Started the rear down, so far chipping is only in 2 spots that I have found. But more important Che k out how pitted the balls aw and here is why, they have been hitting the exposed t-nut in the map hole. This is getting dremmelled down

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I was going to say, that's what I noticed immediately in your photo. Two of my five balls had one or two nicks on them, before I trimmed that tnut. Not nearly that bad.... Those look like actual cannon balls!

Problem solved very carefully ground off the protruding t nut
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Also flame polished the main ramp
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joseph5185 yes, it’s kinda an acquired skill, takes time, and I practiced a lot in scrap pieces. But I used novus2 to basically scuff the ramp, and then the flame literally melts a thin layer of the plastic - being very careful - and ends up crystal clean

Found some Chipping under the chest, the fork openings. Put some
Superglue down, and if need be some Mylar to prevent getting worse. Looks like the Edge if the fork has been rubbing and lifted some clear and caused chipping
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Stuff like this should not happen. To me, it looks like a weak area that enginering should have been aware of. It is poor quality control. Poor inspection practices. I won't say poor engineering, but engineering should be aware of every square inch of a play field design and construction. Pro-active engineering would be anticipating hign-risk areas like this. You should send this pic to JJP. For the kind of money they charge, they have no excuse for something as simple as a T-post protruding near a cutout.

If would protect the play field in the area and use a little super glue to make that solid again. Superglue should work fine, but if it does not you can always resort to mylar.

My POTC is perfect and it already has 2000 plus plays. Not a scratch. Because of this thread I decided to order cliffy's because why not? But so far so good.

I’ve got the exact same chip.
Done nothing about it yet.....

I wonder if some Cliffy’s should be made for under the chest, covering both fork slots. Then again it could bind on them I guess

@gumnut01 funny i was thinking the same thing, I think it would help, and if the metal piece is deep enough should not bind. Ill ask him

Found more chipping on the ball drop inlanes.
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Adding Cliffy's
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harryhoudini exactly 10 years old and over 10k plays lol

ordered my cliffys in May, still haven't received them, but luckily I had 4 extra Slot protectors lying around.

Got em all in

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Good job. I thought the scoop would be carbon to stop it from lifting. Cliffy switched to carbon for World Cup because of the lifting issue. Anybody having there tortuga lift?

gumnut01 I’m not sure why it’s not carbon, on my woz it is, one thing with carbon however, it is slightly thicker.

Maybe the extra post on the right keeps it down. Even though mine lift on World Cup I don’t think it affects the ball. You have done an amazing job btw. Well done!

I have the older metal ones on World Cup.

Well, looks like the issue is still prominent even on brand new Wonkas, I just saw this post in the Wonka Thread

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This is just pathetic that they haven't solved this issue and would let it happen on their latest release. I sure won't be buying any newer JJPs.

It's crazy to me also. In my opinion, it's not JJP's fault directly. However, they are the ones that need to put their foot down and actually do something about it... Its the playfield manufacturer, Mirco...

I have a Whitewater Playfield that is a Mirco... but it sat for 5 months, and I have no bubbling, mushrooming... Without the proper time for the clear to truly set and harden... this will continue to happen... AND, from what I gather they are adding chemicals to speed the clear coat "settling" process.... but this does ZERO favors to the actual hardness of the clear.

As long as we keep buying and tolerating this garbage they will likely never fix this.

I’m beginning to think they could care less.

But at least you get a shiny new game.

If the problem is cure time is thst Mircos responsibility, or JJPs?

You think that is bad? What about this?

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That isn’t good but not as bad as all the chipped POTC pf’s.

Shit...if that is all I had going on I’d be happy at this point.

Pull the post and see if it’s chipped.

What game is that......?

Our Beatles

Ooooh. Okay, thought so! Was worried it was Wonka.

That's awful. I'm really sorry man. And the artwork on that game is so vibrant!

Psw757 just wait. If nothing is done to relieve that bulge, and game is continued to be played it will Indefinitely crack then separate... your just seeing stage 1...

gonna grab some updated photos of Beatles on Friday. Sadly cracking and bubbles getting worse over time.

Most, if not all, manufactures place requirements on their suppliers. Just-in-time inventory and all of that. It is the constant battle to shift the costs to someone else and then let the "someone else" worry about how to make it happen.

When I was painting aircraft small parts for a living we had bake ovens. Paint, bake for an hour, let cool, turn over and paint the other side, let bake foe an hour and the polyurethane paint was cured. The parts were boxed and out of the shop before shift change.

I don't think a wooden play field could be baked with out causing all kinds of problems. So, I'm guessing the play fields have to air dry. Dry to the touch but not fully cured.

Nobody wants a stack of inventory hanging to cure for months at a time. Time is money. I would lay the blame on JJP and Stern for "rushing" to production.

I dont think it is blame that any of us want to see... I prefer accountability.

I think BOTH/ ALL are accountable and need to step up to fix the problem.

Appears to be getting worse and ain’t pretty under even the ones that are not as bad as slings

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What is the build date?

Sorry to see that this is happening to your beautiful pin. What does stern say?

God that's horrible.... I appreciate the update. I wonder what the best protective measure would be?

This is why I'm paranoid about installing star posts. I fear doing so only could increase the damage area, and wonder if a neoprene washer helps alleviate that or worsen.

Those posts are hollow, I wonder if solid posts would spread the load better and not cause this.

I would bet a very similar result... soft clearcoat is well... soft, and this is the result of cranking down hardware on clear that is not hard.

Yeah, I'm at the point of, if there's pressure, this will occur. So is spreading more pressure, well across a wider radius, a good thing?

Pressure is reduced by distributing the load across a greater area.

I'll give you accountability. But I do not agree that both are accountable. Well, maybe both are accountable, but I would place most of the accounting on JJP or Stern. I bought a Munsters LE from Stern; I did not buy a play field from Mirco.

All Mirco can do is produce a play field and advise its customers of adequate curing times required for polyurethane finishes. But, I assume, both Stern and JJP have in-house engineers who are aware of the properties of polyurethane paint. In some cases, I feel sorry for industrial engineers because it has to be a very critical deficiency for engineering to advise management to shut down production. And then management is going to want the engineer's head on a stick. You just don't shut down production.

But then, here is Mirco using this newer ceramic clear. I don't know anything about ceramic clear and Googling "ceramic clear" does not bring up much. Maybe the ceramic is part of the problem.

All kinds of things could be happening behind the scenes.. Maybe Mirco was late in producing some play fields and they got a short cure time but were "cured enough" to head down the production line.

Anything that was not part of the manufacturing plan could have happened. And someone in the factory had to make the decision to push on.

I'll be interested is knowing how Stern addresses the costly mistake on your Beatles play field.

If he can get those posts off without chipping his Beatles PF it might be good to put some of those neoprene washers beneath that are just wider than the base of the star post. They don’t seem to be sinking in.

Some have had success in getting it to smooth out a bit in the less severe cases.

No... physics.

Just like snowshoes not sinking in snow. More contact area with the same force = less pressure

You would be reducing how much you are "pressing down" on the finish

Of course the end result could still be "too much" - but it would be different and better. And why they are trying to combat it with washers

The solid post would spread out the load better but would also displace more clear if it was soft enough. I,m sure these companies are trying every post they have to help this issue. Because using different posts is such a easy, cheap solution if it was that it would have been fixed long ago.

I agree, I just didn’t go to that specificity of definition but good analogy.

My ripples were flattened out by the neoprene under the star post. Think of a depression on grass after a weight has been resting on it, that’s what I see when I lift up the rubber washer. There is no bunching up or rippling that can occur to the sides. I have put hundreds of games on and it looks great around the posts I have added washers too. And post no matter how large will penetrate the clear if it is tightened down too much. You need something soft underneath. Rubber protects, why do you think we have condoms?
Stop screwing your machines people. Add protection.

Will have to look. We bought it along with Munsters so from first batch. I assume it cured for the few months between build and when we bought.

Sadly At this point, very little.
At first is was radio silence for over a month. Multiple contacts to both distributor that were passed along to stern and direct to stern, went ignored.

Now they asked for more photos and want to see if it is getting worse!

I am not sure why it would matter. This PF is dickered and they need to send a replacement. Really no question in my mind. I am not sure why it was not their immediate response.