Wobble Head
An upgrade for Bally’s 1992 Doctor Who Pinball Machine

A new run of this kit will begin if we find 50 more interested people.

There are a few unsold units from the last run to be purchased here

Back in 2002 A good friend of mine, Al Warner, asked if I could re-created the moving Dalek head that was on the prototype Dr. Who pinball machines. For whatever reason I agreed. I guess I said yes because I love a challenge... I had never seen Dr. Who before, and never looked at the Pin, but within a month I had bought a machine at a US Amusements auction as Al coached me on.

I engineered the whole thing and delivered a finished "Kit" to Al for his 40th birthday and from there we made 2 additional runs of 10 for others that wanted the same kit. A 3rd run was made between 07 and 08 that puts the count closer to 100

The notes below are a collection of the project in commerce and in history of the project in general as well as differences in how they were made from the initial 20 units vs. the last run.

But first a word form our sponsor

The Commerce

Thanks for you interest in adding what your Dr. Who Pinball should have had in the first place.. A Dalek head that moves! We have tried to make a product that is as easy to install as possible without the need to hack apart you machine, yet give you all the benefits of the original Moving Dalek head. All components used, were machined by myself, or commercially purchased. No surplus parts were used, so availability of items, such as the motor, should be available for years to come.

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Fir starts, you may want to take a peek at the manual.. It explains lots, and has more recent pictures then the ones on this page. All of the pictures here are during the development stage, so please disregard any extra holes, tape, missing screws, etc., as they are not representative of the finish project. A PDF viewer is required to view the manual

All work was completed in Autocad 2000. Additionally these drawing were redone when I acquired a CNC center in 06. Most drawing were redrawn in a way that would make G code (the language of the CNC) program writing faster

One by one the parts got made. At first is was all by hand but with the CNC we can see them made

Here is the second part being made. The Lower Bearing Mount

Here is the third part. The "B" Clip

The forth part is called the Upper Motor Bracket

Also complete is the Meck Mount that holds the assembly in place

Making of motor linkages

Motor Links .jpg Picture

You Tube type stream (opens in new window)

Motor Links.wmf 7.78 meg WMV file 1 min 2 sec duration

There are 3 sheet metal pieces that were all made a similar way. This is the opto flag in 4 steps

And we designed a plug and play wiring harness so that there is no need to hack into your original cabinet wires to use this product. Additionally, Is is easily removed should you want to move it to a different Dr. Who machine in the future. For the most part the harness looks the same today as it did from kit one

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The electronics are mounted to an etched PC board and is constructed with quality components.

The centering of the head is done by adding a 6-32 screw through the top of the head into the threaded moving shaft and is additionally supported by a slip on support.

The final unit: Movies and pictures

[Very nice.... Take me back]

Last updated at 5:42 PM on 9/1/08
Web Author: Mark E Davidson
Copyright © 2008 by Basement Arcade Associates - ALL RIGHTS RESERVED