Last October our group got a cheap foosball table for "team building". Well it was a $200 delivered Overstock.com table and we had two players with some experience a number of years ago. About 16 of us are using the table regularly.
Fast forward a few months. Many of us are now playing 2-3 games of foosball a day. Our table which seemed cool initially is weathering rather badly. The playing surface flexes noticably and is now extremely uneven. It can't be leveled easily. It moved really badly until I put non-stick pads under the legs. The bearings are getting bad and require a lot of lubrication. The foosball frequenly pops right back out of the goal after a good hit, the players won't stay up if you are playing singles. We started out with cork balls, moved on to sheltis and started playing a bit with tornados.
Now some of us are getting rabid about foosball and staying after work to get the good(relative term) players together. We start wondering how we are going to upgrade our table...
Flash forward to a couple weekends ago. My wife wants some hotwings after some hiking and we stop into a Spicy's. I ask a few questions about their T-2000 coin op and the owner comes over to talk with me and says that people are mostly using it as a large coaster for beer and that he was getting ready to take it home and store it. Hmmmmm.... So I say if he is willing to sell it reasonably, I'd be willing to pick it up.
Last Sunday he gives me a call and tells me I can have it for $550 if I come down right now and take it away. I was loading it up 30 minutes later. That evening I was ordering parts for it. On Wednesday I got my parts to fix it up. One rod, 9 nuts and a full set of bearings just for good measure. The table cleaned up beautifully and plays perfectly. I opened up the coin mechanism and put in plugs and removed one tumbler so that it doesn't require coins, but otherwise works as before.
Now the tough part... My kids are really enjoying this table. My wife is playing too. They all understand that I got the table with the intent to bring it into work, so now it is staying home for a month or two while I get every inch perfectly clean. Playing the table at work was painful before, and now it is getting harder... The guys at work know about the table already...
Still I'm having fun with my new table... Any bets on how long I keep it at home?
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