PINBALL MATTERS 
                    Vol.1 Issue 1
		     April, 2004

This is our first attempt at a monthly Pinball and
Classic Arcade newsletter. We understand that it will
appear to be somewhat regional to our readers outside
of Texas, but we are attempting to keep our customers
abreast of events around Texas and the current national status
of  Pinball and Classic Arcade games. Mixed in with a
little self promotion in the form of our current
inventory of Coin-Op machines, new products, etc.


                  EVENT ADVISORY

We have only one event to inform our readers about.
It's the largest festival of it's kind in Texas.

The Texas Pinball Festival November 5-7, 2004. At the
Holiday Inn Select - D/FW Airport North in Irving,
Texas. This is an entire weekend devoted to everything
that is pinball. Last year there was over 50 pinballs
set for free play. A great place to bring your family
and play all kinds of pinballs or purchase a new
addition to your gameroom as most of the pinballs on
free play were for sale. They had vendors, an outside
swap meet, and pinball related lectures to attend.
They even had Hercules, the biggest pinball
commercially made.


Pinball Medic will be bringing pinball games, parts
and Yellow Jacket pinball dollies for sale. We will
see you there.


               TECH QUESTION OF THE MONTH

Question: I have a new set of playfield plastics. How
can I help prevent them from looking like the old,
cracked, bent ones?

Answer: Most pinballs (old (EM) or new (SS)) came from
the manufacturer with number 44 light bulbs installed.
These lights typically draw one quarter of an ampere
per bulb. Given the possibility of an average pinball 
having some forty lamps, this can quickly build into a
large current draw. With current comes heat, this is
the worst possible environment for your playfield
plastics and for the General Illumination circuits
(wires, bulb sockets, wire connectors,etc). Playfield
plastics were manufactured using low temperature
thermal plastic. Hot lamps cause these plastics to
warp, so the best solution is to get rid of the heat
source. How? By replacing the number 44 bulbs with
number 47 bulbs. The 47's  operate at the same voltage
but draw 40% less current, reducing the heat under
your plastics and reducing the load on the General
Illumination circuits. They do produce slightly less
light but you should not notice this if you are
watching the silver ball.

Newer pinballs (1979 and newer) have a large array of
lamps that are flashed on and off by the Central
Processing Unit (controller controlled). These lamps
are not as critical to replace as they don't stay on
long enough to produce much heat and insert plastic is
not as susceptible to heat as the playfield plastics
are.

The same heat problem occurs under the scoreboard
glass as well. Changing out your bulbs will help
prevent paint flaking on your backglass.


Pinball Medic
Austin, Texas
www.pinballmedic.net