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I've had a few of these and I have had to change from imperial to metric size to take account of wear. I'm sure 9/16th would have been the original spec, but I have found 14mm to be more reliable. As long as they are all the same size, all should be well - just fill one line with balls and see if they tip over the top on a win. If 9/16th don't work, try 14mm. Shop around, because prices vary greatly. You need the hardened versions, because poor quality balls will quickly pit and tear the backflash and track to pieces.

Re-reading your comment Raj, I'm confused.
9/16" = 14.2875 mm, i.e. these imperial balls are slightly larger than their nearest metric equivalents (14mm). If there was wear, surely 14mm balls would make the problem worse?

raj wrote:poor quality balls will quickly pit and tear

That really sounds painful.

PM, it's not the size that causes the damage, it is the poor quality of hardening that becomes rough after successive hits from the ball hammer. If you try striking a ball with a pin hammer to test the hardness, you can judge how it will wear. If the hammer leaves an indentation, then the ball will soon wear when in the machine.

Hi Raj,
Yes I take your point about the importance of using hard chrome steel balls. The part I was questioning was:

raj wrote:I have had to change from imperial to metric size to take account of wear.

Yes, I see your point. Can't answer the reason that the 14mm balls worked when the 9/16ths didn't, but that was the fix for that particular machine. The current owner may disagree!!

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Hi, please could someone out there advise me how many balls a R & W ice hockey game should have, the size and what material they are made of, as the one I have has ball bearings which look too heavy for the game and do not release properly. Any help would be appreciated, many thanks in advance! !

The balls should be plastic and even then they take a toll on the inner playfield. Nylon works well for long lastingfullness! Metal would kill the thing! I guess operators could set them up with more or less balls depending on how stingy or not they were. I've had only one Ruffler made version and we had it running on either 7 or 9 from memory. But an even amount might have promoted more play due to draws. Don't have the size written down but just look around the machine for wear marks, measure and then double to find diameter size.

I bought Teflon balls for my roulette table, they are hard wearing and have some decent weight to them, for example roulette wheel balls get a lot of hammer and need to remain unscathed. They make lots of different sizes, not sure what size they go up to.

Thanks to the two replying members. Will have a measure up and follow your advice. I take that from the lack of replies that not many people have these machines or, really don't know themselves. Thanks again you two, appreciated.

I just went and checked in the ball container that I throw any spare balls into. And I found a bag full of used plastic balls that I'm sure came from a hockey machine, could be some dating back to the R&W I did, though probably a Seeburg I restored too! There is one very old red plastic of some kind that I'm sure was from the Seeburg, sized16.84mm (21/32") And a bunch in old but newer white plastic sized 17.55mm ( 11/16"). I imagine the reason I have so many spare is I replaced them in the Seeburg machine. Should be very close to the R&W machines I think.

Thanks, Gameswat will look on line to see what I can find. All the best, Cheers!

Topic merged - Site Admin.

Hi Guys,
Anyone know what size the original Conveyor ball size is? It appears to be quite large.

OK just found out an 18mm ball works perfect, just in case anyone needs to know.

Can anyone suggest a good supplier for ball bearings please? I have been restoring a 'Many Happy Returns' by Ruffler & Walker but I am finding it difficult to get 14mm ball bearings (chrome steal?). I bought some that claimed to be 14mm but found they are really 9/16 inch and was surprised to find that the extra 0.2875 mm made them unreliable and sometimes jam in the ball release system.

Funny I had the same issue, most suppliers list 14mm as both 9/16 and 14mm......from memory I bought some from Simplybearings on eBay, but they don’t have 14mm listed now....

Have a look under Services & Supplies. I've just listed my local supplier. Never had a problem getting any size, imperial or metric, but not sure how they work out price-wise on mail orders.

tallstory wrote:I bought some that claimed to be 14mm but found they are really 9/16 inch and was surprised to find that the extra 0.2875 mm made them unreliable and sometimes jam in the ball release system

Odd, as these machines were designed for imperial balls not metric?

Topic moved & merged - Site Admin.

Could someone please advise me on diameter of ball bearing in steer a ball machine.

polaris wrote: ↑Fri Dec 02, 2022 12:04 pm Could someone please advise me on diameter of ball bearing in steer a ball machine.

As far as I remember they take a standard 1-1/16 inch diameter pinball steel ball.