I just joined the club today after picking up my first pin - and was so glad it was a Demo Man! One I remember playing a lot back years ago when it was new, and now have one for myself.

Alright, I do already have a troubleshooting question on my new DM.

I'm noticing that during at least some multiballs, it'll end multiball mode while I still have two balls in play. It handles it well, after one of the balls drains I get to keep playing until the second drains.

It hasn't happened all the time, and I haven't actually done any real investigation yet to try and figure out if it's always happening, or only under some conditions. (I'm a software QE in my day job, so I'm used to nailing down the parameters on an issue) My current thought is that maybe it's kicking out more balls than it should - launching 2 balls for the first multiball, even if I only have one freeze, and thus that's why it thinks it's over after the first drain. But I haven't tested that yet.

Wondering if anyone has advice on where to start looking to identify the problem(s).

Yep, that would be correct. Trough 4 is flaky. Guess I have my first electronics project with the machine now.

What's the standard outlane configuration for DM? The one I picked up has them set tight - upper post all the way down, lower post in the top hole. I'd like to adjust them to the factory default for now, and it doesn't look like that info's in the manual available on IPDB.

This game is helping me earn my pinball maintenance and repair education. Went to replace some bulbs with new LEDs I bought at the NW Pinball Show. Was replacing the freeze bulbs - three were oddly colored LEDs (2x green and 1 purple), which were easy replacements. Then I went to replace the first freeze bulb, which was still an incandescent, and found out why, as I managed to snap the socket off of the board when trying to do the replacement.

Oh well, already needing to do some solder work to replace 2 stand up targets, possibly an opto, and the J120/121 board connectors which are currently hacked-up to deal with being cooked in the past. Just one more thing to do.

Oh, and also - the thread has references to someone that will swap out old handles for re-plated ones. Anyone able to give me the details on that? Wouldn't mind getting them taken care of on mine.

Has anyone else put a set of plastic protectors on a Demo Man? How well have they worked out?

Even though there are a number of broken and cracked plastics on the one I bought, I was considering getting a set of protectors, to both help prevent further problems, and so that replacing broken ones won't just result in new broken ones. But as it's my first machine, I wanted to make sure it's worth the money to buy a set.

And are there any other common changes or additions to help protect the game and pieces to be aware of?

The long plastic and right sling are already broken, along with the one over the sling on the right edge (big chunk broken out). They were that way when I got them. There were new slingshot plastics included, but I didn't want to replace them yet. I'll definitely get the protectors, replace the broken plastics I have spares of, and start watching for others too - I think I saw Marcos has replacements of the long plastic.

Ah, not Marco's, it's Bay Area Amusements that has them listed, and it's now marked as out of stock. I forgot that's where I was looking, since it's the only place I've found that has the eyeball that I also need to replace.

No, there are no references made to the seashells in any of the callouts.

In case anyone isn't aware, Planetary Pinball currently has full Demo Man plastics sets in stock on their website, along with number of other parts. I'm finally getting a replacement eyeball, along with the plastic above the upper flipper.

I'd also like to say that if anyone is considering that set because they need multiple pieces, but doesn't need replacements for the plastics above the mid-right sling and/or the one next to the right ramp, I'd totally be interested in buying them off of you. They're not selling either of those separately on the site, and both are ones I want to replace on mine.

(http://www.planetarypinball.com/mm5/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=PPS-31-1919-COMP&Store_Code=PP)