Quoted from MikeO:Since I'm on a roll, I was wondering if anyone else has noticed one other benefit of ME.
I've noticed on a couple of playfields I've use ME on where the paint was crazed and lifting at the crazed edges ever so slightly the ME appeared to both clean the dirt out of the cracks and cause the ever so slightly lifting edges to lay down.
Pafasa - if I didn't know better I would guess that you are seeing a bit of lifting crazed edges and it looks like they may have laid down some in the area you applied the ME. Am I seeing things?
Mike O.
A good cleaning with ME can remove about 25 microns of lacquer from the playfield (System 11 has about 100 microns total, EMs I don't know yet). My guess is that you're actually knocking down the high spots at the "crazed edges." Even though you're removing a little material, the net effect is probably positive because you're smoothing out the surface, which should reduce wear long term.
Cleaning ball swirls with ME leaves the cracks open, and there's a real potential for the same kind of dirt to fill back in over time. I think waxing will help reduce this, but I also think only clear-coat can prevent it from ever coming back. Using ME lightly across the entire playfield to remove surface dirt, and also smooth out the surface, seems like a reasonable compromise that is likely to minimize future wear.