Such a classic game.
I've owned one for 18 years and still love it.
All this talk of cleaning makes me want to take a closer look at mine. Alrhough I've keep it *shopped* and maintained all these years, I'm sure it could use a deep cleaning at this point.

Hey guys. So, i did something negligent today. I had all metal powdercoated and i have having a great time pitting everything together. So time came to reposition my back box and forgot to thoroughly check to make sure no cables where caught. So i caught the main dmd power cable right with the dame latch on the game. And i turned on. Stupid of me. Now non of the leds on the main board are on.
The game lights up but now dmd doesn't work and no power of the board. Do you guys know where i can start looking to get it fixed? Cable that got jammed is thebone from dmd 12v that connects to power supply by coin box. But the top board looks like has no power either.

Thanks in advance

Check the balls. And check the faces of the fellowship on the playfield. If they look like they got little blackheads on their face.... might want to take some naptha to it LOL. As for the balls, I usually put them in a dry tumbler. About twenty minutes in it, and they are nice and shiny. I spray them down with 90% alcohol, then wipe them dry and put them back in the machine. I try to do that every couple of weeks. Hopefully, now that the playfield has a deep clean on it, maybe I can spread that out.

My playfield cleaned up very well. It really wasn't that bad, except for trying to get into tight areas while trying not to break Gandalf's staff LOLOL....

but I should have attended to this before now. The clear still looks really good, even in the heavily trafficked areas. I'm going to get around to a flipper rebuild sometime next year. Flippers still play well, but they are twenty years old. I have taken care of the game, but it needs some of the special love I have been giving to the restoration and clean-up of my Fireball

Here's a pic of the gameroom, LOTR sandwiched between Fireball and Fireball II. The lights are a bit bright. I have to get around to doing some good photography. Phones take good pictures, but....

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It doesn’t resemble LOTR much, but the game I love to play multiball in is White Water. If you can keep feeding No Way Out up the middle, you can spread all 3 balls out (or 2 balls in Whirlpool mode) and keep shooting Insanity Falls for big points. It feels like ball management instead of frantic slapping and simply keeping balls alive. For me, more pins are chaotic that way. BSD has a really fun multiball, but it’s more intense and harder to manage.

I’m ready to embark on my teardown/shop job myself. I’ve done what I could with the playfield all in place as far as cleaning but it’s time for a thorough job + replacing all rubbers + fixing my shire up. We’ll see if I get brave enough to attempt some shooter lane TLC too, would be the first time for me.

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That sounds awesome! We have a local pinball museum that has the game. I'll spend some more time on this pin. Thank you!

What was the advice you got to fix your ring magnet?

For me it was just the fuse that had blown, replaced it with a slow blow 4A fuse and it works perfect now

Yeah, take a lot of pictures. I pulled my POTD stuff off today to get to the left upper lane. There is some ball travel lines that I just could not get out, with still so much left on the playfield. I cut out some mylar after cleaning thoroughly and put it in place. That may be the hardest part of the playfield to get to without tearing a whole lot of stuff down to get to it.

The mylar is not obvious, and it doesn't distract from the look of the playfield. It is good cheap insurance, applied judiciously and sparingly, imo. Here's a shot of the playfield, before disassembly began.

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I like the gold legs and lockbar.

While I had the playfield up this week, decided to write down the stamps on the edges of the playfield

Right side: Weber Playfield 20 1/4 x 45 17/32 7 Churchill Cabinet CDD0WK7ABC

Front: CG 12 19 03 Dec 13, 2003

One other thing I decided to tackle, the ring ramp. I've got the Post Kit replacement on the way from Pinball Life. The damage done to the left side of that ramp was pretty awesome, not in a good way. So, I took it off of the machine and took the dremel to it. It was pretty torn up, but it looks much better now, although some of the finish, unfortunately, was lost in the process. What finish I had to take off, was bent around, jagged and sharp. I'm really happy that no damage to the playfield occurred. The ball really took the hammer to that left front edge, literally beating a concave dent into the ramp. It would probably devalue the game somewhat, even though we have no plans to ever sell it.

Looking forward to getting the new kit and installing it.

Somehow the left post issue had eluded me until recently noticing it mentioned in the thread. Of course I have a little playfield damage there. Will be getting the PBL post and putting some mylar down to keep the damage as is.

I was fortunate, there was no playfield damage. The post and the ramp took all of the damage. I'm being repetitive, but while you have the ramp off of the machine, or at least unattached, a couple of little squares of mylar under the ramp lip, slightly overlapping it in front, might be a cheap piece of insurance.

I don't know whether you can see it in the pictures, which I suppose is the point The playfield is cut out where the ramps begins, so it's easy to get the mylar in place, and then trim it around the inside edge of the front and side parts of the square, so the screw holes are not blocked for reinstallation.
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And here is as good a picture as I can get of the damage done to the ring ramp, and what it looks like after repair. I didn't dremel out anything in the concave section, the ball did all of that.

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I assume the ramp damage is the left side getting bashed into a concave shape / the edge basically peeling back? Seems cosmetic/that it wouldn’t affect gameplay at least? Pic of playfield damage at post supplied for additional ughs.

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Since nobody is doing the habit trail mod now (that I know of), I gave it a go on my own. If you look closely it's obvious someone did it haphazardly with some pliers but at a glance it looks stock and definitely better than the plastic. I had taken the plastic off weeks ago and lost a ball due to this ramp almost every game, so very glad for it to be playable again!

If anyone wants to give it a go, 14inch brass rods are pretty cheap on Amazon, and that gave me a couple of inches to spare.

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Yep, that's what mine looked like. I guess it's a good thing that the metal just folds back. That stuff was sharp, imagine the damage it could do to the playfield if even a small piece broke loose in play.

Odd thing about it, even though the ramp post is, relatively, in place, the ball still did some major league damage to that area.

And that the force still travels thru in a ball shape hence the concave. The violence of pinball.

I love the art blades btw. I just picked those same ones up and am just waiting for the opportunity to install them.

What exactly does that mod accomplish? Is it cosmetic, or does it actually enhance/improve play? Is that the piece of plastic that is riveted?

They are talking about airballs off the end of the ramp. There was a mod that was a flat plastic to cover the end of the ramp. They have added wire to go above the wire form and attaches where the ramp mounts. Check the above photo again and you will see that added gold wire airball preventer.

It's cosmetic. If you look at the stock plastic that comes on the pin vs the few different wireform iterations, it pretty much covers the exact same length of the ramp. Now does the brass wire look better than the clear plastic, sure. Would I lose my hobbit hole mounting platform if I swapped it, yep.

Hey gang, does anyone have good insert scans or experience producing insert decals? My gift inset is showing a little wear and I’m hoping to restore it at some point before too long.

Anyone looking to powdercoat their game?. I just had mine done on prismatic powders Grecian gold vein.
It pretty amazing in person and suits the game really well.

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Check your fuses.

edit to add:

Although you didn't say it specifically, it sounds like you pinched your cable. If the wire insulation was compromised, there could have been metal to metal contact and this could have fried a fuse. If the fuses are all good, I guess the next thing to check would be for a broken wire, or pulled wire at the board and DMD connectors. Do any of the pins on the connectors look like they were pulled back out of the connector(s), even a little bit?

Thanks. Yeah it took me a while to figure out fuse because non broke. But lucky#23 had a black spot. I changed that 5v fuse and everything started to work.
Also, yes. The dmd power cable(all 3 insulation were compromised) i can see all 3 wire. I ordered a new cable from color dmd to replace. I hate using electrical tape

Thanks

Just a word of caution about fuses. You were lucky to find a blown one like that. You do not inspect them visually. They can be compromised and not show any visual clues. They must be removed (at least 1 side) and checked with a multimeter for continuity. Glad you found the culprit though!

Cool beans.

Has anybody ever tried to put a post on this spot on the POTD mini playfield? I am guessing that the ball drops on to Arwen would be reduced significantly.
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Speaking of the POTD, at the back of the playfield, where that plastic has a tab that has to be inserted into the back panel. After I got the slope where I wanted it to be, balls started hanging between the top post and Orthanc, where even rocking the game a bit wouldn't get it to roll out. It has always done this, but not as often as it did once I made the adjustment to the legs.

I came up with what I call the five cent solution.

Literally, a nickel sandwiched between that plastic edge and the lip it rests on. It's snug, but it is only a short term fix. It will do until I come up with a more expensive and permanent solution.

Thinking about shorter spacer posts on the cabinet edge. Anybody found a way to avoid that issue, at least most of the time?

Stopping ball drops on Arwen also stops the ball falling into the shire and commiserate awards. Extra souls, etc.

Instead of a nickel I used a piece of thick 3M mounting tape. Has been on there for years.

CAVE TROLL MULTIBALL?

BASH THE BALROG?

So, long story short, after a year and a half with my pin I just discovered a whole new set of features that were turned off by the factory so far as I can tell with my machine. There is an option in the menu for "Cave troll sequence". What the hell is this? It was off by default on mine, but after turning it on there is a whole new sequence with new graphics at the beginning of the Fellowship Multiball. "They have a Cave Troll!". I also changed the mystery from the default hard to medium, and I now get awarded "bash the ballrog" with a score countdown for hitting the balrog randomly in the middle of the game. I've only gotten in a few games so far but there are a few other nuggets. Have not gotten to "destroy the ring" but mine has always been a 1 ball feature where apparantly this can be a 2 ball feature? Excited to find some new stuff on the pin after all this time.

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How does one get the Balrog plastic off to change a bulb? Mine is working fine, but I might be upgrading to LED's soon, so I wanted to get an idea of what I will be dealing with. Looks easy enough, although I removed the two screws holding it in place and it would not come off. Didn't want to force it, so let it be for now.

Any tricks or tips?

Bash the balrog is also know as 'consolation balrog'. Gary forced the team (Keifer) to add that so all players would see the Balrog when playing on route, not just if they started Fellowship MB the way it was programmed. Gary argued that mech was expensive and all players should get to bash it, so the consolation Balrog was added, and there is a flipper code where Garys face is in the animation when you hit the consolation Balrog since the team was not happy with Gary's decision. For home use, it is best to turn it off and save the Balrog for Fellowship MB story continuity.

Take a look at the top half of page 50 of the manual. It is a table that shows what changes when you install: Extra Easy, Easy, Factory, Hard, Extra Hard, and Directors Cut.

Example - For home use, I recommend installing "Factory" to set things to default and then "Directors Cut" which turns off consolation balrog and turns on cave troll sequence.

If I remember, the cave troll sequence adds a fair bit to the beginning of the fellowship multiball before you get into the bash / ramp alternating sequence? This is probably the hardest of the 3 multiballs to continue to qualify after the first go-round, something to consider if Valinor is a goal.

I should look into turning Bash Balrog off - around my house it’s pretty common for players to cradle the ball and time the mode out, it’s fairly useless.

Look up the Stern Balrog LED conversion kit instructions.

There’s more to it than just changing the bulb… I think, unless you already have an LED OCD board. They have several parts that are changed out when you switch it to LED.

Ditto, I find the non multiball Balrog annoying, didn’t know we can turn that off so will also look to do so.

I just need to know how to get that plastic off, to get access to the bulb. The manual says it is only held fast by two screws, utilizing two washers. Those were easy to get to and off. The plastic wouldn't budge and that's my issue.

Not sure I'm going to LED's. Sooner or later, LED's or not, that bulb is going to burn out and need replacement.

I found the service bulletin you recommended. It doesn't say anything about removing the plastic, seems to make it clear that it doesn't need to be removed to replace the lighting. Marco has that piece for sale atm, as well as the entire unit. It's expensive, both are for that matter. I'm wondering if there isn't some type of seal, that's making it difficult to remove.

Took glass and speaker panel out tonight, put back in now I don’t have anything on color dmd. Didn’t disconnect anything and dmd board “done” led is lit. I can see settings to adjust and that lotr is loaded to it in settings. Reseated ribbons just in case but still nothing, any suggestions?

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The Balrog pulls off. May have to wiggle it a bit. Cointaker sells the correct 13v LED bulb for LOTR.

There’s a screw that attaches the bulb to the Balrog. Step 3. Did you do that?

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No, that's the part I was missing. I see how to do it now. I'm not even attempting any mods at this time on the Balrog, just looking down the road and trying to get a hands-on heads up as to what is involved when I do make a change.

Thanks to all who offered tips. Much appreciated.

edit to add:

the manual specifically states that there are only two screws and two washers that are used to mount that piece of plastic. That's why I missed it, I actually read the instructions

Have a look at this thread for a Balrog write-up
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/burn-balrog-burn-lotr

Thanks. That's a nice write-up. Well done.

Selling my absolutely beautiful LOTR ...just listed on pinside https://pinside.com/pinball/market/classifieds/ad/147909 11,500 or trade for Alien LV in perfect shape/no errors.

I also just ordered a 2niro Video Palantir v.2 Globe which is in the mail..I want to sell that separately, and without a profit..the same cost as I payed to get it to my door..

Hey KING-HENRY sad to see you go. You’ve certainly had a lot of enthusiasm for this game. Thanks for all your help. Hope you enjoy your alien as much.

Hey thanks a lot I appreciate that! I have a much larger collection now (22 machines probably around 9 machines when I got LotR last year). I’ve enjoyed the machine, but I’ve actually enjoyed modding this particular machine even more. If time or space and money weren’t an issue, well I think none of us would sell anything lol. Keep the fellowship strong Sir! Cheers!

Just picked up a very low play one owner huo. Can’t wait to mod this up a bit. Glad to be back in the club after several years. This one is a keeper for sure.

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