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Fathom 1 lamp sockets are all placed. image (resized).jpg
Going with the two leads version on this one.
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On the two I lane sockets I really have no better option than to use the original sockets.
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The reason for that is because the 44 staple down lets the bulb stick up to high for that location and will hit the plasticimage (resized).jpg

The screw down style would not clear the flipper assembly.
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So the original is the best solution there alone. Everywhere else it is easily replaced and upgraded.

Now I will start rebuilding and transferring the few remaining coil assemblies.
These are left in place until now for wire routing purposes.
The game is a bit of a wreck on the hardware department. Some assemblies require up to three different tools to remove one single bracket.
This one needs a 5/16,1/4 and a Phillips.
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This one needs a 1/4 and a flat head.

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Making some more progress on the Fathom 1 playfield. image (resized).jpg
The linear flipper mechs were beat on the original playfield so U will convert to the older style.
This isn’t a must but if the various linear parts are trashed the flipper usually perform poorly and entire linear mechs are not available but the older style is.
Provides a nice all in one solution to the problem. image (resized).jpg

All the 26-1200s are being replaced because at least a couple had to be so in the interest of a consistent look it is the best practices.

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All target banks are now in place on the Fathom.
The power went out at Curtis’s job so he got out early and we get a chance to have a what we like to call little Friday.

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even before the harnesses are back in place, the bottom of the fathom playfield looks packed (and I thought that the joust was bad

This morning I am going to work through the last of the coil assemblies to be placed on the Fathom playfield.
These are the pop bumpers
On this era game they are a pain because there are up to 10 wired plus a diode and a capacitor all crammed onto the assembly. Direct soldered not a breaking point in site.
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This is what one looks like cut free. image (resized).jpg

The bottom leg of the switch acts as a junction point for the light
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After that it is just a standard switch
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I think it is best but much more tedious to just dissect the entire switch and then rework the blades prior to restacking them. D58C2E60-A975-4F28-9469-56D498584F1B (resized).jpeg7B31FC78-D8B9-4EDC-9E12-E5980430EA35 (resized).jpeg5EADE8E5-D032-4546-BD92-B15F5FA5E44F (resized).jpeg
Replacing the spoon is a good idea too.
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Even that isn’t straight forward the holes in the replacements are too small
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Using a step bit this is corrected the spoon is placed and switch restacked and installed.

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Now to rewire
In place of the generic and confusing red and white lamp wires I go with blue and tan
Blue is color correct tan gives a good generic base so I can place this bumper in any of the three locations without confusion.
I prefer a dual 20 gauge placed in the .93 pin because it give the bit and gauge where needed but can easily be reduced downstream when it needs to go into the .62 future connector tubing is used to protect the wires from the rod and ring
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Now to wire the switch
A new cap and diode are placed the leads are housed in micro shrink tubing to avoid accidental shorts.
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The wiring used is specific to what all three will have in common which is yellow/red
The other wire chose is a generic white again so I can place any assembly in any location.
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White was chose because all three have some white at each location
White/blue

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White/brown
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Brown/white
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There is always a thought process or method to the madness

A nickel plated lower bracket is used to dress it up a bit and a new coil. EAFE5107-5AA4-401B-BF41-EA2851333D03 (resized).jpeg
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Now placed on plugs one for the coil
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One for the switch/lamp
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One down two to go. Easily an hours worth of work

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Pop bumpers are done and in place.
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That is pretty much everything mechanically. image (resized).jpg
Now for the wiring. I find it best to do that once the parts are mostly in place because it lets me know how to best map things out since I am eliminating the bare stapled wire.

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Alright we are ready to wire. image (resized).jpg

I am going to use this wire image (resized).jpg
To do what this wire used to do. image (resized).jpgimage (resized).jpg
The main harness is going to mostly just plug in now.

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The soldering marathon is complete.
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Now I am working on tightening and looming the wiring.
I have been experimenting with this style loom lately and it has been very helpful in elevating the harness out of harms way and giving better access to the parts below where all these taller mechs are.

image (resized).jpg

So that looks like a lot of soldering bent over a big playfield. Do you use any kind of exhaust fan or wear a mask or something to keep from breathing all those fumes? I used to not worry about it because I'm rarely doing more than a couple hits at a time, but now I worry about even that. I've got a small fan/filter I use beside my soldering station when I'm soldering small things that are portable, but that wouldn't do much beside something as large as a playfield.

--Donnie

Quoted from djb_rh:
So that looks like a lot of soldering bent over a big playfield. Do you use any kind of exhaust fan or wear a mask or something to keep from breathing all those fumes? I used to not worry about it because I'm rarely doing more than a couple hits at a time, but now I worry about even that. I've got a small fan/filter I use beside my soldering station when I'm soldering small things that are portable, but that wouldn't do much beside something as large as a playfield.
--Donnie

It depends on how much I anticipate having to solder.
If it is a lot then I will set something up to keep the air blowing from behind me if it is a little here and there I don’t worry about it too much. Not to say that you shouldn’t but having worked around paints and chemicals pretty much all my life you realize that is it impossible to take all the risk out of every single situation everyday single day so you just have to take reasonable precautions and use common sense.
If you do that then you are doing all you really can without getting too paranoid.

Fathom playfield wiring is complete.
Placed in the cabinet and powered up for testing. The blue insert rollovers look really nice. I found they look best with a lower lighting set up since there actually orange plastic that has been frosted over in blue. The contrast between the white actuators and blue insert fits the scheme perfectly.

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OP
Quoted from High_End_Pins:
Fathom playfield wiring is complete.
Placed in the cabinet and powered up for testing. The blue insert rollovers look really nice. I found they look best with a lower lighting set up since there actually orange plastic that has been frosted over in blue. The contrast between the white actuators and blue insert fits the scheme perfectly.[quoted image][quoted image][quoted image][quoted image][quoted image][quoted image]

Looking Fabulous! Gorgeous playfield!

Fathom 1 finished.

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Fathom 1 playfield.

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Fathom 1 inside. I don’t want to move the playfield into the service position unnecessarily so I just propped it.
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Wow, gorgeous work....the colours looked great on this machine.

OP
Quoted from High_End_Pins:
Fathom 1 finished.

Absolutely stunning!!! The coin door looks a little naked without the Bally sticker - was that the customer's request?

I'm not normally one for colored flipper bats, but translucent blue with green rubber looks great on a machine where blue & green are central to the gameplay. White bats stick out like a sore thumb on that deep, dark playfield.

Quoted from dmieczko:
Absolutely stunning!!! The coin door looks a little naked without the Bally sticker - was that the customer's request?

Thanks.
I may ultimately put one on there it just depends on what I have on hand and if that suits the color scheme.
I wish we had more choices when it comes to those but there are just a couple varieties. The standard or Susan B Anthony.
On some games they match and work well with the package others they don’t but are often used anyway for a more authentic look.
My preference is to use them only if they match or are specifically requested.

Amazing work! Thanks for posting such detailed photos of your process.

Beautiful Fathom Chris. Drop dead gorgeous. Owner should be extremely happy and proud.

Fathom 2 is set to kick off now.
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It is about the same as Fathom 1 just a little rougher in some spots.
The main difference at a glance is someone rigged a one way flap gate in place of what should be a standard one way gate.
This is what is there DDBF0768-5E9F-49CF-80F0-11DB14A28AA1 (resized).jpeg
This is what should be
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Otherwise not too much to figure out.
I already pulled the key parts I need plated. This one is a little rustier or more corroded.
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When it comes to having some parts plated I have found the the bottom plates of drop assemblies are the most bang for the buck and cause no function harm.
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In the past years ago I would break the entire assembly down for plating but quickly found out while it looked great I had many more problems getting them dialed in.
The tolerances on these are very tight so extra plating or even worse powder coating might look impressive but it creates too many problem. FCAB1BF9-E380-416C-9906-F828720BF4AA (resized).jpeg

The jets were broken down as well not a lite of moving parts there.

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OP
Quoted from High_End_Pins:
Fathom 1 finished.

Gorgeous Fathom!
The neighbors must enjoy the parade of eye candy regularly on display in your driveway!

Quoted from ToucanF16:
Gorgeous Fathom!
The neighbors must enjoy the parade of eye candy regularly on display in your driveway!

You know the neighbors are rolling their eyes and saying “there goes Chris taking pictures of a machine again..... didnt he just take pictures of that machine a few days ago?”!!!

Quoted from meSz:
You know the neighbors are rolling their eyes and saying “there goes Chris taking pictures of a machine again."

I can't fathom why he keeps taking those pictures!

Quoted from meSz:
You know the neighbors are rolling their eyes and saying “there goes Chris taking pictures of a machine again..... didnt he just take pictures of that machine a few days ago?”!!!

Those were my thoughts exactly. Chances are they don't have a clue of who their neighbor really is or what the hell he really does. And they shake their head every time a machine comes outside.

Man seeing you restore some of these older games makes me really appreciate the artwork and detail on these older games. That Fathom and the Centaur you did recently are absolutely gorgeous.

Great work again.

Quoted from epeabs:
Those were my thoughts exactly. Chances are they don't have a clue of who their neighbor really is or what the hell he really does. And they shake their head every time a machine comes outside.

That is probably about right.
When I used to take all my pictures at my warehouse it attracted way more attention and distraction so I started doing them here and after the first few times they got bored with it.

OP
Quoted from High_End_Pins:
That is probably about right.
When I used to take all my pictures at my warehouse it attracted way more attention and distraction so I started doing them here and after the first few times they got bored with it.

You got the wrong neighbors....if I lived next door to you you'd have to run me off with a stick!!!

If only they know how lucky they were to live beside a legend. Ungrateful sons of......

Quoted from AUKraut:
You got the wrong neighbors....if I lived next door to you you'd have to run me off with a stick!!!

I'd be camping out in the driveway with some beer waiting to help play test.

Fathom 1 folded then packed and ready for pick up.

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Brought this in for a quick shop out for a local guy I did another game for.
I don’t usually deal in that sort of thing but since he is just a couple miles down the road I figure I can make it work.
I am actually going to use it as a reference point to reassemble my Spirit 2 coin door so it is all part of a bigger scheme.

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Eagerly watching this one! I just picked up a Black Hole and am curious to see what you come across/hear your takeaways on it.

Quoted from radial_head:
Eagerly watching this one! I just picked up a Black Hole and am curious to see what you come across/hear your takeaways on it.

ok I wasn’t planning on documenting too much about it but I can give at least a little insight.
First I opened the head up and pulled the boards I would no longer need then installed Pascals all in one.
These are great.

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New pop bumper boards as well

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After that a new cord line filter cap etc.

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Then I was ready to clean it up a little. Cosmetics are not real important on this. The guy just wants it to work primarily but I will give it a quick pass. 6E0950F3-6098-409C-8E70-183F6DDAAF5C (resized).jpeg
The rings around the bumpers are the worst thing cosmetically over all. 4046443C-AB33-47B3-A4CB-B9FB5692B418 (resized).jpeg
I smeared some similar color paints in there first and let that set a bit.I will polish and clean that up later after it basically dyes into the low spots CC2BDEEB-6430-4B2E-AB56-D453683DCE20 (resized).jpeg
Then I polished the playfield and Mylar 7CF281F6-ED95-458C-B33A-915FE9063F12 (resized).jpeg

It worked pretty well for a quickie.
Before example 90F7EEBB-A409-45F9-B15A-AEF74BBC2124 (resized).jpeg
After example
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Next I was ready to power it up but it had no sound. A6473EC0-2139-40F4-ABF7-56AA9301B3BE (resized).jpeg
It was blowing F4 which is the solenoid fuse in the lower cabinet.
After a few wasted hours and even more wasted 8 amp fuses I narrowed it down to the 24volt special lights.
There was just a bent leg on one of the sockets but the way my mind works I kept thinking coils not all that familiar with the special lamps being driven off the same voltage and only kicking on when the relay engages them although I had known that in the past from my Krull restoration. Forgetting more than you know sometimes I suppose

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I decided to do away with them altogether by doing the 6 volt conversion and thus eliminating the possibility of it happening again in the future. Full LEDs were requested do that worked out fine all the way around and the flippers were rebuilt and placed on plugs.

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I ordered a new plastic set and a couple other things needed and once they arrive tomorrow I should be done less the spinning disc motor.
I ordered the Servo city parts recommended on Pinwiki no telling how long before they arrive so it may or may not leave here with that.
I told the owner it is no longer available and obsolete but I *may* have a workaround.
If this was a real HEP restoration it wouldn’t even come up I would just do whatever it takes but under these circumstances things need to happen quick I don’t want it sitting around taking up valuable real estate

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I used this for my Black Hole, Chris.

ebay.com link: 12V DC 2RPM Replacement Torque Gear Box Motor

Cheap and just needed a slight enlarging of the mounting holes on the original mounting bracket.

Quoted from RC_like_the_cola:
I used this for my Black Hole, Chris.
ebay.com link » 12v Dc 2rpm Replacement Torque Gear Box Motor
Cheap and just needed a slight enlarging of the mounting holes on the original mounting bracket.

Thanks.
I might try that too although it looks like it wouldn’t be here until after Christmas.

BH is about as far as it goes for now.
I finished working over the pop bumper “touch ups”
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Now I can copy the coin door for my Spirit 2 rebuild. I know Bally doors,Williams door by heart but not these.

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For my spirit 2 door I have had all these parts plated due to rust. Most are for the door. image (resized).jpg

Other than that I will see what I can do with the original skin which is buckled and dinged.

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Took a while but I assembled the Spirit 2 door

I swapped out things like the coin slots And start button for better matching options.

Was able to straighten the door out and get not only the buckle but the dings out.

The textured finish is both an advantage and a disadvantage when it comes to that.

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I am going to tackle this next while I am in System 80 mode.

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HEP This Week

By High_End_Pins

5 years ago

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