Really not happy with the color choices for Magic, I'll send you the two closest yellows and you can decide which to use.

Picked up my Meteor parts today!

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Hey! That red looks familiar!

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Nice! Wait until you see the ridiculousness I did for my lighting...

Sadly....I sent a Bally bar. I found out as much by putting it on my Seawitch... which has a Bally receiver for whatever silly-ass reason.

So.... I guess I'm swapping receivers later.

//edit

Forgot the hangers are different too..............nevermind.

Yuuuuuup, you were used as the example. Lol

Can't wait to see!

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https://mantispinball.com/product/bally-playfield-hangers-older-bally/

Or I’m sure plenty of us have beat up old ones laying around. I know I do, but maybe someone local does too.

Yeah, thinking about it a bit last night I think I can probably stomach putting new holes in my current Meteor playfield since I'm going to swap it at some point anyway. Not sure I want to put Bally hangers on my new playfield *BUT* it would appear one of my Stern games (Ali, Seawitch, Meteor, Lightning, or Quicksilver) is destined to have a Bally receiver and lock bar. Guess it might as well be Meteor since I already have the lock bar powdercoated. Bleh.

You will be drilling new holes. Then do a wood/hole repair and fill the old holes. Not a big thing.

Both Meteor and Seawitch have crappy holes drilled in the front of the cabs, so I guess that's yet another reason to not care about doing the receiver swap. Both are going to need cab repair before my projects are "finished" anyway. Meteor won't ever be sold (sentimental reasons) so I don't as much care that it'll be 'wrong' (IE I don't have to fret about a buyer going "WTF?" on inspection)... Seawitch might.

Still annoying.

My Magic PF does have these. I plan on reusing them whenever needed.

what is an appropriate substitite (or the correct one but i couldnt find it) for a wild fyre shooter rod? data east?
mine's rusty heh

The best replacement is GTB-A5920+. The Pinball Resource might be the only source for it. Got a PBR account?

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Have you soaked it in evaporust?

Try the evaporust as bluespin advised but once you do that, put the shooter rod into a handheld drill. Use some fine steel wool and work your way to ultra fine.

If this works for you, then last thing to do before taking it out of the drill is to use Mother's Polish on it. .

What crappy holes are you talking about?

The Stern receiver bolts in with two carriage bolts that attach the coin door trim. I imagine the Bally receiver would be the same way.

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And there are two holes in the receiver where screws are used to attach the ground cable. Those two holes are behind the lockdown bar.

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It might be holes on his personal machines- Cup holders, ash trays, credit buttons, lock bars, etc.

ok what is the correct spring for meteor drop targets, i have a broken one and have now bought two different incorrect springs lol

Stern used 2 different springs. A long one at first and then they went to a shorter spring. I think Meteor uses the shorter spring.

https://www.pinballlife.com/classic-bally-drop-target-spring.html

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https://www.pinballlife.com/drop-target-reset-spring.html

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Bally lockbar receivers attach with a carriage bolt through the front. I'm sure one could figure out how to recess this somehow and not drill a hole.

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Stern did it. You would think Bally would have figured that out, too.

The carriage bolt holds the lever in place. How often are Stern lockdown bar receivers broken vs Ballys? Far more often.

First time I have heard talk about lockdown bars breaking. Looking at my receiver and it looks like Stern used a #8 screw for a pivot. It also could be upsized to a #10 screw or a 1/4 screw/bolt easily enough, I think.

Huh? You yourself have posted about fixing Stern lockdown bar receivers.

Yes, but not the pivot point. I have had to repair the part that keeps the worn actuating lever from jumping its boundaries. The lever and pivot screw have not been a problem---for me, anyway. I have repaired two of those levers and am now working on #3.

On the pivot, the shoulder washer takes what little stress there is from the return spring. The bolt just sits there holding it all together.

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Here is what I have had to fix in the past. This unit was my first repair but it did not work. The area where the red notch is at will be getting ground away so I can make the final repair. The web on the lever gets worn. Someone with access to a TIG welder can probably fix the lever by adding some material back on. TIG welders don't work cheap so I had to come up with something else. I'll post the repair when I am finished.

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The lever web should not be coming out in the open like this.

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I did on "Seawitch from Scratch"

Take out the carriage bolt and spacer and toss them. Replace with regular hex head bolt, tack in place with welder. Clearance inside cabinet location with forstner bit to clear bolt head, done.

Someone drilled holes in these. Idk.

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PM replied to for apron decals- I have 1x Meteor, 5x Seawitch, 2x Quicksilver and 1x Stargazer left.

Dragonfist ran out the door! I might run off a few more before packing things up for a bit, still need to hit up a Mystic set or two.

Gary

I see. I can make it pretty for you.

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Showoff! Lol

That witch looks really great in person.

Heck of a deal in Georgia, but I’m mostly curious about the apron on it. I don’t think I’ve ever seen that color combo before.
https://pinside.com/pinball/market/classifieds/ad/165045

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Yep, I wrote the guy, but can't pick up for a while, so we'll see what happens. I'd like to try to bring this one back working.

Looks like a Lightning apron.

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Pile of decals going out first thing in the morning guys, had a few stragglers.

Meteor sold out! I picked up some more vinyl to do a few Dragonfist and now I have to run out to get fresh blades.

Gary

How much? Maybe if I start buying Dragonfist parts I can will a scratch build into existence.

$35 shipped in United States.

I just picked up some more vinyl so will be rattling off a few more this morning before running to post office.

Shown below are examples of some aprons done with vinyl cut decals.

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I'm hoping to be at York on Friday, if so $25 a set (no shipping) if you are there.

Gary

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I have completed the repair to the receiver bar I posted pics of the other day.

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The first fix was to bond a length of 1/8" steel strap to the sliding bar on the receiver. This fix did not work. I had to add another small piece of the 1/8" strap to build up the affected area. I also had to remove some material from the lever to make things work correctly.

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Instead of JB Weld, which is quite good, I prefer PC-11. This kit is at least 10 years old and still serviceable. So it has a nice long shelf life.

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Anyway, this is Joe Shadetree jury rigging at its finest. Cheap and it works. A receiver has been saved.

Another option if lever web (is that's what it's called?) Is worn down might be to just remove and powder coat the handle. I just did that on the lightning I'm working on, and it added enough thickness in almost had to grind off some powder. I use an industrial powder place locally that does basically whatever I bring them for a flat cost plus the powder (usually <200), so if I powder anything I strip EVERY bit of non-wear metal in the cab and

Thanks for sharing!

Having some issues with my Meteor (with 2021 code on a switch).

I was in the middle of a game and my sound just dropped out. Now my game sounds like this. No start up tones upon boot.

Skip to 15 seconds to hear what it sounds like after running the boot sequence.

https://www.veed.io/view/dc5f2e14-f261-4f8c-93a8-d92ef7febabb?sharingWidget=true&panel=

The stock code game logic still works and is playable. But no sounds but the static noise obviously.

But when i switch to my 2021 code it will not load. And idea where I should start troubleshooting this?

I'm thinking about trying a scratch build using parts from an existing machine. I have a Meteor, Lightning and Galaxy. I enjoy them all, probably Meteor the most, but Lightning is my only multi level game. If I was to pick, I would probably want to build either a Cheetah or a Star Gazer. I imagine the Lightning would give me what I need to build the Star Gazer, minus one spinner and pop bumper, and the Cheetah would probably require the Meteor get dismantled. Quicksilver is of interest but I have a Blackout and while I think the Quicksilver might be faster they're similar IMO and so I'd rather a different direction. Are there any other machines I should consider? Is it hard to find the metal parts for Star Gazer or would I need to make them from scratch? I'll read through some of the Star Gazer scratch build threads.

Star Gazer is one of the easier scratch builds, especially if you can get a harness from Mk1Mod0 when he gets back around to making more. The 3-bank drop mechs are the most widely used of all the stern drop mechs.

Mantis has the metal guides: https://mantispinball.com/product-category/star-gazer/

While I think it is the worst of those three titles, be aware that the Lightning cabinet is shaped a little higher to accommodate the two-level playfield, so a single-level game may look a little funny in there. Cheetah is a widebody so you’d have to build a whole new cabinet for that.

Weirdness confirmed.

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Man, Stargazer is such a beautiful game. It's kind of a bummer hearing it's not that fun.

It's better than Quicksilver IMO. I'm a sucker for Cheetah but I think there are great reasons to enjoy all 3.

Who is/was making the Star Gazer playfields? I thought it was someone in Canada (were I happen to be) but I can't find anything using google

FantasticPinball, send him a PM but he may not have any available immediately. That’s another great reason to pick Star Gazer as it’ll give you the best quality playfield. So much better than Mirco and CPR.

Didn't realize anyone made SG wire harnesses. PMof interest sent.

Star Gazer is a blast, just a little on the easy side. I hear there's a code tweak out there that changes the rollover behavior to address that a bit though. Those pocket rollovers instead of inlanes are one of the weirdest, coolest oddball features in a long line of weird, cool, oddball classic stern features. And I'll second a playfield from Fantastic...I have one of his in my Seawitch and a star gazer waiting. Stunning work.

Maybe my sentence structure wasn’t real goodlike. I meant Lightning is the worst of his three games. Star Gazer rocks! Gonna build myself another one eventually. I have all the parts, just also have a hundred other projects going currently.

I think I'm going to try to build a star gazer. I've sent a couple of PM's to see what I can source but I think it's most likely my best path and it will leave me with an extra set of flipper kits for another future project. I could see myself building a Quicksilver in the future if the Star Gazer pans out

Toying with a Stargazer time to time, love the upper playfield but those lower star roll overs give me pause.

See what happens after I wrap up Flash Gordon and Fathom scratch builds. I have a few others in the queue (Skateball, Star Trek and Nitro) but there is nothing that states I have to do them right away. I really need to make the time to finish the playfield on FG, life has been such a clownshow of late.

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I am another one who favors Star Gazer over Quicksilver. Both are good and the people who have played the Quicksilver I built give it high marks; I am in the "Quicksilver is OK" crowd.

Star Gazer is my kind of pin. I have built both and sold them. I will be building another Star Gazer for myself. Not sure I would build another QS to keep.