Mmmm, I mentioned Abbott Ale the other day; yeah, my lovely wife (M2, also known as SparkyLibrariann on LJ) got me a dozen of them (Central Market, on clearance). This post is under that influence. Yum.
Lessee, I got the actual-sized Pachinko balls in the mail just the other day and then, with the proper load of balls in the device, discovered that the reward mechanism was sticky; it just didn't want to do it's thing when you dropped a ball into one of the little flowers or other thingies on the playing field (such as the Red White and Orange USA drop. Orange? Yeah).
Soooooo.... I took this little access panel off and found that one of the teeter-totters was quite sticky. Most of the mechanisms inside the machine are a miracle of easy travel, but this thing was downright stiff. Definitely not right. Unfortunately, to GET to it I had to remove a large back panel, and to get THAT off I had to remove a couple of other smaller bits, too.
It turns out that the screws in this 1970's era Pachinko machine are... crap. Random lengths, badly cut, really really cheap self-tapping screws. But fortunately not too hard to get out, just a bit tricky getting them back IN again.
I finally dug my way down to this teeter-totter and pulled it off of its pivot. Very sticky. A little oil didn't help either. So, looking at it under the magnifying lens, as well as probing it with a metal rod, I discovered two things. One was that the metal-to-plastic interface was cracking badly, though it was still holding firm. The other was that the metal inside the plastic had apparently shifted, so that it was slightly occluding the pivot hole. Which made it stick.
Using the flexshaft (my industrial-grade dremel-esque tool), I was able to grind the metal back a tiny bit, but it wasn't quite good enough. So I dug through my extensive collection of drill bits to find one that was a snug fit, and which STUCK when it hit the metal occlusion. Using this I was able to ream the hole out slightly, which returned the teeter-totter to perfect action.
A bit of re-assembly later and ... tada! A perfectly working Pachinko machine! Next up, re-wire it for LEDs so we can see the "bonus" and "needs-more-balls" light-up action.
Ooo, on a different note (remember, bits and pieces here) -- I got paid for my three articles! Yay! Simreal has money again! Of course, that won't last long. But it's nice.
And as an extention to THAT note, I'm contracted for two more -- they musta liked me. I hope the readers don't hate me; that's always my concern. I do things _my_ way; I have a philosophy of tech writing, and a sometimes odd approach to projects, and, well, I'm just still insecure about it all. Ah well. It does lead me to understand better why so many celebrities are crazy though.
I have some good lead time on these particular articles, so I spent last week doing research on the first article (a thing that goes "bang"; no details until it hits print, sorry). Then the weekend staring at parts at the various home improvement super stores in my area (dammit, but copper is _expensive_. Beautiful, but out of my price range; maybe with the earnings). And then home for research. And then out for staring. And then home for research. And then out for buying.. and buying. Lotsa parts! Next weekend... experimentation!
Also on Saturday, house cleaning! Shop cleaning! My son flies in this Friday for a month (of five weekends), so I figured it would be polite to find the darned floor. Such mundane matters often escape my notice. The kitchen, too, is almost ready, and his bedroom MAY have sheets by then.
Of course, I go through great effort to plan his vacation time so it does not overlap the July Taiji competition in Dallas (which I'm probably not going to go to _anyway_, though I ought to. I might. Just to do push-hands.) Well after I book the flight and so forth, my dojo schedules their own competition... for this Saturday, the day after he comes in. So I'll be at that event from 9 in the morning to 3 in the afternoon (dammit; I have an article to write; fire to burn; things to explode; a son to visit).
Tonight at Taiji, we did a bunch of push-hands to warm up and I did very well. So well that Sifu saw fit to push with me and put me in my place, and then instruct everyone on how to better beat me. So I guess that's good, right?
I expect to win. But I hate competitions; I can get all bent out of shape wanting to win, and that makes it less fun... so then I slack and do badly, and feel crappy about it. I just want to play, and to exercise! Ah well.
Push-hands is great though; it's my favorite part, and we don't do it nearly enough. I wonder if I can find other practitioners in town to play with. Let me know if you know any, or want to play.
Hmm, last night, driving home from Sushi (with our massage therapist and his lady, very nice folks; he used to do massage for Cirque de Soleil, and she was travelling with them, too! Some interesting stories) we saw a turtle in our street. We live very close to a creek, so that's not too surprising I guess, but this was one very lost, very large, turtle, bumping into the curb and looking all kinds of out of place in the roadway.
The wife puts on the breaks, firmly, just as I snap my belt undone (bonk goes the head on the down-slope of the roof), and I pop out and pick the fellow up. Ingrate, it hisses at me! Tries to swim in air a bit and, getting no traction, it pulls its feet in a bit. It alternates between pulling its head in and poking it out, mouth wide, so it might eat me. Poor turtle.
We drive around to the bushy bits by the mailbox (which is much closer to its home than where it was) and I drop it off in the tall grass. During all this, it completely fails to consume my flesh or instill any kind of fear at all. It's going to have to work harder next time.
Hope it wasn't a lost pet... 'cause now it's gone!
turgle