Does Wico still sell their spinners? They rock!

[arcadecollecting]

I picked up a Mad Planets recently and the spinner on it rocked my world! I gave it nice fast spin and 5 minutes later it was still spinning (no I'm not exaggerating!). It totally kills my Tempest spinner. (Okay, it's conceivable the Tempest got a *little* more playing than the Mad Planets.)

Wico doesn't seem to keep their catalog online. Anyone know if they still make the same kind as back in the day? It looks like a Tempest spinner from the outside, but under the control panel it's this cool enclosed black plastic case.

Thanks,
Tim

[OSCAR]

Tempest spinners are notorious for loosing their spin because they used plastic bushings.  Nearly every Tempest I've come across in an arcade has the signature "whiiiirrrr" sound to it.

Google has a copy of Wico's latest catalog here:

http://catalog.google.com/catalogs?issue=6613&catpage=cover&catview=thumb

Wico has not produced any spinners for quite some time.  Your best bet for finding one, unfortunately, is eBay.

[OSCAR]

Did you mean 5 secs instead of 5 minutes?  I just ran a few calcs, and I figure that you would need approximately a 40# mass to sustain a 5 minute spin with a 1/4" shaft, under the best of conditions.  I assumed a 1% friction factor, which is very good, even for ball bearings.

If you can even get close to 1 minute of free spin, please email me.


Kelsey
info@oscarcontrols.com

[arcadecollecting]

Okay, Mr. Physics   I timed it with a stop watch and it spun for 1 minute, 50 seconds. Nearly 2 minutes.

Tim

[nullb0y]

have some bearings that will spin for nearly 5 min their from my skateboard all id have to do is grease em and clean em and they spin till the sun goes down i get speeds of 25-35 mpg so they dont break down but just buying a set they spin for around 10-20 secs i have a system of breaking bearings in and it makes them spin forever but takes about a month pluss i cant do it sence i dont have a not broken skateboard but i might clean up my bearings and rig a spinner with them that would be cool especially if u grease them lightly they make no noise at all great fo "stealth skating"

[Elkor]

Hey oscar,

so are you in negotiations to buy/get your hands on this thing?
I'm sure we would all like a 2 minute spin!

-C