Tricks of the trade?

[slotalot]

This auction on Ebay makes for a good read - the operators are still on the fiddle

VERY RARE Pachinko Hammer As Used By Engineers To Adjust Pachinko Machines Payout

This is branded with a Sankyo brand on the side of the hammer head.

The story is that in pachinko parlours in Japan each machine is monitored for how much it paid out during the day. Then at night a team of 'engineers' go round and adjust the pins on the play field to make the balls flow either to win more and attract customers or lose more and save the arcade money.

Amongst engineers a hammer like this is a prestigious tool.

These engineers are unseen and to an extent work in an illegal area. Arcade owners caught manipulating machines face prison...

Hammer head looks like very solid chrome.
Handle is a light wood with black paint (some scratches to the paint)

It's about 30 cm long.

[pennymachines]

I can't help thinking the vendor's being a little 'imaginative' here. Did Sankyo market a 'pachinko fiddling hammer' or was it just - a hammer?
Not to say it wasn't or couldn't be used to adjust a pachinko...

I believe the bit about a hammer being a prestigious tool amongst engineers - it's the first thing I look for when something goes on the blink, be it slot machine or computer.

[raj]

Nah, that's a tool for wimps. For proper fairground slot adjusting, you need a good all round 2 handed tool like this one.

[badpenny]

Far be it for me to cast nasturtiums ........


............ but, you'd only use a hammer to knock nails in with, if you were bending them slightly you'd use a tube slightly bigger than the pin to tweak it over.
If you were removing them to reposition them you'd use a hammer with some sort of claw to remove them first then you'd have a hole left in the field after you'd repositioned it.

I resist saying I consider it a load of balls ....... bugger!

[slotalot]

If I could just mention Health & Safety here.
Will you please define the word “nail” as some could get it wrong

[badpenny]

The only guaranteed way of not hitting the wrong nail is to hold the hammer with both hands.

Going back to Invisible Engineers in Japan, I see we now have a dumbbell for mice on offer ..............

[arrgee]

............ but, you'd only use a hammer to knock nails in with,

Unless you like caramelized sugar or molasses - brings a whole new meaning to the term hard crack.

Wikipedia quote: "Toffee hammers were used by suffragettes, in particular members of the Women's Social and Political Union, for breaking windows as a form of protest during their campaign for votes for women"

[badpenny]

I guess this invisible engineer got carried away with his hammer or ran amok whilst hunting for his toffee ...........

[malcymal]

How funny. You can actually bend them quite easily with long nose pliers. We have two pachinkos and it makes a huge difference to game play by slightly splaying out the pins in key locations to trigger the ball drop into bonus areas.