Topic: Tornado Twister bearings

[fm3rc]

Hi guys, first post over here, looked everywhere and couldn't find any info.

So I got this Tornado Twister real cheap of craigslist to try to get the family hooked. I'm an average player that grew up around foosball tables and played on minor tournaments.

What I don't like at all about this table is that the rods have a huge amount of play on the bearings. It has this 3 screws bushings, only on the inside. At first I thought somebody replaced the snap in bushings by those because of cost or lack of info, but I found out that the early twisters came with the screw in bushings instead.

I went ahead and bought 2 snap in 1" bushings, and installed them yesterday. First, the 2 locating pins on the snap in have nowhere to go, so I had to cut them off. Second, the bushings are loose inside the wall hole - snug on the rod, but it plays in the hole. Also the flange on the snap in is smaller,  so I'm left with 3 visible screw holes on the inside.

My question would be if you guys know any alternative bushings to make this table feel and play better. The screw in bushings seem to be low quality, and I'm not sure they are going to be snug enough. Or should I try to wrap something on the snap in body to make it fit tighter on the wall hole?

I got pictures but I don't know how to post them...
All ideas are appreciated!

[fm3rc]

Here are some pictures

https://imgur.com/sa1pjyw

https://imgur.com/dz2varr

[alaskan thunder]

Yeah that sucks. IIRC a twister has the thin sidewalls so your only option is to try to fabricate and make the newer snap in bearings work or just put the originals back and try to wedge something in there to reduce the play. Issue with the latter option is that if the rods are not straight or level they tend to bind and don't move smoothly. Both sound like pretty crappy options. Any chance you could resell it and just buy a different one? That's probably your best option. 

[fm3rc]

I measured the snap in bearing body and I got 25mm. The hole on the twister wall is exaclty an inch (25.4mm), so that was part of the issue. Seems like the snap in bushing is not designed to fit the hole perfectly, which I find pretty bad. I used tape to eliminate the play and it worked well, although now that the bushing is fixed I noticed a little play rod/bearing. Very minimal, but it's there. I wonder if all snap in bearings are like that.

I will definitely keep an eye out for a better table and get rid of this one. They are extremely hard to come across where I am at, but I have this one to play with until then!

[JimWaterman]

Shared pics were helpful.   Suggest going back to "screw in bearings".   with the hole in sidewall being too large for snap in bearings, and removing the "locating pins" will allow the bearing to move/rotate a bit.

2 options for screw in bearings follow...
http://shop.foosball.com/leprobe.html
http://shop.foosball.com/bushing-ts.html