Not that far off... Turn the base 1/4 of a turn.
Pop bumper screw holes line up.
Pop bumper lamp holes are offset... = normal.

Hmm...machine screws have to go in those holes...there's no room for them

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I had to redrill several of the bumper holes too, including the ones for the diagonal bracket/plate that goes underneath it.

Next time I'm not pre-drilling anything but lamp sockets that are right next to the inserts.

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Ooof
Edit: perhaps not?

Your base plate is 1/4 of a turn off!
Look at the inside of the pop bumper body, please.

Attach your plastic base to the plastic body...
then position the assembly on the playfield.

I think I figured it out...I rotated the thing 1/4 turn and it 'fixed it'

Thanks vec-tor. typical me, going for the wrong hole

FYI it still wasn't perfect but this helps

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One has to remember that the lamp socket helps snug down the opposing sides to help
hold down the pop bumper body.

A new step I have added to the process. I layout the old plastics and new plastics, if any, on the new playfield to check the dimples before I do anything else to the new playfield. It's so much easier to check hole and dimple placement with no rails or other components in the way.

What is the preferred PF rotisserie?

There's a thread here for a DIY rotisserie. SkyPilot maybe is the member who posted it.

Otherwise, there's another member in the Marketplace who sells a great one. I have both and they each have their own good and bad. Honestly, though, having 2 is where it's at.

Thank you.
I have a LW3 to restore and just planning ahead.

I have seen the one in the marketplace that has 3 trim levels depending on finishing.
Is that the one?

I dont want to use a table to stand it up. Wondering if there is anything else that is self contained, that brings it up to working height without a table.

Like a collapsible cloths dryer, you know one of those things our moms used to use back in the 80s-90s lol maybe even before too

Then building this one is probably your best option.

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/sky-pilots-rotisserie-plans/page/3#post-4435799

I use this one for the original, put a table next to it and deal with cleaning and mech rebuilding. Then I box that stuff up and set up the Table-Top Model you mentioned and mount the New PF to begin prep.

At this point the old PF becomes a defacto table / workspace and reference.

Great, thanks for sharing this!!

I got these a few years ago, they work well. Currently they aren’t available, however there might be other options worthwhile looking at.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00BLPBSXG/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o04_s00

See this related thread

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/playfield-rotisserie-bicycle-stand#post-6635782

I saw this video of a guy doing a playfield swap.

In this video he recommended preparing the bottom of the playfield by spraying it with Semi-Gloss clear coat in a can. The idea is to this will make it easier to keep the bottom of the playfield clean.

Does anyone really do this, or is it recommended?

Thanks.

I did that when I swapped my beaten up Meteor playfield with a new CPR. Very easy to do, only took a few minutes to protect the underside of the inserts and a few more minutes to put on a couple of coats of rattle can clear. Surface is much smoother now.....this was last year and it really hasn't accumulated enough dirt/coil dust to be noticeable, but it does feel like it'll wipe up easier if/when that time comes.

I do the same thing to the interior bottom of any cabinets I'm re-stenciling / painting.

I’ve never done it and it’s never made a difference.

No offense to the guy doing the video but he needs to learn how to spray with a can.

My goodness. The random application is awful.

It looks like you were using 1/4” grounding braid for the GI bus?

These days I either use the 18 AWG wire like they used on old Sterns for the bus, or just use standard insulated wire. On a restored playfield, if the old braid is OK I’ll just re-use it, but that’s unusual, most times it’s badly frayed somewhere along the line. Insulated wire is nice because it all but rules out shorting.

That said, I like the idea of adding a “post swap testing” section to this guide. Anyone who has done this knows the frustration of wanting to just fire up and play a game but having to do a bunch of troubleshooting before that can happen. A guide to the common problems is a great idea.

I actually like using flat braid for the GI bus, but I use 1/8"

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Wrong thread

I just used this technique to install my T-nuts highly recommend! Over 50 installed, took 2 hours.

Playfield swap complete. Took me 5 1/2 days. First swap I have completed in 23 years. Thanks to this informative thread it was a lot easier this time! That is a ton of work and especially if you’re a rookie like me. Thanks again!

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I gotta ask since your original playfield looked to be in pretty decent shape, what was the driver to do a swap with a new playfield? I have a couple of pins that I am on the fence on swapping their playfields, so interested in your decision to swap. Thx

When I purchased the pin the wear spots on the the playfield were minimal in the pics provided from the sale. I was going to try and touch it up. So I started to follow VID’s thread. Then when I actually got the machine here I had not noticed someone had stuck Mylar over that and other wear spots. I started getting nervous about pulling the Mylar for fear of doing more damage. I thought I could pull this playfield strip it and have a professional airbrush guy touch up the art and re-clear it. But that just seemed like it would take months. So I picked up a Mirco. Well then I started reading about all the horror stories of his playfields. So I researched how to protect the troubles that may occur with his playfields. I am still terrified now because of all the negativity that surrounds these playfields. I thought how could this guy stay in business for more than a decade selling these things if they were truly that bad? So I guess that is yet to be determined.

A buddy of mine just completed a swap on a monster bash so he was fresh with knowledge. He has a home made rotisserie and a manufactured one. I asked him if I could borrow his rotisseries and he said sure. So having two rotisseries is very helpful imo.

I had done a playfield swap 20 some years ago on an Addams with no rotisseries no knowledge I just did it. That one turned out fine lol zero clue how I pulled that off.

mof asked me to share some things:

Couple things I learned. The pops suck to do!!!!

Once you transfer over all the bottom side mechs and boards the wire harness seems incredibly intimidating but it is actually one of the more simple things to do.

Set up extra lights, more lights the better!

The reamer tool is an absolute genius tool to use for the bumper posts and rail guides! Way easier than drilling!!!

I took almost 400 pics and used most of them lol

I used a table the size of my playfield when I disassembled the top. I took a small section off at a time. Bagged it up in a ziplock with all its parts and placed in the table in roughly the same spot as the playfield. Every bag and section I took many pics to use again as a reminder and a reference. So I slowly rebuilt the playfield as I took it off on that table I setup. Don’t be afraid to take 400 pic’s because they will come in handy!

Once I got the bottom off the old playfield assembly and reassembled on the new playfield. I slid the rotisserie over to the cabinet and plugged the wire harness back in. Then I dropped the new playfield in the cabinet. Some I believe suggested that in here. They may have plugged in and left off the rotisserie for testing.

Once I double checked everything and it appeared normal. I turned the machine on and started testing lights, Switches, and mechs. Sorted out the bugs and started rebuilding the top. Every time a section went back on the topside. I turn on the machine tested that.

I haven’t really given it a play test yet but I might tonight or tomorrow. But as of last night everything seems to be functioning well.

Long story short. I hate playfield wear or damaged and it would have drove me crazy looking at it over the length of time I own the machine

I'm working on a Flash restore right now. Here's a shot from this weekend putting together the wire harness on a new CPR playfield. My trusty iPad is parked in the upper left corner showing my camera roll of 300+ Flash pix. Sometimes I'll hook up the iPad to that TV on the left wall when I'm moving the playfield around a lot on the rotisserie, but mostly I just use the iPad for the reference pix.
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Awesome - thanks for your write-up! Very helpful. I've done a few topside teardowns to clean the playfield and get everything "right" and there were many times I said to myself, "crap, why didn't I take a before-pic of that area"! LOL. Having the phone out and clicking pics has now become second nature because it saves so much time when putting the pieces back together!

I recently finished an EBD "refresh" - took over 500 pics and it wasn't even a swap (and yeah, the pops were a pain). It probably could use a new playfield (or hardtop) but it came it out pretty nice. When the planking and wear spots start driving me crazy, I'll have to consider a swap.

Next to taking tons of pics, the best advice I have is using a rotisserie - it is the bomb! Being able to rotate the playfield back and forth saves a ton of time compared to having the playfield in the pin.

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As I'm working on the top side of my Space Shuttle playfield swap, I've noted that the 'shaft' on the original #6 t-nuts is longer (nearly 1/8") than the new t-nuts I had installed. For some posts this probably won't matter, but for the mini posts (pointed top with hex base) which have a lock washer underneath (at least they did on the original playfield), the threaded portion of the post doesn't reach the t-nut. I think the simplest solution is just to knock out and re-use the original t-nuts for those 6 posts. Certainly easier than countersinking the new t-nuts. Anyone else run into this?

Randy