Love my Hobbit

Hobbit is very different. The playfield is wide open, but the code is so immersive, I love it. Killing smaug is one of the best things you can do in pinball, better than destroying the ring in lotr. I dont care for woz, beautiful game though.

Ok. So I have the new washers from JJ. Thinking of doing the following:
1. Inspect for ripples with Magnification and lightly touch around posts to see if tacky.
2. Carefully remove posts.
3. Inspect and take photos of uncovered play field
4. Try to create Mylar rings around posts, try to find some big circular hole punches.
5. Inspect posts and use wet and dry to sand any sharp bits and/or use a small nail file.
6. Clean play field with isotopyl alcohol mix I use for invisiglass
7. Install Mylar, new washers, sanded posts, new nylon washer under sling plastic to protect it, plastics and the nuts. Don’t over tighten.

Edit: damage caused by original posts will not allow Mylar to sit correctly. Will use star posts with Mylar underneath.

Harry, will add this to your sling post thread. Will let you know how I go.

I wouldn't do that. Definitely not by spraying liquid on the playfield. I clean the playfield by applying Novus 1 to a microfiber and wiping the affected area, then buffing with a dry one.

Ok. These posts appear to have rippling around them:

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This post seems to have just cut through the clear coat

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Also, what about the other posts on the field. Check out the star post under the BP ramp.

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Just had a weird issue start happening. The depths eject coil is firing repeatedly as soon as I close the coin door. During gameplay if I hit the map shot it has to do a ball search to eject it at the depths.

Any suggestions? This seems slightly different then the multiball depths shot issue some people have had.

So it does end up ejecting a ball? Does it seem like a ball is sticking in the subway down there? "Subway fix" post installed?

All 5 balls are in the trough. Just as soon as I close the coin door the kicker coil starts activating. I believe my game has the subway fix installed from the factory. Haven't had an issue with it during mulitball. In single ball play if I hit the map shot the game goes into a ball search and then fires out at the depths. Coil works in test mode but as soon as I close the coin door it starts triggering.

Thanks zaphX. Funny I used nifty to clean my WCS when I restored it. I have the Novus products. Can use those. I thought maybe a medical swab would clean better. And not be too much liquid. Here is a photo of the JJ washers. They are about 1mm thick and are hard.

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When you remove that post be very careful, mine looked just like that and some material came off with the post.

Hard to tell what is going on with that star post but it almost looks like it sunk into the clear a bit. I will have to take a look at mine.

How about switch test, is anything randomly triggering? (Maybe there's an opto associated with The Depths VUK that is obstructed/dirty?)

Check the switch in the shooter lane.

Thanks for the tip. The depths opto is not activating in switch test when I put a ball into the depths area. Other subway optos activate when I put something in front of it, ones by depths eject are not. Is it possible for optos to go bad?

You only have to wait until later this year with Guns n Roses. Can't wait to see what he does with THAT.

Update: Must be a bad opto and from what I read only way to fix it is an opto harness replacement. It looks like one of the optos may have been repaired by JJP as the back plastic piece on it nearly fell off. Will contact my distributor tomorrow for a replacement. First opto I've ever had go bad in a JJP pin. Damn and up this point I had no issues with this game lol.

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The playfields do seem to be less durable than older games. The playfield on the jjpotc at Tilt in Minneapolis is showing a lot of wear around the scoop and map holes. DMD era games at the same bar with many more plays have playfields in better shape.

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Having a go at cutting Mylar circles. I used:

Old star post
Post bolt and nut
Piece of wood drilled with 3.5mm
Mylar cut into 22.5mm squares
Sharp hobby knife
3.5mm hole punch

It’s not perfect. Otherwise buy a 20mm or greater hole punch from a craft store. This does give you a hole in the exact centre of the circle.

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That's a different comparison. Everything pre early 2000s when they changed the environmental rules to outlaw use of the harsh chemicals that made diamondplate and (better) clearcoats was better. Then in 2008 the playfield wood blanks were thrown into disarray (according to the timeline from CPR), so there's a double whammy. Even if you buy the best playfield blanks, your clear is still inferior to the better stuff that harmed the environment.

DO NOT cut them so close to the edge of the star post. The post will shift around when it's hit and you'll have a mess. Give yourself a 2mm or so buffer all the way around which will give the star post room to move around a bit and still stay on the mylar.

Here's the ones I did (with the backing paper on to show the margin around the outside):
PotC Mylar Ring Clearance (resized).jpg

I’m using these with the original posts thus why I’m using star posts

Btw, how did you cut yours so nice?

Ah! If you're putting them on the narrow posts, that will be PLENTY of margin.

(At least in the US) You can buy hobby/scrapbooking punches/cutters in various sizes that make a clean cut. 22mm is a good size for the star post outer cut.

Edit: I see you mentioned hobby punches in your original post.

I suspect the pirates isn’t treated differently than the TZ sitting next to it.

If you have or know someone with a low cost Silhouette Cameo cutter you can cut thousands of these in an hour in any shape. Pretty much how any of the decal shops would do it. I use ours to cut mylar and decals daily. Simple and fast.

One of my BP spinner optos literally fell apart.

Ok so went with the original posts with a 16mm Mylar cut out. Didn’t work. My posts were gouged down into the Playfield, one of them has been driven down 2mm into the Playfield. So the Mylar is depressed in the centre by the posts and it is not sticking. So I think I need more like 7mm clearance around the post so will go with a 25mm punch now.

And taking the post off revealed a chip.

I really don’t know whether to continue with the original posts or go with star posts with even bigger Mylar circles. I think I need about 30mm.

At the risk of wading into something that I shouldn't, I would just like to a add a few data points to the clearcoat concerns:

- In the course of various restorations, I have had to remove posts and, no matter the era of the game, I have often found that the post has dug into the original clearcoat and artwork.
- I have also had playfields clearcoated and, after doing a playfield swap, if I had to later remove a post I had installed for whatever reason, I sometimes found that the post had dug into the new clearcoat.

I'm not saying that what some of you have experienced with this game is not out of the ordinary, I'm just saying that when a post is screwed into a clearcoated playfield, it will often dig into the clearcoat and artwork. The first time I saw this, I was surprised, because I had been told that clearcoat was indestructible and impervious to wear when, in actual fact, it's a lot softer than we think. In the battle between a post, with a relatively small footprint and a clearcoated playfield, which the post is tightened securely against, the post often wins. Remember, the posts have to be tight, or they get loose and move around and then the screw hole gets damaged.

Now, if you have large areas of artwork falling off your playfield without having been subjected to the pressure from a playfield post that may be another matter.

Your seriously going to take the position that within 6 months
of home use and less then 1000 games played for most of us.
Chipped and missing art and damage to the point where the
original posts won’t sit level on the PF is Normal?

These aren’t restorations, these games are exhibiting damage right out of
the box with the posts being over tightened. If after 25 years of
heavy use this type of thing started to show up during a resto it
wouldn’t be an issue.

My experience feels the opposite, scoop wear is normal, shooter
lane wear normal, pop bumper wear over time normal, areas
where the ball drops and hits pf repeatedly the wear is the
normal over
time.

This is not normal for a new machine.

Overtightned and shitty posts with sharp edges and burrs are the
culprit hear not casual pinball play.

Here's the mylar squares I used for my sling post holes. I did end up doubling up earlier today on these just to be extra safe. 6 used per side, 2 per each post hole.

https://www.pinballlife.com/die-cut-ball-drop-protective-playfield-mylar.html

So the TZ has been there in the same spot and taken care of by
the same person for the entirety of its life, and gets the same amount of plays as the POTC since the POTC was put there?

If I ever get myself one of these games, I think that I would cut a piece of thin plastic to cover the entire sling area kinda like the sling plastics but they will go under the standoffs.

It would be easy to create... Scan that part of the playfield and have someone like Laseriffic cut them out, it would need holes for the sling kickers and lights.

I don't know. I do know DG_Amuse isn't putting cliffys on the
scoop of the TZ or cutting mylar to put under the posts of
the TZ
as it doesn't need it. The TZ has been there longer than the
pirates and has see many more plays. TZ playfield is in
better
condition. I agree that doing preventative maintenance and
taking
care of a game to prevent wear is a good idea. I also believe
the
hobby would be better off if the new playfields were more
durable. A large portion of jjpotc
threads are methods to prevent and / or cover up playfield
wear.
While it is great that there are passionate folks to figure
out and
share this information with all of us, it would be even
better if
that was unnecessary.

A few more mods I installed in my game: red chest light, green trough light and gold backboard light.

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This was posted by Keith on Twitter late yesterday. Just thought I'd share it. Note his comment quoted below...

"This list probably isn't final yet, but why not start getting angry now?"

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I received the email saying that my POTC LE shipped today....

Cmon pinball star, let's see that email for mine to ship!!!

You need to start calling him and texting him at 3am his time.

LTG : )

That is awesome. Some interesting perks in there that I can't believe they don't list on the character selection screen.

Would have never guessed that Swann can't play Tortuga Multiball or ARRR Frenzy.

I like the pardoning for Weatherby Swann.

Was that added in the .99 code or is that to come?

I think some of the things in the list are potential upcoming changes which are not currently in code...

How do you get the full character screen again with all pros/cons (if any)

I thought it was holding the left flipper down but that doesn't do very well because it just selects the previous character (naturally).

Also, I hope 1.0 doesn't trigger the flippers when selecting your character. Completely unnecessary.

Nice! I have a white trough light (not as bright as yours) and I've considered the chest light, looks good. The backboard light was installed on mine when I got it (I think it was white) and it just lit up the backboard too much and made the starmap "square of plastic" too prominent. I just got some RGB lighting in with a dimmer/color selector that I might try back there, being able to dial it down and choose a specific color. There isn't much to light up there anyhow so I didn't feel to bad losing it.

you have to pick the character and then hold the left flipper during the actual game to get into the information screen that shows all the plusses and minuses of each character. its very cumbersome when they could have all just been listed on the character selection screen in a little text field or grid of some sorts.

Me too!!

The rgb might not work if you use spotlight connectors. Too much flickering will cause them to reset.

I've been testing with the extra 12v connectors in the backbox or by the coin door. My WOZ had a lighting kit from pinball-lights.com or something which took the 12v from the coin door and stepped it down to 6v. I didn't see a need to do that with additional spotlights (might as well stick to the 12v JJP used) and I am only adding a small load to the other 12v circuits so I can't imagine that would be a problem. At most, two strips of RGB (one for chest and one for backboard).