Machine: Bride of Pinbot, The
Williams, 1991Quoted from jsa:Great use for a Forstner drill bit. When you have the tools...
Disassembled the ramps, ramp switches, and a few assemblies to send to the tumbler. We've set aside all the brushed aluminum rail guides (and Cliffy kits) for polishing... While we're at it, let's restore those rubber rollers!
Where did you get the rubber roller spray? that looks like good stuff. Yup that's the bit ya need.
Quoted from MustangPaul:Where did you get the rubber roller spray? that looks like good stuff. Yup that's the bit ya need.
Found it on Amazon $8 with $5.50 shipping. Ouch.
Quoted from MustangPaul:Found it on Amazon $8 with $5.50 shipping. Ouch.
Yikes! Yeah, the roller spray is designed to remove ink, which isn't exactly what's going on here. My rollers were disgusting and getting pretty hard to the touch. I cleaned them first with Purple Power degreaser and used a tube brush to clean out the centers (they were filled with disgusting gunk). Then I sprayed this stuff on and let it soak in a bit. When you wipe off the excess an hour later, the rubber regains its elasticity and hold. I'm not sure that is the desired outcome, but I'm sure it will last longer (less likely to shrink and crack).
Ok folks, progress has been made!
We managed to get most of the posts on as well as the new wooden rails. We were using the Bryan_Kelly method of pulling in t-nuts, but I kept scratching the clear with the felt. I'm thinking that this clear coat, despite being a few months into curing, must be pretty soft. I tried putting a microfiber towel beneath it and I ended up pushing the waffle pattern into the spot I was pulling the t-nut! Fortunately you can't really notice it. I'm sure we can buff it out.
Here's the pop bumpers with the fin shank nails countersunk:
The new playfield had a few little gotchas so far but they were failry easy to remedy. We discovered this slot that wasn't completely through the playfield:
All it took was just drilling through it. It was one of the "adjustable" posts for making the side drains easier or harder. Meanwhile, the machine came with one of these posts:
You can see where it was installed on the machine when we got it here:
Can anyone here verify they have the same metal post in the same spot? Also, the parts list mentions there should be two. Anyone know where the second one goes?
Every hole needed to be drilled, not only to remove the clear, but in many cases to increase the size of the pilot hole. The last thing I need is the plywood cracking near and edge. Next up, we'll disassemble all the mechanical assemblies and start tumbling parts. The wire guards and tall posts are still being tumbled, and hopefully tomorrow we'll get a chance to buff out the ball guide rails.
Quoted from jsa:Can anyone here verify they have the same metal post in the same spot? Also, the parts list mentions there should be two. Anyone know where the second one goes?
Yup I have one there also but I can't see the 2nd one.
More progress on the playfield. I'll deconstruct some of what we've chosen to do with stainless parts. A good example is the skill shot roller assembly.
First, we pulled it all apart to see how nasty it was and how it worked:
The ring clamps were sometimes missing, sometimes in the wrong place. The axles have grooves to fasten them to one side:
As I mentioned before, we took out the rubber rollers and restored them:
Next we cleaned the stainless sides as best we could with degreaser:
Then we polished them using a slight tweak to the PinMonk method mentioned earlier. I wouldn't exactly say we had the patience that
PinMonk has to create a true mirror effect, but we're still super happy with the results. The skill shot assembly:
Our ball guides:
To get this effect, we would start with @bryan_kelly's method of 120 grit to get rid of the ball trail, then 220 for the entire surface, then a Scotch Brite pad to make it consistent. At this point, it looked good enough to stop, but just to see what it would look like, we then used a bench buffer with white compound and finally green compound. Holy crap do those buffers make a mess! Still, nice effect.
Quoted from jsa:...we then used a bench buffer with white compound and finally green compound. Holy crap do those buffers make a mess! Still, nice effect.
I have mine facing the wall of the garage with a big piece of cardboard on the wall to catch all the crap it slings at it. I have a shopvac to get the crap that ends up on the floor (threads from the buffing wheels and polishing "dust"). White's pretty lightweight. I might have done a brown then white buffout if you were only doing two. You'd get even more mirror-like results.
This place sells stainless-specific polishing compounds, but I haven't tried them yet:
http://www.formaxmfg.com/stainless-steel-buffing-wheel-bar-compounds
When I run out of what I have now, I'm going to give these ones a shot.
Quoted from PinMonk:I have mine facing the wall of the garage with a big piece of cardboard on the wall to catch all the crap it slings at it. I have a shopvac to get the crap that ends up on the floor (threads from the buffing wheels and polishing "dust"). White's pretty lightweight. I might have done a brown then white buffout if you were only doing two. You'd get even more mirror-like results.
This place sells stainless-specific polishing compounds, but I haven't tried them yet:
http://www.formaxmfg.com/stainless-steel-buffing-wheel-bar-compounds
When I run out of what I have now, I'm going to give these ones a shot.
You know, we tried brown first on the guides. Maybe with more work it would have removed the ball trails, but nothing I did seemed to get that trail off. That's when we decided to move to the Bryan_Kelly method for removing the trails. Probably if we then had returned to brown we would have ended up with a more mirror-like effect. That being said, I really love how it looks. The thing about doing the mirror polish on this game is that both sides of the guides are exposed, and the sides with the screw mounts are extremely hard to polish to that level. This way, everything looks excellent and the backs aren't too far from the fronts.
Another slight modification; We used the 6" bench buffer from Harbor Freight. We didn't try it with a converted grinder (perhaps it has more horsepower?).
Quoted from jsa:You know, we tried brown first on the guides. Maybe with more work it would have removed the ball trails, but nothing I did seemed to get that trail off. That's when we decided to move to the bryan_kelly method for removing the trails. Probably if we then had returned to brown we would have ended up with a more mirror-like effect. That being said, I really love how it looks. The thing about doing the mirror polish on this game is that both sides of the guides are exposed, and the sides with the screw mounts are extremely hard to polish to that level. This way, everything looks excellent and the backs aren't too far from the fronts.
Another slight modification; We used the 6" bench buffer from Harbor Freight. We didn't try it with a converted grinder (perhaps it has more horsepower?).
Might be an RPM issue. Higher RPM cuts faster, and for ball trails you want to start perpendicular to the wheel. I think the wheels I have are like 10". Are you sure you had the brown? The brown and "red" (which is more of a reddish brown) look similar, but the red doesn't cut as well. I can blow even deep ball trails off guides in 2-3 minutes starting with a heavy cut polishing compound (usually brown - I've only done black once).
Quoted from PinMonk:Might be an RPM issue. Higher RPM cuts faster, and for ball trails you want to start perpendicular to the wheel. I think the wheels I have are like 10". Are you sure you had the brown? The brown and "red" (which is more of a reddish brown) look similar, but the red doesn't cut as well. I can blow even deep ball trails off guides in 2-3 minutes starting with a heavy cut polishing compound (usually brown - I've only done black once).
Yep, it's the brown compound you linked to earlier. I think it might be RPM. The buffer is not quite as hefty as the grinder. Nevertheless, I'm super happy with the results. The elbow grease required to remove trails using 120 grit is relatively small! Takes only a minute to get the trail of, another couple minutes of 220, then a quick hit with the ScotchBrite and you're at a perfect neutral state for polishing. At that point, using your method (brown, white, green) would probably result in mirrors even with my buffer, I just didn't have the patience...Though as I look at the guides now, I really like them this way.
I've audited my switch harness today and making the (gulp) decision to replace my switches and most of the actuators. They are all corroded and in crappy shape, some don't even "click" when pressed. I'm not very good at soldering, but I will be when this is finished.
Near as I can tell, all the microswitches take the same diode (1N4004 1.0a). Am I safe using the same one for pretty much everything?
I have been using this on a bench drill for the metal guides as a first step and it works pretty well - https://www.amazon.com/3M-Scotch-Brite-Fine-Finishing-Sander-9416NA/dp/B00004Z4DK/ref=sr_1_1
I got the idea from https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/help-with-metal-cleaningbuffing-options#post-1582358.
Made a map and labeled all the switches on the switch harness:
Then took vid1900 advice and put it all in the dishwasher:
...and I mean put it all in there. I unsoldered the switches and kept those out (I'm replacing them anyway), but bulb sockets and the small PCBs for bulbs I left in there. We'll see what happens... Boy my dishwasher is making some crazy noises. (Yes, I checked that the washer arm wasn't blocked!)
Quoted from jsa:Thanks, vid1900 for the tip... They came out great!
Now check continuity on everything. This could save you lots of time and trouble down the road, that harness is old ya know and it's gone through a tough wash cycle.
All the new switches are soldered on. Let's just say I wouldn't get hired to build spacecraft.
Continuity checks out, but I'm curious; Some have mentioned checking the switches while the playfield is still out of the machine. When you do this, I assume you plug the switch harness into the MPU and do the switch tests from there after the harness gets installed?
Quoted from jsa:All the new switches are soldered on. Let's just say I wouldn't get hired to build spacecraft.
Continuity checks out, but I'm curious; Some have mentioned checking the switches while the playfield is still out of the machine. When you do this, I assume you plug the switch harness into the MPU and do the switch tests from there after the harness gets installed?
Correct and it really helps find some issues quickly. Great job so far btw!
Happy Holidays everyone. We're overdue for an update.
It has been a furious, non-stop hard push to see if we can get this machine operational by New Year's Eve. Not the end of the world if it's not, but it's been fun trying.
Where to start, indeed!
First off, let's discuss Bride's Head. As many of you know, CPR's BoP reproductions are excellent, but the faces of the head, while beautiful, have some issues.
The original head had some different hardware. The guides on the front were screwed in, and beneath the mouth and eye holes there was metal hardware designed to keep the balls from dropping into the head box:
In that photo, you see the hardware behind the eye holes. Also, the original faceplate holes were beveled. On the new faces, the holes are slightly larger and are not beveled. Also, there is no penetrations with which to mount the old hardware (if you have it).
If you did decide to mount the old hardware somehow, because the holes are bigger, I've read complaints about the eyes looking cross-eyed or wabbling, which could cause problems with the ejectors or rollover switches.
To this set of problems I set my son on a mission to fix, and we were successful!
For starters, we traced the original hardware and measured everything with a caliper.
My son then entered the measurements into his design software for the 3D printer and created some prototypes. The general idea was to create a new, lighter weight but durable mounting hardware with individual 1" holes for both the eyes and mouth. We experimented with different thickenesses (adding a couple mm mades the ABS twice as strong, but we wanted to make sure it was similar to the original hardware). Once we were happy with the shape and orientation, made final versions and added some super strong 3M two sided tape. This is the same tape we used to mount the outer cabinet rails.
The key to placing the tape is making sure you can't see it, since we wanted the black to show through the hole properly.
Here's what it looks like from inside:
More importantly, it catches the ball perfectly and looks great. Plus, we didn't need to drill any additional holes in the face plate, which is a great bonus (fewer screws in the front). Here's how it looks from outside:
We thought about printing it in white, but honestly we like the look of the black better. Problem solved!
Next, each assembly was disassembled, tumbled, and reassembled. The coils were desoldered, cleaned and re-papered. We chose to print the coil wrappers ourselves onto brightly colored paper. I think the look turned out pretty good. Here are the three coils from the head assembly:
Included in all of this was a complete flipper rebuild. Thanks to vid1900 for the instructions. I started by reversing the order of the photos I took taking them apart, but quickly after reading
vid1900 's guide, I realized they were completely built wrong when we got the machine. Now we've upgraded the System 11 flippers to more of the WPC feel. Let me know if you see anything wrong, though, this is our first time even adjusting flippers let alone rebuilding them. We're about 80% sure the wiring is right, you'll notice we left out soldering one lead so we can do it while we solder it into the harness later.
We decided to replace all the switches on the switch harness, as they were in various states ranging from sometimes functional to clearly having been immersed in beer. This was our first go at this, but we managed to get through it all.
Tonight was a pretty big moment of truth, we installed the switch harness onto the playfield. Despite all your careful advice about photos, mine must have absolutely sucked, because I could barely figure out from them where to put everything. Fortunately it worked itself out. With the switch harness installed, we connected the umbilical to the MPU and tested the switches. I was terrified we'd turn on the machine and the diodes would be backwards or something, but fortunately all was good (except for a few switches that I needed to swap around). Here's the current state:
Since we haven't installed the ramps, pop bumpers or upper playfield and wireform rails yet, we couldn't test all the switches, but so far aso good. Any opinions on what our next step should be? We're thinking install the assemblies on the underside, then the other two harnesses, before adding the additional levels on the playfield above. Thoughts?
Quoted from jsa:Happy Holidays everyone. We're overdue for an update.
It has been a furious, non-stop hard push to see if we can get this machine operational by New Year's Eve. Not the end of the world if it's not, but it's been fun trying.
Where to start, indeed!
First off, let's discuss Bride's Head. As many of you know, CPR's BoP reproductions are excellent, but the faces of the head, while beautiful, have some issues.
The original head had some different hardware. The guides on the front were screwed in, and beneath the mouth and eye holes there was metal hardware designed to keep the balls from dropping into the head box:In that photo, you see the hardware behind the eye holes. Also, the original faceplate holes were beveled. On the new faces, the holes are slightly larger and are not beveled. Also, there is no penetrations with which to mount the old hardware (if you have it).
If you did decide to mount the old hardware somehow, because the holes are bigger, I've read complaints about the eyes looking cross-eyed or wabbling, which could cause problems with the ejectors or rollover switches.
To this set of problems I set my son on a mission to fix, and we were successful!
For starters, we traced the original hardware and measured everything with a caliper.My son then entered the measurements into his design software for the 3D printer and created some prototypes. The general idea was to create a new, lighter weight but durable mounting hardware with individual 1" holes for both the eyes and mouth. We experimented with different thickenesses (adding a couple mm mades the ABS twice as strong, but we wanted to make sure it was similar to the original hardware). Once we were happy with the shape and orientation, made final versions and added some super strong 3M two sided tape. This is the same tape we used to mount the outer cabinet rails.
The key to placing the tape is making sure you can't see it, since we wanted the black to show through the hole properly.
Here's what it looks like from inside:
More importantly, it catches the ball perfectly and looks great. Plus, we didn't need to drill any additional holes in the face plate, which is a great bonus (fewer screws in the front). Here's how it looks from outside:
We thought about printing it in white, but honestly we like the look of the black better. Problem solved!
Next, each assembly was disassembled, tumbled, and reassembled. The coils were desoldered, cleaned and re-papered. We chose to print the coil wrappers ourselves onto brightly colored paper. I think the look turned out pretty good. Here are the three coils from the head assembly:Included in all of this was a complete flipper rebuild. Thanks to vid1900 for the instructions. I started by reversing the order of the photos I took taking them apart, but quickly after reading vid1900 's guide, I realized they were completely built wrong when we got the machine. Now we've upgraded the System 11 flippers to more of the WPC feel. Let me know if you see anything wrong, though, this is our first time even adjusting flippers let alone rebuilding them. We're about 80% sure the wiring is right, you'll notice we left out soldering one lead so we can do it while we solder it into the harness later.
We decided to replace all the switches on the switch harness, as they were in various states ranging from sometimes functional to clearly having been immersed in beer. This was our first go at this, but we managed to get through it all.
Tonight was a pretty big moment of truth, we installed the switch harness onto the playfield. Despite all your careful advice about photos, mine must have absolutely sucked, because I could barely figure out from them where to put everything. Fortunately it worked itself out. With the switch harness installed, we connected the umbilical to the MPU and tested the switches. I was terrified we'd turn on the machine and the diodes would be backwards or something, but fortunately all was good (except for a few switches that I needed to swap around). Here's the current state:Since we haven't installed the ramps, pop bumpers or upper playfield and wireform rails yet, we couldn't test all the switches, but so far aso good. Any opinions on what our next step should be? We're thinking install the assemblies on the underside, then the other two harnesses, before adding the additional levels on the playfield above. Thoughts?
Yeah, I'd get underneath right, then do the topside stuff.
Looks really great, BTW!
Quoted from jsa:Happy Holidays everyone. We're overdue for an update.
It has been a furious, non-stop hard push to see if we can get this machine operational by New Year's Eve. Not the end of the world if it's not, but it's been fun trying.
Where to start, indeed!
First off, let's discuss Bride's Head. As many of you know, CPR's BoP reproductions are excellent, but the faces of the head, while beautiful, have some issues.
The original head had some different hardware. The guides on the front were screwed in, and beneath the mouth and eye holes there was metal hardware designed to keep the balls from dropping into the head box:In that photo, you see the hardware behind the eye holes. Also, the original faceplate holes were beveled. On the new faces, the holes are slightly larger and are not beveled. Also, there is no penetrations with which to mount the old hardware (if you have it).
If you did decide to mount the old hardware somehow, because the holes are bigger, I've read complaints about the eyes looking cross-eyed or wabbling, which could cause problems with the ejectors or rollover switches.
To this set of problems I set my son on a mission to fix, and we were successful!
For starters, we traced the original hardware and measured everything with a caliper.My son then entered the measurements into his design software for the 3D printer and created some prototypes. The general idea was to create a new, lighter weight but durable mounting hardware with individual 1" holes for both the eyes and mouth. We experimented with different thickenesses (adding a couple mm mades the ABS twice as strong, but we wanted to make sure it was similar to the original hardware). Once we were happy with the shape and orientation, made final versions and added some super strong 3M two sided tape. This is the same tape we used to mount the outer cabinet rails.
The key to placing the tape is making sure you can't see it, since we wanted the black to show through the hole properly.
Here's what it looks like from inside:
More importantly, it catches the ball perfectly and looks great. Plus, we didn't need to drill any additional holes in the face plate, which is a great bonus (fewer screws in the front). Here's how it looks from outside:
We thought about printing it in white, but honestly we like the look of the black better. Problem solved!
Next, each assembly was disassembled, tumbled, and reassembled. The coils were desoldered, cleaned and re-papered. We chose to print the coil wrappers ourselves onto brightly colored paper. I think the look turned out pretty good. Here are the three coils from the head assembly:Included in all of this was a complete flipper rebuild. Thanks to vid1900 for the instructions. I started by reversing the order of the photos I took taking them apart, but quickly after reading vid1900 's guide, I realized they were completely built wrong when we got the machine. Now we've upgraded the System 11 flippers to more of the WPC feel. Let me know if you see anything wrong, though, this is our first time even adjusting flippers let alone rebuilding them. We're about 80% sure the wiring is right, you'll notice we left out soldering one lead so we can do it while we solder it into the harness later.
We decided to replace all the switches on the switch harness, as they were in various states ranging from sometimes functional to clearly having been immersed in beer. This was our first go at this, but we managed to get through it all.
Tonight was a pretty big moment of truth, we installed the switch harness onto the playfield. Despite all your careful advice about photos, mine must have absolutely sucked, because I could barely figure out from them where to put everything. Fortunately it worked itself out. With the switch harness installed, we connected the umbilical to the MPU and tested the switches. I was terrified we'd turn on the machine and the diodes would be backwards or something, but fortunately all was good (except for a few switches that I needed to swap around). Here's the current state:Since we haven't installed the ramps, pop bumpers or upper playfield and wireform rails yet, we couldn't test all the switches, but so far aso good. Any opinions on what our next step should be? We're thinking install the assemblies on the underside, then the other two harnesses, before adding the additional levels on the playfield above. Thoughts?
Super job you two. Keep those face plate designs, you could probably sell a few later.
I'll post some photos soon, but we've put the playfield back into the cabinet. We start it up and the game works, though we need to tweak a few things. The only problem is that fuse F105 blows about once every third or fourth time we turn it on. Anyone have any immediate places to look for what might be causing something intermittent like that?
Quoted from jsa:I'll post some photos soon, but we've put the playfield back into the cabinet. We start it up and the game works, though we need to tweak a few things. The only problem is that fuse F105 blows about once every third or forth time we turn it on. Anyone have any immediate places to look for what might be causing something intermittent like that?
Sounds like a bad/miswired solenoid.
According to the operator's guide, that fuse protects these solenoids:
Outhole
Ball Release
Under Playfield Kicker
Controlled Gate
Under Playfield Kicker
Skill Shot Kicker
Wire Ball Holder
Knocker
Head - Mouth
Quoted from PinMonk:Sounds like a bad/miswired solenoid.
Hmm. I actually like that answer. Any tips on how to identify it? We basically used photography to ensure we had the wiring as it was when we got the machine, but that doesn't mean it was in any way correct when we got it.
Quoted from jsa:Hmm. I actually like that answer. Any tips on how to identify it? We basically used photography to ensure we had the wiring as it was when we got the machine, but that doesn't mean it was in any way correct when we got it.
If you can get it not to blow immediately, I'd go into solenoid test and make sure they all fire without blowing the fuse. After that, it gets more complicated.
I'd also trace the line going to them to make sure you didn't short it to a screw or pinch it or something.
Quoted from PinMonk:If you can get it not to blow immediately, I'd go into solenoid test and make sure they all fire without blowing the fuse. After that, it gets more complicated.
I'd also trace the line going to them to make sure you didn't short it to a screw or pinch it or something.
I've been able to run the solenoid test (at least yesterday) and everything fired as it should, I'm afraid. I'll check again with a new fuse today. It literally blows immediately upon turning the machine on, but only after it's been played a bit and on for a while.
Quoted from jsa:I've been able to run the solenoid test (at least yesterday) and everything fired as it should, I'm afraid. I'll check again with a new fuse today. It literally blows immediately upon turning the machine on, but only after it's been played a bit and on for a while.
So maybe a solenoid on the edge of bad that only shorts when it gets warmed up. Once it starts blowing fuses, it keeps doing it for a while?
I guess ohming out those 8 solenoids is probably the next step to make sure there's not an obvious short.
Quoted from PinMonk:So maybe a solenoid on the edge of bad that only shorts when it gets warmed up. Once it starts blowing fuses, it keeps doing it for a while?
I guess ohming out those 8 solenoids is probably the next step to make sure there's not an obvious short.
Well, to be fair, once it blows F105, it takes me a little while to replace the fuse (let's call it ten minutes?). It has a little down time before lighting back up, which it does fine for the next few power ups. Strange right?
I'll ohm out the solenoids. You say there are 8... Is this an obvious page in the manual I'm missing, which solenoids go to F105?
Quoted from jsa:Ok folks, progress has been made!
We managed to get most of the posts on as well as the new wooden rails. We were using the bryan_kelly method of pulling in t-nuts, but I kept scratching the clear with the felt. I'm thinking that this clear coat, despite being a few months into curing, must be pretty soft. I tried putting a microfiber towel beneath it and I ended up pushing the waffle pattern into the spot I was pulling the t-nut! Fortunately you can't really notice it. I'm sure we can buff it out.
Here's the pop bumpers with the fin shank nails countersunk:The new playfield had a few little gotchas so far but they were failry easy to remedy. We discovered this slot that wasn't completely through the playfield:
All it took was just drilling through it. It was one of the "adjustable" posts for making the side drains easier or harder. Meanwhile, the machine came with one of these posts:
You can see where it was installed on the machine when we got it here:
Can anyone here verify they have the same metal post in the same spot? Also, the parts list mentions there should be two. Anyone know where the second one goes?
Every hole needed to be drilled, not only to remove the clear, but in many cases to increase the size of the pilot hole. The last thing I need is the plywood cracking near and edge. Next up, we'll disassemble all the mechanical assemblies and start tumbling parts. The wire guards and tall posts are still being tumbled, and hopefully tomorrow we'll get a chance to buff out the ball guide rails.
Before you get too deep into this please consider:
Wherever you have ground away the clearcoat to install pops or whatever:
Thin CA glue should be applied to the bare wood with a tiny dropper or tube to keep the clearcoat edge from chipping and lifting in the future.
This is not necessarily mandatory but an important practice to help eliminate the possibility of ghosting down the road.
Whenever you break the seal of the clearcoat you risk shrinking of the wood independently from the clearcoat over time, as they are now seperated physically.
Good luck with this, it looks great so far.
JMHO.....
Quoted from jsa:The general idea was to create a new, lighter weight but durable mounting hardware with individual 1" holes for both the eyes and mouth. We experimented with different thickenesses (adding a couple mm mades the ABS twice as strong, but we wanted to make sure it was similar to the original hardware)
I'd be up for a set of these if you decide to make them for sale. LIKE the idea and the look of them 
Quoted from PinMonk:So maybe a solenoid on the edge of bad that only shorts when it gets warmed up. Once it starts blowing fuses, it keeps doing it for a while?
I guess ohming out those 8 solenoids is probably the next step to make sure there's not an obvious short.
@vireland, I've ohmed out all the solenoids in the machine. They all register 10-14 or so, so that implies no obvious short.
I'm going to install molex connectors on each coil, then disconnect them one by one until the fuse stops blowing. Any other ideas of what I could check for?
Quoted from pinballinreno:Thin CA glue should be applied to the bare wood with a tiny dropper or tube to keep the clearcoat edge from chipping and lifting in the future.
@pinballinreno, Unfortunately, the entire playfield was completed before I read that... It would require tearing it down again to get to those spots. As I expose them from time to time I'll drop the glue as you suggest.
Quoted from Mancave:I'd be up for a set of these if you decide to make them for sale. LIKE the idea and the look of them
@mancave, I'll be putting all these files up for free to download soon. I've been setting up a file repository for this kind of thing.
Quoted from davijc02:Looks awesome so far. Are you gonna put the 2.0 kit in it?
@davijc02, Yes I'll be putting a 2.0 in it eventually. I have the kit. The plan is to play this for a while as an original 1.0 first, though. We set up our speaker upgrades/other restoration with the idea of having a 2.0 kit exist without changing the mint nature of the machine (not that we'll ever sell it). The bass speaker in the cabinet is from the kit, though we added a crossover so it would work properly with our speaker upgrade until the amp is installed for 2.0.
Quoted from jsa:vireland, I've ohmed out all the solenoids in the machine. They all register 10-14 or so, so that implies no obvious short.
I'm going to install molex connectors on each coil, then disconnect them one by one until the fuse stops blowing. Any other ideas of what I could check for?
Unplug the connector (J-130, according to the manual) that supplies those coils from the driver board in the backbox first and see if that stops the fuse from blowing. This probably won't do anything but confirm the area you're already looking in is the problem, but one more issue confirmed is always good.
The molex connectors might work if you get lucky, but I'm of the mind that you have a short (screw through cable, pinched cable, exposed insulation), and if that's the case, it won't help because the line feeding the power is shorted.
Quoted from PinMonk:Unplug the connector (J-130, according to the manual) that supplies those coils from the driver board in the backbox first and see if that stops the fuse from blowing. This probably won't do anything but confirm the area you're already looking in is the problem, but one more issue confirmed is always good.
The molex connectors might work if you get lucky, but I'm of the mind that you have a short (screw through cable, pinched cable, exposed insulation), and if that's the case, it won't help because the line feeding the power is shorted.
I've molexed the connectors (was quite a task) with the exception of the head coils and the controlled gate relay. Of course, now that I've done this, I can't get the fuse to blow. It could also be that there was a short that was eliminated just through my mucking about with the wiring to molex the connectors. I'll keep playing it and see if I can get it to fail again. If it does, I'll try your suggestion on the next fuse, to eliminate that possibility.
I have noticed some intermittent behavior of certain coils... On the last power up, the controlled gate wouldn't fire (unless that's somehow tied to the same connector that I had unplugged with the outhole?), but now it's firing. Strange.
Beautiful work!!! I've been away for a bit, glad to see all the great progress!
I use gray compound from ace to get stainless to mirror shine.
The eye and mouth black plastic parts you made... do you see their outline when lights light up the face from behind? Just curious
Quoted from Chosen_S:The eye and mouth black plastic parts you made... do you see their outline when lights light up the face from behind? Just curious
You know, I don't think so, but I'll check tonight. They are the exact same dimensions as the original plates, so it wouldn't be any different than those plates. Still, best to check.
Quoted from Chosen_S:The eye and mouth black plastic parts you made... do you see their outline when lights light up the face from behind? Just curious
Took a look tonight, and yes, if you look for it, you can see the outline of the plates. Note that I have not yet installed the LED and GI OCD boards yet, so the LEDs are brighter than they probably should be as well. I would imagine you can see the outline of the metal plates that are the same dimensions as well on a stock machine. Here's a photo:
We're proud to announce we've successfully played our first game together, father and son, on the machine!
Here's a still of the playfield:
A video:
It's been quite a journey. We're not quite finished yet, so we're not yet ready to proclaim victory.
Does anyone have any suggestions on how to increase the power of the shooter lane plunger? We're using the blue spring per the manual, though it just doesn't quite feel right. It appears on center, and only barely protrudes from behind the apron.
We're debugging the head/face situation. It seems to sometimes calibrate itself properly part of the time. I'll post a question to the BoP club topic and see if I can't get any guidance here.
While it's not predictable, PinMonk you may be interested that while testing the upper right pop bumper switch, I heard a sudden increase in the humming sound of the transformer and ultimately the fuse blew. I haven't had it repeat itself though with any consistency.
Quoted from jsa:While it's not predictable, vireland you may be interested that while testing the upper right pop bumper switch, I heard a sudden increase in the humming sound of the transformer and ultimately the fuse blew. I haven't had it repeat itself though with any consistency.
So maybe intermittently bad coil, then? What's interesting is that coil isn't in the first 8 that are protected by the fuse that was blowing. However, it could also be that the vibration from the pop bumper is what caused the intermittently shorted line to "line up" with whatever it's shorting against, and it's not the pop bumper coil at all.
Get these gremlins worked out so you can get that BoP 2.0 kit in there!
Congratulations Sir!!!
Sometimes the hardest part is doing the last bit of tidying up after working so long on the major components. Check the helmet flasher domes to make sure they are fastened with the "lip" on the inside of the helmet. I think yours may be fastened on the outside surface of the helmet. However....it could be my eyes since it is almost midnight here.
Quoted from PinMonk:So maybe intermittently bad coil, then? What's interesting is that coil isn't in the first 8 that are protected by the fuse that was blowing. However, it could also be that the vibration from the pop bumper is what caused the intermittently shorted line to "line up" with whatever it's shorting against, and it's not the pop bumper coil at all.
Get these gremlins worked out so you can get that BoP 2.0 kit in there!
Exactly... I'm hoping I can figure out what short hits and causes that to happen. So far, no luck.
Quoted from Catalyze:Congratulations Sir!!!
Sometimes the hardest part is doing the last bit of tidying up after working so long on the major components. Check the helmet flasher domes to make sure they are fastened with the "lip" on the inside of the helmet. I think yours may be fastened on the outside surface of the helmet. However....it could be my eyes since it is almost midnight here.
Thanks, I did check that, they are on the inside. I think it may be the ramp's position, that it may be a bit farther from the cabinet side than it should be. I ended up loosening the lower left metal L post that holds the lower left side of the helmet up. Does anyone's helmet have spacers beneath any of the four screws that mounts it to the playfield? Mine did not, but I almost think like I can see those in others' photos.
Quoted from Catalyze:My helmet mounts flat on top of the 4 long posts. This is a photo of the Right side of the helmet with flasher dome. The dome extends just to be a tiny bit short of the rubber ring. If your right side is like this one, then your helmet should be sitting as intended.
It appears my helmet is mounted identically on the right side, as you can see here:
Something must be off in the way I mounted the left ramp. The left red lens pushes into the bend of the ramp.
Quoted from jsa:It appears my helmet is mounted identically on the right side, as you can see here:
Something must be off in the way I mounted the left ramp. The left red lens pushes into the bend of the ramp.
You need to remount the red flasher dome in the helmet, it's poking out too far, the mounting spacers are in the wrong succession. I've done this myself
Quoted from Chosen_S:You need to remount the red flasher dome in the helmet, it's poking out too far, the mounting spacers are in the wrong succession. I've done this myself
Spacers! Of course. I have no mounting spacers between the lenses and the helmet. Thank you!
Quoted from jsa:Spacers! Of course. I have no mounting spacers between the lenses and the helmet. Thank you!
welcome!
Ok, the game has been pretty solidly working. Almost ready to declare victory. When you folk adjust leaf switches, such as stand up targets or slingshot switches, do you remove them from the playfield first or adjust with them in place? Right now, this appears to be our biggest challenge in ironing out the little bugs. That, and identifying what is supposed to be "normal behavior" and making necessary changes to accomplish that. It's remarkable to me how much variation the ramps have from the original ramps (thickness), which definitely creates its own set of challenges. I've also installed Cliffy protectors. Clearly, these are 100% required, as the ramp entrances are completely destroyed on our original set.
We installed plastic protectors as well. The challenge here is that now that everything is installed, we can see how certain gates, the spinner, and other hardware can get caught on the protectors. I have no problem adjusting them... Would you folks think there would be any problem shaving them down "in place" with a dremel? Removing plastics that are under ramps can be... frustrating.
Some additional thoughts about the reassembly process:
-Photo context is everything. I've found a good technique is to place the end of a post or screwed in object next to the hole it belongs in during teardown for the photo...making sure to have a wide enough angle that you can see the context of the location.
-Existing restoration photos reveal there is some artistic license involved in this process. What one restorer choses to do in a location is different than another. Furthermore, the restorers before you may actually have a better solution than the original game had, so take that into account as well.
-Tumbling screws can remove their magnetic plating. If I could do one thing differently, I would have audited each screw type during teardown and bought 100 of each type. Finding screws in a tumbling batch royally sucks, and losing magnetic capability will make you want to poke your eyeballs out with a fork.
-Repro playfield screw holes are just markers. They aren't big enough to be pilot holes for a #6 screw. Best investment I made was a hand crank drill for this purpose. It keeps you from over-shooting and is great for protecting your playfield.
-Repro playfield screw holes are about 99% accurate. Pretty close to 100%. I had to move a couple but they were marginal and clearly visible from the playfield art (hole not quite inside a circle, etc).
-I ended up with parts, mostly screws, that have no place to be installed. How is that possible? The answer is that when you don't find a screw you need, you don't have time to go through every screw in the batch, so you grab a new one.
-Doing this project with my son was the most rewarding thing we've ever done together. Playing this game with him was just plain amazing. The challenges with this have to do with what is largely one person jobs (screwing in a screw), so it was easier to involve him in the cabinet work than the playfield work. That being said, even having him around during the playfield work was a complete joy.
I will post some photos soon.
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Saint Paul, MN