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I bought a Rock-Ola Ice Hockey table a while ago, and I've only just got round to having a good look at it. The players had a short piece of rubber hosepipe on the end of their sticks.



After taking off the hose I found the players sticks had been very crudely cut down.



Does anyone know why someone would do that?

Can anyone tell me are the players made of cast iron, or steel? If they are steel it's possible to weld another piece of steel on to the stick to make them look like they should. If they are cast iron I'm not sure what to do, as I know cast iron is not easy to weld.

If I can't weld them does anyone have or know, where I can get a pair of players? I know it's a long shot, but no harm in asking.

Thanks guys,
Peter.

I've not had one of these for years, but I seem to recall they're cast aluminium.
In which case the likes of these could be used once you've found/made the missing aluminium bit to replace,

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Durafix-Alum ... 65752?var=

You just lay the two parts together in the shape you want them to be ..... heat them up with a torch to a working temperature as in the instructions, then run the flux/solder along the joins. File off to tidy it.
Why they should have been cut in the first place is a mystery.

BP

Thanks for that BP, but they are way too heavy to be aluminium. I have had one of the men off of the table to see what they are made of. Would your idea work if the metal is steel?

Like BP, I don't know why these have been roughly cut down. If true that they were roughly cut down and not just broken, I can offer a couple of off the wall suggestions but maybe gameswat can provide a more robust engineering/operator historical insight? I can only think of the following options...

Prevent end of metal sticks scoring a nice circle in playing field as figure wears on its mechanism or maybe to lessen strength of goalies' kick to prevent ball cracking topglass, or finally, to add few mms to the end of the stick if the ends worn away?

Be happy to hear real reason.. to then say... of course it is.....

Has anyone got a pic. of an undamaged one?

I can take pics, but not until tomorrow now. There is usually damage caused by the steel balls, but you can prevent this by using Teflon balls that are problem free.
Most casinos use Roulette balls that are Teflon nowadays as they don't bounce as much and are easier for the punter to predict, so they stay and play more.
The same properties are equally as good for use in hockey games.

I edited a photo, and I put some lines to show how the players stick should look.

I was wondering if it was caused by steel balls sometime in the past. Man that would take a lot of smashing to cause that much damage. But when you think how many times it has been played over the years, I guess it could be possible. When I bought it it came with 5 brown, balls, made of some kind of plastic.

Non steel balls are the best way to go. I find the best ice hockey tables to operate (from the point of view of preventing balls piling up in the goals and failing to all release), are the Cromptons tables which have a deeper goal and run problem free.

Not having worked on a Rockola version I can't say what the men are made of, but on the half a dozen different brands I've had all were bronze, which I'd think this is too. Just place a magnet to test if it's cast iron. Not a big issue whatever it's made of to repair as both can be brazed no prob with the same hard silver solders. My guess is the damage was caused by too small steel balls being used, as mentioned above. From new in the 1930s would have been Bakelite type hard plastic.

The steel ones seem to cause quite a lot of damage long-term.

The metal is not bronze, I tested it with a magnet, and the magnet stuck to the player. So it's either cast iron, or cast steel.

This one from a Crompton's Ice Hockey.