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Your game's ball size - listed

Posted: Wed Sep 13, 2006 11:05 am
by treefrog
Post moved to top of topic. I will add to & edit it as and when info is submitted - Site Admin.

This seemed like a good idea, but has yet started (mind you it could end up a very long list, unless things like Bryans are all similar and Wonders etc).... I noticed under the Parts section PM is selling various sizes, I guess it is a case of matching the machines to the numbers or of course trial and error... Anyone know what a Giant Wonders uses?

So to start and trawling this site the sizes and answers are (info trawled from the site):

Ahrens Football = 1" composite.

A = 3/4"

B = 14mm R&W multi-balls ("What's My Line" etc.)

C = 9/16" S&L Fireworks, Oliver Whales & others

D = 1/2" Payramid, Bryans allwins, BMCo allwins

E = 12mm

F = 29/64

G = 15/32"

H = 13/32"

I = 5/32"

J = 1-1/16" Steer-a-Ball (standard pinball)

Your game's ball bearing size - listed

Posted: Wed Sep 13, 2006 10:25 pm
by allow
Topic moved & merged - Site Admin.

Hi everyone,

Somebody can tell me where can be found info regarding the ball heaviness and what is the exactly size of the ball (diameter)?

-Thanks

Posted: Wed Sep 13, 2006 11:18 pm
by JC
'allo Allow

The standard allwin ball size is 9/16", although some machines (in particular Bryans) use 1/2" balls. As for weight, I'm a bit rusty on the old slide rule, but if you contact the Institution of Mechanical Engineers there's bound to be someone who can work out the mass of a highly polished, case-hardened steel ball of any size. Best not do it on April 1st though, or they might think you're talking balls.

Balls

Posted: Thu Sep 14, 2006 9:56 pm
by woody
The Density of steel is between 7500 and 8000 kg/cubic metre and the volume of a sphere is 4/3 x PI X Radius cubed. The rest is maths....

more balls

Posted: Fri Sep 15, 2006 12:46 am
by JC
Well done Woody, I'm impressed! However, as we're talking imperial sized balls here, I've dusted off the old slide rule and come up with the following:

The volume of a half inch diameter ball is 0.065 cubic inches.
The density of steel is roughly 491 lb/cubic foot, whichh equals 0.2841435 pounds per cubic inch.
Therefore the mass of a half inch ball is 0.0184695 lb.
Of course, the other way of doing it is to take a ball out of a machine and plop it on the wife's kitchen scales.

And just in case the following is of use in the design of the middle eastern allwin, the surface area of a sphere is: 4PIr squared. Therefore, the surface area of a half inch ball is 3.14 sq inches.

Those were the days (and other Mary Hopkins songs)

Posted: Fri Sep 15, 2006 7:43 am
by badpenny
I remember well the tales my Grandfather told of the old showmen sitting around their campfires back in the 1930's. They'd be discussing the traumas of certain machines that jammed or paid out too much.
After much stroking of chins and scratching of heads old Elijah would slowly remove his pipe from his mouth, remind them all that the density tension of a surface torque was one to the power of two spirals.

After much slapping of foreheads they'd put their micrometers back in their velvet lined cases and reaching into back pockets would pull out an array of lump hammers.
"That's the spirit lads" old Elijah would confirm "A hefty tap with a 5lb smack'ometer should adjust it."
Of course that was when everything was measured in mint imperials, doubt it would work now it's in litres.

Badpenny (when there were 240 to the pound)

Aye! those were the days, balls an' all

Posted: Fri Sep 15, 2006 1:12 pm
by JC
Aye, them was the days!

When you could give the kids an inch and they'd take a mile. Or you could squeeze a quart into a pint pot, and a man could have his pound of flesh without being hauled up before the metrication board!

By the way, my computation for the surface area of a half inch diameter ball was wrong. I was either tired or the slide rule was upside down. It's actually 0.7854 sq inches :oops:

Ball bearing sizes

Posted: Fri Jul 02, 2010 7:53 pm
by 13rebel
Topic merged - Site Admin.

Can anyone make a definitive list of ball bearing sizes for different makes of allwins? It may come in handy.

Vintage pin ball composition and size

Posted: Mon Apr 23, 2012 6:33 pm
by scouserneil
Topic moved & merged - Site Admin.

Hi everyone, I'm currently renovating a 1932 Roll Itt Pin ball machine by Mason and Co. but don't have the information on what size ball it should use and the composition of the ball. It works by lever action hitting the ball which propels it up a chute to a metal saucer with different value holes which the ball drops through. It is an American vintage arcade machine and for 5 cents you get 10 balls. I don't want to purchase the wrong ball size or material of the ball, so any advice would be very much appreciated.

Re: Vintage pin ball compsition and size

Posted: Mon Apr 23, 2012 7:54 pm
by badpenny
Howdy scouserneil ............

Welcome on board, how much experience of slots have you? Can we lie outrageously to you and get away with it?

We need more details of your pinball and we demand it immediately!
Post photographs and make us jealous, direct us to library pictures and educate us. !!THUMBSX2!!

Re: Vintage pin ball compsition and size

Posted: Mon Apr 23, 2012 8:07 pm
by toibs
It says here : http://www.ipdb.org/machine.cgi?gid=2011
Ball composition: Unknown, but one ball is described as copper, for double scoring.

Re: ball bearings

Posted: Mon May 14, 2012 10:42 am
by JC
An interesting topic, which in my experience doesn't appear to be an exact science. 1/2" balls for Bryans and BMCo allwins seem to be a fairly safe bet - it's generally considered that 9/16" is the correct size for most other makes. However, I have found a good number of exceptions over the years. For instance, I once had a Hat Trick which came with half a dozen balls (all different sizes) when I acquired it. I discarded them all and popped in a new 9/16" ball............could I get it to work? Not a chance. In the end, I had to use a 13mm ball. I also have a Parkers allwin (an original with Saxony type ball release), again, it won't work with a 9/16" ball.
I wonder whether the 14mm stated above for R&W column-fill allwins is correct, as it does seem unlikely that a British machine of 50+ years would have been designed to use metric sized balls. Can anyone confirm? The ball size is of course quite critical in these machines, because if the balls are too small, the final ball in a column won't drop back and trigger the payout.

Re: ball bearings

Posted: Tue May 15, 2012 11:03 am
by arrgee
What was the size of the monster ball in Steer-a-Ball? :!?!:

Re: ball bearings

Posted: Tue May 15, 2012 7:00 pm
by badpenny
What about The Policeman's Ball?

Re: ball bearings

Posted: Tue May 15, 2012 7:37 pm
by ilovemyjukebox
I have a "What's My Line" and changed the ball bearings 14mm when I bought her. She came with a mish mash of different sized balls some got stuck in the channels.
Unfortunately I have the problem whereby the balls don't allign correctly all the time and I sometimes have to resort to giving the glass a tap to trigger the payout.
Especially when there a six balls lined up. I'd be very interested in knowing the correct size.

Dave

Re: ball bearings

Posted: Wed May 16, 2012 12:17 am
by JC
Dave, I suspect the correct size is 9/16". As I stated above, this is generally the correct size for most allwins............er, except it doesn't always work. !PUZZLED!

Fill 'Em Up, Many Happy Returns - ball sizes please?

Posted: Thu May 28, 2015 5:52 pm
by pennymad
Hi,
Does anyone know the correct size for the balls please on the Fill 'Em Up, Many Happy Returns or What's My Line? Thanks in advance for any help given.

Re: Fill um up,many happy returns BALL SIZES PLEASE?

Posted: Thu May 28, 2015 6:01 pm
by treefrog
Shame,

Started a thread on this topic 5 years ago now and was trying to get everyone to fill over time as a useful resource, it only lasted a few posts. Anyway a Multi Ball answer was there, option B 14mm

Ball bearings

Re: Fill um up,many happy returns BALL SIZES PLEASE?

Posted: Thu May 28, 2015 7:22 pm
by pennymad
Thanks a lot. I wonder what the actual old size was? But modern day size is good for me!

Re: Fill um up,many happy returns BALL SIZES PLEASE?

Posted: Thu May 28, 2015 9:18 pm
by 13rebel
Topic merged - Site Admin.

My 'Many Happy Returns' came without any balls, so I used 9/16 inch in the belief that the size was most likely to be imperial and it works perfectly. !SMARTY!