A Conveyor for Christmas

Building a slot machine from scratch? You're not alone in your madness.
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coppinpr
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Re: A Conveyor for Christmas

Post by coppinpr »

truly remarkable achievement , CoNgRaTs how long from start to finish my I ask
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wembleylion
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Re: A Conveyor for Christmas

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Many thanks for your kind comment Coppinpr.

It took around 80 hours to complete but that included cutting and planing up the oak and beech from rough sawn boards.
I also had to remake the ball tracks because I made the first ones without the spring release sections and was suprised at how many times (3 or 4 in 10 goes) the pinwheels trapped the ball down onto the unsprung track and each time it meant opening the door to ease the belt back to release the ball.

John
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coppinpr
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Re: A Conveyor for Christmas

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its projects like this that give you an insight into the problems the original designers must have had,incredible and valuable information for the hobby, Id like a Buckley bones for Christmas...any chance you'd make me one :!?!:
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badpenny
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Re: A Conveyor for Christmas

Post by badpenny »

.............. I know where there is a Buckley Bones available! ;-)
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wembleylion
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Re: A Conveyor for Christmas

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its projects like this that give you an insight into the problems the original designers must have had,incredible and valuable information for the hobby, Id like a Buckley bones for Christmas...any chance you'd make me one :!?!:
One of the things I like about penny slot machines is seeing how the different manufacturers built, in some cases, quite complex sequencing mechanisms before the proliferation of electronics, stepper motors and the like that drive today's amusement machines; W.E. Bryans being the most accomplished exponent of this skill.

I am currently building, abet very slowly, a Bryans Retreeva from photographs. From photographs, without exact measurements other than the case, because it is the nearest way that I can get to the sketches and drawings that Bryans probably made when he designed each machine and it will give me a little flavour of some of the problems and triumphs that Bryans experienced.
The Retreeva is interesting because Bryans mach. senses the position of the balls to change the fulcrum points on the bars to produce two different actions from the same bar.

I occasionally make contemporary automata and prefer those that produce two or preferably more movements but very often the action of cams and leavers don't produce the movement I worked out for them so much time consuming reworking is required.
I presume that the designers of the more complex slot machines experienced similar problems and I wonder how they got around making adjustments. I wondered perhaps if they mocked up the design using slotted levers, adjustable cams etc, etc, something similar to Meccano perhaps, to prove the design.

John

PS, The Bones is certainly a smashing machine, I'll put a couple on my list ---- just wondering though, do they have workshops in Heaven?
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