Rubber and Rubber Kits

Pinball Rubber Types

There are two main colors of pinball rubber, black and white. Flipper rubbers have always been available in black and white as well, along with red, yellow and perhaps more recently others like purple and blue. Natural gum rubber is not colored, it has a brown or beige appearance. To get black, carbon is added to the gum rubber making it harder. I assume (although I do knot know for certain) that modern white rubber is bleached to get it's extreme whiteness. Other additives to get the white appearance are equally possible. Older original white pinball rubber had a more 'off white' appearance.

Rubber hardness is measured by a durometer scale considered to be from 0 (infinitely soft) to 100 (bone hard). For example a rubber band would typically rate 25 on the 'Shore A' durometer scale so quite soft, while a car's tire tread would rate 70 on the same scale which is less soft and so much more durable.

Black pinball rubber rates around 60? and has less "bounciness" than white which rates about 50 durometer and is softer. So the black rubber is harder and will normally last longer given the same conditions. Red flipper rubber is considered to be about 45 durometer and is often preferred over black flipper rubber for this reason.

Although this is a personal choice, on pinball restorations for home use the preference is to use white rubber rings and a softer flipper rubber (so not black). Historically, operators preferred to fit black rubber because of their durability and so most games came supplied new with black rubber rings. This continues today with Stern, the main supplier of coin operated pinball games.

If you want to replace rubber rings on a game, many suppliers will sell 'ring kits' specific to your game with a fitting chart. If in doubt it's probably worth buying one of the kits to get the information. But once you have more than one game, or can verify the rings on your game with a manual listing of parts, it becomes more cost effective to buy an assorted 'tub' of rubber rings or an assortment. From these you can make up your own 'kits' and only order special rings, flipper rubber and plunger tips as needed. Another tip with rare plastics is to use rubber 'post caps'. The theory is that a ball hit can pop the rubber cap off the post thread allowing the plastic to flex rather than break. With metal nuts (or with nylon hex caps) the plastics stay firmly in place, but may be more easily broken.

Rubber kit listings should be found under the game's title, and are considered part of the 'shop-out guide'.