I have used a hair dryer to heat it up. No to hot that you melt it. When you get it hot it will push down. After you get it pushed down you can super glue it from under the playfield. Make sure you hold pressor on the insert until it drys. Don't put super glue on the top of the insert. If you do a search on RGP you will find this method. What pin is this?

For the cupped inserts I have tried both water thin super glue and clear coat (I used varathane). The clear coat is a little easier, you have to be very careful with the glue as it can get cloudy and you'll need to sand very carefully. These techniques were in the pinrepair guides. RIP, lol.

Whatever you use make sure the inserts are level. Both turned out decent, and so far have held up well.

I have never tried heating and flattening out the cup. Sounds pretty risky to me.

I leveled some on a funhouse. http://www.borkade.com/2011/01/21/funhouse-08-leveling-inserts/

A hair dryer was not effective. i switched to a paint stripper and it worked great. Used a piece of OAK to tamp them back in while warm.

here is a vid of a guy removing the inserts, but it is the same method. My paint stripping gun was the same but a diff brand.

I should add, the guides recommended to use higher quality auto clear.

I had a F-14 ( 3-Time's ) and the insert's are Alway's terrible.. I got a Thick Paint stir'er and a hammer and pop'd them back down.. Thin side-down and a Quick bang.. Sometime's it Work's ,, and sometime's it Doesn't.. Or if the Mylar is off, pop the insert's out from under-neath , clean out the Trap and re-install use-n some Good contact adhesive..

I'm surprised you got them with a paint stirrer, was it just pine? I have had to use hardwood, when I did Pinbot I had a piece of walnut and had to really beat the shit out of them to get them level. Heated them really well too, don't know why they were such a pain.

Take a look here for dealing with sunken (cupped) inserts;
http://www.passionforpinball.com/jjresto.htm

Great info, thanks Cliffy!

Or Varathane gloss in the silver can, waterbased. I only used the Minwax because it's what I had on hand at the time

Can you really tap an insert down? I have 2 raised inserts on my T2 and did not know anything could be done? Knowing my skill I would tap it and crack it

Yes. Use a hair blow dryer or heat shrink gun on low to soften the glue from the bottom. You may be able to push the insert back down with your finger but likely not.

I did a post to RGP about this long ago, pasted here- This is my cold method.

Now place a sheet of wax paper over the insert on top and use a perfectly flat and smooth hunk of hardwood and a hammer. I use a nice smooth piece of oak block that's bigger than the insert by at least 50% and at least 3/4 inch thick. I just did a High Speed and I mean EVERY insert was lifted about 1/16th of an inch and some were even higher! I use a 10 ounce claw hammer (smooth flat faced, never a ball peen!) directly on the hardwood block, squarely over the insert and I whack that sonofab**** but good! WHAM! They get down pretty quick for the most
part but some take repeated beatings Scares the hell out of anyone within hearing distance. My neighbor came running across the court once. Thought I was pissed at the game and was beating it to death WHACK!

Yep it sounds like brute force and it is. I've never done any damage to inserts or playfields though. The hardwood block spreads the impact fairly evenly. Do NOT try this with a soft wood! And here's a tip I learned from my carpenter dad about hammering; wherever your eye is
focused is where the hammer will go, simple as that. Look at the block and swing Scary? You bet! But it works. Once they are down flat flip up the playfield and use some thin CA (super glue) to lock that sucker in place.
(Use this tech tip at your own risk. Your mileage may vary. This poster not responsible for damage done by people who cannot keep their eye on the block

Cliffy, is spot on as always. I started beating on Pinbot and the wife came running. I went from love taps to a full on beating in a few minutes. Tap tap tap, no change. WHAM WHAM WHAM! Perfectly level.

Hey Cliff, as far as the Varathane there is an indoor and an outdoor diamond urethane gloss. I went with the indoor but have seen on your site you have used the outdoor. What are the differences if any?

Wow! I do wonder if the vibrations would spread and have an effect on other areas of the playfield? I might experiment

Nice tread

That's what I used on the Diner I just restored. It did a really good job. After 2 initial light coats I put a thick coat on until it started to cloud up. It dried crystal clear and smooth as glass.
The down side is you can put a 2nd coat without sanding within the first 90 mins. but after that you have to wait 72 hours before you can sand and apply the next coat. Then you can put 1 more without sanding within 90 mins and then have to wait again 72 hours.

The outdoor has UV blockers. Otherwise no difference at all. The UV blocking isn't all that good anyway as I was still able to get my Dredd florescent inks to floresce under a 365nm UV lamp.

Wondering this too. Can I do this with the playfield in the machine and not damage it?

If you don't want to use a hammer, get one of these deep-throated clamps for $10:

http://www.harborfreight.com/12-inch-deep-throat-c-clamp-45919.html

Of course, you'll want to use a nice flat piece of oak between the playfield and the clamp, and waxed paper between the oak and the PF so you don't glue them together.

Credit to Vid for this tip.

I just filled and leveled about 60 of them using Polycrylic

http://photos.scriptpirate.com/GalleryFilmstrip.aspx?gallery=3291541

Scriptpirate

I just used Minwax polycrylic to fill my inserts.It seemed to take an awfully long time (5 days)to dry anywhere near hard enough to where I could do any sanding on them.Very nerve wracking sanding on those filled inserts.You have to do a lot of sanding to get those things anywhere near level with the playfield and it's real easy to go through the clear and into the playfield artwork.I carefully used a razor blade like scriptpirate to knock down the higher layers ,but still it's a lot more sanding than I like to do on top of delicate artwork.I had 3 layers of clear down before I did this insert filling and leveling,wouldn't want any less then that or you would go through to the artwork way too easily.So far this is the hardest and most nerve wracking part of the playfield clearcoating by far.

Masking around the insert with the shelf paper really helped. The stuff is tough enough that you can sand the polycrylic agressively and not harm the rest of the PF.

Scriptpirate

heat never helped me do anything with those inserts on any playfield. IF you try tapping them out, usually results in spider cracks all in the insert and ruins it. For pushing in, 2 perfectly flat acrylic blocks and a huge C clamp. levels it every time.

for cupped inserts, only thing you really can do is have it clearcoated and level it out with clear. Most older fields don't have jeweling, so they don't have a lot of support and in time the inserts shrink and sag in the center, causing cupping. you don't want to pop them out, because they will probably shatter, and even if you do and sand them flat, the outside edge will be so thin after sanding, you'll be lucky if there is any support left in the insert. Best bet is to fill it in with clear. Auto clear if you can, as varathane gets foggy when you lay it on to thick.