Sunday, March 10, 2013

Fixing Ball Drain Issue

This was perhaps the simplest mod. There are three bumpers with a rubber band around them just under the pop bumpers. These, as many other Zizzle owners believe, are superfluous. I removed the bottom most one, drilled a hole between the flippers and placed it there. The ball still freely falls on either side of the bumper, but it's far easier to save the ball from draining.



Interestingly, the ball-save bumper isn't quite enough to save balls falling down from the "Cannibal Island" skill shot. After successfully making the skill shot, the ball will almost always fall between the flippers and the bumper, with no hope of saving it. Solution? Change the direction of the ball as it leaves "Cannibal Island".



If you look closely at the bottom of the image, you'll notice a piece of transparent plastic. You can also see its shadow on the surface of the play field. This was taken from a discarded product package, cut down to size (rounding off the corners). It sticks about an inch out from the ball exit and the rest goes above and around the two rubber-banded bumpers and taped to the inside wall of the machine. This basically become a kind of trampoline, lifting the ball upwards as it leaves "Cannibal Island" effectively causing it to land farther right of the play field. Simple, cheap, effective, and best of all, reliable and durable.

Last but not least are the ridiculously overexposed out lanes. The ball falls off here more often than not. Clearly something had to be made so I figured it would be simple enough to add a thin post that will act as a diverter so the ball can easily fall on either side, but narrowing the space that leads to the out lane. The idea is to give the ball equal chance to fall either way, not one way over the other.

I stopped at a local hardware store and found these...



These are called minifix screws. They are normally used in store-bought furniture. Add a properly sized rubber grommet and you got a pretty decent bumper post.



Again, the idea is not to cheat, but to give the ball equal opportunity to fall either to the return lane, or the out lane. Notice how low the lane rail is in relation to the slingshot. This might work for some tables, but in this case, it just doesn't play fair. This mod cost under $2 and already the machine is 100 times more playable.

4 comments:

  1. I kinda disagree about that triangle near the pop-caps, they help keep the ball in the caps that sometimes gets the skeleton battle rollthru's. I used the post just above cannibal island for flipper post, replaced it with a bit of black plastic up there left side. the cannibal island rollthru a definite setup for a drain-o, used a dremel with a sanding barrel to re-curve the ball path there, about 1.5mm worth sends it across to the right flipper. lower tip is same, the carving to deepen the curve above it is spread about 1.5", hand sanded smooth, then waxed too. you wouldnt notice at all if you didnt know to look there closely, and the ball can still travel UP that lane this way (matters little sure).

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  3. Wow Nice post, thanks for sharing. Pinball machines have many electronic and moving parts that require a certain level of expertise in order to maintain and service them properly. The industry refers to the cleaning process as "shopping out". If this process is done correctly it will include cleaning, waxing, and replacing rubber rings and burnt bulbs.Pinball Toppers

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  4. I just bought my first Zizzle Junior pinball Today.
    I cant wait to do the mods you did.
    I am embarrassed to ask, but long legs up front or on the back? the incline seems to steep for the long legs on the back. Thanks

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