Topic: Brown Marble Serial#1272

[LewisTD]

Hey Guys!

First time posting here. Been a while since I played foosball.

Just bought a Brown Marble with serial number 1272. It was produced in Bay City Michigan, so I know it's not one of the more desirable brown marbles, but it felt pretty good and solid with a little over 6,000 games on the counter. It's a coin op, and it needs a little TLC. I had a couple questions I wanted to ask you guys about and see what you think.

The black formica that makes up the top of the table, on the yellow side, has become detached. I have the piece and would like to re-attach it. Would the instructions I found elsewhere on this forum work well? https://www.thisoldhouse.com/ask-toh/how-to-reglue-countertop seems it would be fine, but wanted to know what you guys thought
Upgrade kit from t2000 to t3000. Any reason why I shouldn't buy this kit: https://www.gameroomguys.com/Ultimate-Tornado-Foosball-Table-Rebuild-Kit?
The rods had some pitting and chrome flaking off. I'm planning on taking some steel wool and giving them a good cleaning. Is this damage aesthetic or does it affect performance? What's a good source for rods? I'm afraid I don't know much about rods, I saw references to merkul and heat tempered, but still not 100% sure what I'm looking for

Overall I want to give this table a good tune up. Any other cleanup advice would be appreciated.

[alaskan thunder]

That method should work fine for the laminate. Just make sure that no adhesive gets in the actual playing surface.

Don't buy that kit. It's a waste of money. Here's what you do:

Buy a six pack of beer before getting started. Trust me on this one. I prefer something that's tasty but not too heavy. Maybe like a session IPA. But I drink PBR more than I like to admit so take my advice with a grain of salt. Whiskey will work as an adequate substitute.

While table is still assembled check all rods for straightness. You need to replace any that are more than a tiny bit bent. Next, remove all rods, bearings, men, and bumpers. Any broken men? Trash them. Cracked bearings? Trash them. Blown out or mushy bumpers? Trash. Keep track of how many/which parts go in the garbage. Don't forget to drink your delicious beer. Get a bucket with warm soapy water and dump all remaining plastic parts in.  Let them soak for a bit. In the mean time, give the table interior and exterior surfaces a deep cleaning. I use copious amounts of rubbing alcohol and micro fiber cloths. If the grime is bad, you can use stronger solvents but be careful and don't let them sit for more than a few seconds. If you are feeling frisky (and want your table to play like a proper, civilized foosball table), go ahead and peel off those white sidestrips and into the garbage they go. If you need to use a knife or razor to get started be very careful not to gouge the table.  If there is glue or grime underneath the strips, peel that crap off. It's a super annoying job but it has to be done because the new sidestrips you will be using are clear. Also if there is gunk under there, the strip will not be flush with the surface and may impact game play. Continue drinking beer. At this point your parts have soaked for a while. Get some rags and take each individual part out and scrub it. I wouldn't use anything abrasive just plain old elbow grease. Clean all the men, especially their feet. Clean the bearings. Bearings are the most work as they tend to accumulate goo. I take paper towels and get all the nooks and crannies very clean. Set all these parts aside to dry. Take an alcohol soaked rag and wipe down any old bumpers that don't need replacing. Set those aside. Any straight rods with pitting or flaking can be given the steel wool treatment. Be sure to keep the area wet as you are scrubbing. If the pitting or flaking is bad, just replace the rod. At this point make a list of which replacement parts you need. On top of what you need for the immediate replacements, buy 10 extra pins, 4 or 5 bumpers, 2 men of each color (be sure to order counter-weighted), and some new 5hr tumbled balls. You are going to need a set of clear sidestrips, a pin punch, a bearing wrench, and some lube if you don't have these already. You may also want to replace the wood handles with the new plastic ones. If you use wraps, order a few now. Don't forget any coin-op parts you may need for the internals of the table but I'm not covering that in this post. Order these parts asap because your playtime will likely be on hold 'til the parts arrive. The 2 vendors I use are http://shop.foosball.com/ and https://www.shop.tornadofoosball.com/main.sc . You can put the table back together now or you can wait until you have everything. Sidestrips can be put on either way but are a bit easier with a clean slate. When reassembling, make sure you put the 3 bars in the right place as the goalie rod is different than front 3 bar. Feel free to let me know if you have follow up questions and sorry for the wall of text.

Good luck!

[LewisTD]

Good info - thanks a ton! I appreciate the time you put into you posts. The good news is, I was able to cross a few things off the list.

I repaired the laminate:




The black laminate has a few hollow sounding spots, where the laminate isn't fully adhering. I re-secured it, but I may add some Tornado coasters on the corner that screw into the cabinet to secure it even better.

I shopped the cabinet, inside and out:

I was happy with the inside of the cabinet. There was evidence of 1 spill and it may have just been some silicone. I didn't see any swelling and overall appeared to be complete and in good shape. The balls, men, and playfield have been clean. I haven't done anything with the bearings yet.

This is a couple quick shots of it the gameroom:



You can see the condition of the rods in that last shot. I haven't had a chance to steel wool or clean the men in that pic. The men are clean but the rods still got some surface rust.

I had guests over for Christmas eve, and they seemed to struggle finding the ball on the track (I removed the ball ramp) so I set the coin mech to free play.

My next questions are:
Are the new bumpers worth it?

Are the new men worth it? Does that higher cross hatching really matter? I may have to get on a t-3000 to see what I think?

I have 2 rods I want to replace (the front 3 rows). Where would you order from? I'm in St. Louis, Mo. Not sure what local sources I have available.

I ordered new handles and clear side strips. I already have a few 5hr balls. I'm trying to decide if the expense/value of new men and bumpers is worth it.

Lastly, I'm adding a light, I just need to think of a way I can do it that it doesn't block the TV, or can be setup for game playing.

Appreciate all the help so far.

[kgstewar]

Great looking table! A few thoughts:

1. New bumpers are cheap. If yours are worn go ahead and splurge.
2. New men are an improvement but the change is subtle. I would buy some new men of both colors to keep as spares. The existing men will break and crack (if they are originals, this will happen pretty fast) and you can slowly convert to the new men as you replace the broken ones. Pick up some roll pins and a good punch as well.
3. Steel wool will remove rust but it can scratch the rods. I would first try wadded up aluminum foil with a little water as lubricant. It may be all you need. If that doesn't do it, then try 0000 steel wool.
4. For lights, consider a short stretch of ceiling track light with a few spot lights aimed down at the table. Won't block the TV that way.

[LewisTD]

Awesome. Appreciate the aluminum foil trick - will try that first and report back. When I order new bumpers, how do I know they are the newer ones? The ones here http://shop.foosball.com/fts-110-016.html, are they the t-3000 bumpers? I ordered the clear side strips and want to have the bumpers to match.

Will stick with these men and order some spares! Thanks.

[Ryan Dewald]

Nice table.  I am in a similar process with my 1978 Tornado C.O.  The steel wool made a huge difference.  I have an issue with the side strips as they are attached to the side ramps as all one strip (it's a one-goalie table).  There are some chips out of the side ramps so I want to replace it.  I'm thinking of finding out what kind of material is it and making my own. 


Thanks Alaskan Thunder for the tips.  I substituted Miller Lite for the PBR but otherwise, worked great. 

[alaskan thunder]

Yeah one goalie tables, you probably can't swap the sidestrips for the updated version. Gonna have to do some fabrication to make that work.

[LewisTD]

Marching forward....

I have the new clear side strips coming today, I removed the older white side strips:

What a mess! I've never done this before so I tried a variety of things to clean it up. I used alcohol, a razor blade, water, but what ended up working great was Goof Off gel. I didn't have to use a ton and I only let it sit for 5 seconds before scrubbing it out. I was kinda worried it would soak into the seam and affect the glue laminate. I don't know if that's a real concern, but to be safe, I would apply the Goof Off, and start scrubbing.

This was after 1 pass:


It took a total of 2 passes to get it clean, but I made a 3rd just to be safe.



Hopefully the Goof Off is a safe option, it worked great if anyone else is trying to remove the white plastic strip residue.

Work left to do:
Install clear side strips
Install new handles
Install new 3 rods for both forwards
Install new bumpers
Install\Refresh bearings
Build light fixture (Not 100% sure how I'm going to do this still)
Install coasters (Need to source these still)

[LewisTD]

Almost forgot, the aluminum foil and water worked great to rejuvenate the rods!

[kgstewar]

Almost forgot, the aluminum foil and water worked great to rejuvenate the rods!

Yeah, it's a cool trick. Steel wool can leave micro scratches which then serve as nucleation points for rust in the future, not to mention roughening the surface. The aluminum foil is softer than the rod finish and leaves no scratches, just magically removes the rust!

[LewisTD]

All done!

The clear side strips was not what I was expecting, but I added them after cleaning the sides. I installed the new handles. These are a real nice upgrade over the wood handles I was used to. New bumpers/bearings are in. I like the thinner bearings. I decided to add coasters to both hold down the laminate, but to provide a place to rest a drink.


I had quite an adventure with the 3 row. The only really bad rods on the table were both front 3 rows. The metal was flaking off and leave lots of debris on the table when playing. I purchased 2 new front 3 rods from the foosball.com shop. I received them quickly and in good shape, but I was unable to put any men on the rod. I was able to put men on the old rods, but the new rods required an excessive amount of force. At least, I thought it was excessive. I contacted Foosball.com to let them know the rod I have must be out of spec because of the difficulties I was having. I spoke at length with Jim Waterman and he walked me through several options and explained some of the differences between tournament and home men. Bottom line, he sent me new rods with the men pre-installed. It was very cool he did that for me.


I tested the new rods and confirmed they are the exact same as the new ones they sent me and the difficulties I was having was my issue of not being able to put the men on the rods. I'm sure I'll be able to take care of future issues, but I learned a lesson that the men fit very securely.


A big shout out to Jim and Debbie who put in the extra time to help me out. Very much appreciated!


Lastly, I built 3 types of lights before settling on the lights you see in the picture. I hung something the lights from the ceiling, but decided I didn't like the chains and hooks in the ceiling. I built an external frame out of PVC, but it was too big and bulky. I settled on the attached light fixture. It's installed on some thread inserts so I can add/remove the lights when needed.   


All during the restoration, I've been playing. It's good having a table again and it's surprising how much ball control you lose if you don't play for 10 years:) I've bought new balls for it, and I really like the new 5hr tumbled balls. I appreciate everyone who provided comments during this.

Below are some pics of the table: