I inherited a Johnson Visual Coin Penetration with a flipper coin with little tiny rubber bands. They are clearly meant to be replaced, but I'm hard-pressed to see how to feed the band into the tiny groove at the top of the glued-in section.

If you have one you probably know what I mean.

Please, from someone who has done this band replacement. Do you have any suggestions?

- Mary

I believe that the glued-in portion must be pried off. You then can thread the band into its groove. Once securely fitted, you re-attach this fixed portion back into the shell.

Then you finish by threading the rest of the band (most of it) into the groove of the flipping/flippable part.

In other words, in my experience, the glued-in piece is not (and should not be) permanently affixed. I use strong double-sided tape (like a small bit of carpet tape), which holds it securely but is not impossible to separate.

Thank you karnak,

I'm always afraid of breaking things and knowing it would be OK and necessary for the top bit to come off is reassuring.

- Mary

If the insert was originally affixed with super glue, then it may need to soak in an acetone nail polish remover bath in order to dissolve it. You may also need to scrape the interior of the groove clean with an X-Acto knife, digging out any lingering gooey fragments of old disintegrated rubber bands.

Rubber bands regularly break, and eventually just rot away, so periodic replacement is unavoidable. Using double-sided tape instead of glue makes this bit of routine maintenance easier.

Replacement and reassembly might work better by removing the insert from its shell, keeping both parts of the insert together to still appear as a single coin, then first threading the band around the rim of the large “flipping” part of the insert, and finally also fitting it around the rim of its small “anchoring” bit.

At that point you have basically a sort of lopsided, asymmetrical “folding coin.” Apply double-sided tape to the small part of the insert, trim any excess away with an X-Acto knife, and press the whole thing into place within the shell.