Curious;.. My Black Pearl has soft clear also. Fails the fingernail test just like the playfield. I wonder if there will be problems with chipping down the road on it? Any thoughts?
New Replacement main playfield shows a little of wood grain through the artwork, is this considered normal? Original chipping soft clean playfield has no wood grain showing through that I can see but lighting is not as good when I view it.

You haven't been inside too many factory/warehouse type buildings, have you? Almost none of them are air conditioned unless the manufacturing requires it. In fact, steel buildings can have an oven effect in the summer. JJP looks to be of masonry construction though, so that can help a lot. A 90 degree day outside a steel building can turn into a 100 degree day inside pretty quickly. A playfield sitting for months in summer heat and high humidity as we have here in the mid-atlantic could absolutely be an issue...as I suspected a few weeks ago. I do not see any AC in Jack's building.

Stern has some AC in their office area and presumably the lunch room area in the back of their plant, but that factory floor doesn't appear to have AC service.

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I don't own a POC but following this thread to see how JJP handles this and will base a future JJP purchase on that.

Curious, what is JJP's retail price on a new PF - becuase if it were me, I would rather have a refund for that amount then a new PF that I am never going to swap. New PFs or even a refund would still not be acceptable to me - I would hold out for a PF swap with a populated PF at JJP's dime.

I always have desired a JJP pin, I looked at them as the premium product. After current issues with PF, and issues I read about in the Di thread - I am starting to change my mind.

$1100

(cost of $550)

-wonka owner #08742206, play field #105, clear coat case #5107

I would ask for an $1,100 refund on my machine instead of a new unpopulated PF that is going to sit in my basement and collect dust.

The play fields are likely being supplied free of charge from Micro, and their cost is only a fraction of the $550. So I doubt JJP will offer a cash option.

Incorrect.

-wonka owner #08742206, play field #105, clear coat case #5107

of course they won't, was just stating what I would expect
A replacement PF is worthless to most people and will never get used.

Started installing some cliffy s and noticed that the post at the right side of tortuga scoop has a washer at the base that appears to make contact with the ball.

Anyone else have this issue or notice this?

I would think it could scuff the balls up over time like that t-nut issue.

whats incorrect?

Thanks. Last- as for the sling power settings, is higher milliseconds in the software more powerful or less powerful?

Yeah.... I think all of them have that, the slight overhang there.

Seems like a smaller washer might be prudent if you have a cliffy under it.

I never noticed it before but i checked and the ball definitely contacts the edge of washer, that can’t be good for the ball.

I've noticed this too, it probably will nick the ball like the t-nut -- so something should be done AND I have slight pooling around the bottom of the washer beneath the post (I've noticed this on some PoTC's)...so the blister will probably pop at some point.

I'm thinking maybe a small rubber washer would be better under that particular post.

Question: where can I purchase PoTC cliffys?

Thanks

http://www.passionforpinball.com/protectors.htm

It sticks over the edge of the cliffy, that was the point.
Unless the post can be installed without washer, didn’t think about that since the cliffy is now under it?

I was putting in my Cliffy's this past weekend. With only 38 plays total (bought NIB end of August) I thought I would get a jump on premature wear issues with these protectors.
But instead found plenty of clear coat pooling everywhere. This is the Tortuga hole. Several other areas were just as bad.

My Distributor - The Pinball Company - replied immediately back on SUNDAY night to my e-mail with my concerns. They fired off an e-mail to JJP that same night making an initial inquiry of "who is in charge of the playfield issues" and copied me in on the e-mail. This evening, TPC contacted me again asking if I had heard back from anyone at JJP- as they had not.
(I've got to say this is great customer service by TPC). I replied that I had not.

I'm really not too amped up about it right now. I put on the JJP provided star posts and washers they sent me
as I did the Cliffy install. I know JJP is working through this challenge, and really 3 days isn't that long. Fingers crossed though.
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The pooling sucks but honestly it could have been way worse based on the picture.

Play your game and have fun. Put the microscope away.

Yeah I know been to Cliffy but they don't list Pirates. I'll send them a PM.

thanks

Thankfully it seems like pooling doesn't always lead to chipping. We've now seen some Stern games made years ago with similar pooling in non sling areas but no chipping. The primary area that has been chipping on Pirates is around sling posts due to the sharp edges of sling posts along with vibration from the sling kicker frequently firing that overtime leads to pooling and then chipping. However, I understand some Pirates games have chipping outside of the sling area. Playfield quality seems to vary game to game.

In the case of the above pic I would maybe put some mylar down over the area, reinstall the backplate and then never worry about it.

Yes they do....just click the What's New Link on left side and you'll find it

Mine had the same, but looked a little worse than yours, but once you put a Cliffy on you'll never see it, nor should it wear or chip.

No call yet for me either. I double-checked my support ticket and it was the end of August. I am going to be patient and give them more time as it will take some effort to contact everyone if they are undertaking that endeavor.

Shouldn't take that long since it's only a few machines, right?

The email chain I got a reply from was back in June. Not sure if that's an indicator at all, or more just the genesis of my tear claim.

You got farther than I did trying to join their group or mailing list. So I couldn’t tell you. Lol.

Nah, I was an arcade bug in the 90's and almost always pins were either not working properly or completely shut down due to an issue. The PF thing sucks and I agree but other than that as far as I know (maybe there were issues with PF's) its still the same.

No. I was also in arcades in the 90s. It depended on the arcade on how quick the pins were fixed. At the ones I went to there would only be maybe one pin not working at a time. Most machines I ran into were very reliable in the 90s. I also owned some very reliable machines like AF back then. The playfield is the one part that really can’t be fixed if it has bad clear. That’s why it is the worst problem IMO. Manufacturers just cut to many corners and it looks like it is finally catching up to them. Time for them to reverse course and increase overall quality of their pins. Or lose many sales. That’s up to em.

I think vid1900 referred to his in one of the dimple threads using it to compare new and old playfields, but don't quote me.

That's completely acceptable marking on the pf. The really amazing part is I have seen really nicely done Mirco playfields before. He changed something along the way and it's absolutely for the worse. We should see the "new" results in the next JJP release.

Harry, Curious, have you attempted in an area with INK beneath the clear? Ink adhesion may be an underlying issue.

I would not trust a hardness tester that costs less than $10K. There's one (Instron) in one of our labs at the company I work for that was about $150K a dozen years ago.

For thirty bucks, go to Harbor Freight or use your finger nail.

I am thinking you want a janka hardness tester, not a durometer. Durometers are used for measuring the stiffness of rubber.

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Besides the slings, are there any other posts that I should be concerned about? What about the posts on the BP?

I think for chipping the slings and I and E lane movable post holes are the areas of biggest concern.

When I had the BP off to install cliffys I got to look closely at some of the more obscure areas and nothing chipped but almost every post that comes in contact with the ball has some form of rippling around it.

Thanks! Do you have any concerns for the posts on the actual ship?

I noticed my first chip today on my pirates. 32 days old, maybe 500 plays. Good thing Jack says new playfield on the way

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