Halifax, NS
$500 US to my paypal: [email protected]
(Topic ID: 48087)
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Seawitch
Stern Electronics, 1980-
Star Gazer
Stern Electronics, 1980
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Update: Star Gazer Playfields looking good for missing white areas. So I picked up 7 playfields & unfortunately one was wrapped with ink to ink & needs to be sanded bare. Shit happens to everyone so it gets started over. Things are really slow because of the winter weather for the contractor that does CPR & my clear coats. So as of now only the first 2 of 6 looks like they are almost done. I'm still trying to get them all inked before March 17.
The first 5 pictures are the damaged ink playfield. All the other group shots of playfields look very nice!
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wow, those 4 completed playfields look really nice. I can't wait until you start on the seawitch pf's to see those as well 
and speaking of those, when is the cut-off to let you know what we want done with the 2 yellow [unobtainable] triangle inserts?
Kansas City, MO
Quoted from j_m_:wow, those 4 completed playfields look really nice. I can't wait until you start on the seawitch pf's to see those as well
and speaking of those, when is the cut-off to let you know what we want done with the 2 yellow [unobtainable] triangle inserts?
6 of 7 were very good & will get picked up next week hopefully.
***Seawitch Yellow Arrows*** I'm talking with another guy who might be able to make a very small run. So hold onto your arrows, & I will see if I can get it done.
I read the thread where a guy built a Star Gazer from scratch (https://www.maaca.org/viewtopic.php?f=25&t=12672&sid=00db0e762bf719dc57a9d1614282fc47) but is there any feasibility to converting a Seawitch to a Stargazer? I have two Seawitches... I know I'd need two more 3-bank drops plus stand-ups plus the unobtanium stuff he talks about in his thread. That and a crap-ton of motivation but I sure don't see many Star Gazers coming up for sale.
Seawitch Yellow Arrows. I have found a source to make these arrows @ $2.50 each on a lot of 100. No mold or set up charge. So it looks like I have the yellow arrows sorted out.
First one should be here in the morning. Maybe next week for the others missing white. It's another bad weather day later in the day so the 6 white ones will likely remain here.
Here is Star Gazer #1 which is ready to ship. I notice this one has a evident flaw in the shoot again lense on the left. Minor flaws in others which is evident from most of The Foremost Plastic lenses. All the playfields done on the uv inkjet printer will have what appears like white ink rings meeting black. I had the white pulled back after the first 2, again for the ones with white under plastics, & you still can't get it perfect.
So the first 6 playfields are up for grabs first to the pre order guys. If you are interested let me know, everyone seems to be waiting for ones with white under the plastics. So Star Gazer #1 is open for sale for $500 US shipped now. The other 5 should be back next week that are bare under plastics.
6 inked ones with white are still waiting to be picked up for finish clear maybe next week. 2 more went in for printing. I will be sanding off the flawed one, & it gets redone. So 12 of 40 printed, & going through finish clear coat stage. The clear is very nice since it's the same contractor CPR uses here. For all the clear coat stages the white star inserts for rollovers are inserted upside down & removed after the playfield is sprayed by both of us. So it appears from this one that they move in & out ok.
Star Gazer #1 is going to a new buyer in California next week. If you want to move up the pre paid list for one without white for the plastics please let me know. I will base the first pick with the earliest pre order. Marco Specialties will have the chance at 2 of the 5. I expect the next 6 first white ones to be cleared in early March.
Where I thought that was a minor scratch was actually buffing compound. I was talking with the guy tonight. I saw a similar thing near the edge, rubs off with your fingers or a cloth.
#1 painted backside & will be boxed for shipping.
025.JPGQuoted from greatwichjohn:Where I thought that was a minor scratch was actually buffing compound. I was talking with the guy tonight. I saw a similar thing near the edge, rubs off with your fingers or a cloth.
Good deal, glad it was nothing serious.
Star Gazer #1 is going out Friday. I spent over 2 hours cleaning out the 2 rollovers. Even using the white inserts during all spraying they still need serious work. I had a slip of the hand with the exact knife & put 2 surface scratches on the left black ring. Thankfully the guy was very understanding! Now I know what the guys are saying about CPR Flash Gordon & Strikes & Spares playfields & others. I touched it up with a black sharpie, & disclosed this to the new owner. Due to the risk I will not be including the white star buttons, so please order them with your next parts order. I will clean the clear coats out on future ones unless you want the hassle yourself. Pinball surgery is no fun, & a lot of work. I pop a star button cut at the bottom, when it moves freely & pops out easily from the bottom its done cleaning.
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004.JPGQuoted from Redketchup:I will do mine myself! You don't have to do this...
Agreed. I'll do my own as well. You've got better things to do than spend 2 hours on each pf.
BTW, I don't use an Exacto knife for the reason if it slips you get a scratch. I use a very small thin file. It's definitely not fast; but it's not sharp either.
count me in on the list who will clean them out themselves (for both the SG and the SW pf's)
for the rest of you offering to do this yourself, schudel5 is correct, a cheap set of needle files from HF will work. as he stated, it may take you a bit more time to clean out the holes, but will greatly reduce the probability of scratching the pf (and this will keep john from going crazy and potentially cutting himself)
http://www.harborfreight.com/12-piece-needle-file-set-468.html
I'll do mine too John. I use a folded up piece of sandpaper.
Dave (Doc)
Quoted from greatwichjohn:nice it will save me a bunch of time for the few who do it themselves
Same here on the Seawitch John. If it will save you time I don't have a problem cleaning it out myself. If you did find a source for the yellow arrows please save the ones I sent to you and send them back with the playfield. Thanks for all the up dates.
I will ask the owners when they are ready. Same with back, bare, varethane, or gray paint for both playfields. Most will likely go with gray latex paint on the back. I'm going to try the filing method next for those that want me to do it.
Thanks to the 2 guys sending in arrows, they will be used to make a master mold. I think the guy can make one that will do 10 arrows at a time.
I would venture that anyone ordering a SG playfield, would want to clean those rollovers themselves. Or at least wouldn't mind it.
I'll clean them up myself John, but thanks for the offer.
--
Chris Hibler - CARGPB #31
http://www.Team-EM.com
http://webpages.charter.net/chibler/Pinball/index.htm
http://www.PinWiki.com - The new place for pinball repair info
I will clean my playfields, too. One suggestion, just have your playfield clearcoater cover the star rollovers next time.
I hope that something can be done to cover these rollovers. Original Stern NOS playfields had these rollovers covered with some sort of brown paper that peeled right off. Keep in mind, Seawitch has I think ten star rollovers and most of them are far from view. I may be alone in this request, but I don't mind if my star rollovers are not as shiny as the rest of the playfield
I'm with Brian. It look probably 8 hours to get all of the rollovers on my Flash Gordon tweaked properly.
Quoted from BrianBannon:Seawitch has I think ten star rollovers and most of them are far from view.
seawitch, like star gazer, has 2 roll overs.
however, I think that most of us agree that john doesn't have to spend his time cleaning these. we can do this ourselves
Quoted from BrianBannon:I hope that something can be done to cover these rollovers.
The 2 Star Gazer rollovers though are in a very visible location and subject to significant ball travel / wear, so in my opinion those do need to get cleared just as much as the remainder of the playfield. If they weren't cleared, they'd have less protection and they would appear to be "recessed" below the rest of the cleared playfield which would also cause more wear. Just for clarity, I'm talking about the need to clear the star rollover housings (the inserts glued into the playfield), not the white star rollover buttons that sit inside the star rollover housings.
I have never tried cleaning out clear from star rollover inserts. Can someone provide good instructions on how to do this with the Harbor Freight files? I don't want to end up chipping the clear on a new playfield.
For example, do you file in one direction only (down into the star insert) to avoid chipping off clear?
Quoted from j_m_:seawitch, like star gazer, has 2 roll overs.
however, I think that most of us agree that john doesn't have to spend his time cleaning these. we can do this ourselves
Ha! Yes, you are right. I was remembering the green inserts as rollovers! Just took a look, yeah one at the top and one close to the shooter lane.
I did a Silverball Mania that has two star rollovers. I stood the pf on edge and used a very fine, thin, small file. I went both directions to clear the clearcoat off the edges of the star insert. I would pop the star in every once in a while to make sure it never hung up an any edge.
The biggest thing you need to be VERY careful with is getting clear out of the center of the insert where the star shaft goes through. If John has cleared these with a star in place that should (hopefully) alleviate that. You don't want to break off a tab on that insert.
Quoted from RoyF:The 2 Star Gazer rollovers though are in a very visible location and subject to significant ball travel / wear, so in my opinion those do need to get cleared just as much as the remainder of the playfield. If they weren't cleared, they'd have less protection and they would appear to be "recessed" below the rest of the cleared playfield which would also cause more wear. Just for clarity, I'm talking about the need to clear the star rollover housings (the inserts glued into the playfield), not the white star rollover buttons that sit inside the star rollover housings.
Well, if you don't like the way it looks, I certainly understand that viewpoint. As far as wearing out a new star rollover insert, I doubt that would ever happen in home use. Not saying it can't happen as I have replaced broken star inserts before, but it is pretty unusual.
Roy, after you clean out a few of these star inserts, you might change your mind about having them cleared
Please remember that the CPR clear coat contractor does the same work or more on my playfields. So you can't cover the rollovers with masking, which I do for epoxy filling around the perimeter. You don't want a hang up on the rollovers from not being level with the rest of the playfield.
For all you guys that are patiently waiting on your Star Gazer playfields with white. The big push is on to get all printed & out for finish clear coats by March 17. He is still way backed up with CPR playfields & our winter weather.
Quoted from BrianBannon:Well, if you don't like the way it looks, I certainly understand that viewpoint. As far as wearing out a new star rollover insert, I doubt that would ever happen in home use. Not saying it can't happen as I have replaced broken star inserts before, but it is pretty unusual.
Roy, after you clean out a few of these star inserts, you might change your mind about having them cleared
I was thinking more about wear to the ink at the edge of the insert. If the star rollover insert isn't cleared, then it would be "lower" than the cleared surface surrounding it. I'm wondering if that wouldn't lead to earlier wear of the surrounding black line, as compared to if the star rollover insert were cleared. Opinions?
Your comment about cleaning out the inserts.... Yep, I have not experienced the joys of doing that. Trying to weigh the pros and cons of clearing the inserts vs not clearing...
Edit - ahh, moot point given the post John just made.
Quoted from schudel5:I did a Silverball Mania that has two star rollovers. I stood the pf on edge and used a very fine, thin, small file. I went both directions to clear the clearcoat off the edges of the star insert. I would pop the star in every once in a while to make sure it never hung up an any edge.
The biggest thing you need to be VERY careful with is getting clear out of the center of the insert where the star shaft goes through. If John has cleared these with a star in place that should (hopefully) alleviate that. You don't want to break off a tab on that insert.
I use a drill bit the same size for the shaft to gently clean it out by hand turning. Figure its similar to cleaning a gun barrel. Not that I own any fire arms!
Quoted from greatwichjohn:I use a drill bit the same size for the shaft to gently clean it out by hand turning. Figure its similar to cleaning a gun barrel. Not that I own any fire arms!
I would not have thought of that method, at least not for a while. Hmm, there are a million different Dremel accessory bits available, would any of those work safely?
Quoted from RoyF:I would not have thought of that method, at least not for a while. Hmm, there are a million different Dremel accessory bits available, would any of those work safely?
I did end up using a dremel with a very thin routing bit to finish off my flash gordon rollovers. The filing was taking forever given the thickness of the clear. With a steady hand they were not too bad to get perfect.
I will not go with an electric tool... Two rollover is not that bad to do... you just have to take your time.
I start with an exacto knife with a new blade and finish with a small file that i use in one direction only. Got pretty good result on my CPR fathom and centaur playfield
Quoted from Xenon75:I did end up using a dremel with a very thin routing bit to finish off my flash gordon rollovers. The filing was taking forever given the thickness of the clear. With a steady hand they were not too bad to get perfect.
Can you show us a picture of that Dremel bit?
I would stay away from power tools. The drill bit to clean is done with finger spinning & movement which shouldn't break or damage the tabs.
Here is some info from the guy in Canada that is going to do the yellow arrow inserts.
http://www.maaca.org/viewtopic.php?f=25&t=17839
Guys can have their arrows installed if this doesn't turn out well. The original arrows are needed to make a master silicone mold, & color matching the yellow. The Stern ones are perfect 90 degree sides, all the other arrows are angled some what on the sides from PBR. Also they have 3 molding dots compared to 5. Don't know if the star burst depth is different. The arrows that came in shouldn't be damaged making the master mold. If a chance I will ask they be used for color matching only. I could send up arrows I have & use those if a problem. get the cut file adjusted.
Here are pictures of the playfield getting sanded & put back through sealing & printing for the second time. Seems harder to remove than traditional screened playfields.
Happy to clean out mine as well, you have better thing's to be doing John rather than cleaning out rollover inserts, and besides if we purchased a clear coated playfield from anyone else, we would not get that kind of service and have no choice but to do it ourselves, but very much appreciated with the offer.
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