F-14 Tomcat
Williams, 1987You're currently viewing posts by Pinsider stylesbitchly.
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I have an early run machine. No light boards. Many light sockets are soldered to a common ground braid wire, stapled to the bottom of the playfield. I am not going to buy a special stapler. Any suggestions on how to reattach the braid wire?
Thanks
Quoted from Wes910:I was looking at it and kinda wondering the same thing....Is a standard out door staple gun like you hand xmas lights with not ok?
I may install new sockets and wiring for all those with common braid. I would think that you don't want any type of fastener that penetrates the wood more than 1/4".
I have just finished rebuilding all the flipper assemblies per vid's guide (thanks again vid) and unsoldering all the hardware from the harness and labeling the wires and rebuilding all the snubber boards with new R1 resistors and capacitors. Waiting for new flush mount (staple) 44 sockets for lamps. I will not use the old ground braid wire. Next is to rebuild the pop-bumper and then any other moving parts that need it. Make sure to replace the caps on pop-bumper and slings.
I will wash the wiring harness in the dishwasher. I'm sure you know to remove the snubber boards first! You don't want to get water in the relays.
Cheers!
Quoted from bobukcat:Are you going to put stapled down ground braid down on the new PF? I know it would probably be more work, and make the game less original, but I don't think I'd want to solder that many points up against a brand new PF so I'd want to use feature sockets and run ground wires between them all instead. Just curious what the predominate method is when doing a PF swap.
No, I will use the flush mount lamp sockets and insulated wire. I will staple it with the 1/4" staples listed above. But all the soldering will be done on my bench before it is stapled to playfield. I am going to use the flush mount sockets because it will allow clearance for the wiring harness and other hardware. I think the bracketed sockets would be a problem here.
Quoted from damageinc55:I tested the mech, it doesn't appear to hit the wood (at least the way I mounted it). I'm wondering if in fact I could just move it forward to be flush with the route.
My photos of the original playfield shows exactly that. It can be slid forward to some degree to close the gap.
Quoted from bobukcat:I couldn't find 150 ohm 2 Watt resistors at any of my usual suppliers but they did have 300 ohm 1W so I used two of them in parallel. Not as clean looking as using a single higher wattage component though.
I ordered these from Mouser.
http://www.mouser.com/ProductDetail/Panasonic/ERG-2SG151V/?qs=bb%252b1MDm7h6JM9FdKe2bTJQ%3D%3D
Quoted from bronco-jon:I took all the junk I had sitting on top of the playfield glass and removed the glass today to get a game plan on doing my new PF swap.....
I just can't bring myself to do the swap at this time.
The new pf is beautiful I know, but I just can't see doing the swap right now.
the original pf isn't really all that bad at all and it still has all the original maylar on it.
Something I need to think about a bit.
Heres a couple pics of my original still in the machine
Just do what the drug companies do. Jack up the price on it 1000 times beyond what it costed you and sell it to someone who desperately needs one.
Quoted from mdclips:Got my playfield and it looks great. I am putting a light polyurethane coat on the back before I start. After that I plan to get all the T-nuts in. Does anybody have a list of what t-nuts are needed? Are people reusing the old ones? First playfield swap.
Thanks
I reused some of the old ones. The new ones I got off Marco specialties will require you to drill a larger hole. Old ones fit perfect. Just bend the teeth back up straight before you reset them. I also used 30min epoxy on them so they don't come loose.
Quoted from shirkle:While waiting for my last couple of parts to arrive to finish it off, I decided to take off the back wooden panel with the 6 flashers and give it a good coat of primer and satin black paint. Looks great now. The original was a very flat black on bare wood and it was just looking dull and dusty in comparison to the new playfield. Only took about 45 minutes, start to finish, and looks so much better. Recommend it!
Yes. I did exactly the same thing. I also replaced all the light sockets. 3 of them were bad. It definitely looks much better now!
Well I accidentally wired the three 89 flasher sockets on the right side of playfield in reverse polarity (ground to socket pin and hot to socket) and decided to test another 89 socket out on my Sharkey's Pinball machine by connecting it with jumper clips. It still flashes in reverse polarity as well so no need to rewire them. I just made sure sockets were insulated well. I have coin taker LED 89 Super 5 flashers and pinball life LED flashers are supposed to work this way as well according to them.
Yes, incandescent makes no difference. I stated that I am using LED flashers. Mine are wired in parallel. Yes, I removed the warming resistors. They all worked well before the playfield swap. I just wanted to state that Cointaker Super 5 Flasher don't care about polarity. Some older flashers will not work in reverse. Maybe they all do now.
Awesome pinball collection bobukcat!
FYI, I installed a .75mm Makrolon playfield protector from Bay Area Amusements. I bought this back before I got on the list for a new playfield. I was going to use it on my old beat playfield. I discovered that it is fairly easy to blow any particles out that get under it with compressed air. I use 90 PSI. You need some serious air. Not that canned air B.S. Yes, you would have to remove some plastics, but on F-14 it's easy. Just lift up a spot and blow it out. Works great. I guess some machines may be a PITA but not F-14.
Cheers!
Peter,
I should have posted this sooner.
I think it would be a good idea to not route the center kicker troughs slots so much after all. Although I was able to push the troughs up to close the gaps, I had to grind off quite a bit of steel off the kicker arms to prevent them form hitting the back of the troughs. This may weaken the arms and caused them to bend easier. Time will tell. But, had the route not been as great, the adjustment would have been simple and no steel would have had to be removed.
Everything else went great!
Quoted from Radius118:6 months is what it takes for the clear to reach maximum hardness. But if you think they game won't develop dimples because you waited.. well... not gonna happen. There is no way to avoid dimpling.
Yes, dimples are unavoidable. But play enough games on it and they all blend together and are not noticeable. Otherwise install a Playfield Protector on it. It's easy.
Cheers! 
Right now I am waiting for a nice day to go outside and sand down the cabinet and backbox right sides. I have a decal set but only want to install them on the right sides. The left sides and front are in such good condition that I can just touch up air brush them. I may be selling the left side and front decals on ebay to recoup some of the money. Not sure if this is a good idea. Any opinions appreciated. Other than that, I'm all done with playfield swap. I replaced over half the light sockets and rebuilt everything. I replaced a lot of those stupid little yellow wires that kept breaking off everything. That's what all the nice bright yellow wires are in the pictures.
Well I finally installed my F-14 decals with the metal leg protectors and the legs still dug into the decals and cut them, but below the protectors.. It appears that they may have cheapened up the leg protectors by making them thinner metal. Had they been thicker, this wouldn't have happened. I bought these protectors from Pinball Life "Metal Cabinet Protectors (set of 4) 535-0599-00" I should have checked closer before tightening them down. But this is B.S. So be warned. The legs are brand new Williams system 11 legs too. Sorry no picture.
Quoted from pintechev:Trim the decals around the leg protectors.
Yes, I did trim the decals around the protectors. It wrinkles down lower where the legs touch. If the protectors where thicker this wouldn't happen. The legs dig right into the cabinet.
Ya, too late now. The damage is done. Now I may have blown a chip on MPU board. Stupid ass pop bumper. Oh the pain!
Quoted from GPS:Anyone out there know of an available F-14 play field
http://www.planetarypinball.com/mm5/merchant.mvc?Store_Code=PP&Screen=CTGY&Category_Code=GS-804
I wouldn't wait too long.
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Fort Lauderdale, FL