Quoted from sethbenjamin:20 years seems like a pretty good life expectancy on a playfield part which is subject to compression and impact stress.
20 years on from a scratch build o
Tell that to my 1978 Bally Star trek which didn't have pooling... or require any washers to work right. Bally ST had a different problem with art... but that's beyond the scope of my argument.
Tell that to my Stern Star Trek which in 20 years; I expect to no have torn art under the washers. My DE Star Trek; still has no problem with posts/art except where cliffys normally are used. My RFM is fine without any issues.
Let's be 100% honest ... washer (metal, rubber, silicon) under a post to prevent clearcoat pooling and/or art tearing shouldn't be an issue at all.
Now; if one dude wants to put a washer under the post to prevent normal dirt from scratching the art away... that's fine. IE post 1572 above.
But- putting a Band-Aid on the poor, soft clear coat to try and prevent the horror show seen on Mirco PFs... it's just... unacceptable.
The clear/art problem is just kicking the can down the road when installing washers. Eventually; I'd predict in the lifetime of a pinball machine ... these PFs will self distruct requiring CPR: The Next Generation to reproduce 1000s of these PFs to bring them back to "collector's Quality".
The reality is that Mirco has a substandard product he is selling at premium prices... and doesn't care. In the process current and future customers of his junk will pay the price.