Archive for January, 2007

Monster Bash Status

Sunday, January 14th, 2007

Moved Monster Bash into place and got it running.

Some issues:

  • Lots of switches out
  • Lots of lights out
  • The lower pop-bumper is falling apart, along with the plastic that over-hangs the scoop (which is attached to the pop-bumper). Ball actually got stuck on a piece that fell into the playfield when I was testing the machine out.

The basement is getting a little messy.

Maybe A Ratchet Cable Hoist

Tuesday, January 9th, 2007

Reading the Wikipedia page on hoists I was thinking a ratchet cable hoist may be the way to go. Uses a lever to give you lifting power and and holds the lifted object between strokes of the lever.

One of these things.

Maybe one of these.

My Wife Helped Me Get It Up

Tuesday, January 9th, 2007

The old fashioned way. We both grabbed hold of it and put our backs into it.

And 30 seconds later we were done!

Hoist Plan Update

Saturday, January 6th, 2007

I’ve been wanting to get Monster Bash up and running in my (relatively) new house so I decided to give The Plan a try.

I drilled a little hole in the joist above the main support beam so I could feed through a little steel cable from Home Depot (which claimed that it could support 841 pounds) and wrap it around the beam. Here is an expertly framed photograph of me drilling the hole, taken by my 2 1/2 year-old son:

He took several photos while I was up on the ladder.  In a few of them you can see my gut sticking out from my T-Shirt.   Good times!

With the rope-hoist hooked up to the cable I figured I’d give it an easy test, so I grabbed one of my summer tires from the garage and hooked it on (using another steel cable wrapped around the tire).

A modest success.

That was pretty straight forward. So I took out the tire and put Monster Bash in position.

It's not as bad as it looks.

Sadly, the pulleys in the hoist did not provide nearly enough mechanical advantage. Which is a nice way of saying that I wasn’t strong enough to lift it for squat. Perhaps I should seek the mechanical engineering expertise of my father (and read the Wikipedia pages I just linked to). Although an easier solution would be to just throw my brother’s back out again.

My wife officially declared the entire operation a joke. She used the words “Mickey Mouse” and “Three Stooges” several times.

Troll Flap Decals

Tuesday, January 2nd, 2007

Here are some pictures of the Troll flap decals. Pretty bad shape. They don’t really affect game play but are rather unsightly.

Nasty 1

Nasty 2

I ordered some replacement decals which I need to put on.