Paces Races Restoration Progress February 29

The cleaning of the odds wheel and right frame member is complete.  Assembly of the parts starts with fingers, guide wheels, and piano roll mechanism.

paces races tracker bar

The tracker bar on the piano roll mechanism senses the holes in the paper and sends the lack of vacuum to the control box.  The paper needs to travel freely.  The plates of the mechanism are as far apart as the threaded rod allows, with a large amount of adjustment possible.  The washers were cut down to prevent interference with the paper.

paces races piano roll

The piano roll mechanism is complete.

paces races forward and reverse roll

This is the mechanism to change the direction of the paper roll.  When it nears the end, there is a hold that causes the game to reverse the direction of travel.  When it gets to that end, it again senses the end and reverses again.  See video of the reverse in action.

paces races wear on sprocket

Years of playing have caused some wear on the components.  Here the ladder chain has rubbed against the teeth repeatedly, causing the edges to roll out.

paces race wear on sprocket otherside

The other side of the sprocket shows the teeth have worn away.  The sprocket was not aligned with the direction of the ladder chain and as a result wore unevenly.

paces races payout finger

This is the assembled payout fingers for the odds wheel.  There is one hoop for each payout amount.   The hoop is raised when a horse wins and there will be a payout if the hoop contacts a tab on the odds wheel.

paces races first frame

Here is the frame when assembly starts.  There are two parts held together by the horse winner fingers.

paces races frame 2

The clutch and first casting for the odds wheel are added.

paces races frame 3

The small guides for the horse ratchet bars are added at the right end of the game.