I think someone mentioned earlier that bgresto has the art...

I had Steve at BGresto make mine. Turned out pretty good. A huge improvement over my failing original.

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I am taking the meticulous route myself, as this is a "keeper" machine. The new playfield is from the first run of CPR repros from about 10 years ago; I'm only just getting time to dig in. One insert had an edge lifted slightly. I sanded it down flat, then prepped and re-coated the whole thing with DuPont chroma-clear.

I will report back on whether the holes/dimples are in the correct places. Fortunately I can use the old playfield to compare (though it has several instances of topside hole placements that are off). The goal is to make the game look nice and play even better without having to mess with upgrading the flippers. I want to be able to knock down all 4 drop targets in the queen's chamber.

Here's where I was at a couple of weeks ago with the flippers. I rebuilt them keeping the linears stock. If these don't have enough juice for the chamber I'll revert them to the classic Bally style. I'm not really okay with a fliptronic conversion; I like to keep my machines as close to feeling like the original as possible.

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Make sure you use a bingo ball in the chamber. That’s what shipped originally and it does make a difference In completing the chamber

Bingo ball? Bingo ball? Are they still available? I think my machine might have a regular pinball in there. Queen's chamber is impossible to complete, even after rebuilding the linear flippers.

I had no idea. Quick google shows that its a 1 1/8" ball. Absolutely necessary?

Mine hits 4th chamber, no problem with a normal ball. I do have different flipper bats, but I don't think the mechanics have been upgraded.

I looked them up and bingo balls are slightly larger in diameter than a pinball: 1-1/8"

They will be heavier if they are the same material. Wouldn't that make them harder to hit up to the top of the chamber?

You could always install a Twilight Zone power ball. That would make the chamber much easier to complete.

Not really. Doesn’t sit as deep in the plastics and doesn’t rattle off the initial shot going up. Yes it a bit heavier but it also sits a little higher in the chute and “clears the barrel” cleaner so to speak

I might try this since mine needs a perfect shot from an already fast ball to hit the target in the back, plus I have a spare one I can toss in.

Yep! That was actually one of the first things I did when I acquired it: Drop a bingo ball in the queen's chamber. I've never done a flipper rebuild on this game though, and I was definitely having binding issues that should be resolved with this overhaul.

The other thing I do with my Sterns and Ballys is to install 15/16" balls in the roll tilt channel. They're always missing or wrong and it's not okay for me to just know that.

So bingo balls are lighter because they are made of stainless steel but I see no mention of it in the manual. Am I overlooking it?

Let us know how that works. You might be a trendsetter!

There is much discussion earlier in this thread if you search for bingo.

614 to be exact. Couldn’t remember where I read it but just went back and it’s still unclear if there was or not. Just try it and see

Yeah I should have done that first. Bingo ball it is.

That is a sharp looking Centaur !! I'm going to have to check out BGresto... I was almost going to take a shot myself but good artwork is also hard to come by.

I've got the original linears in mine, just swapped out the nylons... I've never had any problems getting Chamber shots - granted, they're not designed to be super easy, but there's a wide enough margin of error that still allows a solid target knock with whatever ball is captive in the chamber. (probably original).

When we were building the Houdini prototype, we were finally ready to start trying to play it, so we grab a bunch of balls from the factory where Magic Girls was being built, and drop them in. We start to play and we run into issues with the ball trough not properly moving balls through it and ejecting, we open things up, take it apart all looks good, but it is too tight. You obviously all see where this is going, not sure how long it took before we figured out that one of the balls was a bingo ball (why there was a bingo ball in the factory, is anyone's guess), and that extra 1/16 was enough to not let it move through correctly. I've kept the ball handy, never know when the opportunity to mess with someone will come up, but since I never knew it was supposed to be a bingo ball, guess I'll put it into my centaur.

I think the Queen's chamber and bingo ball thing is just so strange. I bet whoever was cutting plastics for the game unknowingly put a bingo ball into the queen's chamber to get final measurements, and here we are today. Strange indeed.

I'll have to get a bingo ball or two in my next PBR order, whenever that is. I'll try a Powerball in the meantime. Just got to get around to it

What slope was originally intended for centaur? The tendency now days is to crank up the slope which I would think would make it more difficult to complete Queens chamber, gravity and all.

I have no idea what the original design specs were, but I set my games up damn near maxxed out (all the way out in the back, all the way in on the front) and I think my game makes Chamber shots just fine. Now, there is a difference between how much energy gets transferred to the captive ball and thus the ability to hit the top target, but IMO that ability is aligned with how accurate the shot was made in the first place... You're angle is off a bit, you still hit the Chamber, but perhaps not as hard. Makes perfect sense to me.

Same here I can hit double queens chamber for the 4 drops but not the standup have to shoot it directly. I have the early Bally rebuild because my
Linear flippers stopped doing that after a few years

I could never reach the top target via a queens chamber shot, my linears are very strong, but still can't, I assumed it probably had to be a direct shot.
Just to confirm, you are able to reach the target via a queens chamber shot with the retrofitted early bally mechs?

Might be time to swap them over.

I put a Powerball in and I can hit the target in the back with a trapped ball through the star rollovers. I could never do that unless the ball was already screaming fast, double or single scoring. Works well if you have one.

I'm using linear mechs.

Original linear mechs on mine and rear legs not exactly maxed out but enough slope to have a good speed. I think I was able to hit the target with a double queens chamber shot but it was a momentum shot with the ball coming at a high speed. Otherwise I dont think I'd be able to hit with anything other than a reactionary shot at just the right time. Usually it's just a direct shot into captive ball.

I had the game back in 1980's The game was made with regular standard pinballs.
The distributor for Bally never had a service bulletin for changing the balls etc,etc,etc.
It is another pinside mod being treated as a fact.
"I can't wait when Pin Stadium lighting will be declared OEM to 1990 Data East pinballs".

You're the kind of Pinsider I like to hear from: someone with experience from back in the day. Thank you for sharing your knowledge.

Nope, that's why I sent them back to the original discussion. A bingo ball has worked well for the 4 centaur machines I have re-done. If it was taken as fact after I corrected myself, I apologize. That's the reason I directed the conversation back to the original post at 614.

Oof. I’m dying here.

I’m swapping in a CPR playfield into my Centaur II and it’s killing me.

The routing for the pop bumpers is off centre and the holes are too small for standard Bally bases. I had to mill them out with a dremel tool and buy a router to fix them.

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I tried to install the magnet, and it was also routed too small and in the wrong place.

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And then I went to transfer the playfield brackets, and wouldn’t you know it but a whole line of lamps is also off by a quarter of an inch.

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Alright… nothing else can possibly be wrong, unless… the holes for lamps are drilled too small for the lamp sockets.

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OMG it's my immediate future. Thanks for sharing; at least I will be mentally prepared for the worst.

I swapped in a CPR playfield in my Centaur II with none of the issues you're having. In fact, It was pretty easy. The dimples were off and one hole was missing but that was about it. Mine came from a boutique run before they started grading them. Maybe 8 years ago. It was silkscreened and the first run they did with the color corrected blue inserts. What batch did this problem child come from?

One of the bigger challenges I had when swapping a new CPR pf into a CII was that the CPR pf was THICKER than the original:
-With posts that screw into a T nut underneath, I needed to slightly countersink the T nuts.
-With the first section of the trough, I had to trace and remove a few layers of ply because the ball was sitting too low for the trough kicker to kick the ball across the hill.
-With the drop targets, I also had to remove a few layers of ply where the assemblies mount because the targets were every-so-slightly too low when reset, many times causing the ball to hit and bounce off without the target dropping.
-Also same with removing a few layers for where the lock bar hanger brackets mount onto the underside of the pf.

Definitely a lot of the pre-drilled or dimpled holes were not exact. I was going batty thinking I mounted the trough kicker in the wrong spot because it would only make the hump like 1 out of 20 tries. Once I realized and remedied the thickness issue, trough worked fine.

It certainly is not as simple as "take off of one and put it on the other".

Wish they made a Hardtop

I bought it second hand from a local friend who didn't ever get around to putting it into a machine. I'm not sure which batch it was from, but it's a boutique run with white bonus inserts instead of red ones.

It is substantially thicker than my old playfield. My drop targets are all at the limit of the range adjustment available.

I've already had to take a razor to the rollovers; they didn't leave the blanks in them so they're totally full of clearcoat.

I have a Xenon coming up after this one. I hope it goes easier. Everything that could go wrong so far has.

Gawd I'm hoping they come out with one !!! I've been saving pennies for a new PF, and though I don't have a lot of experience with replacements it seems the concern comments far outweigh the positive ones...

You'd think these places use CNC routers for making these? They are not that expensive these days... How can there be so many discrepancies? I do IT for a furniture company and if it weren't for the artwork I'd be inclined to mock a new one up in AutoCAD and have our machines mill it out...

It's a very boutique industry with a demanding customer base and tight margins.

CPR has quality control issues that they work through on product lines. It's not uncommon for their first few runs to have significant errors. Wrong colours, missing text, misaligned print heads, etc. These issues get corrected in later runs due to feedback, but they still try to sell existing stock.

More than once on here I've seen pinsiders point out a serious issue with a new product only to get out on blast by them. Responses seem range from "our original was like that" to "we check everything before it goes and it's perfect."

I don't know what to say. It's hard for me to tell people not to buy the first run of something they might never be able to find again.

Any suggestions for worn ramp flap paint?
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That part is tempered steel. Industrial material supply stores have a conditioner
for blue tampered steel. I have seen the stuff... never tried it.

I've used it before. It's gunmetal bluing. I was hoping to restore it black. Was the original powder coated?

No. It was just plain Blue tempered steel

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I'm going to try spring stainless steel for this flap and see if it looks good.

That would be interesting.

oh weird. Mine absolutely has a very thin layer of black paint.

Cliffy makes a replacement out of thin gauge stainless steel. Works perfectly.

I might go for that. I touched the old one up with a paint marker but I doubt that will be durable for long.

The colors and text should_ get caught by QC, though I'm sure it's tough to spot those issues by eye when you've been staring at all the complex artwork for weeks. Misaligned print heads out to just flat out fail QC and the setup person should catch that.

What concerns me most are the incorrect drilling and routing where parts just don't fit - the milling should be repeatable on modern equipment and you'd think some kind of fitment test gets done to the first batch...

In the end I guess it's hard to really complain when there is literally no other source... It is what it is.

I wish they would just put simple dimple marks.
That way one could do the final mark positions.

So I’m trying to get my magnet sorted out. The wiring and supporting boards all check out. The coil itself tests at 51 ohms as it should. No matter what I do I can’t get the magnet to work. The magnet was punctured by a screw but I figured it was ok because of the 51 ohms. I was thinking about removing the coil and connecting it to a DC power supply I have just to make sure the coil is truly ok. What voltage should it operate at? What should be amperage?