Well, if the cab or head is in good shape physically and pretty much just needs a sanding, it doesn't matter which game it came off to be used in another game of its era.

I have been in the hobby about 7 years now and I ran out of space 5 years ago. I part a good many "junk" machines out, sell lots of parts, sell project machines and also fix up some machines for sale as working machines.

From experience I will tell you several things - first off machines actually take up less space together than they do after parting them out. Second it takes about 4 hours to take everything off a playfield and box it up to store it. Then to do everything right you should really be saving lock bar receivers, side rails, etc off the cabinets also. More time and space doing the cabinet. And when you are done parts are harder to find, playfields are basically wall art because no one wants to spend several days putting parts back on a playfield on a $500 to $1000 machine, etc.

The smartest thing to do - if you have not done this already - is to pile machines to the ceiling in the back of your work area or storage area. Normally I work alone so this doesn't work for me but I stand them on end - put 2x3 on top of them to protect shooter rods & coin doors, then put plywood on top of the 2x3's and put heads on top of the machines. If you still have room above that you can put boxes of parts on top the heads.

I know you said a good many machines didn't have heads - so maybe get a buddy or two to help you get other machines on top the bottom machines. Not ideal but still better than parting out playfields if you are going to try to salvage playfields to use down the road.

If you really don't have space for that - the next best thing is machines on end with populated playfields standing on end on top of machine and just part out worst of the cabinets.

You will regret parting out playfields then trying to repopulate them or trying to find parts when you need them if you pull parts off the playfields.

Just a word of warning from a guy who has been there and done that!

Yeah, don't de-populate, way too much time for nothing.

I completely stripped down a junk EM playfield for parts. It probably took about 10-15 hours total--that included photographing, desoldering, labeling, and bagging. And that playfield wasn't really all that complicated (course, I spend a lot of time pulling out the staples for the grounding braid--mostly as practice with my new staple puller tool at the time).

That's usually just a sheet of plywood with holes drilled in it, painted white, and mounted on some hinges. Then all the wiring and sockets added to it.

Normally I cut all the wires since I am not planning on putting anything I strip back together and even doing that (not saving stuff like ground braid) an average machines takes me a full day to completely part out. I find one of the worst things is getting side rails off cabinet without any damage and second is keeping everything together in groups. Lots of scrap paper and zip lock bags for me!

I would never consider pulling parts off a playfield I had any interest putting back together down the road - way to much work involved both ways to even think about doing that. Just stripping them for parts is a huge task!

I "store" mine like this.

John P. Dayhuff
Battle Creek, Mi.
269-979-3836

Ceiling playfields.jpg

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How about a Sorcerer playfield?? Would love to have one to send off to have done mine is pretty trashed.

I'm going to the Quebec City show May 16 & 17. Close enough for USA guys to arrange pickup, or local Canadians. If you can sell playfields, parts, or games for pick up at the show in advance. I can load up my empty 5' x 8' cargo trailer. You could either get your friends to drop off stuff here if they are coming into Halifax, or you could get skids sent over the month of April. I would think the transport companies would have a decent rate, to get some stuff leaving Newfoundland to Halifax.