New member with allwin

[blandy]

Hi all,
Please be gentle Very new to this forum and hope you can help me with a problem which may not be much to you but is to me! I have had a flickball machine for 10 years and it's never worked properly. I had it fully restored on buying it and do love it although only as a piece of furniture. Finally want it fully working so my grandchildren can enjoy something from my past. The problem is that the spring that lifts the flap (better word required) that clicks it back to drop a ball or put another penny in is missing, tried elastic bands and several springs to no avail. Please help or direct me to someone who can. Picture below.
Many thanks
Nick.

PS Any info on this machine would be very grateful.

[slotalot]

Hi Nick, welcome to the forum
I feel sure that problem with your allwin machine will be a simple one to sort out but I would help us on here if you could post a larger photo of your machine so we can see the detail of the problem better...

[blandy]

Here is a bigger picture, I hope.

[glittering-prize67]

Elastic bands are out of it - bodge talk. It has to be a spring but the type of spring and tension is paramount to how these work. You can't stick anything in. I'm sure it's easy and I could do it if it's here with me. But if it was restored, why is it not working????

[badpenny]

The lever that the coin hits needs the spring to return it to the horizontal.

It needs to be strong enough to do that yet weak enough to let a falling coin depress it. If it's too strong it'll stop the coin dead.

BP

[raj]

Ditto BP, this spring is very weak, not something you might find in a £ shop box. A clock man might have something in his box of bits, if there is one near you...

[blandy]

Thanks all for speedy reply. I did the restoration myself but am not very good with mechanics I tried different springs so know how hard it is to find the correct one. This is why I am asking for help.

[badpenny]

You'll probably end up by taking a small spring with a weak pull and cutting it to fill the gap.
So when it's relaxed the lever will have returned.
If it's too strong to let the penny pass then overstretch it a tad to weaken it then cut it again as it'll now be oversized.

A lot of faff but it's the only way.

I buy these however I expect that These are just as good

BP

[slotalot]

Also never put oil on the shaft that the lever pivots on as it will become sticky over time and cause you more problems. Same can be said for the little star wheel that delivers the ball into play. They will work better if kept dry with just metal on metal contact.

[arrgee]

Welcome to the Forum Nick, your machine mechanism looks to be a typical conversion from an old Saxony reserve ball machine (1920s/1930s) housed in a cabinet from around that time and appears to have French style chrome fittings - coin cup, lever/backplate. The hammer cover box is from a 1950s-1960s 'Wonders' Allwin.

Hope you manage to get it working ok for the grandchildren

[pennymachines]

And from me too Blandy.

Those particular fancy spandrels and curly fittings can be seen on several Coin Operating Co. allwins, so I'm going to contradict Arrgee and suggest it originated in my neck of the woods, in Birmingham. It's possible of course that they revamped French allwins, but they built many machines in the 1920s and '30s. I particularly like the lovely figuring on the oak of your machine and this is another reason for thinking it's not French. French wall machines are almost exclusively made from fruitwood.

As Arrgee says, like so many games of its era, it has undergone some changes to its fixtures, fittings and felt backing. It would originally have been a reserve ball, quite similar to the Electric Allwin below, with a manual ball feed (unlike the auto-feed more typical of the German allwins). You can see some infill to the right of the striker box, where the knob for this was fitted.

Electric shock knobs were available for a pound and the pediment was two shillings and sixpence extra.

[arrgee]

I bow my head to superior knowledge Mr PM

[gameswat]

with a manual ball feed (unlike the auto-feed more typical of the German allwins). You can see some infill to the right of the striker box, where the knob for this was fitted.

Nice sleuthing PM, except there's a matching hole on the left door side in the same place. So most likely a pair of shocker handles I imagine. And you can see lots of empty screw holes in the upper inside door wood which would indicate where the shocker parts once lived.

[arrgee]

there's a matching hole on the left door side in the same place. So most likely a pair of shocker handles I imagine

Confirmed by the two semi circular cut-outs in the back-board to allow the handles to pass through.

[gameswat]

wood which would

Which wood would? Edward Woodward.

[pennymachines]

Edward Woodward

"Sounds like a fart in the bath" (Noël Coward).

Well, I was just seeing if you're still paying attention Gameswat...

Coin Op. Co. Success allwin

The only other Coin Operating Co. allwin flyer I could find is for the Success Allwin (above), which is very similar to the Electric, with the same manual ball separator, but a bit of sleuthing on the net turned up Lot 460: A vintage oak cased glazed "Electric Allwin Deluxe" penny pinball machine which sold for £440 on 13th September, 2011 at High Road Auctions, Chiswick, W4. Here we can see the holes where the shocker handles once fitted and the manual separator knob a bit further up on the right hand side of the door. This also has the same spandrels and an identical payout cup to the ones in the old flyers (which is a bit different from the cup on Blandy's game).

Electric Allwin de luxe

I take it from this that Blandy's allwin is a bit later than these other examples, by which time the Coin Operating Company had incorporated a J&M (Saxony) style automatic ball separator. Does that make sense? Clearly Blandy's allwin originally had the ball reserve feature, as much of its mechanism is still intact. So, in conclusion, I reckon it started life as a Coin Operating Co. Electric Allwin de luxe (with auto reserve ball feature).

[blandy]

Thanks all for the great help, although a lot has gone over my head I have ordered the Machine Mart 200 spring collection so should be able to get one that fits. Will keep you posted how things go on,
Thanks again guys.

[blandy]

Hi All,
Been a long time since I've posted on here but hope your all OK. The allwin is working and has been for a while now. I have a little granddaughter that loves playing on it but the problem is as the springs that hold the return penny handle are strong ones it's very hard to turn. Would it be possible for someone to have a look at it for me and get it working so it's not hard to operate for my grandkids?

[pennymachines]

Have you tried a weaker spring on the slide return?