Hollycrane

[Suz1954]

I am thinking of buying an old Hollycrane claw machine from the 1940's. The machine currently does not work and has been in storage for many years. How difficult will it be for me to get it running again? Thanks in advance for your assistance.

[ClawFan1]

What does it look like? Do you know what company made the machine? Do you have a picture of it? Does it look exactly like this machine? http://www.arcade-museum.com/game_detai ... e_id=18520

[Suz1954]

Very similar. It's currently listed on eBay - two machines. It came up when I went to your link. The word COMO and made in USA in on the top by the Hollycrane mark.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/141737801375?_t ... EBIDX%3AIT

I would love to add a claw machine to my collection of 1970's jukes and pinballs but I am not sure I'm up to the challenge of getting it to work. Any advice, suggestions you could offer would be very much appreciated.

Thanks,

Suz

[Allen K]

Sorry, I don't know if you'd have any luck getting it to work, considering parts for these machines are pretty much impossible to find. I bought two machines very similar to this one on Ebay a few years ago and had to remove all parts from the cabinet and replace with parts from a more modern machine because I couldn't get replacement parts. If there's a simple problem that someone with electrical experience could diagnose, it might not be so bad, but if you need to replace any components that are unique to that machine, you'll be stuck.

Allen K
BeTheClaw.com

[Suz1954]

I went ahead and purchased two Hollycrane claw machines. The owner advised that they used to work but do not any longer. He also is providing the schematic so hopefully I will be able to get them to work. If I am not able to accomplish this feat how would I go about getting new mechanics into these old cases. Any suggestions/assistance would be very much appreciated.

[Allen K]

Not really sure how easy it would be. You'd have to find a complete set of parts from another machine, but make sure that they would fit into your cabinet. The width of the track between the rails would have to match the width of the gantry. I lucked out that the Grayhound gantry was exactly the same width as the one that came with my machine originally, but I did have to replace the rails with a couple of thinner curtain rods because the replacement gantry was sliding off the original rails too easily. Here are a couple of videos of the transplant process:

Part 1 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mG3NTIDy-mM
Part 2 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=251P66G3WXc


Allen K
BeTheClaw.com

[Suz1954]

Thanks Allen - Cool Utube videos. I have a local tech that thinks he can tackle the claw machines if they don't work. I plan to pick them up next week. I will send him a link to your videos when he runs into trouble which I expect he will. It would be great to get one of these back into working order.

Suzanne

[Allen K]

Good luck!

[ClawFan1]

I found a Holly Crane schematic for sale: http://www.ebay.com/itm/1949-HOLLY-CRAN ... 3ab0a9c548

I think it might be for the same type of machine as the machines you have.