I finally got around to starting a playfield swap on Silverball Mania. I have more progress to take pics of than what is posted but this is a good start. My goal is to get things swapped over while I still have it in my memory then go back and take care of the stuff I want to replace. I also managed to break my favorite little shear cutters on ground braind staples...IMG_0694.JPGIMG_0833.JPGIMG_1134.JPGIMG_1130.JPGIMG_1133.JPGIMG_1128.JPGIMG_1132.JPGIMG_1135.JPGIMG_1136.JPG

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I haven't made much progress on this lately but I did manage to pick up another silverball mania project machine. It was a half started playfield swap and I have spent most of my time putting the 2nd one back together.
The topside on the new CPR playfield I got with the project machine was all swapped over wrong or poorly so it all had to be taken off and start over. Also the "new" CPR playfield has warped quite a bit over time so i'm not real sure what ill end up doing with it in the long run so I went with rebuilding the original playfield. I'm just about ready to power it up this weekend maybe. Luckily there wasn't much done to the original harness so it has been mostly re attaching some wires to coils.
I don't know if the new PF was stored wrong for a long time or how exactly it ended up warping or if it will be able to straighten itself out over time. I can snap some pictures of it if anyone has any suggestions or has dealt with a warped playfield before.
BTW the one on the right is the "new" one with its original playfield.
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Its is cupped facing up as it would sit In the machine. Cupped in both directions, length and width. It was very noticeably warped upwards even with the rails mounted on the playfield as it was when I got it. I'll take some pictures of it when I get home from work.

Good news. I have had the playfield upside down with some weight on it for about a week now and the warp seems to be coming out of it. Not perfect but It looks ALOT better than it did when I got it home initially. I am amazed at the difference from it just sitting there.
I also powered it up and other than a short blowing the playfield fuse and the MPU needing a rebuild it is working.
Now I plan to get back to the original project...

I just can't imagine that it could have warped that much, with the rails on, from moving it 50 miles... That makes me wonder how much movement there may be in a fully populated playfield thats being transported cross country with temperature changes.

Getting back to original project, I made some progress this weekend after a bit of a hiatus. And of course I ran out of or just plain lost a few odds and ends. I ran into some gremlins on the 2nd machine so the plan currently is get the original project put back together and working so I don't have 2 machines not working and in pieces.

And if anyone is looking I will be selling 2 Silverball Mania playfields at some point. 1 original PF that is in fairly decent shape. And the CPR repro PF from the 2nd machine which has flattened out quite nicely so far, not quite perfect yet but tolerable now.

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More progress this weekend. The playfield is about as assembled as I'm going to get it for now so I decided to start working on the cabinet. One thing lead to another so now I'm doing more work to the cabinet that I initially though I would.
The extra repro playfield no longer looks like a hockey stick. Just setting it up on sawhorses with a bit of weight on it for about a month now and the the warp came out on its own.
And i've still got to get that stupid bullseye target out of there as I keep forgetting about it.

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Silverball Mania #2 project machine is put back together with the original playfield and now working/playable. Still lots of little issues to work out though.
Basically had to re pin every connector in the back box and replace the stupid IDC conectors to get it working. Working on new header pins on all the boards and the problems are slowly going away. Figured out the blowing fuse problem was the ball kicker.
Some asshat at some point decided to remove the header pins from the power supply PCB and hard wire the wiring harness to the board so i had to cut all that off and re pin all that. Hack wiring and soldering job, wrong fuses for everything.. I decided to just toss that PCB entirely for the one from the other machine.
I feel a lot better working on the first machine now that this one is at least in somewhat working order. IMG_1523.JPG

1st step in stenciling. I was rather nervous that it would somehow look like total crap. I'm not going for super perfection but I am pleased with the result so far.
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Side art done on one side. I wanted something constructive to do with my time so I made my own stencils. Not perfect but I am happy so far. Will I make stencils again? Not likely, but it is doable.
I have taken my inspiration for this project from another silverball mania project thread: https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/silverball-mania-restoration
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Still working on this little by little. Taking time to not get frustrated with things. After powering up the first time the GI fuse was blown. Then spending the last couple weeks here and there I finally found the issue. Staple for 1 of the light sockets was touching the ground braid. Overall big learning experience with this project. No idea how some of you guys can do stuff like this so quickly.

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