Exactly why, after not being able to secure a CE, I am in no rush to buy an LE
Sitting on the sideline to watch quality on first batches.

Aprons and lanes digging in have been a problem since before the recent clear coat issues. I make U-shaped channels for my metal Stern aprons on my 3-D printer to keep the playfields from getting cut. I also try to be very careful when tightening these items from under the playfield. Before making the channels, I used a clear plastic washer at each of the screws to hold the apron up a tad. I suppose the same type of solutions could be used on JJP and Stern playfields.

The manufacturers really need to address the design so the bottom edge of the guides or aprons are not sharp or they leave a very small gap so they don't actually contact the playfield except at the attach points.
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That Wonka build date was indeed late but the playfield for it could have been sat around for quite sometime.
Remember due to Covid19 and factory relocation it was probably produced before the new batch of good ones for GnR etc....

JJP would have to be beyond stupid to allow lightning to strike twice with the same issue.

Edit: Hold my beer!

You mean like they did with Wonka after all the issues with POTC playfields?

I have a July production JP premium. The playfield is flawless. Seems to be an inconsistent crapshoot

It looked like there was pooling the second time the starpost was tightened

I didn't see any, he detroyed the star post and max torqued it in too with just a slight scrape

Just an opinion but these “look how tight I can make it and no damage” displays are hardly real world. It’s when a ball starts side striking that post like a ball peen hammer that damage occurs in short order. Hence the reason a new game out of box always looks perfect. How many have posted pooling Out of Box? How about after 100 plays? A uniform short straight down torque will hardly show damage. These issue are still happening.

100% agree.... but still going to wait to buy any NIB.
I am in no hurry to buy anything

Stern has been manufacturing their own playfields from start to finish for a while now... Pulling the art away from the posts works but they've been struggling to find a way around the ball guides... somw playfields have art pulling up around them and others don't. Stern playfields just dont have the same quality of clear over thrm as JJP,Spooky,CPR, or CGC do. They need to figure it out but they won't figure it out as long as they have a BACKLOG of games on order! I'm at fault I ordered an Avengers prem machine.

I have s JP prem and its free of pooling or chipping thus far but the clear is visibly thinner to almost damn near non existent! And dimples are visible, but dimples are visible on every playfield. Just not as deep as on these newer stern machines.

When did this happen? Last I seen they were routing and sanding the playfields but I did not see nor hear that they were applying art or clear in house which is where the issue is.

True, only a test of time will truly show if it's up to the task...Plus I think the pooling with the clear is a gradual thing, time and pressure to move the clear like a fluid...Not necessarily a quick tightening, although I think they are heading in the correct direction and I was just commenting that I didn't see any pooling after his torque test.

Very small sample size, but the PF on my new Hot Wheels looks amazing. No pooling, no grain, and no crazing on inserts.

200 games in on a GNR LE at the shop. Both of the bottom sling posts are pooling, peeling, and chipping. Art came off on 1 side. Probably much easier to see and spot in person.

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Bummer. I wonder why JJP didn't trim the art back away from those posts like Stern did?

Sorry not possible "romulusx" says they fixed the issue last Oct

I wonder since these were the first 100 LE's if those had the older style Mirco clear method and the new version they are doing as described in the Pinball Expo video is what they have since switched to...we'll probably never know when those first playfields were produced, fingers crossed, I hope this isn't Wonka all over again

Surely Kaneda will cancel his CE now...

Which one?

I feel your pain. That just sucks every piece of enthisiasm and joy out of NIB. Have you informed JJP and/or your distro? I am very interested to see how JJP handle this.

Every manufacturer has issues. How they handle their issues is what can make or break them. Please keep us updated.

Tell you to get inline behind, Wonka owners.

Wow wtf.

Damn man...I hope they hook you up and this is isolated. How in THE hell is that possible. JJP just pay Spooky $1,000 a pop and have them make the damn playfields and be done with it.

Can someone highlight or circle where the damage is on the pictures and re-post? I'm straining and I can't find it. Not trolling, I just genuinely can't see anything wrong in the pictures. Certainly not compared to some of the pooling I've seen in other photos. What am I looking for here?

I’ve got one small spot on the inside of the rail circled. Its tiny but other than that i am happy with this playfield.

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wheres the damage? I don't see it

Here's a better angle, I rotated it and zoomed in, you can see the post digging in and the clear pooling in front of the chip

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Amusing when I posted in this in the GNR thread last week everyone thought I was nuts.

Correct. Art and clear is done by one of 2-3 different vendors. But all the wood CNC and inserts are done at Stern. There was a cool video during the virtual EXPO that showed the process.

I thought they did the clear now also, Jack Danger mentioned it in the video but said we're not going to show you that room.

I couldn't see it well enough in the pic last week, this one the pooling looks worse

Why cant they get rid of the skinny sling posts and use starposts ?

@N80G80: Is there any time stamp on your GnR playfield?

When I remember right, someone post here on pinside a picture with "2019".

It looks like the playfields are cleared after the inserts are done, then they go out for printing, and another layer of clear over that. Not sure who does the final coat of clear. Knowing this information, the adhesion problems to the wood lay squarely on Stern.

Not sure that would fix it? I dont know that that would make a hill of beans worth if difference. So it can just pool up in an even wider radius? I'm super disappointed with this news.

Then showed the finished product. A blank wood playfield with clear on it.

Because the issue is still there no matter which post you use.

AP seems to be doing a great job with quality ... now if they would just come out with a them I care about I would be a buyer

I do not understand why they cannot solve the slingshot post pooling problem by using a simple method: add a clear plastic under the normal slingshot plastic, which has 3 holes for each post. The clear plastic fixes the whole slingshot unit against the pressure from the sling rubber, which otherwise pushes the posts inwards and causes the pooling. The clear plastic makes it stabile.

I made this for my POTC and it worked well. Very easy and more or less no costs.

The pictures shows what I mean. Just replace the yellow color by a transparent one. The normal plastic is then added on top.

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Pressure from the sling rubber would still be pulling on the lower section of the post though won't it?

So as a test if you rebuilt the sling (not connected to the playfield) using just the art sling plastic, your yellow plastic, the 3 bolts+nuts, 3 posts, and the rubber . Wouldn't it still be pulling inwards on the posts?

The top and bottom posts would have to be be very tightly screwed to your yellow plastic to resist the rubber pulling it in. I'd guess having the nuts screwed down that tight would likely crack or atleast scratch the art sling plastic.

Haven’t read thru all the posts just saw the title. I was able (well my distributor) to get Stern to swap out my JP LE with a new perfect populated play field.

Feels like a new machine. Question - not that I’m selling anytime soon but does that move the plays count back down to 0, since majority of the machine is new? How do you account for this kind of situation?

Nobody really cares about play count. Play your machine and don't worry about it.

You don't. Just document the play count and the date when you did the swap. At the end of the day, the condition of the game will speak for itself. I have seen fantastic games with 30K plays and garbage ones with 10K plays.

There is no pulling/pushing in the lower section of the posts, because the lower part of the posts goes into the metal post holes of the playfield when screwing in.

Second, you are right. The clear (here yellow) plastic needs to be very tight to the posts, but only regarding the distance of the holes (exactly like the post position). This can be realized by drilling the holes exactly. You need not screw the posts in tightly. So the sling rubber pressure is absorbed by the clear plastic even if the posts come lose a bit.

I think this is why I've had good luck on my pins, before playing them, I always put in the ridgid plastic guards from Mezelmods... All the pressure from the rubber seems to translate mostly to the extra rugud plastic and I just have the star/sling posts just hand tight

Pinball manufactures need to stop using those shitty skinny posts for the slingshots, there’s just not enough base circumference support with the tension of the slingshot rubber and the constant movement with a slingshot mechanism arm tightening the rubber in action it puts way too much tension on that skinny post and the bolt that digs into the playfield.

Slingshot plastic posts should be the standard style Williams starburst posts.

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And what do you do when that doesn't help?

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Pooling on the opposite side of where I would have thought it would.

Yeah, I know right? It's not only tension from the rubbers and action from ball strikes that causes the blistering/pooling. Sometimes it appears to be just old fashioned downward force that causes the digitally printed artwork and gooey clearcoat to squeeze out in interesting and unexpected directions.