(Topic ID: 186522)
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1 month later
Time for an update. I've been sidetracked with a black knight, bad girls, pinbot, and a few arcade games.
Completely rewired the light board and new sockets. The machine needs a new back box, but in the meantime I wanted to hook up the repaired mpu (thanks Clive!) and the new pinscore displays. Double checked the ac power from the transformer and tested the rebuilt power supply. All good. Installed the mpu and speech board, with only the displays and diagnostic switches connected. Ran through the few tests I could with no playfield. Welcome back to the land of the living, Sorcerer!
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Quoted from seshpilot:Show us your playfield!
I don't want to, but as long as everyone promises not to throw up....
I don't have a 'true' before picture on my phone, but yes the playfield was completely covered. I made the clean window to determine if the game was salvageable.
4 weeks later
Update time! Been busy working on the bottom side tear down. My old phone shit bricked and i lost those progress pictures The bottom of the playfield is dirty and i had to peel the harness back to get it all cleaned up. Did the top half first (pics lost), now working on the bottom half. All gi sockets were rusted out and replaced. Lots of rusty brackets/ parts, I'm swapping as many parts as i can from a blackout playfield and from my spare parts hoard.
"Part by part and inch by inch, you'll have your mile when its through" - Something Corporate
Bottom side almost done minus the parts that go through the playfield. Hopefully this is the end of the rusty shitwork. Every under playfield fastener was replaced due to rust :/
1 week later
Quoted from tominator:Very nice!
Curious when you mention a knocker... my sorcerer makes a cool noise when you match or win a free game, but there is no loud knock. Is there supposed to be?
Solenoid 14 iirc. Top right of the back box. Get that baby cracking!
Quoted from tominator:Thanks. Interesting. I never even knew that was supposed to happen!
Obviously I need to get this working. I am a noob when it comes to pin repair, so please excuse the noob question...
So here is a pic...should there not be a spring? the coil has a red and a blue/ brown wire soldered to it...I have not run a coil test yet...
I assume I am missing parts?
No spring required, it looks complete.
Fun fact: have you noticed in all the pictures that there is no backglass? Have you also noticed that the light board is never fully closed? There's a reason and it's name is Rot. The bottom piece is falling apart and the weight of the backbox has bent it (frown shape) about 1/4". This prevents the light board from closing (easily) and it also jams the backglass. I put the glass in once and was very lucky to get it back out without breaking it 
The art is ok, but the ply that it is on is delaminating. The bottom is holding on by sheet rock screws. There are filler pockets that are now hollow and several auxiliary fasteners for the speaker panel. Not many redeeming qualities.... it's time for a new back box!
The lower cabinet is original. The outside is checking, but it is still solid with no water damage. I will make a new back box. I think it will be faster than trying to save the original one and i think it will be a better final result.
My best guess is whatever hell this game was stored in had a leaky roof and the upright head caught the water.
Quoted from tominator:So in my sorcerer manual it says solenoid 14 is not used...
When I run a solenoid test, nothing happens on 14...
Why is this coil there if it's not used?
How can I get it working?
The manual list #14 as unused but there is a coil number for it. (I think it was 14, but I cant check until the game is back together.)
Not really important what # it is because if its not working the solenoid test can't tell you why. Inspect that the wires are securely soldered to the lugs and the plunger is free to move. That coil isn't original but it will probably be ok. The coil sleeve (that is sneaking out the top) is definitely wrong. You need a flanged coil sleeve, the current one might be binding the plunger.
Get out your multimeter and measure the dc volts on each lug of the solenoid with the game in attract mode. Black lead on the big metal backing plate, red lead on each lug. Each lug should have around 30vdc solenoid power. If missing power on both = power to the solenoid is broken (probably a wiring issue since the other solenoids work. Trace the larger red wire back). If missing on one, the small coil winding is broke on the solenoid leaving the coil "open".
If power is good and still in attract mode, grab an alligator clip and momentarily (quickly!) touch the coil lug with the non banded side of the diode - with the smaller wire - to ground (metal backing plate). If the coil fires, the coil is good. If it doesn't fire, there is not power or the coil winding is broken (determined from previous step). Now move the alligator clip and momentarily ground the metal tab of the drive transistor for that coil. If it fires, then you know the wires are good. If not, the smaller wire to the coil is broken.
If the above tests check out, and it still doesn't work in game, then you have drive transistor issues on the mpu.
Quoted from tominator:Ok so the coil fires when I do the alligator clip test from the board...
So the coil and wiring are good. It does not fire when I win a free game though...
Does that mean I need board work? Or could it be in the game settings?
I don't think it's a setting, but double check. Probably a transistor issue on the mpu. Test the drive and predrive transistor for that coil using the diode function on your meter. Compare readings to the known working transistors for the other coils.
1 week later
Working on the head pieces. I think the h channel takes the cake for "rustiest" piece, chunks were flying off. Speaker panel needs to be recovered due to the extra holes from the auxiliary corner brackets.
The stenciling process was somewhere between fiasco and disaster. It being my first go around, I thought I would get somewhat clean lines from the stencils if I had them weighted/pinned down. That was not the case and I had major overspray issues and many blurry/messy edges on the yellow. Tried to compensate on the orange and wound up putting it on too thick and the paint haloed under. There was a lot of paint to remove with naphta and it had to be touched up afterwards. This is the left side after cleanup but before touch ups. Good from far, but far from good...
Even more paint removal and touch up to add to the fiasco They look ok, but for the effort required I hoped they would have turned out better. I guess I got what I paid for by making stencils out of tag board 
I'm going with frisket/sticker stencils next time.
When I decided to make a new back box I was worried that the art would look too new/ perfect compared to the original lower cab. That's probably not an issue anymore 
Quoted from MikeO:Looks good.
Did you consider painting the speaker grill channels black?
Not really, just went for a stock look. The bottom track isn't painted, all the rusty parts weren't visible so I just removed the rust and polished the lip. The h channel (its lower case h) was completely rusted, and I went silver metallic paint. The silver helps hide how bent up the lift trim is on the glass. Silver trim kind of matches the mirror bordering on the display windows, too, but maybe that's a stretch.
It might look pretty slick with blacked out metal and black lift trim 
If you're wondering why go through so much work for this machine, here is the backstory:
Six or seven years ago I was really bored at work and decided to do something I rarely do: check eBay for pinball machines. In my area, there were never games on eBay within 300 miles let alone the fact none of the listed machines are ever reasonably priced-even back then. You could still find decent deals on parts, as it was before the days of the $40 rubber kits and $30 fuse kits that eBay is now flooded with. After searching for parts for every machine I owned, I decide to search "pinball machine" and sort the results according to proximity.
To my surprise, the first result is an auction within 20 miles for 2 machines: sorcerer and laser cue. The pictures weren't very detailed but they showed two folded up machines with no backglasses. They looked rough, but it was hard to tell how bad they were. It just looked like the glass was filthy. It was a no reserve auction with zero bids, so I decide to throw my hat in the ring and became the high bidder for the handsome price of $0.99.
The last few days of the auction pass by and my original bid weathered the storm and I was the winner for $0.99.
My brother in law and I go to pickup the machines and meet the previous owner. The seller is a collector, and was in the process of moving, and these 2 machines didn't make the cut. (I bet he is a member here, but i havent noticed him around) He explained how he bought the machines in a demolition style sale, meaning the building they were stored in was being condemned or torn down. Upon inspecting the machines, the playfield glass was missing and all that dirt was on the playfields. The cabinets had water damage and a lot of rusty metal. No backglasses, but they machines looked complete. Handed over a Washington and started loading up.
My brother thought I was crazy for going through with it. Several comments I remember on the drive home " I think you over paid", "Probably shouldn't strap these down too tight, you'd be better off letting them fall off the truck" and finally "want me to back up to the garage or burn pit?"
And then they sat, kept hidden away as my dirty little secret. I found used backglasses on ebay, and other parts over the years and stashed them away. But I never started these projects because they were going to require so much work. About 150 video and pinball machines have bumped these 2 machines in the repair/restore que (because they were shorter projects) over last seven years. But this last spring, I was down to the bitter end of the pile...and so sorcerer began, and laser cue is next.
So why save them? It's a cool story to say you bought a game for $0.50...as long as you don't say that you eventually paid about the going rate for a working machine after you tally restoration costs.
Why save them? The artwork by Pam Erickson! What are the odds that the only 2 games she worked on were rotting side by side all these years? It was an eerie coincidence.
Why save them? Sometimes you want to find your limits. What level of hell makes a game beyond saving? I wanted to see how far I could bring a game back. I wouldn't make a habit of all my projects being this large, but I still grin when I hear "FEEL MY POWER". 
Quoted from Tallon:I have done a few cabinets and for the time and effort to get it to look good I just pay the Pinball Pimp for his stencils. Vinyl is the way to go. Clean lines and no overspray. Better then factory
If I was doing the full cabinet, that would have been my route. Since I only did the head, I decided to try it. It looks fine, but it was a lot of work to make them look 'fine'. PP will be the way I go next time, its worth the cost 
Quoted from adamsebas:Awesome game and project! I sold mine about 2yrs ago and basically wanted it back as soon as it left. Thankfully I kept in touch with the buyer and I am buying it back this week. Quick question - i wouldn't mind putting a new coin door on it when I get it back...I can't seem to find any system 9 doors anywhere....anyone know where to get new ones? Do sys 11 ones fit?
It is a coin co brand coin door. Many video arcade games also used them (in the US). Probably won't find them new. I would think a system 11 would fit, but I cannot confirm that.
2 weeks later
Sequels are never as good, but Laser Cue is in even worst shape: https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/laser-cue-a-foolish-rustoration#post-3971947
1 year later
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Watertown, MA
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