Hello From The Worlds First Garden City

Tell us a bit about yourself.
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restoman
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Location: Letchworth Garden City UK
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Hello From The Worlds First Garden City

Post by restoman »

I’m new to this forum but had various arcade machines for a number of years. Having been involved in various forms of engineering most of my life I had to give up my job running an engineering company a couple of years ago as I have Parkinson’s and it got too bad for me to continue.
Last year I decided to turn my hobby of restoring old mechanical things into something that I could do at my own pace and give me a bit of an income.

I ran a pop-up shop at the start of the year selling some of the stuff I have collected and restored over the years and doing repairs and restorations for other people - a bit like the Repair Shop on TV.

It went well so I took on a unit in the shopping centre at the beginning of March and opened on 15th March - on the 16th March social distancing measure were introduced and all non-essential shops had to close on 23rd March - not a good start.

However fates a funny thing, government announced Business Rates suspended until 2021, I qualified for the retail support grant and the owners of the shopping centre offered me a much better unit in a prime location on as very good deal as so many businesses were closing.

So on 15th June I opened again and specialise in mechanical music (player piano’s, gramophones, music boxes, busker organs etc.), vintage telephones, Vintage board games, and the reason for joining this forum - old arcade machines.

I’ve sold a few since opening:-
1920’s bar top pinball
Sharpshooter rifle shooter from 1980’s
Thunderbirds Pachinko
And a couple of bagatelle, skittles and shove ha’penny pub games.

I’ve also restored a couple of Allwins for clients

Currently in the shop I have:
2 x Pachislo machines including a James Bond 007 one and a Duchess one-arm bandit.

Currently under restoration I have:
1970’s mechanical Pachislo
Kraft Jackpot Allwin
Bryans 3 ball 7 Win
Oliver Wales Elephant Treasure Cave

Most of the machines I’ve had have been in very poor condition - it’s the only way I can afford them !!! So there’s a fair bit of restoration gone into them and I usually keep them in my own collection for a while until I sell them on to give someone else the chance to enjoy them. All machines work properly and are meant to be used and enjoyed.

I’ll post some of the more interesting projects when I get chance - in the meantime here’s one I did for a client

https://www.flickr.com/photos/dlevett/a ... 5760568798
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geordy55
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Re: Hello From The Worlds First Garden City

Post by geordy55 »

Nice restoration
pennymachines
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Re: Hello From The Worlds First Garden City

Post by pennymachines »

:WELCOME: to the site restoman.

Great and inspiring first post!
There's a dearth of folk in this hobby with the know-how and time to work on other people's machines, but no shortage of machines needing work. We often get such requests here. I received one by email this week - I'll refer him to you.

I look forward to seeing more of your projects. !THUMBS!
restoman
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Re: Hello From The Worlds First Garden City

Post by restoman »

Thank you - I think every machine I’ve worked on has had a different challenge so building a good knowledge base and re-learning some old skills - and gaining a few new ones !!!
geofflove
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Re: Hello From The Worlds First Garden City

Post by geofflove »

Looks great. Good job and a great story. And good on you for taking on a premises. Hope it goes well.
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treefrog
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Re: Hello From The Worlds First Garden City

Post by treefrog »

You would not believe how many people need help with servicing, restoring and mending as seen over the years on this site, on Facebook groups and I have received direct. Never gone down this route personally, but reckon there would be lots of customers. Sounds like a nice hobby come small business, as long as you don’t take on too much otherwise ends up a burden :lol:

Hope all goes well !!THUMBSX2!!
pauljt71
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Re: Hello From The Worlds First Garden City

Post by pauljt71 »

Welcome to the site restoman. I joined last autumn and have to say it’s such a friendly place to stumble across😀
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