Addams Family, The
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Quoted from Shredder565:it's not as fair a race when you have a handicap of actually knowing what you're doing ;o)
There’s plenty of people that will tell you that you can’t or you shouldn’t. Often the same people that have done nothing themselves.
Quoted from Shredder565:So, trying to get back into thinking about this.
According to my list, Lower Playfield parts missing.
A-12753-2 Lug and diode
B-8284-1 kicker count switch
A-15139 Hi p[owered PCD Assy
B-8925 Micro Switch plate
B-9362-L-2 Coil and bracket
A - 11539-1 Kicker switch Assy
A-14632-4 1" Mtg Brkt Clamp assy
Now, for Switches missing.
B-8925 Left Trough X2
27-1066 Slam Tilt
A8630 Coin door closed X2
A-11619 Ball Shooter
B-8284-1 Left Slingshot
A-11539-1 Right Slingshot
A-12688 Upper Left Loop
B-11696 X2 GRave R
A-14962 Chair Kickout
B-12583-4 Coutin it X2
B-11696-15 Lower Swamp X3
A-1507/A1506 Bookcase
A-14231/A-12232 Bumper Lane Opto
A-14972 Right Lamp Exit
B-11696-5 Train Wreck
A-15047 X2 Right Ramp Left Ramp
A-15047 X2 Right Ramp Left
!-15070 - vault
A-14964 X4 Swamp
A-15200 Thing Kickout
A-114970 - Bok case open close X2
A-14285 X2 - Thing Down
B-12583-1 Grave A
Once I get all those, and complete a bookcase assembly, I'll have a complete underside done. hopefully.
Where are you getting these part numbers? A lot of this looks wrong.
A-1507, A-114970: don't exist
A-14285: this is a FH part
A-14964: you only need one, not 4
etc, etc
Don’t bother with the raw text BOM, use this:
https://www.moll.no/pinball/jsparts/TAF.php
You can very often build an assembly yourself from individual parts much cheaper than you can buy the complete assembly. Assuming you optimize shipping costs by placing fewer larger orders, of course.
I put the entire BOM for each game I’m building into Excel and price out every single part. Looks like serial killer stuff but it’s worked well for me and I pay very little shipping.
Quoted from Shredder565:I do believe the bottom half is done. there are still some empty holes...feels like i'm missing lights not mentioned in the manual. same goes for the top to the right side of thing. but all that should be left is to get the remaining pop bumpers back in. maybe friday?[quoted image]
You screwed everything down before putting on the wire harnesses? On the next game, try doing the GI lights and harness first, then switches and switch harness, then solenoids.
Quoted from Shredder565:find out where the dmd thing lights get connected too.
Do you have the 7-lamp board PCB and cable for this?
I think the board is part 5768-12377-00 and the cable is 2 foot long, red wires with one yellow wire.
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/board-5768-12377-00
Easy to build the cable if you can’t find one.
77CE255D-4369-4B81-8560-8060F5EC12DB.png
Let me know if you need pictures of it installed and I’ll open up my game when I’m back this week and get some.
Quoted from Bryan_Kelly:I love everything Kerry makes but damn, metal shit has gone up in price!
I get it if it’s a complex multi-piece welded part. I’ll pay $70 for a nicely built ball popper, but some of these prices for guides are insane. I would just buy a game to copy the parts myself. With online metal print shops and free Fusion360, it’s really easy.
Quoted from pinballinreno:Some of the TAF parts are pretty complicated.
Kerry is one of the best (or possibly the best!) at this type of work.
I think the money he charges is appropriate for small batch stainless steel work.
I personally feel fortunate to have Kerry working on pinball parts for us.
Each item I have purchased is WAY better than the original part, and WELL worth the slight increase in price over regular Marco parts.
Lol... if you think A-15241 should be $26, I don't know what to tell you.
Quoted from pinballinreno:If you can get them in stainless....or get them at all?
I like using all stainless parts to solve all the corrosion I see on these 30 year old games.
Silly me....
Why silly? Here’s some stainless parts I just had made.
Quoted from stangbat:The routing of the wires, the wire colors, even the zip ties are how it was done from the factory.
This is the way.
Quoted from Shredder565:extra sockets came in. this time they have a place for the screw.I didn't like the idea of stapling 'em down and mixing in with the wire.
wire is slower shipping. gets here thursday. hoping for better results. and if the soldering turns out nicer, I can go back too the flashers and solenoids and get the underside done, hopefully.
[quoted image]
Did you sneeze on it?
Quoted from Shredder565:this is the grand finale with prop/game building . Retiring .
the ONLY other one I would love too do is TNG.
Just one? Aww come on! Do a MM, they’re easy.
STTNG would be a bear to build, and cost prohibitive since it’s a lower value game. Better off finding a donor to restore.
Quoted from Poida:Symbolically, make sure you order the 3 balls in 3 seperate orders
You doing good mate, you are getting closer!
I bought stock in UPS and FedEx at the start of this thread and I made a fortune.
Quoted from Coyote:That's the one I use, and love it. Was a good purchase.
I have these but mine over-crimp too easy, I need to see if I can adjust it. I do like how they hold the pin though.
Quoted from Coyote:Interesting - if you figure it out, lemme know. Mine will - maybe once in 100 crimps. I've always thought it was because I just didn't put the pin in correctly; maybe not now.
I did get mine calibrated better.
Removed Phillips screw on adjustment dial..
IMG_5867.jpeg
Use a flat head to adjust. I lifted the star dial a little while I did it so it clears the indexing pin…
IMG_5868.jpeg
This is where I set mine. Backed it off two notches…
IMG_5870.jpeg
Decent crimpers if you like ratcheting style. Nice die. I wish the release lever were longer and more accessible when closed.
I still am much faster with my 1026-CT I got from GPE ten years ago. I’ve built harnesses for several games with it. I like that I can see where the insulation is and line it up and give a quick squeeze and done.
But if I’m hunched over in the bottom of the cabinet and crimping one thing in a tight space, I use this ratcheting crimper!
Quoted from emsrph:Great journey! Been following along. Keep up the good work.
Is the Insulation portion of the wire a little too far inserted? Looks like it’s in the way of the bare wire crimp area (circled area).
Is this pin matched to the gauge of the wire? There may be two sizes of pins for different range of wire thicknesses. The reason I ask this is the insulation crimp looks fully closed (arrow).
[quoted image]
MUCH too far. These pins are two crimps in one. The outermost crimp holds the insulation only, the second holds the bare wire. Do not over-crimp.
Also wondering if he has the pin placed upside down in the die.
Quoted from Shredder565:last thing for the day.
try 2. Better?[quoted image]
If this is how your crimps look, I would try a different style of crimper. The Sargent 1026-CT is a great one many here use. It will be easier to position the wire in the correct place with this style, and easier to not over-crimp.
You should not have any insulation in the conductor crimp.
Quoted from jazc4:I need to stock up now that I have a crimping tool. Can you throw out some part numbers of the more common connector pins and housings please?
I miss GPE. Luckily he left the site up so we can use it as a reference. I get part numbers from his site and then order from Digikey or Mouser or Jameco.
There's lots of hobby sites that sell this stuff but they are WAY too expensive for me to build a whole machine. Makes more sense to order stuff like crimp contacts by the 1000 and save 75%.
Quoted from Shredder565:we'll see if I pick this thing up in december, because right now i'm tempted to throw everything out.
Nah, you'll get there! I'm sure you can find some help in your neck of the woods. Lots of pinball up there. And you have a ton of support here. The people here can be nasty purists at times but they mean well. We are all cheering you on.
Quoted from Shredder565:if you've been following this thread.. you should know by now it takes me a while to figure something out that is so easy to people here that it is second nature. but once I get it, I get it. also, seeing 'responses' like this doesn't make me want to ask questions....it just sends me down the research rabbit hole to try and figure it out myself.
Just tough love. Nobody here is cheering you on more than me. I've made all the mistakes you've made and much worse (ie, I once built a new WPC cabinet that was 1" too short in the front). We can't all be perfect like the other Pinside posters. No big deal, keep at it.
Quoted from ryanbrooks:So, this question isn’t aimed at Shredder565 , it’s more for the guys here that have done multiple scratch builds: have y’all documented the assembly process? The order in which you did what? Which steps were done sooner than later and vice versa as you’ve done more builds? Honestly Shredder565 if I were new to pinball (say as a guy with an engineering degree that didn’t grow up the son of a pinball operator as opposed to the son of an op, who despite having an engineering degree is currently an op) I would’ve felt the PF was the most daunting task, and began assembling it on a bench or rotisserie with a minimum booting board set and checked each wire, switch, solenoid and lamp as I went. I’m not saying you did it wrong or right. I’m just saying how my brain works, and also asking some of the seasoned folk here how and why they did what.
By the way, merry Christmas (or whatever you believe) and good work. You stuck with it. I was wrong about you. I thought you’d have given up by now. I applaud you.
There's no "correct" way to do it. Everyone seems to do things a little differently and for me every restore/build seems to go a bit differently.
These are some important things I've learned...
- Get a manual and use it (but watch out for errors in manuals and schematics, which is very common)
- Use the the WMS parts books on PPS - very helpful
- Track part purchases in a spreadsheet
- https://moll.no/pinball/parts/ (click the little bracket icon by a game, you're welcome 
)
- Reproduce hard-to-find metal parts when you can and save a TON of money (Fusion360 is easy for sheet metal)
- GET A GAME TO COPY! Find a friend locally, borrow a game, or just buy one temporarily. It is a huge advantage to see how the original was built and this will make the final game look more correct. I have a NGG sitting around just so I can reference it for my upcoming MB/MM builds.
- Treat cab and playfield separately
- Get your cab built, booting, tested, working first, before dealing with playfield
- When building harnesses, I use Wally's method of making colorized labels to get a layout, then build it on a board with pins to keep it clean
- Playfield... read vid's guide so you don't screw up your playfield... use a puller for tee-nuts, pre-drill topside, don't trust dimples, gap switches and make adjustments as you go, etc
- If using a new playfield, make sure its hardened, clean out excess clear from holes, etc
- Treat and install switch, lamp, solenoid as separate systems (just like factory did)... install and test in order
- Use quality tools... spending a little more on nice knipex side cutters or a good solder iron or crimpers is totally worth it
- NEVER splice wires, just replace with a new run (or sometimes I'll add a molex connection near a solenoid). Just my personal pref.
- Never use any part that doesn't look it would be used at the factory
- Make a set of "fuse breakers" so you don't need a pile of glass fuses
- Stock up on WPC transformers while you can
- Watch HEP youtube videos, tons to learn from those! Pay attention to tools he uses, the order he does things, game-specific problems, etc.
- Not all titles make sense for a scratch build, either because of unobtainable parts or just too expensive versus its value, so do your homework first.
Vid's guide to populating playfields...
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/vids-guide-re-populating-playfields
PPS WMS parts manuals...
https://www.planetarypinball.com/williamsbally-parts-manuals
There is a good community around scratch building and we help each other out with finding or reproducing parts, so ask for help if you need it.
Those crimps look rough my man. If you are not comfortable with the crimpers you have, try a different style. The best crimpers are the ones that allow you personally to get good crimps quickly. Try a simple $15 Waldom 1919 and experiment a little.
You also may be positioning the pin incorrectly in the die.
Quoted from P1nhead:Learn the anatomy and terminology of molex connectors. Watch videos, practice on spare wire, get it done perfectly with accuracy and precision, then start working on the real deal.
That is good advice.
Here is what I learned from a very long time ago... all of 
cfh guides are great
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