GEE-WIZ Rides Again

For anyone that follows my work, or has even briefly checked out the projects I have posted, reproducing a game from the 1920s is not exactly in my wheelhouse, even if the game is a kind of "simulation". Never-the-less this artifact from the distant past caught my eye and once it was in my head I couldn't resist taking a crack at making a replica.

For some reason the mysterious YouTube algorithm started adding "restoration" videos to my feed. There are a lot of practitioners posting their amazing work making old things new again. In general I find the flow of these videos very relaxing. There is typically no dialog, just the sounds and video of a competent craftsman going about their business. The before and after images are remarkable.

I don't know why the video "Restoration of a 1920s horse racing game GeeWIZ" by MW Restoration caught my eye, but I'm glad it did. I mean I am interested in vintage things, but typically computer related not toy related. Never-the-less I watched the whole video and if you made it this far I would recommend that you do too (or at least jump ahead to the 14:20 mark to see what all the excitement is about).

At the end, with the GEE-WIZ completely and beautifully restored, the author wound some string around the the shaft adjacent to the flywheel and pulled. Immediately the horses started lurching up the incline in fits and bursts. It was at that point that I sat up and said WTH. How was this happening? Needless to say for me the hook was set.

A short list with one big item.

1. 1 - GEE-WIZ stainless steel "engine" (see Step 1 for details).
2. 2 - M2 x 3 mm aluminum spacers. Amazon.
3. 1 - 70 mm length of 1.6 mm piano wire.
4. 12 - M3 x 10 bolts with nuts.
5. 42 - 3.8 mm Fly Tying Tungsten Beads. Amazon.
6. 1 - Sheet Vinyl Sticker Paper. Amazon.
7. 2.5 feet of rattail cord or fairly thick string.

How It Works

The mechanism for propelling the horses up the incline is both simple and elegant. A flywheel is attached to a shaft that is square on one side and round on the other. The round part has a hole drilled through and a "washer like" disk attached near the end of the shaft allowing a string to be threaded then wound around the shaft between the flywheel and the disk.

The square part of the shaft sits at the lowest part of the incline below six channels that represent a straight race-track. Each channel holds a sheet-metal outline of a horse and rider which sit on top of a "sled".

A "race" is started by winding a string onto the axle which is mounted by the starting line, and pulling it to spin the flywheel. Each channel contains a captive ball-bearing which, when struck by the angled faces of the square shaft, is thrown against the horse sled, pushing it forward. The ball then rolls back down the incline until it reaches the axle and is again thrown uphill along the channel to hit the horse sled. Here is a patent for the GEE-WIZ.

I was lucky enough to find a GEE-WIZ on eBay for a reasonable price that was also in really good shape. The "engine" (my name, I think IMHO it's better that "flywheel shaft thingy") image above is from my unit. You can see that it has been well used.

Planning

I knew that making a GEE-WIZ would involve reproducing the flywheel based engine. Only one problem there, I have never done any metal work. The makerspace that I am a member of (Kwartzlab) has a well appointed Machine shop, and talented members that can help me get going, but I get the impression that the GEE-WIZ "engine" isn't exactly Machining 101.

One of my lab mates pointed out that PCBWay now offers CNC Machining. Like their PCBs, they offer an Instant Quote feature where you can upload a STEP file of your part, choose your material (steel, brass, aluminum, etc.) and surface finish, then get an estimate of the cost. So I created a model of the flywheel engine in Autodesk Fusion.

I uploaded the model's STEP file to PCBWay, chose stainless steel as my material and a quantity of 1 and here is a screen shot of a quote produced.

There is one caveat though. Its a little hard to read in the image above but below the price it reads:

Note: The price currently displayed is the system's pre-quotation (for reference ONLY), and the official quotation will be generated after manual review by engineer in according to the complexity of the part structure and process requirements.

Within 24 hours I got the actual quote of $92.00 US which I feel is pretty reasonable. My brother-in-law, a retired machinist, thought so as well.

I should note here that I am in no way affiliated with PCBWay. After I got that above quote I tried getting quotes from three North American companies that offer similar services. For the most part their instant quote systems were on par with PCBWay, the big difference being the price. They all came in around $300 for their "economy" service which essentially means long lead times (in the order of weeks). To be completely fair if you live in the US (I don't) the quotes could be more comparable as some of these services offer free shipping within the US (I paid more than I care to admit for shipping).

Order An Engine

I may take a shot at some metal fabrication in the future, but in this case I left it to the pros. I think it's so cool that these services even exist. I placed my order with PCBWay.

So if you are still interested in making a GEE-WIZ you will have to order an Engine. I encourage you to shop around for the best price for your locale. Maybe you are even lucky enough to possess the skills or know someone that does to make one yourself. I have attached the STEP file that I used.

While you are waiting for your engine to arrive you can get on with the rest of the build by printing the parts. All of the printed parts were designed with Autodesk Fusion. I'm a big fan. I printed the parts with no supports and the following settings unless otherwise instructed.

Print Resolution: .2 mm

Infill: 20%

Perimeters: 5

Filament: AMZ3D PLA

Colors: Black Forest Green, White, Dark Red, Dark Green, Dark Purple, Dark Yellow, Dark Blue

Notes: Print the parts in their default orientation.

You will need to print the following parts:

1. 8 - Alignment Tab
2. 6 - Colored Pieces (One for each colored horse. 100% Infill. These pieces are shown above.)
3. 5 - Divider Bump
4. 2 - Engine Mount
5. 2 - Flag Holder End Spacer
6. 1 - Flag Holder Frame (Needs supports in default orientation which is best for strength.)
7. 5 - Flag Holder Middle Spacer
8. 2 - Flag Holder Wire Lock
9. 1 - Main Body Base (Print as one or two parts.)
10. 1 - Main Body Top (Print as one or two parts.)
11. 1 - Shaft Guard
12. 14 - Track Half Rail (100% Infill.)
13. 1 -Track Rails Stabilizer

NOTE: The models for the Base and Top are setup so that if you have a build plate big enough you should be able to treat them as a single object in your slicer (at least I can in Bambu and Prusa), otherwise two objects as in my case.

Start by joining the Base pieces together with six M3 x 10 mm bolts and nuts (if necessary).

With the base secure glue on the Top piece(s) with the cutouts to mount the colored "betting" disks with their divider bumps. If each was printed as two parts, the split location for the Base and Top parts are in slightly different locations to reinforce the split when they are glued together.

Use the eight "aligner tabs" and temporarily pushed them into some of the track fence slots to ensure perfect alignment between Top and Base while the glue set.

With the base assembled, glue in the betting disks and divider bumps.

The finish line for the race is simple but neat. A frame holds a pop-up flag for each horse. Flags are held in place with a 70 mm length of 1.6 mm piano wire. Some "spacers" are added to keep the flags centered in their lane and to lock the piano wire onto the frame. Use the image below as a guide to assemble the Finish Line

Carefully inserted the seven Rails (14 half pieces) onto the base slots. Notice (above) that the "half" tabs share the middle slot in the track. Also when mounting the rail "caps" start flush at the end of the rail closest to the start line and they should stop about 12 mm from where the finish line part of the rail ends. Note that the rail tabs that are inserted through the base have 1.75 mm holes. The intent was to push a piece of filament through them to lock them down, but I found that the friction fit was more than adequate to hold the rails in place. Your mileage may vary.

With the rails in place attach the assembled Finish Line Frame via the three lockdown tabs.

You can see the finish line frame above with the flags interspaced between the rails and start line with the stabilizer bar attached (which is done in the next Step).

Put together the six colored horses by attaching the horse and rider silhouettes to the printed sleds. Populate the holes in the sleds with seven 3.8 mm tungsten balls which brings the weight up to 4+ g, in line with the tin originals.

To the printed the Engine Mount brackets add the 2.1 mm ID x 3 mm aluminum "spacers". This is where the shaft ends are inserted.

Slide the horses into the slots formed by the rails and added a 1/4 inch steel ball behind each. (To prevent the balls from escaping tilt the base up at the start line side.)

Snap the printed stabilizing bar onto the rails at the start line.

Mount the engine and shaft cover onto the base with six more M3 x 10 mm bolts and nuts. Add a drop or two of sewing machine oil to the shaft ends inside the aluminum spacers to ensure that the flywheel spins freely.

Print the logo and other decals on some vinyl sticker paper using the file attached to this step. Be sure to print the file at 100% without scaling the images (i.e. No "Fit To Page" and the like). Carefully cut out the decals and use the images below as a guide to place them onto the base.

Nothing much to say here. Have a look.

I really enjoyed working on this project. The mechanism that makes this work was so clever. The GEE-WIZ Racing Game shows what coolness can be born of a little tin and a lot of imagination.