Yeah, prior to seeing the final product, I was thinking about breaking out the Dremel and smoothing things out, but the weld marks are sooooo deep that it would look just as bad.

On a bad note, the link to the photos on Photobucket have now disappeared. They were there literally a couple of hours ago, and now the whole album is gone. Not looking good...

And, I got a response back. Here is what I got back just minutes ago:

Hello
Sorry but I no longer make or sell these.
Tc Greg

Bummer....

That said, it looks like Tc Greg is a member here under the name bballfan...

Has anybody added spotlights to ToM? I'm thinking about adding two right above the slings above the front star post on them but I am concerned with how it will look/mount where the ramp is attached

It's amazing how much a little gold adhesive moulding on the backbox makes such a big difference. I think it really ties the whole brass trim package together.

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I like it. I did some chrome trim on my STTNG but did not think about gold trim for TOM. Looks great!

I have spotlights on my TOM. Came as part of an LED kit. Really helps to light up the middle of the playfield which ends up dark if your lights in your house/room are dim.

I am not a huge fan of adding plastic molding to the backbox, and I spend a chunk of time getting my backbox edges looking nice when I repaired my cabinet for new decals, but I am not totally put off by it either. Something that I probably wouldn't do, but it doesn't bother me on other people's machines either.

Where are you spots mounted?

I added spots using parts from pinball life. One is attached to the post for the left ramp return and the other I added a post above the right ramp return. Definitely help brighten the center of the game.

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I have 3 spotlights, two are mounted that same as lyonsden, the 3rd is installed differently. I am not at home, and my TOM is in pieces waiting on new decals and brass plating, but I will found a picture of the playfield (ok, virtual playfield) and marked where the 3rd one was. I have since removed it anyway as it was hard to get it pointing at the playfield without pointing at the player.

I also added general LED lighting up above the top of the playfield and "down the drain" which also helps a lot too.

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Installed my spotlights last night and the difference is huge!! Here is a before and after pic. Also this morning I found out I won the prototype 3D ToM translight which looks amazing and I can't wait to see it in person in my ToM.

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So all about the same time, my brass plating ships, and my decals finally make it through U.S. Customs.

So far, I only have the front decal on. It is probably the most complicated to get "just right" and yet it is the first one that needs to be done on the main cabinet part (since the sides line up with it).

The brass plated pieces came yesterday (well, all but some ramp flaps and some missing leg levelers). It was a bit of a mixed bag. Lots of little dust bits in the plating (most likely actually in the clear coat) and some distinct variance in color. Flat items were a "yellow gold" color, and things like wireforms and the shooter housing were more of a "copper gold". I talked to Ron (Woody) and am sending 4 pieces back to get fixed. Sounds like the layer that goes on under the brass is a copper layer, so if the brass gets too polished, it starts to wear off and the copper starts showing through.

So lots of work to do, but I will still be waiting on some of the brass pieces for a while again. Hopefully not 8.5 weeks like last time.

It will look great when it is finally done.

Who here uses leg protectors for their Theatre of Magic?

With my fresh decal set going on, I think that I want to use leg protectors, however I bought some "gold" ones, but they are more of a butterscotch than gold.

I thought about getting some clear ones...

I could just get some felt and line the top parts of the legs themselves and you would never see them, but I wasn't sure if that would be good enough or not.

Or there are even metal ones, I guess.

Any thoughts?

EDIT: I found the thread (and many others) linked below. Sounds like the PinCab style plastic ones (like the ones I bought already) are more for painted/silkscreened cabinets, or decaled ones with existing leg damage. I should NOT use those on a newly decal'd machine. People seem to say use the metal ones for sure, and if in doubt, add a layer of felt between those and the legs to prevent the legs themselves from getting scratched.

Discussion about it:
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/leg-protectors

So I guess I should buy some metal ones...

Use the Stern metal ones. If you use the plastic pincab protectors they will wrinkle your decals

Yup. Sounds like I need to install them (bolt just the protectors on) then cut the decal around the protector (1 or 2mm away from the protector), remove the protector, remove that decal part that is under the protector, put the protector back on, drill pilot holes, insert the 2 holding screws, install the legs.

Optional would be some felt on the metal protector to protect the newly plated legs from scratches too, even if they are on the inside.

You dont need a pilot hole for those little screws. If you do just be sure to drill a tiny hole so the screws have some meat to grab on to.

Man ToM looks killer in brass. Got to talk to Ron about brassing the entrance ramp for my ToM soon. Maybe after that I'll turn my attention back to Doctor Who and have lock bar and rails done in chrome

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What are you guys using for LED's in your TOM? The incandescent lighting isn't cutting it for me anymore.

For TOM's GI, I used http://www.cometpinball.com/product-p/2smd-ct-ft.htm

Frosted caps, sunlight (color).

For inserts, you can color match, but the same LED as above works well for most of the inserts. It is worth getting flex heads for many of the side mounted sockets for the inserts: http://www.cometpinball.com/product-p/1smdflexng.htm

I used comets as well. I used a purple frosted instead of white under the plastics and some reds under the ramps white behind the curtains flexes are definitely necessary on some of the inserts I also added two spotlights with Cointaker HP ultra purples in them if you're switching to LEDs consider picking up a GI OCD board for theatre it makes the light shows work as they are intended without Flickering and not dimming 100%

I was told that entrance ramps were tricky. Not sure why since they are solid flat surfaces (vs. other oddball pieces), but I don't know the ins and outs of plating. That said, I too am getting mine done. Ron is working on making mine perfect. Super nice guy.

As for LEDs, Comet is a super popular place to go. For me I just went with a kit. Found PinballBulbs with a Black Friday deal last year. The nice part of their upper level kits is that you get some spotlights, which a comparison picture a few posts back by Drew. You also get some general cabinet illumination (not on the playfield) for the ball drain and above the top of the playfield. Really helps to light up those dark spots. Just another option.

Ron brassed the entrance ramp on mine including the flap. Looks awesome

My flaps went into the mail yesterday from Ron. He said that they can be tricky to plate because you can get build up on the edges. He had the plating guy fix them, which is great service to do before sending things out. He even brassed my rivets for me. Should be here early this coming week, but I am traveling to Denver on Wednesday, so I probably won't have time to do anything with all of it. Plus I still have 4 other pieces with Ron getting perfected.

Heck, I still need to get my decals done. Hopefully I will get some more of that done today. Nice weather outside, so I need to do some yard work. Heading out to do that right after the Michigan game...

After buying a "gold" shooter rod kit from Pinball Center and having big runs/flaws in the gold, and them sending a replacement that was just as bad, but in different ways, I am trying my hand at painting a gold shooter rod.

Not 100% sure that it will turn out, but I took the worst of the two (the one with chips in the gold) and used some of my professional strength Goof Off to get the finish off and the ball back to black plastic.

I then cleaned it, and put automotive grade adhesion promoting primer on it.

After a few coats, I put on a couple of light layers of gold paint.

It is nice and even coverage, but I am not sure that it will look like it will nicely match my plated brass. I am going to try an automotive clearcoat after it all cures overnight. Wondering if that will make it even nicer looking.

I had the Goof Off, primer, paint, and clear coat already, so this experiment is only costing me a little time.

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So despite the spray paint can showing a metallic brass/gold color on the lid, it just turned out more "gold paint" look than I had hoped. Still better than using a gray shooter rod ball with a bunch of brass, but not what I wanted. Don't waste your time on it.

As for the decal work. It is coming along slowly. I had the whole past weekend open to do whatever I wanted, so it was a lot of catching up on some car repairs, yard work, etc. I did manage to get the decals on the backbox. SOOOO much nicer looking now.

Here is a before and after picture. The new decal looks even better in person and is super clean. This picture was after trimming, but before I touched up where the razor blade scuffed off some of the paint. That was easily fixed.

Sorry for the crappy images. I am at work and when I tried to resize things to make them more manageable, I only had MS Paint which trashed the potential image quality a bit, but you see the improvement over the messed up original.

Here is the old, dinged up decal.
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And the new one.
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You might look at gold leaf with clear over it. Amazon has some for less than $20. I don't how well,it will hold up.

http://www.pinballdecals.com/ShooterRodsPage.html

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Yeah, I was trying to avoid the $75 for a brass ball, but might have to look at it in the future.

post deleted, wrong forum, sorry ...

Can you buy these and epoxy a shooter rod into them?

ebay.com link: POLISHED BRASS BALL Cabinet Drawer Pull Knob 1 PAIR by PLD

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If they are the correct size I bet you could make them work.

They are 1 1/4 dia and made of abs plastic with mirror brass paint is be curious of the durability of the finish but hell its only a buck plus shipping lol

I just installed the prototype 3D translight in my ToM and I can't even begin to describe how incredible it looks in person and the effect is next to impossible to capture in a pic/vid but I tried anyhow you can kind of see it if you look at the overlap of the saw blade and the window on the left. Here's the link if you want to check it out. Also the Colordmd will hopefully arrive tomorrow I can't wait

You will love the ColorDMD. Theatre of Magic was made for a more colorful DMD. My wife was a skeptic until I added mine last spring. It just seems to natural that most people don't even know that it is an upgrade, which in my opinion is a compliment because it fits the theme and isn't obnoxious.

The funny thing is that those look just like what I bought from Pinball Center. I would be somewhat surprised if they fit on a shooter rod without drilling the hole bigger. Maybe I will ask the seller for more info about the "hole"size as the shooter rod that I got with the gold ball is threaded too, so at least epoxy would have something to stick to. That said, the ideal situation if they aren't very durable would be to buy a bunch of them and just replace them as they wear off...

We also love the ColorDMD in our ToM. Just got the FT 3D translite today and installed it. Have to get the one for ToM as well.

Where are the 3D translites being sold?

I have a feeling that many of the pinball mods are made like that. Of course, there are several people that really contribute something neat and new <cough>Pinduino<cough>, but so many of the "mods" are $1 crap from eBay drilled for an LED and some speaker wire dangling out with alligator clips.

They're not yet I won the prototype from Mario (who makes them) I think in the thread they said roughly 6-8 weeks it would be available for sale through PPS

Oh! Congratulations!

Colordmd and the 3D translight/backglass is a sick combo!!!

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$200 for the 3D translite (unless you win one), but the TOM one isn't for sale yet.

Does anyone have the color LED layout used on this pic? Really like how it makes everything pop.

Here it is

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Does anyone know a good way to remove the magnet from the Spirit Ring? I am getting the spirit ring swapped out for a freshly brass plated one, but don't see a good way to pry this out. The only thing that I came across was using a screwdriver and slowly prying around the magnet, but there doesn't seem to be a good spot to get between the black glue that they used and the thin plastic "disc" that is on the top/bottom of the magnet. I don't want to pry on the magnet coil itself for fear of damaging the coil.

I really don't want to have to buy a new magnet for $35 if I can salvage this one.

Any ideas?

UPDATE: It dawned on me. I bought a heat gun for taking off my cabinet decals. Let me try that... Sure enough, I got the magnet out without issue. Still took a little bit. Took off the decal on the top first and then screwed it down (upside down) to my work bench and applied head from underneath. That way I could see the magnet and the glue.

Next question, does anyone know what kind of glue to use to mount it back into the new plated ring?

I used gorilla glue superglue

Just ordered one of these....

http://www.pinball.center/en/shop/pinball-parts/cabinet-parts/ball-shooter-parts/2975/shooter-with-golden-ball-williams

Some restore pics just added Reese Rails. I polish every piece of visible metal ( I'm addicted to it). Nearly complete just have to finish the trunk. Adding the Ingo board. All new cool sleeves , cointaker leds etc. made a repair to the trunk base bracket adding reinforcement since mine was broken.

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Looking very nice!

Yeah, that is what I got originally. The ball had major runs in the "paint" or clear coat". It was bad enough that they sent me another ball for free (from Germany for those that don't know). It had a smaller, but still noticeable, "run" in it and even worse it had a couple of spots (literally) where there was no gold at all and you could see the black from the plastic ball underneath. They included a hand written note in the box for the 2nd one saying that it is "not possible to make them any better than this." Highly disappointing...

It was the second one that I did my paint job on the other day, so I still have the first one from them. As I noted above, I am not happy with how the paint looked, well, like gold paint vs. the metallic shiny look on the lid of the can.