I'm making some score counter boxes for a friend who owns a pool room. He gave me two dozen old model Gold Crown 1 (?) rail counters to use in the boxes. The rail counters were salvaged from his tables when he had the rails replaced (J. Chambers rails - super nice). His new rails don't have counters and with a lot of straight pool players he needs score counters.
Besides being filthy every one of the old counters had broken wheel springs that made them almost useless with the number wheels loose and all spinning together. Well, found that little strips of laminate replacing the flat metal springs does the job quite well. The laminate strips seem pretty solid, have just the right tension, very cheap and easy to make.
Google found me original replacement metal springs for $11, but needing 48 of them that wasn't going to happen (assuming they even have 48 of them). Also tried little automotive feeler gauges and some of those around 0.010" worked pretty good and fit right in once cut short (in case you're more comfortable with spring metal than laminate).
Besides being filthy every one of the old counters had broken wheel springs that made them almost useless with the number wheels loose and all spinning together. Well, found that little strips of laminate replacing the flat metal springs does the job quite well. The laminate strips seem pretty solid, have just the right tension, very cheap and easy to make.
Google found me original replacement metal springs for $11, but needing 48 of them that wasn't going to happen (assuming they even have 48 of them). Also tried little automotive feeler gauges and some of those around 0.010" worked pretty good and fit right in once cut short (in case you're more comfortable with spring metal than laminate).