The Hockey Game

Hi all, Steve here.  Thought I would post some pictures of a recently completed project - a pinball hockey game.  Here’s a picture of the kids playing with it one morning before school.

It’s modeled on a game that was designed, made and sold in Canada from the 1930’s to the 1960’s.  My Dad got one for Christmas in the mid-1950’s.  We had his game at home when my brother, sister and I were kids, and we played it a lot in the 1980’s (he still has it today, and it’s now popular with his grandkids!)

The game is elegantly simple:  the puck is a marble or ball bearing, the goalie tilts back and forth, and all of a team’s players move in unison when a handle is pulled on the end.  Here’s Henry showing where the ball gets launched from:

I have fond memories of playing the game as a kid, so when I saw that Lee Valley Tools sold a kit to make one, I bought one right away.  The kit came with the metal pieces, players, and plans for making the wooden parts and assembling the game.

Here are the sides of the frame, having just been cut on the table saw.  (To cut the angled tops, I first had to make the V-shaped taper jig at the top in the picture).

Here’s the first trial assembly of the frame:

I got the kids to help out wherever they could (after all, I consider this their game too!)  Here Ross and I are drilling a template to help put the netting on the goalposts.  I helped Henry drill some holes as well (he won’t remember it though so we took a video to show him later).

I had the kids sign their name on each part they helped to make (I put an ‘H’ on Henry’s pieces for him).

The game has some curved pieces that act as the ‘boards’, which guide the ball bearing back into play.  Having played the game I knew that several key goal-scoring shots relied on the curves being smooth and in the right place.  Two sets are needed (one for each end of the ice).

The plans came with a 1:1 template drawing of the parts, but I wasn’t sure how to take the drawings and turn out two identical wooden sets with just hand tools and sandpaper.

So, I went overboard:  I scanned the drawings, then used the scans to make 3D computer models of the parts, which I then printed at work on the 3D printer.  I used the printed parts as templates for my router, to guide the bit and make perfect replicas in wood.  The curved pieces turned out great: here are a few of them on the router table with their templates still attached.

Here's the first trial assembly of the frame, ice surface, and curved pieces:

The ice surface needed two slots cut in it at each end - one for the goalie, and one for under the net.  Here I went overboard again, and instead of making the slots by hand I mounted the ice surface on the milling machine (to ensure perfectly accurate and parallel slots).  Here’s a picture of the setup (the cardboard and plastic are to protect the wood from oil from the machine).

Finally it was time for paint.  The color scheme follows Dad’s game.

Here are the players on the magnetic painting stand that Ross and I built.  The kit instructions speculate that one team is red for the Montreal Canadiens, and one team is green for the Toronto St. Pats (the Toronto hockey team when the game was originally designed - they later became the Maple Leafs).

Painting the various markings on the ice surface was particularly challenging.  I tried many different techniques and settled on making 3D-printed stencils for the face-off circles and the maple leaf at center ice.  AK, M & R were great moral support in the dark days of repeatedly trying - and failing - to get the stencils to create sharp paint lines.  The maple leaf was the toughest one, but here M and I are proudly showing success!

It was fitting that the final assembly steps coincided with a visit to California by Mom and Dad.  Here Dad and I are attaching the curved pieces to the ice surface.

Here we are installing the players and the connecting rods underneath (which move the players when you pull the handle).  At lower right you can see the spring that snaps the players back to their home position (and also lets you do slap shots!) With practice, from certain players you can shoot the puck so fast it’s in the net before your opponent can even move their goalie.

And here’s the final result.  Dad and I played the first game and I’ll admit he scored the first goal.  It’s been really fun to play with the kids, and was definitely worth the effort to build it.  Hopefully, like my Dad’s version, this one sees many decades of epic games!