Buzz Kill....

Saturday morning I was mowing the lawn minding my own business, when all of a sudden I felt this sharp stabbing pain in my right leg. Down by the achilles tendon. I looked down and there was a little yellow and black wasp stinging me. It hurt, but I kept back the tears and kept on mowing. Then I felt another sharp pain on my left leg by my knee. Same little booger stung me again. Now I've had enough. I flick the thing off and it comes back and stings me again on the same leg. I smack it. It flies off and comes right back to try again. Landed on my shorts. I try to squish it between the material. Doesn't work and he flies off and lands on my leg again. I flick him to the ground and stomp as hard as I can. Sucker flies up and tries again. At this point all I can think of is "If my neighbors see this, I probably look like a little fairy dancing around". I give up and head towards the house. The mighty wasp has won this battle. I tried to figure out what pissed this little guy off. The only thing I can come up with is that I must have run over him with the mower and he didn't appreciate it. I hit the internet to find out what kind of wasp he was. Appears to have been a Yellowjacket wasp. They can attack if agitated and can sting multiple times. Lucky me.... Here is a few pics of how my legs look now:

Two stings on this leg..........................................................and one major sting on this one.

Profile pics you can find in the Post Office and the Police Station. This is now a wanted wasp!
If you see him....don't approach him. He is considered armed, dangerous, and has rage issues!

Still Working on the 2nd Arcade Bowling Machine

Finding more broken things in the game I had intended to keep. There are 2 fluorescent lights in the game that weren't working. Turns out that each one had it's own circuit for electricity and both had transformers that were fried...literally. One was charred black from the heat. I bought some cheap replacement fluorescent light fixtures, ripped them open, and stole their transformers to replace the fried ones. Ta daaaaa! Lights are now working. Replaced all the burnt out light bulbs and have come to find that the strike and spare lights are not working. Time to trace down that issue. Possibly a broken ground wire someplace. Then, the only thing left will be to wipe it down, polish the metal rails, and throw a quick coat of wax on the play field. Up for sale she will go. I will be sure to take a few pics and a quick video once all this is done.

What a conundrum....

After fixing up the bowler I've been working on for the last two months, I've come to realize that I like it better than the other one I had intended to keep. So, now I need to clean up the other one and get it ready to sell. Just fixed it's bad motor as well and am very happy to have it working. Just some minor adjustments and a little clean up and it's ready to go.

Been a great week to work on games.....

I was on call this week which kept me home most of the week and gave me the time I needed to work on the bowler game. I finally fixed a broken motor on the game and tonight I finished all the mechanical work needed to make it playable. Just need to clean the exterior and put it up on ebay. Pictures and or video will be following shortly. I also picked up a new project pinball machine.....Rocky and Bullwinkle. Once I get the bowler sold I will start working on that. Just happen to have a link to some pics of that game. Rocky and Bullwinkle Pinball Project
This game has all the characters from the original cartoon show.... Snidley Whiplash, Mr Peabody, Sherman, Dudly Do-right, Natasha, and Boris Badenov to name a few.... Pretty cool! If you wish to wax nostalgic, you can go to this website: Rocky & Bullwinkle Show It has some neat videos there too.

Busy week

I am on call this week for work so I have to stay near home in case I get any calls. However, that works out well as I have 14 Ms Pacman / Pacman boards to work on. Word of mouth has been getting me a little more business. This gentleman was referred to me by another person I had done work for. I started working on them last Friday night. So far, I have 10 out of the 14 repaired. Most likely, that is as far as I will go with them. He wants me to go as cheap as I can on rates so I have done what I can as fast as I can. He should be happy with 10 working boards.

These boards came from another company that specializes in fixing Pac boards. Kind of neat to know that I was able to fix what they could not. Average price from them for the repairs was $250 per board. I think I am not charging near enough! Average fix time for me was a little over an hour per board. I only charged $35 /hr. plus parts. ;>)

Brother's New Toy

Got a call from my brother this evening saying to come over and look at the family's new toy. Went over and look what was there.....

Click on the pics for a larger view!

Captain Kaleb making sure the boat is seaworthy!

Looking for his skipper hat

At the helm

Bowler progress

I thought I would show a quick video on how the game is progressing. It is coming along nicely!



Also ran into a small snag. There is a motor that runs the "Flash" series of games that is not working right now. Trying to figure out why. I found that the company that made motors for most of the old ElectroMechanical bowler games is still around and claims they can fix the motors. Might be an option if it isn't too expensive.






Here is a pic of the Flash motor.