Alternatives to HAPP$ ?

[Oldskool]

I'd like to get the following items, but almost had a coronary when I saw the HAPP$ pricelist.

-  3" blue translucent trackball
-  Over/under coin door.
-  Marquee retainer.

I've seen other vendors selling either reasonably priced 2 1/4" balls, or 3" balls that are not translucent. I may reluctantly go with a smaller TB.

I've searched Ebay for coin doors, but most of them look like crap.

Happs' marquee retainer, at a length of 10', will cost a fortune to ship.

HELP !!!!!!!! More vendors needed !!!!!!

[Tailgunner]

Bob Roberts for the Tball.

Ebay for the coindoor. Yep it'll look like crap when you get it. Some elbow grease and a can of spraypaint and it'll look like new again.

Lowes/Home Depot for the marquee retainer. Buy a L shaped piece of extruded aluminum from the hardware department. Drill three holes to mount with screws, use the spraypaint from above to match the coindoor.

[rdagger]

You can buy any 2.5 or 3" arcade trackball and replace the ball with a translucent ball.  I have an extra brand new 3" translucent blue ball if you want to trade (I could use some marquee retainers).  The Happ Golden Tee trackballs are on sale now for around $70.  Happ trackballs are made very well.

You can get very good deals on coin doors on ebay.  I got a brand new over/under coin door for $25.

I'd also be interested for other sources for marquee retainers.

[Oldskool]

Bob Roberts for the Tball.

I just had a look at Bob's site and found the trackballs. I thought he only sold replacement components for TBs.

Bob get the order.

Thanks.

[TalkingOctopus]

Although I cannot link of any examples offhand, may people have found other materials at Hardware stores like HomeDepot to replace the Happ marquee retainers.  Hopefully someone who has done this can chime in and tell you what to look for.

[SeanFu]

I'm no Ebay expert, but the key to some items might be patience.  I got outbid on an OKAY looking over-under coindoor which ended up going for around $50.  A few weeks later I ended up winning an auction for a better looking coindoor for $30.  Nobody else seemed interested the second time...- so it's all about timing and patience on some things.

[slicer_d]

I got a nice old midway coindoor it was beat up and had some rust and metal showing.  But all you need to do is get a wire cup attachment for your drill it looks like one of those scrubbing bubble cleaners but with think wire and a shank for your drill.  Then you strip off all the old paint get some rust olium textured black and BAM you have a brand new (looking) coin door for like 30-40 bucks.

[Ken Layton]

I say get a good used coin door on ebay and fix it up. That's where the real fun is!  

[Oldskool]

people have found other materials at Hardware stores like HomeDepot to replace the Happ marquee retainers.  

What I may try is installing the marquee without a retainer, and covering up any gaps with small 1/4 round wood.

[Lilwolf]

btw, I would recommend going with a new trackball myself...

you can find new ones on ebay all the time... Take a look.

But I bought a used marbalized trackball on ebay... thought I got a DEAL at 20 bucks... well... it wasn't marbalized at all... it was so !@# dirty it looked like it.  HOURS later and a few cans of everything that could help it... Its works OK now... but I bought new bars... I still need the rollers...  And after all that... I ended up spending about 40 bucks....  Wish I had a new one..

[tmasman]

Has anyone bought a trackball from http://www.ultimarc.com ?
For that price I would think everyone would be buying it...
How does it compare to say Happs TBs or a Betson Imperial?

Personally I'm looking for a 3", but if I ever need a 2 1/4", I'll probably be looking to Ultimarc first...

[PacManFan]

As far as a marquee retainer, What I did for my cab was:

Take a strip of lexan that is the width of your marquee. The strip should be about 3" wide. Clamp it to a your workbench so it overhangs by about 1.5" , Use your butane blowtorch to slowly and evenly heat it up. Use 2 long strips of wood to sandwich and bend the lexan to the desired angle. Wait until it cools and spray paint semi-gloss black.

You can bend one strip to about 120 degrees and another to about 80 degrees for the top and bottom retainers.

Mine ended up looking very professional, and was quite easy to do.

Lexan is easy to heat and bend, The key is to move the torch back and forth over the length of the lexan at a steady rate and heat the lexan evenly. Once the lexan starts to bend down under it's own weight, it's ready to bend.

Hope this helps, I'd like to hear other peoples results trying this.

-PMF

[ashardin]

I've bought 4 refurbed trackballs through imperial-betson for $30 and had great luck with all of them.  They look and perform like new.

Unbeatable deal really.  You can't really find them on the website but call up your local office and speak to someone.  More than likely they will be out but can get them from the warehouse in New Jersey.  Should take less than a week to get it.

[daeven]

Buy the used coin door and use Peale's tutorial. http://www.pealefamily.net/tech/mame/coindoor/

I did this technique and it looks beautiful!  I also did the same with the aluminum L and U-channel (purchased at ACE Hardware) for the marquee retainer.  Use the U-channel for the bottom retainer piece and the L on top.  That way you can attach a marquee and have no nails showing.  Replacing the marquee only requres removing the top piece.

I also got the Ultimarc trackball, but have not installed it yet.  It looks good.

[JamesS]

Daeven

"I also did the same with the aluminum L and U-channel (purchased at ACE Hardware) for the marquee retainer.  Use the U-channel for the bottom retainer piece and the L on top.  That way you can attach a marquee and have no nails showing.  Replacing the marquee only requres removing the top piece."

Is that a specific length or did you have to cut it down to make it the right size?

[daeven]

I believe the aluminum was sold in 48" lengths.  I did have to cut it down - a $3 saw blade will do the job (or a Dremel tool for that matter).

[rdagger]

Lexan is easy to heat and bend...

I would have to disagree that Lexan is easy to bend.  I recently tried to make a new cover for my yoke out of Lexan.  I tried a few times using a heat gun.  It is very difficult to get the Lexan to bend evenly.  Also once it has been heated and bent, it does not respond well to a second attempt.  Also if you over heat the Lexan it will develop bubbles.  And yes, I was using a wood jig for bending.  After 3 tries I switched to Plexiglass and had much better luck.  Plexiglass is 1/10 the cost and bends much easier with heat.  The new yoke cover came out great.  I could have probably got the Lexan to work with a few more tries, but it is so expensive.  However, I should add that the size of the Lexan makes a big difference.   I made a small 3 inch square chip guard with bent corners out of Lexan for my router.   It came out great and is now virtually indestructible.

[JayTea]

I'd like to get the following items, but almost had a coronary when I saw the HAPP$ pricelist.

-  3" blue translucent trackball
-  Over/under coin door.
-  Marquee retainer.

I've seen other vendors selling either reasonably priced 2 1/4" balls, or 3" balls that are not translucent. I may reluctantly go with a smaller TB.

I've searched Ebay for coin doors, but most of them look like crap.

Happs' marquee retainer, at a length of 10', will cost a fortune to ship.

HELP !!!!!!!! More vendors needed !!!!!!

Check out Wico's home page.  They don't have a great website or snazzy online order form, but they are significantly less than Happs. ($30 for a 2 1/4 trackball)

http://www.wicothesource.com

hope this helps.

[Stormy151]

Does anything special need to be done to the Wico trackballs to make them work with an OptiPac?

Which one would I order, active high or low?

Man, $30.  That's a substantially lower price...

[pmc]

I also did the same with the aluminum L and U-channel (purchased at ACE Hardware) for the marquee retainer.  Use the U-channel for the bottom retainer piece and the L on top.  That way you can attach a marquee and have no nails showing.  Replacing the marquee only requres removing the top piece.

Can you describe the installation? I am retainerless at the moment, but I put T-molding along the long-edges above and below the marquee. I'm trying to visualize the "U" and the "L". I see the "U" replacing the T-molding and cupping the edge of the speaker panel below the marquee. The "L" goes with the point facing into the seam between the marquee face and the panel above it? Wouldn't that block an inch or so of the marquee from showing? Or does it also replace the T-molding just like the "U" but it doesn't wrap over the top? Hmmmmmm..... but then why not use two "L" peices? And what if my marquee is inset? Hmmmmmm.....

How'd you attach these pieces?