Brenner "Ball Past The Arrow"

[gameswat]

Problem was these cases were never vented for a large incandescent bulb, and the thin plastic backflashes paid the price. I had an early model with the bulb intact and it had badly cracked and aged the plastic just where it lit up. I was able to flatten and reglue the damage but that was never going to light well again so socket came out. And didn't take much notice whether the later two had ever been lit or not as I wasn't going to light them. I've removed a lot of bulbs and sockets from allwin case marquees and every time the plastics in the machine were badly shrunken and or cracked, and none of those were vented either.

[coppinpr]

Now I know you're going to say it's not correct, but how about a a standard bulb with frosted globe shape but LED powered? No heat and at least looks like an original bulb.

[pennymachines]

It would look better than the ugly fluorescent bulb in mine.

[gameswat]

PM I didn't think the light added to the playfield myself, such a small area that's lit. And after having wasted far too much time in my life moving power cords around on wall machines, unless the power is really needed I prefer to leave the mechanical games unwired. Invariably I move machines around a lot, either wall mounted or stand mounted. Some stay here a long time but many are sold fairly quickly. So where is the cord going to exit the case while I have the machine here, and then what will my customer want?! Plus the less high voltage in machines I sell the happier I am that no kid is going to get their sticky fingers where they shouldn't and be zapped! As I said I've wasted a lot of time moving bloody cords to and fro.

[pennymachines]

All good points GW, but I suspect the lit up allwins took a few more coins, all things being equal...
The cord on this one goes out through a hole in the back.

[gameswat]

Well none of mine are ever going to be operated again. Kind of a moot point to me anyway, while the paper prints will light they certainly don't display like silk screened originals. Back in the old days I used to make my own pinball plastics with photocopies glued underneath lexan plastic. They did a great job when you had nothing or badly cracked, but never matched the intensity of colour. And occasionally we also used printouts to replace missing backglasses. Again better than nothing but I was never satisfied by the outcome. Actually there was an occasion we had two Gottlieb Rocky pinball machines in stock next to each other. We found the incomplete machine first and didn't have access to another at the time, but my father found a suitable movie poster for like $5 with a photo of Stallone as Rocky. Then a little later we picked up another complete example. A customer had his pick with an obvious price difference, but back then all machines were kind of cheap no matter what anyway, and he much preferred the poster version since the original back glass was kind of a naff painting of Rocky! Since that was a professionally printed poster it certainly lit better than any of the prints we had made of glasses, but still not great. I cut the Rocky letters out of the poster myself as it must've come with the name above him, and needed to be lower to be lit by flashing globes.

[john t peterson]

Now could someone please inform John that he needs to fly on over and pick this up in person quickly as the storage fees are really adding up!!

Sorry, Gameswat. I was out of town for several days and just read that my "Ball Past The Arrow" is finally ready for retrieval. It certainly took you long enough. Please post the address; I'm currently fueling the jet.

J Peterson
Past the prime in the USofA

[gameswat]

Awww damn JP, you were just a tad too slow, sold that one to pay shipping and resto costs two months ago. But I have another to keep myself so you can't have that one either.... Of course thinking about it after the fact I would've much preferred to keep your machine JP, rather than the anonymous Chicagoland example. I was working on both at once, but the way things transpired yours got completed and the other is still in pieces. Someone wanted it and I had bills so it went quickly.

[gameswat]

OK, 3rd example done and on the wall in my house as my keeper. My fave Allwin for sure, particularly this later version with all the work done by just the trigger, truly genius engineering! The funny thing is on pulling the case apart to re-glue and re-finish I found that the top and bottom horizontal cross-pieces of the door were not oak like the rest of the case (and all other cases I've seen). Possibly beech or similiar blondish grain and definitely original manufacture because the serial is hand stamped into the bottom. The serial was covered with a strip of wood many years ago along with the same on the top edge to fill the void left by shrinkage of this non oak. With the lower strip removed you can clearly see the shrinkage. So I guess the factory suffered an oak shortage during this batch, because my previous cabinet was 17 serials later and all oak.

And thought I'd show the plastic jig I made to punch the top row of pin holes in the repro backflashes. The lower pinfield is not an issue as all those holes are drilled into the alloy backing panel and can be punched from the back with a needle first. But the thicker pins on the upper row have no backing as they need be able to flex when rebounding the ball. The old plastic playfields were no good to work from as they were both shrunken out of shape. By measuring the pin placements I was able to carefully mark and drill the jig first and test for spacing. Otherwise I've found trying to punch a row of holes like this perfectly straight is almost impossible, and too much time and effort goes into each of the backflashes to risk buggering them up at this last stage.

[arrgee]

Just beautiful GW, how long did it take you?

[gameswat]

how long did it take you?

Not easy to figure out arrg, first off I never keep track of time on anything I own. And secondly I took this one apart late last year to copy parts for the previous example that was missing mech parts, and doubled up on some of the other jobs needing doing like restoring the thumb levers etc. And there was many hours put into digitally restoring the backflashes. I'd guess at least 20+ hours just on the backflash art. Then after printing (which I couldn't do myself as larger than my A3+ printer will allow) I found a place that did cold laminating which gave a fairly smooth and thin coating close to the thin plastic they used. But still some orange peel so after hand cutting and airbrushing in the gold lettering I clear coated with 3 coats of acrylic lacquer, hand rubbed between coats. In the coarse of doing this slight imperfections crept in (which I prefer as puts back some character that goes missing in action). Then hand polished to a shine which very nicely replicated the originals, subtler than the wet look gloss of fresh paint.

Thankfully this one had a basically working mech when I found it at Chicagoland in 2012, so that was mostly cleaning and servicing, with just a couple parts needing further rebuilding.

The cashbox was missing from both and thanks to Moonriver and PM I had enough info to remake them. First one was much slower but I now had the patterns so second version was twice as quick. Both probably accounted for 15 hours to have the two complete painted examples in the cabinets.

So putting all that together now in my head to come up with a guesstimate I'd say this one has approx 35 hours into it. Prob closer to 45 into the previous example due to missing parts that needed copying.

*Quick aside: When I started restoring machines in the late 1970's as a kid on the school holidays for my parents, we only had slow dry enamels, and just a handful of the primary colours to choose from. DAMN I hated that stuff from day one!! You had to leave it untouched for at least 24 hours, and there was always sawdust etc floating around to land on it and ruin the finish. I never ever liked the wet look gloss of the finished article, which you couldn't do anything with after that. Some time later when I wanted and desired custom matched colours I started using the auto paint shop next door to help me mix and they only used thinners based lacquers. WOW, was a revelation to me. That stuff comes out of the gun slightly matt, then you can sand and polish to replicate whatever finish you desire. And you can stain over it with wood stain to make aged antique finishes! Plus it sets within minutes on a warm day, or hours in winter with a little heater help. I ended up slowly being given all the older tins they no longer wanted. And eventually when they moved to newer types I got to take everything they had! Plus even if the lacquer has dried out you just add thinners and it turns back into nice smooth liquid again. I hated that enamel paint had a very short pot life once opened.

[gameswat]

Oh, I forgot to mention, because this cabinet used mixed woods it had been Japanned black differently than the previous all oak cabinet. This example threw me to begin with as it had already been stripped back to bare wood a long time ago and all the wood had aged to a similiar colour. But on closer inspection on the inner edges it seemed to be stained black and not ebonised like the previous cabinet. After I noticed the mixed wood it made sense that they used a different method. I did try to vinegar ebonise the beech but it only turned a very light grey and not black like the oak. So on this machine I ended up not using the vinegar method at all but stained all the wood with a high quality black stain. Took multiple coats to get decent coverage and still in person you can see some lighter sections of wood showing through which is fine.

[pennymachines]

Beautiful work, as ever and thanks for the detailed account of the restoration.

My fave Allwin for sure, particularly this later version with all the work done by just the trigger, truly genius engineering!

I agree, the mechanism is terrific - it's also a favourite of mine (together with Bryans Gapwin).

[daveslot]

I have one which has been in storage for fifty years in a hotel.
The previous said they thought that it had been purchased new along with another Brenner machine in 1966. So it had only been used for four years. I found accounts for the takings in the cashbox.

[coppinpr]

...purchased new along with another Brenner machine in 1966

It would be interesting to know the reg number seeing as the purchase date is known. Can you take a look and let us know?
Personally I think you're wrong about this machine when illuminated GS (am I allowed to say that). Because of the crisply cut areas where the light shows I think it's one of the best of all lit allwins.

[moonriver]

You can see how many members read posts but hardly ever make comments. I think it's important to say how enjoyable it is to read the detail and see the images of quality restoration work such as GW's when it's posted, as the time taken to share this valuable knowledge and the effort and time taken to type it all out is long, and doesn't much benefit the particular individual at all, but it does for us.

[badpenny]

.. what he said.

[coppinpr]

Sorry!! I only said I think it looks good lit up !! I also dont think I can be accused of never making comments?

[moonriver]

Its not all about you luv

[pennymachines]

The Chelston Hall Hotel, Torquay (now a medical centre), where Dave's machine spent most of its life.