July, 2013:

I've been wanting a Sorcerer for 2 months after playing one at the local pin expo.
Saw no bites on nationwide-CL or ebay for 8 weeks, then BAM! 4 appear all at once...
Price points: (add $450 for NAVL to Calif.)

Click here to see all the highlights: https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/sorcerer-project#post-986009

1. $2500+450 (ebay) very high price from a reputable flipper. (saw quality pics, looked good, not $2500 good -- very funny how people don't know how to represent value... Instead they want you to bank on, "Trust me, it's worth every penny, we really cleaned this up!")
2. $1700+450 (CL) -- no idea on condition, never saw quality pics
3. $1000+450 (CL) -- no idea on condition, never saw quality pics
4. <$1000 from a Pinsider 4hrs away... delivered to my home (I paid for half the gas.)

Moral to the Story?

1. Pinsiders rule. Keep meeting quality people on here.
2. Wait for it... and buy local.

Met some nice people today, and have a new project that is tons of fun...
Thanks Pinside!
-mof

---
I'm ready to tear it down and do (what I hope is) a quick 16-hr restore on it so I can really enjoy playing this game before midnight Sunday (with CAX tomorrow!!! argh!!!)... All prepared with $350 worth of parts to get it playing sharp: (prices are rough guesses to the nearest $5)

1. cliffy flipper guides (2) $25
2. star posts (50) $15
3. set of rubbers $15
4. flipper bats (3) $10
5. replacement (used) pop caps (2) $65
6. 3 flipper coils (coming soon!) $35
7. replacement fuses $5
8. replacement incandescent bulbs and a set of 100 LEDs from Nifty (met them at CAX) $110
9. replace broken stationary targets and replace all target stickers $25
10. replace batteries/check for previous damage (looks good on first glance) $0
11. replace pop bumper skirts $5
12. resistors and capacitors $5
13. replace all plastic white nuts $5
14. new balls $5
15. lockdown bar assembly $25

She's a bit dirty coming fresh off route -- no worries, she'll shine and play like a dream within a few short days, stay tuned!

OVERVIEW
Lower PF has some tiny paint wear spots, but luckily has VERY flat mylar put over THAT (after some wear), but... with NO raised inserts (miracle). Typical black border paint missing around inserts. Upper PF has no mylar, and has some moderate wear in three areas. (someday) I'll need to learn to layer that up then paint it by hand. Not too worried about it for now, since the wear isn't in a ball-drain area, so it won't affect game play much -- if at all. I have no tolerance for ball wear in front of the flippers, though... that would be painful. Cabinet has typical knicks and fade. Backglass is great.

-mof
201307-sorc-prepared.jpg
sorc-dirteee.jpg

MEDIUM SHOP JOB: 37 hours

Completed (37 hours): (July, 2013)
* remove all items on top of playfield
* remove all items under playfield
* Troll cabinet for parts, and clean it out
* Clean apron, install cabinet hinge-block
* Tumble shooter assembly
* Clean cabinet floor
* Clean lockdown bar receiver
* Clean coin door area
* Adjust and assemble shooter
* Handle all the pass-through wires, and wires that solder into the GI braid (4 flasher bulbs with grey wires)
* Assemble lockdown bar receiver, clean coin door switch, clean and install power switch
* Clean + Polish speaker panel trim
* Clean coin door by hand (didn't remove parts yet)
* Paint pen on cabinet, coin door, and backbox to clean up the look
* Replaced flipper switches with new parts
* tumbled front end parts
* Three flipper assemblies re-built
* Rebuilt 3 pops
* new stickers on standups
* Coil test and fuse test
* Install new plastics, and verify I have the supporting hardware
* Left Side Shop: Polished posts, screw heads, cleaned plastics, new rubbers, installed new nylon nuts and acorns
* Right Side Shop: Polished posts, screw heads, cleaned plastics, new rubbers, installed new nylon nuts and acorns
* Remove Playfield

PLAYFIELD SWAP PREP (hours 1-13) (Aug, 2015)
Completed:
* Hours 1-2:Harness prepared for cleaning (removed switch plates, added plastic zip ties, cut old zip ties, remove bulbs)
* Hour 3:Scrub, dishwasher and dry harness
* Hour 4:disassemble, clean and reassemble drop target assembly
* Hours 5-6:disassemble, clean and reassemble solenoid assemblies + remove all solder
* Hour 7:Molex three flipper assemblies
* Hours 8-13:Ultrasonic everything

To Do:
* Remove apron and tumble two PF handles
* Paint/Stain wood rails

PF SWAP!
* Add GI braid to new PF
* Install GI sockets
* Hammer in T-nuts
* Install pop nails
* Install inlane/outlane switches
* Install wire guides
* Reinstall wiring harness and components
* Install wood rails
* Install topside
* Run system tests and resolve wiring issues

BONUS ITEMS
* Clean up Legs
* Clean backbox and lamp board, tumble door brackets
* Re-do Spinners? or just touch them up.
* build plastic protectors to save new plastics. Check for screw wear on old plastics. <-- top priority
* re-grain metal ball guides
* add new solenoid papers

-mof

HIGHLIGHTS

I'm going to point to a few landmarks along the way here:

1. Pin first shopped (movie) w/LEDs (gross!):
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/sorcerer-project#post-1004730
2. Playfield Teardown:
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/playfield-tear-down-sorcerer
3. Playfield arrived from Great Pinball:
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/great-pinball-restored-sorcerer-playfield-the-unveiling
4. Playfield rebuild starts:
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/sorcerer-project/page/2#post-2617574
5. Movie of final result:
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/sorcerer-project/page/3#post-2763607

-mof

BEFORE/AFTER PFs
before-after.png

Day #1
4 hours in. Progress update:
3 hours to tear down top.
1 hour to clean cabinet and polish where the lockdown bar mounts.
Thanks for tuning in!
-mof

Day #2: Just a little energy left after a day at the local video game/pinball expo.
hours 5 and 6: magic eraser'ed the wood, and waxed it.
hours 7 and 8: cleaned all parts by hand including every screw.
8-hours in...
ready to polish the mylar tomorrow.
Goal is play it by midnight tomorrow night.

Day #3:
Hour 9: Treasure Coving the Mylar, and Waxing the playfield. Didn't realize how quick that is... Didn't come out as amazingly well polished as I had hoped, but for a first time, at least I was good about not shooting polish all over the place like some flippers do. Also, the fact that there were no star posts present, means I won't have tons of product stuck to the bottoms of them, like you always see -- god that makes me nuts when people push polish/wax on top the posts and leave it there.
Hours 10-11: installing all Nifty LEDs (met Nate at the show who helped me make some good decisions on my very first LED purchase.) Was roughly ~$100 total for 90 bulbs to do the whole machine (excluding the backglass!).
Hours 11-16: Playfield put back together with new rubbers. Looks good!
Had one short celebratory game. Ball looks great in travel, and appears to travel VERY smoothly, especially in the lower PF.
Waiting for new flipper coils to arrive so I can rebuild all the flipper assemblies to WPC (fliptronics)-era style.
-mof

topside-teardown.jpg

inside-cab.jpg

Day #4
* Hours 17-19:
Upgraded Left flipper to WPC (fliptronics)-era assembly.

With the left flipper working properly, I can now really enjoy the game. I have to say, this game design is amazing. Mark Ritchie is a genius.

Day #5
* Hours 20-21
Tore out two broken stationary targets, and replaced them.

So thankful for this collection, and learning about Sorcerer. I love both spinner shots and the ramp and orbit shot. Very good flow.

Day #6
* Hours 22-25
Replaced upper playfield flipper assembly with WPC (fliptronics)-era mechs. Plays amazingly well now. Put in warm white non-ghosting in the bottom row of light in the backbox for the "game over, etc". Replaced the pop bumper cap that was very broken. Cleaned the trough 100% and cleaned the solenoid assembly that feeds the ball. Removed the scoreboard, and put washers under it so it would raise enough to seat properly in the backglass. Installed 1-1/2" washers in the legs to make them stable. Replaced A-B-C-D lane plastics.

Day #7
* Hours 26-26
Unmounted the drop target assembly and removed the stickers, cleaned the targets, re-stickered em. Same with the stationary targets (only they didn't need removal.)

Day #8
* Hours 27-29
Finally hit a snag -- I think I have a bad 2N3904 resistor at Q12 which supports 1J8-7. Result is game tilting when hitting the upper left bumper. Will install a new one Wed night, and pray.

-mof

201307-sorc-after2.jpg

Day #9:
* Hours 30-30: Replaced the Q12 transistor, switch errors solved!
Day #10:
* Hours 31-35: In the home stretch now. Pops are done. It is important to get the original bulb sockets out of there -- they are horrible. The bulbs I installed in them bounce and shake around in the original sockets. I also borrowed the Ed Cheung style of using wood screws and washers to hold the leads in place: (scroll down 1/4th of the way down his page, or search for "Pop Bumper Light")
http://www.edcheung.com/album/album08/pinball/tz.htm
and no longer rely on tinkering with staples. I didn't bother taking apart each spoon assembly, I'll leave that level of perfection to another day. Goal for today was to get all the broken skirts out and future proof to make the next pop cleaning or upgrade easier. I did that.
Day #11:
* Hours 36-36: Replaced a 27ohm 2watt resistor, that was causing 1J7-4 to not work in the lamp matrix.
Day #12:
* Hours 37-38: Shined up the lockdown bar receiver from 100 grit up to 300 grit, and installed it. NOW I'm really done with Phase I: (functionally complete, and playing as nice as possible.)

201308-sorc-pops-closeup.jpg

20101308-sor-shop-job-complete.jpg

120 grit sandpaper

I sand where the ball strikes the one-way metal "brackets" -- like at the end of the shooter lane -- so that the ball is hitting smooth edges, then I Noxon the outside of the bracket so it looks Cylon-shiny-nice.

It came out nice, I was hoping it would have a more bowling-alley shine. I haven't watched the Treasure Cove DVD yet, perhaps I used wrong "technique."

-mof

I will post some videos soon, I promise.
-mof

Enjoy the video!
-mof

Great question. Just so I don't have responses in two places -- I'd like to redirect you -- I have a post regarding this here:
http://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/tech-help-lower-pf-lighting-issue
-mof

36 hours in (over 3 weeks). So close. Almost complete with all high priority tasks.
(posted updated pics above)

Very pleased with the results. Surprised by the amount of time required to restore a beater.
I have a whole new level of appreciation for the brave people that restore machines. Feed them well, and keep their beer glasses full ! I can imagine an additional 40+ hours AT LEAST left to do to complete all the medium and low priority issues to really make this machine perfect.

Last high priority item is:
* solve the lane change mystery lighting http://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/tech-help-lower-pf-lighting-issue

Looking forward to guidance on that from another tech angel.
-mof

This restoration project would not have been possible without help from our sponsors:

Nexyss (for delivering a beater from Reno for a fair price -- he had picked it up in a trade hours before...)
Vid1900 (for his nifty guides)
Kneissl (for lending me his teardown pic gallery)
Terryb (for his guidance in tracing the problem to the faulty Q12 transistor)
Geocab (filming movies to show how lane lights should operate in Sorcerer)

Also thanks for the kind encouragement. We all take turns inspiring each other here to keep putting love and time into making our machines shine!

Now go fix something!

-mof

Lamp matrix solved due to a hack from some previous maroon's sabotage-repair. Hacked wire removed, and 27 ohm 5w resistor replaced (the correct fix), and she's golden.
Enjoy!
-mof

Haha great story. What have we learned here?
Just remember, kids! Never get stoned before making a sale, you'll just be saying/feeling, "SURE MAN, TAKE IT!" Conversely, if you can catch a seller stoned, RUSH OVER NOW.
Haha...

Ok your beater was more beaten than my beater, but I'm still calling this one a ex-beater.

=)
-mof

October, 2013...

Just added the final piece. Now I'm truly complete with Phase I!

Functionally complete, and plays as smooth as possible. I have a stainless steel coin door in the works, but I'll need to mod the coin door wood to enable this project. I have a few threads open to assist with that.

Here are the pics from hours 37-38.

-mof

eagle_has_landed.jpg lockdown_bar_receiver.jpg lockdown_bar_rusty_(before).JPG

It's time to finally necro this thread after 532 days.

Where were we?
Phase I: I got the machine to play 100%: check, got that wrapped at ~40 hours in Oct, 2013.
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/sorcerer-project#post-1105662

I am very much looking forward to doing the playfield swap on Sorcerer. I got my teeth cut on the High Speed playfield swap over xmas break that turned out well: https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/high-speed-restoration
That first swap had to happen to get my skills up to speed, before I tackled more precious playfields like a Sorcerer and a Seawitch. Everything is going according to plan.

I am considering doing JUST the playfield swap (~70 hrs), and come back and do the cabinet in the distant future (~40 hrs?). The reason for this is that I'll have both the Seawitch playfield AND the Sorcerer playfields arriving in May. This means I'll be staring at a Seawitch playfield knowing it could be in the game. Also, I'd like to install a stainless steel coin door in Sorcerer, and that will require all kinds of wood-working magic and bondo skills that I have yet to develop.

So I think I'm going to do my Sorcerer PF swap, then the Seawitch PF swap, and then circle back afterwards and clean up all the cabinets in my collection that need attention during the second half of the year. Cabinets that need attention are: (Embryon, Fathom, Sorcerer, Seawitch, Diner)

For now, I'd like to begin the project by considering the shopping list of parts to complete the swap, and being cleaning and polishing all the parts, before the PF arrives.

-mof

My first ever tear-down happened here last May:

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/playfield-tear-down-sorcerer

I then sent the playfield off to John G. to get the playfield re-printed and cleared. It required a redo in January, and it's due back in April or so. Very excited!

-mof

Yes.
-mof

Doh. Brakes are back on. I gotta shop this Gorgar first.
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/resto-gorgar-mof-20150301
-mof

Fine by me, Sorcerer will take me 2 months, but I'd sure like to start Sorcerer by May 1, boss!
-mof

Thanks man. I can't wait to see my playfield...
-mof

Actually, life happened, and I can't start Sorcerer until summer, fingers crossed!
Looking forward to seeing that PF !
-mof

August 5th is arrival. Fingers crossed. Pinballholder was kind enough to drop off his Sorcerer fully populated PF so I could have a solid reference point for the GI braid and such. What a hero!

-mof

PF comes today...
-mof

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/great-pinball-restored-sorcerer-playfield-the-unveiling

Time to clean up the shop and get prepared to put this beast back together...
-mof

Shop cleaned up.
Friend lent me his Sorcerer PF to assist with the swap.
Old harness laid out and ready to clean.
I think I'll start by molexing any items I don't want to run through the harness cleaning process.
I'll draw up a more complete plan tomorrow.
It's nice to have the previous plan to reference:
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/playfield-swap-guide
One thing we know is that the game played great before the swap, so I have every expectation that this will go smoothly. (ha!)
Excited!
-mof

Here's the NEW harness plan:
-mof

1. replace all blue tape identifier-lables (that match with the screw bags) with plastic zip-ties (I hope the sharpie ink will stay on the plastic)

2. snip all ties like VID mentioned with looser ones.

3. molex and remove the three new flipper assemblies (no reason to risk losing the paper on those coils, and the coils don't need cleaning as they are new)

4. check for relays TWICE on sorcerer harness (don't *think* there are any)

5. tie down all switch stacks that might separate

6. Take it to the street and start with degreaser and a hose with a strong jet. Get the first layer of BLACK out of the system -- throw it in a plastic tub

7. Finish with a dishwasher run to wrap it up

8. Bake it in the oven on low heat for an hour or so

9. Review by hand and air-blast the coils or any components that are holding onto water.

I realize I haven't done "everything" possible before starting the PF swap. I haven't tumbled and polished all the old equipment first. Just a note to myself to decide later on where the hours for "tumbling and polishing mechs" go...

-mof