Behold, and Lo! It came to pass that the reproduction 8BDx playfield I bought from Illinois Pin Ball was not lost in the Great Sell Off. And having been working on my games since the middle of December, with customer calls mixed in, preparing them for a now-past event...and then sprucing up Paragon for the SFGE, I found myself not working on any major project. So the time has arrived to bring to fruition an event planned for in the early 2000s.

001 IPB Repro playfield (resized).JPG

These fields were being marketed as "2nd's". Gene had a stack of these and let me go through the stack and pick the best one. I don't remember the price, but I think it was around $350...?

Finally got it on the rotisserie:

0007 on the rotisserie (resized).JPG

Today's progress:

0008 section one progress (resized).JPG

I've cleared the lowest level of the wiring harness.

This is my first complete playfield swap and I am enjoying it quite a bit. IPB left several things undone. This is already a fun project!

Up to date:

the 'squid' is ready to go...

SQUID_001 (resized).JPG

gone!

SQUID_002 (resized).JPG

The squid awaiting a shower...

SQUID_003 (resized).JPG

In the meantime, time to finish stripping the top of the field...
To be pin-tinued.

Not now, not all at once. I am severely limited on the amount of money I can spend, and all of the sockets are working (or was when I began) so I will replace them if/when they fail individually. I'm going to spend the time to clean up the factory solder-slobber job they did using 4X as much solder as needed on most sockets. The sockets with screws I am going to run the wires under the screw heads so they won't get solder at all and will be easier to swap if they crap out down the road.

Now that you've brought it up, I probably will order a few extra sockets with my Pinball Resource orders and get them all done eventually.

Thanks for the impetus.

Ummm....

NO.

An Illinois Pin Ball "second" drill-n-dimple chart. The blues are holes drilled all the way through, the reds are just dimples for screws that stop short. Of course, this is based on the current condition of my original field which probably has an extra hole here or there, I'll have to double-check all the holes.

Backlit with a work-light underneath and tracing paper to mark everything's position.

8BD drill n dimple chart 01 backlit (resized).JPG

No backlight

8BD drill n dimple chart 02 (resized).JPG

That's enough for tonight...

Side by side

Field side-by-side (resized).JPG

Whew...T-nuts are in...wanted to end the 4th on a positive. Drilling for t-nuts is a rather tedious offering.

T-Nuts are in (resized).JPG

OK, it's getting tricky now. The game has stacked plastics, and just because one level lines up where it's supposed to doesn't mean the other will. You can't just mark the spots using tracing paper and the old field as a template and twist in the screws and posts. The stuff has to be stacked and aligned with each other as well as the location marks on the field.

Stacked plastics (resized).JPG

I did discover a trick, though. Some of the wiring harness clips have small gray standoffs lifting them off the field a bit. These standoffs fit perfectly inside the larger 'bells' pressed into the plastics.

Standoff filler 01 (resized).JPG
Standoff filler 02 (resized).JPG
Standoff filler 03 (resized).JPG

With so much gap now filled by the standoff it makes it much easier to align the screw or post vertically. Get a good start then back out the post to move to the next one.

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riddler (resized).png

"When is a pinball playfield like a child star turned politician?"

Bottom dimpled (resized).JPG

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"When it's been Surely Dimpled!"

shirley temple (resized).png

So I have been diligently chipping away at this stone (not the aerosmith one). Wow...much more labor and time than I thought it might be.

To the novice who asked if it was a good idea for a beginner to do a field swap: NO. I was wrong. A beginner just might get it done eventually, but I can't Fathom how frustrating it could get for a beginner. Like probably bad enough to bail out on the whole thing and buy some yarn. I mean, it's going to end up a great learning experience for anyone who does a swap, but I wouldn't suggest a new pinball owner take that job on without foreknowledge of the task.

Anyway, I'm getting down to the last few assemblies and I have a few pix that might be of mild interest to some browsers out there.

I present the Loop-De-Loop Lamp Power Buss Wire No-Solder Install:
>Remove the socket screw and sucker off the huge globs of solder they heaped on after screwing the socket to the field. That's why you can't get the nut driver on the screw head half the time. A blob of solder is in the way. And if it's so bad you can't remove the screw, you're fighting the playfield that generously performs the role of heat sink, making it even more difficult to melt the solder on the mounting flange.
>Once you remove the excess solder, reinstall the screw about 1/2 way then wrap the buss wire clockwise around the screw and tighten it down.
001 codys_Loop_de_loop lamp power buss wire (resized).JPG

002 codys_Loop_de_loop lamp power buss wire (resized).JPG

003 codys_Loop_de_loop lamp power buss wire (resized).JPG

004 codys_Loop_de_loop lamp power buss wire (resized).JPG

The tightened screw provides plenty of pressure for a solid, dependable connection.

Should be finished with the population of this field in a few days...

8BD Playfield Swap 8_20_17 (resized).JPG

That minute when you just tightened the last screw on your playfield swap project.

Wow, what a herculean task! That playfield schooled me a goodun! Learned a lot, though IF I ever have to do another one.

To get the game in and out of the rotisserie by myself, I made some adjustable, reusable straps. Going in, stand the field on end next to one end of the rotisserie. Connect the straps loosely through a strong, solid path through the field that cannot slip off.

004 Adjustable Reuseable Straps (resized).JPG

Allow one end of the field to hang by the straps while you lift the other end onto the angle iron and secure with clamps.

003 Adjustable Reuseable Straps (resized).JPG

Then grab the other end and lift it onto the angle iron. Undo the straps and remove them or cinch them down tightly as an emergency backup to the clamps in case one slips off.

001 Adjustable Reuseable Straps (resized).JPG

"Home again, home again, jiggetty jig."

005 Adjustable Reuseable Straps (resized).JPG

2 months of diligent work evenings and weekends. I plug it up and smoke test it tomorrow...

Sorry for the tardy follow-up.

The Smoke Test passed: when I powered it up with everything connected I didn't let any of the magic smoke out. However, there were several lights and solenoids not working. In the end every single failure was due to poor connection in the "V" of the IDC connectors. Oh, except one solenoid had to have its CA3081 replaced.

Then the switch adjusting started. Having to access the upper area of the underfield switches means pulling the field out to the support island on the left side of the cabinet. A few times back and forth and I knew I had to come up with something. Looked around and found this partial frame rail from an old mainframe computer. I was hanging on to it for many years in case I needed to straighten or support a sagging or warped playfield, but another need repurposed it: a bridge.

001 mainframe rail becomes bridge (resized).JPG

002 mainframe rail becomes bridge (resized).JPG

I attach it temporarily with screws so it wont fall off the supports and I can slide the field to and fro as needed.

As I was finishing up the small things it occurred to me it was missing the clears on the flipper lanes. But I had no clears or standoffs. What I did have was some lexan and old lamps. So I fabricated my own!

003 hand crafted clears and standoffs (resized).JPG
004 hand crafted clears and standoffs (resized).JPG

Now let's see what we can do about this...

8bd manual (resized).JPG