Topic: Newbie question: 1 Goalie vs. 3

[Chase Pennell]

Killer! Well done! Talk about a steal! Not going to lie, people on this forum are jealous! There are a ton of people that would kick a puppy for that deal!

[Will17]

Awesome deal. I'm a vendor that owns 8 tables on location, and I would have bought that in a heartbeat. A lot of people are jealous. Don't use any sort of solution on the surface. The playing surface is best cleaned with only water, and dry it off quickly after.

Buy some rod lube, some brand new fuzzy balls, and some handle wraps - those things will all go a long way towards making the table better. Also you probably already know this but make sure you level the table, using the spinning feet on the bottom.

To set to free play two options exist:
Easy: open the table up, remove the "ready ramp" that catches the balls after you put a coin through. Stuff a napkin or golf ball or something blocking the track so that the balls don't fill up the spinning metal tray. Close the table and after you score the ball will run down the track but stop before entering, you can just grab it from there and play.

Hard: Take the coin mech apart, take the silver shims out and use black shims in each spot. Your coin mech on the inside has extra shims. It takes a long time to explain how to take a coin mech apart but if you have small screwdrivers you can figure it out on your own. It is hard to do though without someone that knows what they are doing on hand to help out.

[fis]

Epilogue:  The "steal of the century" did, in fact, have some problems that I am working on fixing now:

One of the 3-man rods is bent.  It wasn't so apparent to this novice until I lubricated them.  I'm going to order a replacement for the rod.

One of the men was loose as well, which wasn't apparent until I tried hitting a ball with him and he practically spun around the rod.  I am looking for a tutorial on how to replace a man, but it's a little confusing because honestly I'm not sure how these things are put together and what's holding the man to the rod, or what exactly is broken because the man appears to be perfectly intact.  The instructions at http://www.foosball.com/content.php?page=84#replace_man are frankly confusing because I don't know the vocabulary.  I do have a punch that was in the cabinet but I hesitate to take a hammer to my new equipment when I'm not sure what I'm doing.  Are there any videos showing how to replace a foos man?

The counter was, after all, stuck at 206, so that was just wishful thinking.  I got it working again.  As papafoos just posted in another thread (probably inspired by me), the counter should not be taken at face value.

I did get up the nerve to take apart the coin box, where I found a spare slug and successfully installed it    I need to order another one of those to make it play free.

[bbtuna]

sorry i missed this entire thread but even if you have to change 2 or 3 rods and some men, its the best table deal I have ever seen and I have tracked them and helped people buy tables for about 5 years now and this is easy the best deal I have ever heard about...its nearly free, that is the only way it could be a better deal

by the way, going back for a minute before moving back to the table...your son said he didn't want 3 man goalie because it made defense too easy and this isn't true...the outside men don't move far enough to get in front of the goal, so in defending shots, they never come into play...they are useful for setting up shots, traping lose balls in the goal area, passing, and even some shooting if you are creative enough

back to the table...changing a man is easy, with a little thought, you can figure it out on your own I am certain...depending on which man it is, it will tell you how many men you have to remove...its most tricky on the 5 bar - which man needs to be changed...as you face the table, you can refer to the men like this...on the 2 bar, the man closest to you is the 21 and the one further out is the 22...5 bar closest man is 51, next is 52, etc...3 man closest is 31, middle man is 32, furthest out is 33...you get the idea

Congratulations and enjoy the table

[PatRyan]

Jumping in late in the conversation here, just got back in town.  That table was 10 minutes from your house?  Sweet!!  So you are in the DC area!  If you are interested in the local foosball scene (MD/NoVA), let me know. 

PR

[jinhopark]

...your son said he didn't want 3 man goalie because it made defense too easy and this isn't true...the outside men don't move far enough to get in front of the goal, so in defending shots, they never come into play...they are useful for setting up shots, traping lose balls in the goal area, passing, and even some shooting if you are creative enough

I totally agree with Tuna, there is no way that by having a 3 man goalie makes the defensive job easier.  Actually, you could even make the argument that it makes it slightly harder...I've seen slop balls take weird bounces off the 2 outside goalie guys and somehow spin off weird angles and make its way into the goal somehow.  The fact that both sides have the 3 man goalies negates any advantage that one side has over the other, so in all practicality it really doesn't make the job harder...to me having the 3 men back there just makes the game go faster by being able to manipulate the ball in nearly all the areas of the table Vs. waiting for the ball to roll down the ramp.  Of course this is coming from a hack player like myself, where I am on the receiving end of a lot more slop balls going into my goal...

[fis]

Jumping in late in the conversation here, just got back in town.  That table was 10 minutes from your house?  Sweet!!  So you are in the DC area!  If you are interested in the local foosball scene (MD/NoVA), let me know. 

PR

Thanks.  My son might be.  At least, he'd be interested in checking out some serious play.

P.S. Loving this table!

[fis]

I thought I'd close the loop here 11 years later:

We refurbed the table back in 2011: just replaced a man and a couple of bent rods, and I refinished the handles. Enjoyed it for many years.

Now the kids are grown and nobody uses the table, so I just sold it for $1,400.

Not bad for a $150 investment