I’m down to fine tuning the SMC2. I knew I had set the limit switches a little haphazardly. There is a roller blade that comes up a ramp at each end of mech travel. It is supposed to just make with another blade when it is about half way up the ramp. Mine were more like 3/4 of the way and the mech was off one record number at times. I wanted to tighten them up and to that end I adjusted both 100 and 179 limit switches at half way up the ramps with them just making at that point with a small clearance on the blade that broke. I have a set of switch adjusters from my pinball days and they are superb when it comes to blade adjustment.

The juke started back to not picking up the B side as it was travelling from left to right. I knew that switch 1M5 has to do with reversing to play the B side so I sat down with the manual and went through the switches on the vertical stack a lot more carefully than I did the first time around. I paid particular attention to proper blade spacing. Of course then the mech started tripping as soon as it picked up a record. I had adjusted 1M4 too tight. Once I loosened it up a bit the mech stopped tripping when going into Play. So far the jukebox has played everything correctly. I’ll keep my fingers crossed for now that I have that problem fixed.

I’m down to the last thing on the wallbox that will go with this juke-coins. The pricing label is a 2-5-10 or two plays for a quarter, five for fifty cents and ten for a dollar. I want to include a pricing board with the wallbox as another option for the prospective buyer. I have about 30 of these dang pricing boards and not one was the correct one. So I sat down with three boards! One that has the numbers stamped on it for reference, one for parts diodes to rob from, and the “target” board. I very carefully built the board according to a diagram in the DEC manual. Of course when I tested it it came out 1-2-4. I tried a 1-3-6 known good board and it didn’t do well. Nor did any others. I’ll try these boards in the STD4 tomorrow and see what happens. For the heck of it this evening I’ll look into my notes and try to re-decipher the patterns for various coinage. I usually ignore the coin label and just stick a 1-3-6 in whenever a pricing board is included. Not this time. I’m determined to get a 2-5-10.

Today is devoted to the lower door on the SMC2. I started taking it apart by removing the back reflective glass and the semi-round plastic case that secures the lamp holder. Both double as the holder for the bottom glass. I got a beautiful (expensive) reproduction from Victory Glass that will replace the mirror someone had installed. Once those were removed I put the whole assembly on the bench on a towel to protect the rounded glass pieces. I removed the lower trim piece. It has a fair amount of scratches and small gouges. I will take it to Morales Plating and let them polish it. They won’t be able to get all the damage out-the piece is too thin to go very far into it but I’m more concerned about it being shiny and know they will turn it out as best as it can get. The bottom screen over the speakers was next. I’ll remove as much of the old paint as possible using a drill and wire wheel and paint it satin black. I took the top trim off and then the top cap. I sand blasted the top cap and painted it satin black. A couple other pieces got sand blasted as well and painted the same way. This unit will look sharp when I’m finished with it. After I do the screen next week I’ll spend a day and re-assemble it. Here’s the obligatory “Before” picture.