No worries, it's only pinball

Hey, I'm back

I stopped by the cabinet shop today to review some of the finer details (hole placements, tee nut locations, etc.). Here's a look at the cabinets as they sit. Yup, that's right.... I had 2 cabinets made, so one will be available for sale - soon

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Closer look inside:
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These cabinets are constructed out of high quality maple plywood, each with a 1/2" MDF floor board (much better than the original flimsy 1/4" floor panels). All of the corners are routed, fully glued dado/rabbit joints instead of simple lap joints. All joints and seams will be filled and sanded for a smooth exterior finish. The cabinets will be sanded to 220 grit and primed with grey primer. All of the backbox trim work will be done with maple wood.

Picked up the first cabinet today

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A few cosmetic touch ups and it will be ready for painting.

For starters, I’m not looking to be a pinball cabinet supplier. I only had the 2nd cabinet made to help with the price point for my own restoration. I will sell the extra cabinet/backbox for $650. However, I still need to install some tee nuts and do some minor cosmetic touch ups. Obviously, a local buyer would be preferred as shipping will not be cheap.

I used to restore my own cabinets. What I learned is that I really hate sanding and repairing cabinets It’s extremely time consuming and just not much fun, for me anyway. Plus, I just think a new cabinet is the better starting point for a quality restoration. Can you repair a beater? Of course, anything is possible with enough time and energy. However, I think your time would be better spent building a new cabinet (probably the same amount to work assuming you have the tools). I will say this, once you start going with new cabinets it’s hard to go back to repairing the originals

Holes for backbox hinges are there.

Well, thank you. I really like your complements

Today's a good day to build a new light board panel

The original one is on the left and the new one is on the right:

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The new one is made of 5/8" melamine, so the exterior has a nice uniform finish (white veneer). Now it's time to get all of the light sockets holes drilled. In order to do this I'll need to remove all of the 555 light sockets from the original panel; this allows me to use the original board as a template.

De-soldering time

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Here are my staple removing tools:

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Alright, now we can clamp the old panel on top of the new one.

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I decided to replace the original 555 sockets with newer 44 lamp sockets.

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The original plastic 555 Bally sockets are larger, requiring 5/8" through holes in the panel. The new 44 bulb sockets are noticeably smaller, so I wanted to drill smaller through holes in the new light board - just looks better IMO.

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1/2" hole vs. 5/8" hole

So, using a 5/8" brad tip drill bit as a punch give us a good center point for our new holes.

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Melamine will easily chip when drilling, so punch both sides of the panel.

Now, using a 1/2" forstner bit we can start drilling holes. Note, don't drill all the way through the panel. Drill each hole roughly halfway on each side of the light board (this is why we punched both sides - chipping sucks).

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The problem with a drill press is that you can't get the holes in the center section of the light board.

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We'll have to do the rest by hand. One of these guys helps:

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That's enough fun for one day

Nickel plated parts are back

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I appreciate the high praise, but there isn’t anything here you can’t do. It’s just a matter of how much time and money you’re willing to invest. Anybody can restore a pinball machine (if they really want to). Prior experience obviously helps, but everybody starts out in the same boat. We all have a “first” restoration project.

My intention for this thread was to share ideas and document what I do (not saying my approach is the “right” way or the “only” way, just the way I chose to do this particular game). I certainly don’t want to dissuade anyone from attempting to restore their own machines, quite the opposite. I think everyone should restore at least one of their machines and post the process here on PinSide. Then I’ll have more cool threads to read

For folks that are considering powder for their coil assemblies, here are a few pointers:

(1) Be ready to re-tap threaded screw holes. Yes, your powder guy can plug the holes, but sometimes the powder cakes up around the plugs during the baking process (so it's a trade off). I've found that I prefer to just re-tap threaded holes when doing two part power applications.

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(2) Use heat tape on your coil stops. You want the coil sleeves to fit over the coil stops right As a side note, I like to deburr any mushroomed/flared coil stops (this is done on a grinding wheel prior to tumbling).

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(3) Off topic, but worth noting - I've found that tumbling screws just isn't for me. Half the time I'm just not happy with the results. Plus, many of the screw heads are marked up and look used anyway, so tumbling gives me shiny used screws

I made the decision long ago that it was worth the extra $100 per restoration to just install new hardware (Maybe I'm crazy, but to each their own). I buy screws, nuts, washer, etc. in bulk. I work right next to a Fastenal and two other comparable stores, so it's pretty convenient to pick stuff up on my lunch break.

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I used to stock up on all sorts of different 8-32 and 6-32 machine bolts (lengths = 3/8', 1/2, 5/8", 1", etc.). This got expensive pretty quickly. Then it dawned on me that I should just buy longer screws and trim them down to size.

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This tool is good for zinc plated bolts. I have a better (more heavy duty) version for stainless steel bolts.

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I just trim the bolts so the ends are flush with the back of the coil mounting plates they screw into. Here's a look at some of the coil assemblies being rebuilt (you can see where the holes have been re-tapped on the flipper brackets).

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Back to work.

Break dust can be cleaned off of powdered car rims, solenoid dust is the pinball equivalent (as long as the powder has a clear top coat).

Thanks. They look better in person it's hard to see the metallic flakes in the pictures.

Too funny, I've been there. Checkout these buffed zinc acorn nuts

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You know you're always welcome. Feel free to bring that LOTR LE with you

Back to the lighting panel....

Time to install new ground braid wire. To do this Captain Obvious will need his staple gun - hey, it never hurts to be detailed, some folks have never done this I bought my pneumatic staple gun from PinRestore, here's the link:

http://www.pinrestore.com/Tools.html

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If you are going to use melamine for your lighting panel, make sure to test your staple gun on some scrape pieces. You don't want to set the air pressure too high as this could create a "chipping" scenario. I found 90 psi worked pretty well.

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Here's a closer look:

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Everything's all soldered up and tested out with a multimeter. So, I'm almost done with this part of the project, just have to install the trim

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The four sides of the panel. I'll probably just paint the inside areas of the display cutouts.

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Nobody is perfect, not even my cabinet guy

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Time for a little alteration work.

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Oops... Now I've got a hole in the top of my back box........

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Just kidding, but now the back box's lock bar will fit correctly (after drilling the other side as well).

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Of course, the lock bar doesn't do much good unless the lock is installed and I've found It's hard to put a 5/8" diameter object in a 1/2" hole

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All done......

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Here's a closer look:

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With the first coat of primer on, now it's time to fill in any remaining joints/seams. I want the cabinet and back box to look like one piece of wood, hence the extra work.

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Here's what I use for this application:

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Your name doesn't have to be McCune to like Festool sanders

Although, I have to give Jim credit for promoting their equipment - thanks for the heads up, these tools are fantastic.

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If you're going to repair/restore cabinets (or make your repro perfect) then Festool is the way to go. Everybody knows the secret to a good paint job is the prep work. So, we're going to sand with 220 grit paper until the wood is perfectly smooth.

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Here's a look after some sanding:

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Time for another coat of primer. You gotta love cabinet work. Ugh.......

I'll fill all the seams before painting, might as well go all the way right

What are you looking for in the lock bar picture, so I know what to shoot a picture of?

It has been awhile, so here are some pics of the coil wrappers my buddy Mike W. made for me:

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These were printed on blue 3M painters tape, should look slick on all the powder coated coil brackets

Time to start tumbling the parts I didn't have powdered or plated. I use the larger 5 gallon HF tumbler; it works like a champ (for me anyway). Before tumbling I clean all the parts with my ultrasonic cleaner, using a 50/50 mixture of H2O and degreaser.

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Then I dry the parts off and through them in the tumbler. I prefer walnut shell media with Flitz, just seems to produce the best results IMO. I've tried many different polishing medias and compounds and this combo is my favorite.

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Here's a Before and After example:

Before (plungers):
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After (plungers):
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Much improved
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I finally started putting the drop targets back together. Here are some progress pics:

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Above you can see the subtle metallic flakes in the blue powder coating
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It's nice to see the culmination of many hours worth of work (painting screws, cleaning/re-wrapping coils, tumbling parts, sand blasting, etc.) Here are a few close up pics to showoff some of the finer details:

Custom coil wrappers:
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Gloss black painted screws:
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Nickle plated target fingers:
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Oh well, back to work.......