| 1. Take the coil off the flipper bracket. Smash the hell out
of the bracket until it is as flat as possible. Use your biggest
hammer. 2. Bend one end back the other way. (see the top of the
completed knocker pictures) This is where the knocker will hit to make the
KNOCK.
3. Mount the other coil using one open coil mounting bracket from
each bracket shown above. I was lucky enough to have one of those
special coil sleeves used in real knockers and chimes.
4. What do we do for the plunger that makes the bang? That
was real easy. I used the metal rod from a flipper link. It is
soft material, so in the end opposite the pin hole I drilled a hole that was
slightly smaller than a plastic coat hanger. Then I cut a piece off of
a plastic coat hanger and hammered it into the hole. In the pictures
below, you can see the hole where the part would normally be pinned to the
flipper linkeage.
5. Now we have to make sure that the plunger is positioned properly
to make the loudest knock possible. Look at the pictures below to see
how we mounted it. First, I used a wood block to build up from the
bottom of the box. Then I put a piece of carpet padding on top so that
after the knocker actuated, it would come to rest softly. Next,
I had Dave hold the knocker against the side of the cabinet with a marker in
his other hand. Dave moved it up and down while I was behind the game
closing the contacts to make it work. When he found the distance
from the carpet backing that made the loudest bang, he drew the orange line.
Then I drilled a pilot hole, mounted it to the cabinet and we were done.
Congratulations Bozo, you have made a knocker. It actually works as
good as a real one. You would have to be a collector with real good
ears to ever know the difference. |
