" wide at the backbox, plus a little bit for the rounded-head bolts which stick out an extra 2mm in total... My door frames are all exactly this wide, with the width of a human hair on top. It's friggin' tight! And you need to be able to open the door fully, not just 90degrees to the frame! Otherwise the door thickness reduces the gap and to quote that wizard off the telly 'thou shall not pass'. You could remove the backbox, but if you're a noob it can be quite daunting.

Also watch out for the topper height on White Water - moved my Addams 3weeks ago and the ceiling in the new location is 2" too low for the game plus topper. Looks **** without the topper. Considering some shorter legs to accommodate... just no cash right now.

See this post about the way i had to line up my games in a stupid way due the width of the room and the essential requirement of getting the glass off quite regularly: http://www.pinballinfo.com/community/threads/attack-from-mars-in-yorkshire.6709/page-3#post-67903

I used this website a couple of times for dimensions: http://www.bmigaming.com/pinballfaq.htm

Never tried getting a pin upstairs and i don't think i would like to try, especially a Twilight Zone or Star Trek Next Gen... Others on here have though, so it's definitely possible... just consider the point loading on your floor as they're quite heavy (110kgs ish).

I'm relatively new to this so sure others will have better advice.
 
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Yep 29 inch width is about min you will get away with, for 90s Williams ...and its tight ! 90s Data East are a little narrower.

Look out for 80s pre dmd Data East eg Robocop etc, the boxes are more like 31" and you will cry and swear as it jams in the doorway ....I did :D Same for early 80s solid state Ballys like Centaur, Spy Hunter etc.

You will only get smaller, narrower if you go for much older EM games.

If the doorway is narrow you may find you can gain some width by prising off any wooden frame lining if fitted. And if you find the door needs to come off its hinges worth considering fitting lift on/lift off door hinges for future pin moving operations.

Allow about 1.8m minimum for machine and space to stand in front ...... but for comfort and glass off you need about 2.4m

Moving upstairs really depends on how much space you have to play with ....plenty of space then 2 or 3 people can do it as long as not uber weaklings ;) Obviously a lot tougher if space is at a premium. You can always take head off to make it easier - though that may be a little daunting if its yr first game. Maybe a local experienced pinhead could help out if it cam to that.

Wh20 and Creech are both stone cold classics.:cool:
 
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In cm, my last house had a door width that was 72cmm and not the required 73cm. We found that with two people, you can remove the head bolts and rotate the head at an angle to get through the door.
This was done on the sack barrow, so we just slid it through.
However, after getting the head through the door, there was only just enough room to get the sack barrow up right as the other person closed the head up before the sack barrow would hit the stair case.
I did this four times them had enough and bought a house with massive double front doors and internal doors. As a result if moving, I now have doubled the machines at home.

Agreed, WH2O and CFTBL are great machines.
The other thing to know is you can't own one machine.
 
Thanks everyone top stuff! Exactly what I was looking for. Luckily the flat we bought is an 80's build so has quite a large front entrance and staircase is sizeable.

I'm gonna measure the doors and internal doors to see if it's possible. Think 29" inches will be tight tho

With the legs off (obviously) and the head down what is the narrowest angle to get through the door? I'm trying to visualise and thought putting the table on its back end plunger up and bringing it in side ways? Or is it just a case of leave it the right way up and measure the width of the table and make sure it can get through first.

Any places I can visit for a good description of how to remove the head of a pinball machine. Would like to see what's involved

Cheers

Chris
 
ShootAgainChris said:
With the legs off (obviously) and the head down what is the narrowest angle to get through the door? I'm trying to visualise and thought putting the table on its back end plunger up and bringing it in side ways? Or is it just a case of leave it the right way up and measure the width of the table and make sure it can get through first.

Any places I can visit for a good description of how to remove the head of a pinball machine. Would like to see what's involved

Cheers

Chris
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Yep - generally that is how you move pinball machines. Legs off, head down and strapped to body, then machine on its rear end, sack truck it where you want.

Removing the head involves disconnecting all necessary connectors between playfield and backbox boards, use a 'sharpie' to mark connectors so you know where they go during reassembly , each board header is uniquely identified eg J7. Then undoing a few bolts to physically free the head form the main cab. Thats all there is to it BUT you must be so careful when reassembling to get connectors in the correct places, most are keyed uniquely so its actually hard to get them wrong but there are a few that could potentially get swapped with nasty results (talking about 90s WPC games)
 
Hi there Chris, here's a few links from my pinball bookmarks:

http://www.flippers.be/
http://homepinballrepair.com/
http://www.mopinball.com/info/tofc.html

three great sites that should each keep you entertained for hours. i could easily get lost for a day reading all the stuff and grokking over all the pictures and losing my self in all the videos, surfing from one place to the next .... click here .... click there .... oooh that looks interesting ..... youtube ..... etc

enjoy

gif cat in space on burger.gif
 
When my first arrived, TAF, and we realised the nightmare to get it into the kitchen, I started to disconnect the cables in the head but bottled it after disconnecting quite a few. I took loads of pictures, didn't mark anything, and was able to work most of them out to put them back in the right place.
TAF and CFTBL have since had their heads taken off and it took a hour or so and that leads to the other issue. You will be so excited about having a machine in the house you won't be wanting to take your time but will be wanting to rush so you can play it.
If you are a person who can keep calm then you will be fine.
 
I bit the bullet and stripped the head off my R&B when it showed up because there was no way it was going to fit otherwise and I was a bit low on helpers to assist me. If i'd have had more people around i'd have gone with the other favoured method which seems to be to unfasten the head and just rotate it slightly so it all fits through.

But yeah, all good advice above. To be honest as a total noob myself the most complicated thing for me was to figure out how the hell to take the backglass out so that I could get access to the boards to disconnect everything. :oops:

It's fair to say i've learnt a lot since then and that's largely down to the help of the wonderful folks on here......
 
ShootAgainChris said:
I'm trying to visualise and thought putting the table on its back end plunger up and bringing it in side ways? Or is it just a case of leave it the right way up and measure the width of the table and make sure it can get through first.
Click to expand...

Its a few inches bigger that way ( height of cabinet plus folded down backbox ), so no sideways is worse. So without removing the head the head width is the dimension you have to worry about. I have about 1/2 clearance through my doorways with B/W machines, modern sterns are a little narrower so a little easier.
 
ShootAgainChris said:
Think 29" inches will be tight tho
Click to expand...

Be careful Chris, do not assume 29". My Data East Time Machine is just over 30" across the backbox, while my Data East Hook is less than 28"

Actually I really like the Hook, some say it's a good first machine. It's my 5th but then again, as you have seen from our Pinball Arcade competitions, I still play like a noobie!

Best advice I can give you is - keep the missus on board. Always show her what machines you're looking at, ask her which machine she prefers, where would it best fit in the flat etc.

John
 
JWG9999 said:
Best advice I can give you is - keep the missus on board.
John
Click to expand...

Advice of the century. I made this mistake by just getting a machine without consulting directly and had to make my recovery from the naughty step. Then again she said "no", so what else could i do?
 
Monkeyboypaul said:
Advice of the century. I made this mistake by just getting a machine without consulting directly and had to make my recovery from the naughty step. Then again she said "no", so what else could i do?
Click to expand...
What was the method of recovery from the naughty step? We have now moved into trading marriage advice tips....... Of dear!
 
cooldan said:
Hi there Chris, here's a few links from my pinball bookmarks:

http://www.flippers.be/
http://homepinballrepair.com/
http://www.mopinball.com/info/tofc.html

three great sites that should each keep you entertained for hours. i could easily get lost for a day reading all the stuff and grokking over all the pictures and losing my self in all the videos, surfing from one place to the next .... click here .... click there .... oooh that looks interesting ..... youtube ..... etc

enjoy

View attachment 7949
Click to expand...
Cheers for the website links dan. These have a pretty conclusive list of all the things you need to consider. Perhaps those links should be included on the noobie beginners thread on Paul's very good notes.

The flippers website has already informed me of bulb burn which was always a concern for me and how you can edit the settings to power save mode. Very useful stuff! I will spend many hours trawling through all this.

Thanks for the help
 
Sgt GrizZ said:
Allow about 1.8m minimum for machine and space to stand in front ...... but for comfort and glass off you need about 2.4m
Click to expand...

Sorry to bump such an old thread but does the minimum 2.4 Metres to get the glass off, also apply to older Bally's and Gottliebs where the angle of the glass is less?
 
Carl Spiby said:
Sorry to bump such an old thread but does the minimum 2.4 Metres to get the glass off, also apply to older Bally's and Gottliebs where the angle of the glass is less?
Click to expand...
Pretty much the same on the Bally's. It's the length of the glass as opposed to the angle.
 
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