09/09/2026
38 YEARS OF SERVICE… AND STILL SPINNING 🎡🔧
Owning older rides means sometimes you can’t just pick up the phone and order a new part — you have to work out how to save what you’ve got.
Our Spin Ball has been in service for around 38 years, and this time the speed-control cylinder needed some attention. The seals had twisted after corrosion had built up inside the chamber, so we completely stripped it down, cleaned the bore, sanded it back and finished it with wet & dry until we were happy it was as smooth as we could get it.
Then came the difficult bit… identifying the seals.
No markings. No numbers. Several hydraulic suppliers all gave us the same answer — “we’ll have to send them away to be identified.”
Then experience took over.
I remembered Mick from M J Hoses & Hydraulic in Mildenhall. Mick must be well into his 80s now, and one look at the seal and he knew exactly what it was.
“Two days, they’ll be in.”
Two days later… there they were. 👌
New seals fitted, cylinder rebuilt, repainted and ready to go back on.
That sort of knowledge and experience is getting harder to find, so a big thank you to Mick at M J Hoses & Hydraulic for getting us out of trouble.
There’s something satisfying about keeping machinery like this alive. Sometimes 38 years of engineering needs another 60+ years of experience to keep it moving. 😂🔧
Old rides. Old-school knowledge. Still doing the job.
