(Topic ID: 202869)

1st Playfield Swap- How Many Hours Should It Take?

By tomdrum

6 years ago



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#1 6 years ago

Just finished my 1st, a Bally Xenon. It was an NOS PF that wasn't dimpled. I ended up replacing every light socket, most of the ground braid, rebuilt every assembly, new drop & spot targets, NOS spinner, polished etc. Only things left are the hold down brackets and apron brackets and of course adjustments after fired up. I had 12 hours in making templates for screw holes and an additional 49 hours in swapping over a donor PF. I used it for screw holes and making sure every wire was correctly installed after stripping it. 61 hours and counting. I realize simple PF like a Bally Eight Ball compared to Xenon with the extra lamps takes a lot longer. Only thing not original are the flipper bats. Was I slow?

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#2 6 years ago

Looks great.

Ain't no fast or slow. It just depends on the level of detail. You could move over dirty worn out stuff in hours or rebuild every piece and spend weeks or months.

#3 6 years ago

Slow doesn't matter. The main thing is that you do it right. Clean, clean, clean.........
Looks great btw.

John

#4 6 years ago

“Don't fear moving forward slowly. Fear standing still." – Chinese proverb.

#5 6 years ago
Quoted from Dayhuff:

Slow doesn't matter. The main thing is that you do it right. Clean, clean, clean.........
Looks great btw.
John

Thanks. I found out after buying this PF 17 years ago there were multiple variations. Mine has the gold arrows on the outlanes, was missing the hole on a sling shot lamp socket, no factory hole for the apron right side light and the pop bumper holes were rotated 90 degrees. Ron Kruzman kindly described the differences. The rotated pop bumper holes certainly took extra time. Games a keeper, will play my first on the new PF tomorrow!

#6 6 years ago

Maybe it could be done faster but I say take your time and enjoy the experience.

#7 6 years ago
Quoted from tomdrum:

61 hours and counting.

My first swap took a month and a half working on it about 2 hours every night. New lamp braid and sockets, clean and rebuild every mech, lots of tumbling, polishing and tuning. I have over 4000 games on it now and the only problems I've had are screws falling out of the playfield on the flipper mechs and one slingshot arm broke.

I know some guys knock these out in a weekend, but that's going to mean taking lots of shortcuts. Take your time, do it right and be proud of its looks, play and reliability.

Xenon was my second swap. This one took a month. I have over 1500 games on it now and not a single problem.

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/xenon-with-comet-leds-and-custom-upgrades

#8 6 years ago

I did a Firepower as my 1st swap. I just took my time. I wanted to make sure everything worked when I fired it back up, and it did, thankfully. And I didn't make a template for dimples or anything. I just lined each thing up by hand and made double sure it was where I wanted it before making the commitment with the drill for the starter hole. It was a CPR playfield. The dimples where close on most, spot on on a few, and way off on several.

I had around 50 hrs. in mine. Whatever pace is comfortable for you is how long it takes. There's no benchmark time frame on a PF swap.

-Steve

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