Re: Repro of original Atari Steel Rollers for Major Havoc

At 10:07 PM 4/14/00 -0400, Mark Davidson wrote:
>I think if you go back and look at the pictures I put up again you will see
>that the contact point of the green roller to the steel roller wore down the
>steel about 1/16 of an inch! I just got feedback from the set I put in
Jons MH
>controller and he is real happy but Ill wait for him to comment himself.

Happy is a bit of an understatement :) At one point I actually put
together a message for the vectorlist but it sounded more like a dopey
infomercial testimonial than anything else, so I bagged it... Until now :)

This roller of mine has gone through a lot to get working again. When I
originally got it from Callan last year, it was falling apart. I actually
broke the pieces off where it was cracking and used a super duper plastic
bonding agent to piece it back together. It would take me a good year
before I'd be able to use it in a game, and when I did, it would turn out
that it just didn't feel right. I had to use a lot more force than I
remembered and it just wasn't that responsive.

Here's where the new shafts and bearings come in.. After I got my roller
back from Mark, I could tell it was a little smoother, but it didn't seem
that profound. When I actually installed it and tried it out, I was
absolutely amazed. It now feels like I remembered it from the good 'ol
days. I think I can get it a little smoother still if I buff out the
scratches in the roller "ball" itself, but I may wait to hear what other
people do.

Mark is going to send me one of the final reproductions to try out in my
game. I'll let everyone know how they compare when I get it.

>"Christopher X. Candreva" wrote:
>> What would constitute bearings on a roller, track ball, etc needing to be
>> replaced ?
>>
>> One track ball I fixed had the bearings rusted solid, that was
>> obvious. Likewise on the shafts -- the wear is quite visible. What should I
>> look for to decide if the bearings should be replaced, or is it safe to
>> assume that if the shafts are noticbly worn from the roller, just replace
>> them ?

Yes. You can usually tell if there is any discoloration on the bearings.
If the bearings still look new, you can probably get away w/ some silicone
lubricant. You can use some WD40 to clean them out a little bit, but you
really need to put some lubricant on for it to be effective.

Jon
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Received on Sat Apr 15 09:27:09 2000