I'm swapping a Seawitch for a buddy and found a couple holes that appear to be incorrect. Curious if others have encountered this.

The most significant one is the large hole for the right apron screw. It appears to be almost a 1/2" off. I did a quick fit of the apron and this one will almost certainly need to be relocated.

Additionally, the first post on the inside of the left orbit is pre-drilled for a wood screw and is supposed to be a machine screw. There's also a post in the lower left drop target bank that's pre-drilled for a machine screw that's supposed to be a wood screw.

Besides that, the topside holes seem pretty spot-on.

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Agreed, I don't think any of these are significant issues. Mainly just wanted to flag it for others in case it hadn't been mentioned.

I reached out to John directly about this earlier and he suggested sharing with the larger group.

I finally had some time to dive back into my Seawitch swap and I'm noticing the hole for the lower left flipper bushing seems to be drilled too close to the hole for the inlane guide. When I center the bushing in its hole, the flipper rubber binds against the end of lane guide. I can cheat the the bushing all the way down towards the front of the game, but even with this adjustment it just barely clears the guide and gets a bit of ball hop on the transition.

Here are some pics of what I'm seeing:
https://imgur.com/a/Px1Vp0h

Last 2 are a framing square against the edge of the playfield. The holes for the inlane guides are perpendicular to the edge of the playfield. The left bushing hole seems to be at least 1/16" closer to the back of the playfield.

Curious if others have encountered this, and if so, how you've addressed it. Seems like the best way would be to slightly enlarge the bushing hole and cheat it another 1/16" or so down.

Thanks!

One additional thing to consider - flipper bats on classic Sterns rest on the alignment pins. Moving the position of the bushing without moving this pin will change the at-rest angle of the bat very slightly. Not sure if 1/16" is enough to create a noticeable difference, but there would be some amount of change.

I suppose you could just pull the pins, but might look weird to not have them there.

I ended up enlarging the hole slightly with a Dremel sanding drum. Just enough to get the rubber clear of the ball guide. No more binding, no more hop, and flipper alignment still looks good with the calibration pins installed.

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I was finishing up my Seawitch swap this past weekend and found 2 more topside holes that were off.

This first one is a predrilled hole in the back right corner that actually does not appear on the original playfield. This hole falls directly above a pilot hole for one of the nylon harness clips, so guessing this may have accidentally been drilled through on the donor playfield. I ended up moving the harness clip on the bottom before I realized the post is 100% unnecessary.

The other one is immediately behind the back right standup target. Its position is almost an inch off relative to the plastic it supports.

Since I had already installed posts at these locations I used a short screw and a stainless washer to cover them. If I were doing it over, I'd just ignore these 2 holes all together.

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Thanks for posting the detailed measurements. That new playfield looks great.

I was the one who originally posted about the position of the flipper bushing hole last year. Several folks have PM'd asking how I dealt with it, so sharing those details here with the wider group:

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I enlarged the left bushing hole.

My process was I'd take a little material off with a small Dremel sanding drum, then take a flipper bracket with just the bushing installed and use thick masking tape to temporarily mount it. I'd put the playfield in the cabinet, install a flipper bat (the alignment pin holds it in the rest position), and roll a ball down the left inlane. If the ball hopped, I'd pull the mech and make the hole a little bigger. Took about 3 times back and forth til I got it smooth. I'd also recommend using a brand new bushing since there might be some slop in the holes of a used one. New one ensures it's properly centered in the bracket.

Photos of the results here:

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/would-you-prepay-500-us-for-a-new-stern-seawitch-or-star-gazer-playfield/page/48#post-6232472

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All in all, I was very pleased with how the swap turned out. It looks great and it PLAYS like a Seawitch.