If it is important to you to have that cash box, by all means restore and keep it. Personally, I have found those old cash boxes to be more of a safety hazard with those sharp edges and want nothing to do with them. After several small cuts over the years reaching around those damn things I just toss them out these days. Going to a plastic bottom was one of the better changes of the cash box design.

I have seen it both ways, painted on both sides and unpainted. Can't tell you how much I hate pulling those staples out. Finally was able to figure out how to remove the side rails quickly without damaging them. Just keep wiggling the side rail back and forth. Rail comes off pretty quick. Make sure you remove any stray screws that might be holding it in first, though.

Did you remove all of the connectors prior to this tumbler bath? I would be concerned about corrosion with the female side of the connection. Unless you will be replacing all the crimp contacts later, which is a good idea anyway.

You mention replacing the caps. Are you going to replace the header pins on the Solenoid Driver board, too? New header pins really help make for a solid connection and will make the game more reliable.

Of couse, if you want to make the PCBs up to the level of the rest of the restoration, replace that old SDB with the Alltek as the Alltek board is superior to the original design.

This looks like a good way to keep track of all of the items you need to replace, and those that you have already replaced.

By the way, I sure hope you are not paying $69.00 for one sheet of playfield glass... If you are, look for a local glass company and they should be able to beat that price by a wide margin.

Over the past 12 years working on hundreds of classic Bally/Stern games, including operating these games on location, I have found that Alltek holds up far better than original boards, and properly repaired original boards, and Rottendog, too. Hey, if you want to trust repaired original boards in a high dollar restoration, go right ahead. I believe HEP uses Alltek where available, too.

Clearly, Rob, you can work on your own stuff and I am sure do a great job at it. Can all of your customers do the same level of electronics work as yourself? Probably not. So when that repaired original board breaks in 2, 5, or 10 years, do they call you for a warranty replacement? Alltek has replaced several MPU boards for me in warranty that had over 5 years of service, no questions asked as they have a lifetime warranty. I can assure you that people that buy high end restorations don't want to have to repair their own boards.

Also, saying that the original solenoid driver with a current voltage converter is the same as the Alltek just isn't accurate. Do you have any practical experience working with the Alltek solenoid driver board? It has indicator lights for bad coils, at a glance info available, not to mention short circuit protection--very helpful. These are great features that are not part of the original SDB.

Not sure why you are throwing rocks at the replacement board guys, especially Alltek. Their boards have saved many games.

I should have been more specific, Alltek boards are miles beyond Rottendog. In fact, I won't use Rottendog in any of my games as I have had the same experience you describe above. Some people like the cheaper alternative and don't mind troubleshooting them, though that is not for me. Thanks for the tip on Xenon and Medusa, I haven't run into it yet, but will keep my eyes open.

Short circuit protection is helpful if there is a coil with a dead short it won't take out any components on the SDB. Yes, it is easy to find problem coils and not hard to replace the parts on the board, either. Yet, this feature saved me plenty of time on location when coils shorted out as I didn't have to do any more work than necessary in a noisy, crowded bar. On an original SBD, that shorted coil would usually damage board components before the fuse would blow. I agree that some of the features don't matter as much to someone that understands how the game works and can troubleshoot on their own.