Topic: Just bought Brown Marble for my Wife, anything I need to know?

[shawnhar]

My wife was really into foos about 10 years ago in Lexington KY, she knows a lady named Mary and some guy named Matt, that was apparently ranked #1 in the nation at some point. She played a 50,000 tournament in Vegas and ranked like 3rd or something among the women there. I have been wanting to get her back into it for a while but just now found a table I can afford. Coin Op brown marble, has the coin op parts removed but the playing surface is in great shape, it was in an arcade, guy bought it then realized it ain't gonna fit in the dorm. The men have no visible wear on them, but lots, of dust and grime, few scratches, but other wise good. I have cleaned the gunk off the bars, playing surface and the bearings  best I can with rubbing alchohol. I plan to get some new bearings, pin tool and pins, bearing tool and the silicone lube. Anything else? ( I have used a drop of "reel oil" for fishing reels on 3 of them and they move like butter now)
 Biggest issue, with a large pair of grips and a towel to keep from damaging the plastic, I cannot tighten the bearings enough to make them grab the bars. I am under the impression you want them almost grabbing the bars. I have read some guys dremel and sand the bearings smooth and tighten them back down, but this does not seem like it would work in my case. Will the new bearings be easier to tighten?

[PatRyan]

You do not want the bearings that tight.  The bars should wiggle inside the bearings a little.  The bearing nut should be "snug", but not necessarily "tight". 

BTW, what a great person you must be, to buy your wife a foosball table!

[papafoos]

BTW, what a great person you must be, to buy your wife a foosball table!

...and what a great wife she must be to want a foosball table.  Sounds like a keeper to me

[shawnhar]

Thanks guys! I feel better about the bearings now, I was worried that they should not have any play at all in them. They just BARELY wiggle around, mainly up and down. I guess that's good?
 And yes she is AWESOME, coolest person I have ever met.

[foozkillah]

That's great to hear, Shawn!
That Mary she knew could only have been Mary Moore, who ran one of the most successful indie foos tours out of Lexington KY, now called IFP.  they used Tornados. had a falling out and switched to a competing home brand, Warrior and ran a big Warrior tour for 2-3 yrs.
;
Now Mary's back with Tornado Tables, and actually runs the majors for Tornado......  your wife should prolly get in touch with her again.
and Tornado's still the major US table.  In fact, Mary and IFP are running the 2011 Tornado World Championships  in Dallas at the DFW Hilton.  Labor Day as usual.
;
They have 4 live streaming channels on www.ifptour.com .. thru Tuesday!  all free.  Your wife'll prolly see many of her old friends playing.

[MR.STEVE]

That table should have those heat treated rods ........Merkle ?

[shawnhar]

Thanks for that link and the info on Mary Foozkillah, we watched some of the matches streaming live, pretty cool! (and intimidating for me) My wife has been practicing and so have I, after I put some 60 grit sandpaper in a mason jar and manualy tumbled one of the balls for about 30 minutes, the fuzz came back and made it MUCH easier to control, so we spent much of last night shaking a jar. Only issue other than the balls is the table surface does not seem completely level, at first everything rolled to the middle, we stacked some books inside on top of the ball ramp and made progress, but it's still not totaly right. The ball tends to drift away from the back man at the edge of the table, not very much but certainly annoying.

[foozkillah]

Thanks for that link and the info on Mary Foozkillah, we watched some of the matches streaming live, pretty cool! (and intimidating for me) My wife has been practicing and so have I, after I put some 60 grit sandpaper in a mason jar and manualy tumbled one of the balls for about 30 minutes, the fuzz came back and made it MUCH easier to control, so we spent much of last night shaking a jar. Only issue other than the balls is the table surface does not seem completely level, at first everything rolled to the middle, we stacked some books inside on top of the ball ramp and made progress, but it's still not totaly right. The ball tends to drift away from the back man at the edge of the table, not very much but certainly annoying.

;
If you're wary of having to do any tabletop field replacement, you might try what
  Ron "Ronzilla" Olson, David "Papa" Stremme, Chris "Forrrrrrrrest" Forest did with
  the favorite coinop at Walsh's in Philadelphia.  Those tables and yours are on hinges
  that swing up and open:
;
There was a slight warp under two spots of the table...
1. Under the yellow 3bar in front of the straight to the farside of the goal
  - where you'd set up a pull.
2. Under the yellow Goal bar between the far corner and the goal corner.
  - hard to set up a pull on the yellow side.  Also a danger of balls just
    rolling into goal during play. (but then that danger's always there!  )
;
3-bar area:
- They shimmed with thick cardboard & beer coasters under the 3bar spot
  until it leveled the dip. - they put the coasters on the top edges of the
  interior ball return tunnel.
Goal area:
- They put a thin piece of wood between the end of the interior ball return
  tunnel  near the far yellow goal corner and the far table corner.  They
  finished with more beer coasters and shims.
;
Worked pretty well for months, until they ordered and replaced the surface
about 3 wks ago.