I communicated with them a couple of years ago about an error. The one for Seawitch was the wrong color of blue. I advised them, so they made a replacement and it was the wrong color of blue, too. And there will never be one with the correct Seawitch blue.

These guys are hobbyists. I don't see them throwing away all of their inventory and starting over.

Want one for your Seawitch? Here are your color choices. 1 is too light; 1 is too dark. It won't get any better.

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Here is the error. Somebody did not proof read before printing. To be honest, I did not even see this mistake. Someone else pointed it out to me.
I scratch my head and wonder how this happened.

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At least it isn't missing text and incorrect fonts on a $700 playfield...

nothing is ever as good as original...backglass, playfield, plastics or apron.

Heyyyyy! The bronze is only 600

They were $800.

and.... crickets when asked about it.

I've almost convinced myself that it won't bother me once it's installed. Almost.

I'm hoping that once they go to print on demand they will offer a trade in on the early adopters that turned out to have gotten the run around/screwed.

There are lots more shades of blue available in vinyl and not just those two.

Or is that printed on a clear sticker you need to install over the full apron ?

Yes. Clear sticker that covers the top of the apron. It looks nice installed, but no comparison to a silk screened apron.

.....and it's still wrong.

The compliance on the link is alittle more bouncy so you have to put more tension on the spring which then can cost you in flipper power. On one I restored, I thought hey I will keep the "new" hardware and put the "old" hardware on the restoration. Bad move. I wish I had my old flippers back. Rebuilt to perfection with vintage links. The new links were bouncy and then had to do more tweeking. I am happy PL makes these flippers ( don't get me wrong) but I would try to keep the old links and springs if possible. If the plunger is not mushroomed.

So I had a webpage tab open on my phone for months with a picture of the rectifier board back and it had all the wires labeled etc. This was from Steve Kulpa's website. I went to save that picture today to put it in my archive and now the website is gone and thus the picture is gone. Does anyone know what I am referring to? anyone have that picture or similar? I didn't see one on Clay's site. I tried the web archive but no pictures were saved it seems.

http://web.archive.org/web/20160708181340/http://stevekulpa.net/pinball/as-2518-18-wiring.htm

pictures load for me

Nooooo Kulpa's site was awesome.

Thanks! not sure what was going on, no pictures were going. Oh did you use an older date? I think I used the one in late 2019.

I think I just clicked the latest one or maybe some random one based on the 2016 in the URL? Dunno. Wayback saved my bacon a couple of times in the last couple months as bookmarks that I reload looking for info have disappeared.

The apron cards you made up for me arrived today. They look very nice. They really accent how beat up my apron is.

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Now, we just have to get set up for the other Sterns.

I finally got tired of working under the play field and drop a screw, a nut , or a washer, only to see it hit the floor of the cabinet and proceed to bounce under or roll under the transformer mounting board.

Me and Gorilla Glue did something about it. I closed it off to stop the bounce-and-roll action.

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Nice. I just fish around blindly with the magnet on a steek for 10 minutes before realizing it somehow bounced into a bundle of wires.

Does anyone know where to get the upper backglass trim for Stars? I can't lock the backbox properly without it.

Regular black trim works. Not certain if anyone sells white.

Are you talking about this part with the locking tabs on?

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There are at least two types of backbox lockdown bars. The early ones do not require the metal trim with tabs. The later ones do. I had a Trident with an early lockdown bar. I’d be surprised if your Stars had the later one. Although they are interchangeable between early and later games. The metal trim tabs are annoying so maybe someone swapped them at some point.

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Early Bar (requires regular plastic trim)

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Late Bar (requires metal trim w/tabs)

I think that's the one i need, but I'm not sure...my backglass was missing that piece when i got the game.

Here's the bracket that locks the backglass in place, the 2nd one kickabit posted:

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Anybody sitting on some coin door parts? Could use the bracketru that holds the coin switch, for a Chicago Coin coin door, which as I recall is the same.

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You have an early bar. You can just use a regular plastic trim on the backglass.

Good to know. I'll order up a piece next time I'm placing a parts order. I've also noticed a bit of wobble from the backglass when it's installed and locked, hopefully adding the trim will help reduce that. Thanks for the info!

Anyone know the history behind these goofy locks? Seems like an awfully lot of engineering for something so easy.

I wish I knew. I figured they were trying to be different than Bally. The Bally bar is just like the early one.

Stern wasn’t adverse to re-engineering. Look at the drop target mechs. There’s like six variations of the design.

Does anyone sell these backbox lockbars? I have a game that is missing one. I would like some of the early style for some of my later games too.

I wish. They are something that Mantis could probably make but I doubt any of us would be happy the cost.

Ladies and Gents... your decals are finally going out this week. I just PMd everybody that reserved them with payment info

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If you got spares let me know I’m in for some!

Tsskinne a few deadbeats who reserved some have ignored my payment request so I have a few more up for grabs!

EDIT: All gone now! Thanks for all the last minute orders today. I can run more in the Fall if there's additional interest cheers.

Deadbeats on Pinside? Surely not !

You got stuck on the side of the road with 25 of them ?

It’s all good. I’m selling these at cost so it’s not like I’m losing thousands here haha.

Think these will be gone by the time I make the post office trip on Thursday and if not I’ll just hang onto them in case I find 20 more Classic Sterns

PM sent.

EDIT: All gone now! Thanks for all the last minute orders today. I can run more in the Fall if there's additional interest cheers.

Hey guys, any tips for drop targets on the earlier classic Sterns? I have a Memory Lane I am trying to get dialed in and just can't get the drops working right. The ball will more often than not bounce off the targets (without them dropping), or the drops will go down on their own when the game kicks them back up. Really kills this game as they are a pretty important feature. Replaced all three targets and as far as I can tell, the mechs/springs/etc look fine.

Do the replacement drops have the rib on them or just the shelf right below the target face? Rib is correct for Memory Lane, and 'chichlet' style (no hood).

The ones that are shelfs are Bally style drops and they brick exactly as you are describing.

Since the drop bank is straight on they will tend to brick a little bit, Lightning's center bank is terrible this way and ML is likely similar. You can try and move the entire bank forward as much as you can and people have tried stiffening the drop to help its downing, but it tends to be a losing battle - it's endemic to the game because of the angle. Gottlieb drops are the only ones that don't brick straight on.

Higher flipper strength doesn't help either.... someone a long time ago did a slo-mo video of drops that wouldn't drop and the reason they don't is that the target flexes and hits the back of the slot with such force that it comes back front onto its shelf rather than dropping. Stronger springs help but then they don't reset properly.

If you look on rec.games.pinball there's a lot of threads where people played around with this, as well as likely here on pinside.

If only we could get all the different stern drops reproed properly it would be a magical day.

Replaced most parts but left the drops original for obvious reasons on the latest to get brought back from the dead pile.

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Just saw this on Twitter:Screen Shot 2020-05-19 at 9.34.18 AM.png

And in tombstone form!

What's the difference between "chicklet" and "tombstone"?

Tombstone dont have the wide top.

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So the top is tombstone and the bottom is chicklet? Huh. I always throught the TOP was chicklet, since.. as far as I know, chicklets were straight, no lips. Just square.

Thanks though. That helps.

ditto

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I know I have mentioned this somewhere before, but time to say it again.

You can take a hooded target and get your sanding and filing equipment out and make a tombstone target from a hooded target. The job will look at good as your skillset.

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When you load your pictures, pinside gives you the tools to rotate them into upright position. Those small curves arrows make it possible.

This sideways business is fairly new to me. It used to be I could load my pics and not think about it. But now every pic I load needs to be rotated. It is a PIA but doable.

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First off, make sure ALL the metal pieces are smooth. The plating on Stern mechs oxidizes and acts like sandpaper, hindering the smooth operation of the drops.
Secondly, the springs may be getting a little weak. On my Freefall, the bank in the middle is close to the flippers and had the same problems yours does. I had to move the rod the springs are mounted on a little bit lower to give a bit more tension. I don’t know how much different your mech is from mine, but maybe yours has some holes a little bit lower in the sidewalls that you could use.