People say that millwax is good, and a lot of people say that it is the devil, don't know how much cheaper it would be anyway. I am a Novus man myself, buy the huge tub of it if you find yourself running out all of the time.

64oz for $25

http://www.pinballlife.com/index.php?p=product&id=849

Never use it. An abrasive that if used improperly can cause more damage. Other options better for me like Opti Clean.

I have had an unopened bottle of Millwax sitting on the shelf. Perhaps it will stay there.......
-Kyros

I really like using 3M 06064 Perfect-It Machine Polish and 3M 06068 Perfect-It Ultrafine Machine Polish

Novus is an abrasive polish.

Millwax is a silicone "lubricant" and cleaner.

Two totally different things.

Just about everything else is better. Novus 2 is a rubbing compound not a play field cleaner. It is not a wax. It does not protect. It should never be used on a playfield. Clean it with a cleaner like simple green, wax it with a carnuba wax. Throw the novus away.

IMO- Novus is great for the 1st cleaning of a "neglected" PF.
After that, wax, wax, wax. Simple green on a polishing cloth to wipe it down
after a while then wax.

yep its called novus 3, its about 50% better

Novus 2 is a fine scratch remover, it is a good product to use on a clear coat for shine, but it is not a cleaner. Ideally, you should use a cleaner product first, then novus for shine, then wax for protection. Same process as for a car. That said, it does work well to clean plastics and playfields and I use it that way.

Nothing is better than novus 2 imho. Novus 3 IS NOT TO BE USED ON PLAYFIELDS!

I used "pledge lemon scent" on my one and only pinball for 15+ years. (Stern Stars) looks like the day I bought it 24 years ago. no issues. later years have used millwax.

I now use novus 2 and/or carnuba wax on my other machines. the odd time I will use millwax.

I use Millwax Pinball Playfield Wax and Cleaner on my machines most often. I only use Novus 2 on a machine that's dirty / neglected. When I restored Big Guns it was so dirty you could write your name with your finger. I stripped it down to the wood and first did a full Novus 2 then a clean / wax with Millwax.

I find my pins play much faster with Millwax and I think they are better protected then with Novus 2. Don't get me wrong... If I see a scratch on the PF I hit it with Novus 2 first then Millwax.

I use Novus 3 on plastics, ramps, PF toys, etc but never on the PF!

IMHO people toss around "just use Novus" way too much. I still remember the poor guy who bought those Metallica coffin decals and then tried to "clean" his game with Novus. Trashed the decals. He responded that he thought it was wax. He got that impression from all the people constantly saying to use it. I probably need to stick a note about that in my AC/DC playfield decals packages.

Novus isn't a cleaner, it's a polish. Big difference! If you're trying to shine a clear coat with a mild abrasive, sure, go for it. But you're grinding off micro layers of your surface when you do that, it's not actually "cleaning" anything like say Simple Green.

I use very light amounts of Novus 2 to clean the playfield and then remove all the residue. Then I put on a coat or two of carnuba wax (Mother's). If a playfield isn't too dirty, but is starting to look dull, I will just add a coat of wax.
One of my friends uses JUST Novus 2 with no wax, but I can't recommend that as I think that doesn't really protect your playfield.

Some of my friends insist on using CP-100 instead of Novus 2

Brian

These pics are from Novus' book under the question "Can I use Novus to polish painted surfaces?":

SCRATCHES.jpg
NOVUS-3.jpg
NOVUS-2.jpg
WAX.jpg

Just one look at those diagrams would tell you that you DON'T want to use Novus more than once on a playfield.

I've been using Novus 2 on my games for as long as I've had them (some over 15 years) and haven't noticed any wear in the coating on the playfields.

Novus 2 is fine, guys. You don't want to use it needlessly, but on a dirty pf it does a good job. After that, just wipe with cloth and wax regularly and you shouldn't need novus any more.

Watch out...if it falls off the shelf the bottle will probably explode/break....happens a lot!

Don't be an idiot.

Only use Novus to polish out scratches once, then just keep your game properly waxed.

If you are needing to use Novus all the time, your balls are bad, or you are not waxing your playfield with real wax.

It's not that Novus 2 won't work or is the worst ever. It is that why not use something far less abrasive if it works really well? I.e - simple green or something similar. I always clean with the least abrasive item that still does a good job.

Because using Novus 2 leaves a great shine but other similar products i have tried dont.

We are not talking going nuts using Novus 2 here.. this is only for cleaning/polishing clearcoated playfields and I am not aware of anyone ever tearing through clearcoat with novus even using a drill/polish pad. (which is what you do with the treasure cove kit anyway)

Right. I highly doubt you'd tear through any clearcoat on a nice PF. But I can clean with simple green, then use alcohol to get rid of any simple green hidden residue and wax. it shines like crazy

Where does one buy simple green locally at? I have looked before with no luck in IA. Is this the correct product ?

http://www.amazon.com/Simple-Green-13022-Purpose-Cleaner/dp/B0000CFLYJ

Novus 2 is great. I've been using it for 14 years and my playfields look fine. Hell, it looks to me like the longer you use it, the more polished your playfield gets. This is hand cleaning, no drills or buffing tools.

Do people honestly think that a good cleaning/polishing 5-10 times a year is actually going to remove the polyurethane clearcoat from a playfield? Crappy pitted balls do far, far more damage. I'd be careful using this stuff on lacquer, but it works great on poly.

Home depot and lowes both carry it and I end up picking it up there. Walmart also had it when I was there a while back, but been a long while

What is the difference between Simple Green and Isopropyl alcohol cleaning wise. I typically use the alcohol for cleaning. Is the simple green a better cleaning product ?

another one I use is resolution [orange] available at menards. $2 a bottle and seems to clean most playfield filth pretty well.

I use the simple green first and it gets rid of dirt a lot better and then the alcohol 70% mix next to remove any residue then wax. If you dont remove simple green residue it may not shine as well

Actually, I know of someone that was using novus 2 to clean ball wear marks by hand and ended up with wood showing.

Simple green heavy duty cleaner. Comes in a purple concentrate you mix. It's very strong and bio degrade able. You can douse your ramps in it, star posts, playfields. Its great stuff.

Are we talking about pre-diamond plated games here or ??? At least for modern pinball, it seems like the vast majority have been using Novus 2 for decades without any issue. When I first got into pinball, that was all I ever saw anybody even mention using. I couldn't see hand buffing through your clear coat with Novus 2, but maybe if you over did it somehow. I would more concerned with anything that might chemically thin out the clear.

Amen. I've used Novus on almost every game I've shopped to clean and wax both the playfield and plastics. It breaks up dirt very quickly and leaves a great shine when buffed. I've never seen it do damage to anything.

The only risky cleaning method I've encountered is isopropyl alcohol + magic eraser for doing swirl wear, which can produce very good results if done carefully.

If your playfield has ANY checking or planking, DO NOT put Simple Green or Alcohol on it; it will swell the wood.

Use Naphtha.

And you would know that before you shoved it under a ramp or any other ball trail under other playfield items?

What game? Pics?

For your sake; I hope so.

Addams family. Game is long sold. People don't keep games forever nor would I be rushing to a friends house to post pics on a forum lol.

Is there any reason no one has mentioned Novus 1? As my collection has grown, I've found it a nice quick way to polish my playfields.

Clean your playfields once properly then keep the waxed with a real wax and you'll never need to "polish" them again, seriously. This is also why you want to wax your brand new games from the start.

The problem I see with JUST waxing on an ongoing basis is that you aren't removing the black metal dust and rubber residue from the surface. You are just sealing it in with wax. Even a clean game is eventually going to get ball trails, then what?

What book is that? They don't have anything even vaguely resembling that on their website. They do however have a testimonial from someone who says Novus 2 is great for old 45 rpm records.

The toothpaste you scrape across your teeth twice a day is way more abrasive than Novus 2. Both products use silica as an abrasive. Toothpaste has 2 to 3 times more silica than Novus 2. Read the MSDS sheets. If your tooth enamel can handle twice daily scrubbing with way more abrasive toothpaste and a brush, don't you think the clear on your game can take a light cleaning with Novus 2 and a soft cloth every few weeks?

Ball wear marks means you've worn through the clear. Once you've worn through the clear, water and a rag can remove paint. Bad example.

If you're waxing a dirty playfield, you're damaging the clear far worse by doing that than you would by using Novus between waxings. Just like a car, you always want to clean before you wax (which I don't recommend for any game less than 10 years old).

I've seen folks post here that they squirt Novus 2 directly on the playfield. That's not how it's designed to be used. Put a small amount on a microfiber cloth and clean small areas at a time. Rotate the cloth so that you always apply Novus to a clean spot on the cloth. Think of Novus as more a lubricant to get the dirt off the playfield rather than a cleaner. The cloth does most of the work, not the Novus.

Also, Novus 2 is the only cleaning product Stern recommends for their games. Including in their preventative maintenance checklist. See for yourself:

http://tinyurl.com/kpamh77

Personally never seen a wear problem with Novus 2 on new games. For example, have used Novus 2 on a TSPP (location game) once a week for the last 5 years. No wear and the PF still shines up good. As far as I am concerned it cleans and shines in 1 step nicely.

On older games (pre- diamondplate) I still use Novus 2 but also apply wax afterwards. The older games take a lot longer to get dirty both because of the wax and that they don't have metal ramps and in many case are only one ball.

Parker

The Novus applications book at the boat store.

No, it doesn't .

You can get ball trails in the clear itself. Happens all the time.

Obviously tooth enamel is 1000x harder than clear coat.

-

Look, it's really simple.

Use Novus to remove ball trails, or polish the dull areas of a 'new to you' game.

Don't wear down your playfield unnecessarily by using it all the time.

Sure there are women who wash their hands in bleach and water 200 times a day and appear to suffer no ill effects, but it's just not a good idea.

I take this approach as well. On really dirty, older games, I do still use Novus2 but I am very cautious about how much pressure I use when "cleaning". I use the word cleaning here very strongly because Novus2 cleans very well...

On SS games from the mid 80's up to today, I take less caution and use Novus2 way more often, again and again for 10+ years on the same playfields. I have never seen any negatives after using it. My general rule is that the older the game is, the more cautious you should be about the differences between "cleaning", "polishing" and "waxing" a playfield's original surface.

On a side note, if you are trying to use "magic eraser" to remove things like dirt in hazing/ball swirls, you need to be more and more careful the older your game is when attempting to get good results and not destroy the original painted surface.

Thanks Phish, I was starting to think I was in an episode of the Twilight Zone and gave up.

It's not simple. The product works very well and is the best cleaner I've found. Your opinion is noted but my 15 years of experience with it over 50+ machines speaks otherwise.

I think its pretty obvious he was not talking about normal ball trails as Novus would never take paint off with normal ball trail marks.