Silicon Rubbers VS Rubber Rubbers with h4ck3r-J
In this mini-bonus Matt and Don talk to h4ck3r-J about his experiments with various flipper rubbers, and why it’s less straightforward than you might think…. Full Episodes return next week! Games...
Highlights
- Silicone rubbers on pinball machines eventually disintegrate due to maintenance issues
- Different black rubbers from the same company can bounce completely differently despite same part number
- Stern's default factory setup for new games uses hard rubber for posts
- Softer rubber provides more control but harder rubber reduces unpredictable bounces
- Arcade operators tend to use silicone rubbers on all machines
- Storage conditions (heat, cold) can significantly change rubber performance over time
- Changing all rubbers on a game affects gameplay in unanticipated ways beyond rubber physics
- Marco Specialties carries multiple rubber brands with identical part numbers
Notable quotes
“It's not just rubber versus silicone. Rubber versus rubber can be a huge difference as well.”
“I had two different black rubbers that bounced completely differently and they were still both rubbers”
“The defaults from stern on the new games is a pretty hard rubber for a lot of the posts and stuff that right from the factory”
“I prefer just to use whatever everything else is using because I'll be more dialed in and I'll be able to maintain that”
“When you change out all the rubbers on the game there's you're changing so many little variables that affects the gameplay like in unanticipated ways lots of times”
Entities
- Marco Specialties· company
- Stern Pinball· company
- Gophers· game
- John Wick· game
- Johnny· game
- Mandalorian· game
- Baxter· location
- Bash Pinball Podcast· organization
- h4ck3r-J· person
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