(Topic ID: 225496)

Stern Electronics Club (1977-1984).

By Mitch

5 years ago


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#8551 11 months ago
Quoted from cottonm4:

Those look nice. What is the name for this coating?

It is the same color I always use for Classic Sterns. The color chip with info can be seen here.

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/price-check-1980-sterns-quicksilver-stargazer-seawitch/page/104#post-6317212

#8552 11 months ago
Quoted from Mad_Dog_Coin_Op:

It is the same color I always use for Classic Sterns. The color chip with info can be seen here.
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/price-check-1980-sterns-quicksilver-stargazer-seawitch/page/104#post-6317212

i was gonna say, it may be missing a bit of the bleu hue

#8553 11 months ago
Quoted from Mad_Dog_Coin_Op:

I got one put back together. It still needs the decals. It is a good looking door if I do say so myself.
[quoted image]

She's a beaut Clark.

#8554 11 months ago

For sale: Bringing to Allentown Pinfest or I can mail. Stern MPU-100 large-size schematic. Measures 33 1/2" by 22 1/2". Easy to read. $8.00 plus postage if mailing.

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#8555 11 months ago

Got some coils to try on the IM gates . Bought extra ones.

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#8556 11 months ago

What setting would pick to have the locked balls drain at the end of each game? On Iron Maiden. Or is it normal for the locked balls to stay in the lock? If you shut game off and restart all 3 balls go to apron. This is my settings

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#8557 11 months ago
Quoted from tatman9999:

What setting would pick to have the locked balls drain at the end of each game? On Iron Maiden. Or is it normal for the locked balls to stay in the lock? If you shut game off and restart all 3 balls go to apron. This is my settings

There is no setting to do this. Normal. It does it at power up as there are no switches in the lock mech so it needs to cycle the lock mech unless it sees all 3 balls in the trough already.

#8558 11 months ago

Same thing with Stern Lightning.

#8559 11 months ago
Quoted from LOTR_breath:

Same thing with Stern Lightning.

Lightning doesn't release the balls on power-up though.

#8560 11 months ago

Just picked up a Lightning; inserts need fixed/replaced, but the playfield is in better shape than I've seen otherwise. Got a couple lighter projects in front of it but will probably do a full work over on it, fix the inserts and clear it. It's a game that's begging to have an even more brutaly fast playfield

In the meantime, it showed up with some lighting wonkiness. About half the controlled lighting is out (all the standup targets, all but one of the bonus lights, couple of the lane lights), couple seem to be fixed on, and there's some things I don't * think* are behaving right (not that familiar with this game). EB arrows come on right off the bat and alternate (figure they need to be activated first, but maybe that's normal?), Playfield multiplier lights come on when I'm pretty sure they shouldn't. Switches all seem to activate and score properly as best I can tell though...was supposed to be working normally pre-ship.

Had an extra lamp board, swapped that in and no improvement. Pulled the alltek mpu out of my seawitch to try; voltage on the driver board tested normal test points came up normal but as soon as I flipped it on the over voltage light on the mpu board came on and game did not boot. Turned it off, put it back in SW, fortunately still seemed fine. Had to head to work, but interested in any thoughts where to head next.

#8561 11 months ago
Quoted from Mad_Dog_Coin_Op:

I got one put back together. It still needs the decals. It is a good looking door if I do say so myself.
[quoted image]

Nice, well worth the wait.
-Mike

#8562 11 months ago
Quoted from Ollulanus:

Just picked up a Lightning; inserts need fixed/replaced, but the playfield is in better shape than I've seen otherwise. Got a couple lighter projects in front of it but will probably do a full work over on it, fix the inserts and clear it. It's a game that's begging to have an even more brutaly fast playfield
In the meantime, it showed up with some lighting wonkiness. About half the controlled lighting is out (all the standup targets, all but one of the bonus lights, couple of the lane lights), couple seem to be fixed on, and there's some things I don't * think* are behaving right (not that familiar with this game). EB arrows come on right off the bat and alternate (figure they need to be activated first, but maybe that's normal?), Playfield multiplier lights come on when I'm pretty sure they shouldn't. Switches all seem to activate and score properly as best I can tell though...was supposed to be working normally pre-ship.
Had an extra lamp board, swapped that in and no improvement. Pulled the alltek mpu out of my seawitch to try; voltage on the driver board tested normal test points came up normal but as soon as I flipped it on the over voltage light on the mpu board came on and game did not boot. Turned it off, put it back in SW, fortunately still seemed fine. Had to head to work, but interested in any thoughts where to head next.

I would start with re-pinning connectors.

#8563 11 months ago
Quoted from Quench:

Lightning doesn't release the balls on power-up though.

Oh yeah, I forgot that. I don't own the game anymore.

#8564 11 months ago

Wanna go through a little journey of our first cabinet restore? Well if not too bad because you’re going with us anyways!!! This started off as a parted out stingray cabinet that one of my buddies had. My galaxy cabinet is defrosted with water damage so by dad, who is awesome and does woodworking for fun, decided to start working on this. It needed the usual wood work but overall it was a solid base to start off on. With my dad being a body man by trade, this was pretty much a walk in the park for him. He got it all ready and primed up, sanded it down and primed it again. Then we decided to go with the prototype galaxy artwork. PinballPimp stencils are the only way to go. I’m amazed at how well everything laid down and lined up. As for paint materials we decided to go as cheap as possible just to see how this was going to come out. From the primer, to base, to clear, it was all cheap or colors we found on our shelves that we use for burner colors when painting a car. I just say, these colors worked perfect for this project!! The clear is nothing I would probably recommend to people as it was a product we’ve never used before and extremely cheap. It did however work perfect for this product. Anyways here’s a little walk through from start to today as the cabinet is still sitting in our paint booth. We will get on restoring the legs and coin doors and stuff next. I’m thinking we might high polish the side rails and lock down bar. I also have a feeling I’m going to be doing a pf restore in the near future.

Enjoy!!

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#8565 11 months ago

A little more

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#8566 11 months ago

And the almost final product to this point

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#8567 11 months ago
Quoted from Its_me_aj:

And the almost final product to this point[quoted image][quoted image][quoted image][quoted image][quoted image][quoted image][quoted image][quoted image]

Man that's gorgeous. Nice job.

#8568 11 months ago

Looks like you went with nearly the same palette that I chose, except with a real pro finish! I hand cut my stencils since I didn't know Pinball Pimp had them at the time. Looks phenomenal!

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#8569 11 months ago
Quoted from Its_me_aj:

Wanna go through a little journey of our first cabinet restore?

its-a-beaut-its-a-beaut-clark.gifits-a-beaut-its-a-beaut-clark.gif
#8570 11 months ago

I’m totally converted to using auto paints at this point. The low build and speed can’t be beat. Nice work on Galaxy, I didn’t know those stencils were available either!

I tried a few different clears for cabinet topcoat and found that the semigloss sold by The Coating Store is “just right.” Glossy clear looks wrong to me, and it highlights every surface imperfection. Flat clear actually looks very good, and *hides* imperfections nicely, but can look a little dull (and it desaturates the paint color some.) The semi gloss has a very nice eggshell finish which looks perfect to me, hides imperfections but also feels nice to the touch. Not saying you need to do that on your project, but I haven’t heard others discuss that as an option. For me, when I applied it to a cabinet I was like “OK *that* is what I’ve been after!”

#8571 11 months ago

so... i am a bit stumped here. I was trying to adjust my Meteor spinner and i just couldn't get it to sit right-

i took it out and compare to a couple spare ones i have, all the same at 34g. I adjusted the arm as close of possible for all of them to match but 2 out of the 3 spin upside down right away while one site right.

Am i missing something here?

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#8572 11 months ago

Let's work them one at a time.

The one on the right looks like the axles need to be pushed up. Can you tweak the axles on this one and get any action going?

I don't think the weight of the missing paint would cause issues. But you have issues so maybe some paint stripper is in order.

P.S. This is a whole lot easier if you were to mount the two posts onto a piece of wood along with the frame/cage for the spinner. Then you can push and pull and tweak to your heart's delight. But if you go out of bounds then the spinner will bump into the cage.

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EDIT: I like how that living room coffee table is now a work bench

#8573 11 months ago

I recently noticed this serial number tag in my Seawitch at the coin box location. I have never seen one on my other Sterns, I guess they get dislodged and lost.

Is it a coincidence that the colors match or are they all this color? Also any idea what formica means?

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#8574 11 months ago

Here’s some photos outside to show to colors

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#8575 11 months ago
Quoted from Its_me_aj:

Here’s some photos outside to show to colors[quoted image][quoted image][quoted image][quoted image]

Nice work.

#8576 11 months ago
Quoted from Lovef2k:

I recently noticed this serial number tag in my Seawitch at the coin box location. I have never seen one on my other Sterns, I guess they get dislodged and lost.
Is it a coincidence that the colors match or are they all this color? Also any idea what formica means?
[quoted image]

I had one of those stapled in my Seawitch. Same blue color.

#8577 11 months ago

If you notice in my pic (on the previous page) I customized the prototype artwork to add some elements I felt like didn't make it onto the "true" proto cab art. Added a meteorite to the center tail and some lines to the galaxy. Yours still looks better, not gonna front!

#8578 11 months ago

Yeah i saw that. The middle meteor on the sides is missing a piece. We probably could have added it but it’s all good. Thanks for the kind words everyone. Hopefully I’ll have legs and coin door resprayed in the next week or so. I’m excited to get this all together

#8579 11 months ago

Welp my Meteor spinner axle arm broke. What is the best replacement I can source going forward? Can it be repaired?

Anybody have a used Stern Electronics spinner laying around? Doesn't have to be Meteor specific obviously?

#8580 11 months ago
Quoted from anathematize:

Welp my Meteor spinner axle arm broke. What is the best replacement I can source going forward? Can it be repaired?

Anybody have a used Stern Electronics spinner laying around? Doesn't have to be Meteor specific obviously?

Quoted from anathematize:

Can it be repaired?

Yes. It can be repaired---I think.

https://www.marcospecialties.com/pinball-parts/M-1534-1A. The problem here is that Bally wire forms use a larger diameter wire which may not fit in the Stern wire form slot.

The wire form can be removed and replaced with a Bally wireform.

https://www.marcospecialties.com/pinball-parts/M-1534-1A

large (resized).jpglarge (resized).jpg

Best replacement spinner, IMO, would be this Williams unit.

https://www.marcospecialties.com/pinball-parts/A-7861

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Quoted from anathematize:

Doesn't have to be Meteor specific obviously?

Stern had several spinners of different weights. I don't know how much a Meteor spinners weighs and I don't know if Marco is correct when it says this spinner weighs 1.5 oz.

I do know that heavier spinners will spin longer.

#8581 11 months ago

How to fix your spinner wire. https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/is-there-a-way-to-add-wire-on-spinner#post-6038811

It’s absolutely possible but not entirely easy. If you don’t do it yourself, don’t junk the broken spinner. I could try to turn it into a much needed Nine Ball spinner for someone.

#8582 11 months ago
Quoted from cottonm4:

Stern had several spinners of different weights. I don't know how much a Meteor spinners weighs and I don't know if Marco is correct when it says this spinner weighs 1.5 oz.
I do know that heavier spinners will spin longer.

Just measured mine, 34g

#8583 11 months ago
Quoted from hisokajp:

Just measured mine, 34g

Now I'm getting concerned. My original Meteor spinner weighs in at just over 27g - which seems super light compared to the 1.5oz replacement and your 34g weight.

The thing spins like a champ already so anything heavier will just mean more juicy spins, no?

#8584 11 months ago
Quoted from anathematize:

The thing spins like a champ already so anything heavier will just mean more juicy spins, no?

The heavier spinners spin longer. So, juicier spins.

Of the spinners I have, the MPU 100 pins such as Dracula, Hot Hand, and Nugent weigh 27 grams.

My Big Game and Seawitch spinners weigh 33-34 grams. I have several other Stern spinners coming at 34 grams; I have 3 spinners that came from a Cheetah but I do not know which ones they are.

There was a time not that long ago when I thought all spinners were the same.

That Williams spinner that Marco says weighs 1.5 oz is equal to 42.5 gram. And I question Marco's 1.5 oz statement on its site. I do not have any Williams spinners to verify this, though.

I have some Bally spinners that come in at 38 grams. They spin very well.

#8585 11 months ago

The gottlieb black hole spinner spins very well I've used that on a couple of other games. It was a fail on the sinbad I stuck it on though as the original game board couldn't keep up with the spins, but even then you would max out the bonus ladder in one spin with it missing 2/3 spins.

#8586 11 months ago
Quoted from play_pinball:

How to fix your spinner wire. https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/is-there-a-way-to-add-wire-on-spinner#post-6038811
It’s absolutely possible but not entirely easy. If you don’t do it yourself, don’t junk the broken spinner. I could try to turn it into a much needed Nine Ball spinner for someone.

What foolproof method are you using to measure your bend points on your wire?

I took a stab at making a Nine Ball spinner. It looks good and it will work but my bend points need to be adjusted.

#8587 11 months ago
Quoted from hisokajp:

Just measured mine, 34g

Is this the spinner that stops in the upside down position?

Or did you get that issue fixed?

#8588 11 months ago
Quoted from cottonm4:

The heavier spinners spin longer. So, juicier spins.
Of the spinners I have, the MPU 100 pins such as Dracula, Hot Hand, and Nugent weigh 27 grams.
My Big Game and Seawitch spinners weigh 33-34 grams. I have several other Stern spinners coming at 34 grams; I have 3 spinners that came from a Cheetah but I do not know which ones they are.
There was a time not that long ago when I thought all spinners were the same.
That Williams spinner that Marco says weighs 1.5 oz is equal to 42.5 gram. And I question Marco's 1.5 oz statement on its site. I do not have any Williams spinners to verify this, though.
I have some Bally spinners that come in at 38 grams. They spin very well.

The Bally spinners also have a thicker wire.

#8589 11 months ago
Quoted from Lovef2k:

I recently noticed this serial number tag in my Seawitch at the coin box location. I have never seen one on my other Sterns, I guess they get dislodged and lost.
Is it a coincidence that the colors match or are they all this color? Also any idea what formica means?
[quoted image]

They all had these under the coin box. They were white but got oversprayed I’m some cases.

#8590 11 months ago
Quoted from Lovef2k:

The Bally spinners also have a thicker wire.

Sand it down?

#8591 11 months ago
Quoted from jj44114:

They all had these under the coin box. They were white but got oversprayed I’m some cases.

Thanks for clarifying.

#8593 11 months ago

I just drilled the holes in the Stern cages I have to the larger size holes to fit the Bally spinner wires.

#8594 11 months ago
Quoted from cottonm4:

Is this the spinner that stops in the upside down position?
Or did you get that issue fixed?

all 3 of my stern spinner, including the one from Meteor were 34g. I have couple older Stern spinner including one from Galaxy and they were lighter around 27-28g.

Working on the test rig for those spinners, i am out of town this weekend

#8595 11 months ago

So I have a new ceramic coated playfield missing a 1/2" hole for the spinner wire pass-through. Small holes are easy to drill in a playfield. 1/2" holes, not so much. I'm curious how you all would drill this without causing damage to the clear coat. I have an idea but don't want to sway anybody. By the way, the bottom is already populated so a drill press is out of the question.

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#8596 11 months ago
Quoted from Mad_Dog_Coin_Op:

So I have a new ceramic coated playfield missing a 1/2" hole for the spinner wire pass-through. Small holes are easy to drill in a playfield. 1/2" holes, not so much. I'm curious how you all would drill this without causing damage to the clear coat. I have an idea but don't want to sway anybody. By the way, the bottom is already populated so a drill press is out of the question.
[quoted image]

Drill a 1/16" pilot hole all the way through. Make sure you are drilling straight down and not drilling at an angle. If you have a drill press, then make a drill bushing by drilling a 1/16" hole in some wood and use this as a guide for drilling the pilot hole at 90 degrees.

Put a piece of masking tape over the pilot hole. Get a Forstner bit of correct diameter. Set your drill motor to run in reverse to cut the paint a line in the paint without the bit lifting the paint. Once you have a good cut line, then set your drill to forward and let the bit do what it is designed to do. Go slowly. To avoid splintering any wood, once you are about 90% through, then come from the underside and complete the hole.

https://www.amazon.com/s

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#8597 11 months ago

Cottonm4 has the way, I modded a Metallica pro with spinners and was scared to death of drilling crooked, so I bought this from Amazon and it was worth it.
Your already are de-populated so less work than me.
-Mike

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#8598 11 months ago
Quoted from cottonm4:

Drill a 1/16" pilot hole all the way through. Make sure you are drilling straight down and not drilling at an angle. If you have a drill press, then make a drill bushing by drilling a 1/16" hole in some wood and use this as a guide for drilling the pilot hole at 90 degrees.
Put a piece of masking tape over the pilot hole. Get a Forstner bit of correct diameter. Set your drill motor to run in reverse to cut the paint a line in the paint without the bit lifting the paint. Once you have a good cut line, then set your drill to forward and let the bit do what it is designed to do. Go slowly. To avoid splintering any wood, once you are about 90% through, then come from the underside and complete the hole.

This is 100% correct. I had to do this on a playfield a couple of years ago. Only thing I would do differently would be to start from the back and then go to the front - so that when you finish the hole, if the drill punches through unexpectedly you’re going through the back side. Unlikely, but obviously you want to be conscientious.

A drill guide seems like overkill to me; you’re only going through 1/2”, and really only ~1/4” (from each side.) As long as your initial 1/16” hole is straight through (using a guide block is spot on), the Forstner bit will be easy to control.

It’s also a very good idea to lightly break the edges of the clear with fine sandpaper to ease them back from the edge of the hole and keep the clear from chipping later on.

#8599 11 months ago
Quoted from sethbenjamin:

Only thing I would do differently would be to start from the back and then go to the front - so that when you finish the hole, if the drill punches through unexpectedly you’re going through the back side.

This statement confuses me. If you start on the backside and go to the front and the drill punches through wouldn't it be punching through to the the front side?

Quoted from sethbenjamin:

A drill guide seems like overkill to me; you’re only going through 1/2”, and really only ~1/4” (from each side.) As long as your initial 1/16” hole is straight through (using a guide block is spot on), the Forstner bit will be easy to control.

I won't disagree with you. But I worked aircraft sheet metal where the wing skin and its support bracket might only measure 3/16" thick. I have seen many holes drilled off angle which made the hole worthless for driving rivets; The fix was to drill the hole oversize for a larger rivet. Not knowing the skills of anybody who might read what I say, I try to take the conservative approach to keep someone from digging ( no pun intended) a hole they can't climb out off.

For myself, I would not need a drill bushing, and neither would you, but I don't know about the next guy---and I never know who might read something I wrote. I don't want to be the one who helped a guy damage a $1,000.00 play field.

#8600 11 months ago

I’m completely stumped on something and this might sound like a stupid question but can something bad on a rectifier board cause a weak flipper issue?

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