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2004-08-16 (14:41)
Yikes! Talk about a jump in time :{. I got discouraged by the bad playfield and also got destracted by a new child on the way hence the gap in time here.To fix my discouragement I purchased a better playfield from James Banks. After his restoration project he ended up with one that is in fairly good shape. Some ball swirl in the upper left that will be fun to get rid of but other than that not bad at all. I will post pictures of it as soon as I have a couple minutes to take them. I am also getting ready to make an order from Marco to get the replacement parts and wax and such. I will also be ordering connectors from Digikey to replace the general illumination connector that toasted on me. Hopefully this means I am back in business and will actually get some work done. :} |
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2003-11-17 (15:10)
I am playing around with what paints and finish to use on the playfield. So far the acrylic craft paints are working well except for having a large tendancy to hold brush marks. If those buff out relatively easily and a lacquer coat provides the gloss that I need then the acrylics will be the way to go. For 44 cents per bottle you can't go wrong.Just saw a NOS mini playfield on ebay but the seller was asking 200$ starting for it. It was in great shape with 100% shine factor but it still was yellowed from the age. Seeing as my quest for a really good mini playfield keeps hitting snags I am looking into making some replicas. At first they look like they were molded as one piece but when you look at them closer you find out that they were made out of standard sheet acrylic (a poor quality one even) with only the light "hoods" actually made from molded material. I am going to try and make 4 or 5 replicas. If those work out well I will be putting them up on E-bay and give people the option of a brand new setup that is mirror smooth and not yellow. Also will probably sell some aluminum plates with them to keep the posts held better. Should stop any "star" breakage from the holes and prevent warping. |
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2003-11-11 (09:20)
The playfield is 100% stripped now. All the mylars have been removed and the entire surface has been cleaned with Naphtha. For anyone else doing this I would HIGHLY recommend Naphtha for cleaning the playfield. When used appropriately it won't hurt the playfield paint/finish at all but will totally remove extra adhesive, wax and oil from the surface.I am in a quandry right now... large portions of the playfield need SERIOUS repainting to be viable. I have been playing with the acrylic craft paints and seeing if they are an option for areas that large. So far I am worried because I can't get them to "lay down" and not leave brush strokes. Also since they are not gloss surfaces I am not sure how well it will look with a finish over it. I am going to play around with some scrap board tonight and see what can be done. Even if I have to heavily buff the whole thing I am willing to do that as long as it looks good and wears well in the end. Ohh well... more update on that later. If all goes totally wrong I have an offer for another playfield in better condition for 50$+sh. We shall see... |
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2003-10-26 (22:08)
After stripping the top of the playfield I am now working on the tedious process of stripping the bottom of all it's parts. As a side note... the idiots that thought locktite and those T-nuts for holding playfield plastics down should be shot. I broke off 8 screws and posts in those stupid T-nuts trying to get them apart. I will be replacing all the T-nuts with locking washers and a normal #6 nut. I finally have my Marco order together and will be sending that in tomorrow. That will get me the Novus (which I desperately need!) and quite a bit of the equipment to finish off the rebuild.I will be making an order to digikey as well since even with the 25$ minimum order (5$ charge otherwise) I will still be saving money getting those new connectors and the diodes and resistors I need. On that note... what I will be doing is replacing R1 and R2 on the power supply board with 2 Watt flameproof versions. I will also be replacing ZR2 and ZR4 with 91 Volt versions. This lowers the voltage going to the displays and helps lengthen their lifespan. Since they are fairly pricey to replace this is always a good thing. You can see "When things don't work: Score Display Problems" on the system 11 repair page for more information. Be sure to check out the photo gallery to see all the tear down. Also... it makes a darn good reference for repairing and rebuilding... when I started this all worked (except the GI string which is that carmel colored connector) so it is as good of a reference as I could make. If my gallery doesn't have it then check out James Bank's rebuild for his photos. |
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2003-10-23 (21:30)
Just finished stripping the mylars off the machine. I used the "Goo-gone" method and it worked GREAT! Just a few squirts to keep it wet and both layers of mylar just pulled right off. (2 layers by the slingshots... 1 layer around all the pop bumpers) I will get images of the difference that made. The paint and such under the mylars is in PERFECT condition except for a pea sized paint chip that came with the pop bumper mylar. (Is a one piece sheet that covers the whole pop bumper area) Hopefully with a little polishing with some Novus I will be able to get the rest of the playfield looking nearly this good.
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2003-10-10 (21:49)
So... after checking the transformer with my DMM set on AC I found out that the transformer is 100% fine (at least that I can tell). Tracing the wires back I found that the molex connector on J6 (where the transformer 5.9V yellow/yellow white lines run) is a nice carmel brown color. I guess from reading the "Before Turning the Game On: Burnt GI Connectors & Non-Working GI" section of the System 11 repair guide that this is a fairly common problem. In fact the exact spot on the exact same style of interconnect board is the second picture down in that section of the guide. Well... a small order from Marco will fix that. :} Just need a .156" 10 Position Male Header, a .156" 10 Position Female Housing and a bag of .156" Trifurcon crimp terminals. I am going to pick up several of all of these as I sense that I will need more in the future and making a seperate order for them is not worth the shipping.
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2003-10-09 (10:24)
Arrgggh! What a moron I am... I will have to go back and test the transformer again tonight. I just remembered.. that transformer is supposed to put out 5.9v AC!!! I had the DMM on DC voltage... argggh! Most likely the transformer is bad... but it is worth checking.
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2003-10-08 (22:00)
Started investigating and noticed that ALL of the general illumination lights are out. Traced back to the interconnect board.... no voltage there... went back to the connector for the transformer. Bingo... absolutely no voltage coming from the coils on the tranformer. That is supposed to be a 5.9VAC feed and there is nothing.Sooooo... now it is time to either rewind that part of the transformer (not fun... but will keep everything original and cheap) or slap two auxilary 10amp 110VAC<->5.9VAC transformers in it feeding from the main line input. I could purchase a new transformer... but those are usually pricey to ship... and well.. EVERY piece on this machine is original to the machine. I have yet to find a part that doesn't have the unit number on it so... And yes... I know... you don't see the transformer... and I will probably be clear coating the playfield so that won't be "original" but... I'm a stickler so.. :P About the clear coating... The playfield is to the point that I know I am going to have to do something to save it. The factory mylar is even starting to get ridges and release in it's best locations let alone in the worst where it is missing (along with the paint that was under it). I know it won't be original and such... but I am planning on touching it up and clear coating it. I have a couple friends that are paint monkeys for body shops and should be able to put a sweet automotive clear finish on it. If you want to see an example of how good that can look check out James Bank's Jokerz rebuild. He had Bill Davis touch up and clear his field and it looks just beautiful. I want mine to come back to it's original beauty... and stay that way so... automotive clears are the best for keeping it beautiful so that will be the way I go. |
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2003-10-07 (22:15)
Well... today I started ripping the beast apart. When circuit boards are starting to fall and you notice that paint is leaving at an accellerated rate from the amount of dirt in your machine... It's time to do some drastic workTonight I photographed everything on the playfield and made some notes about the defects that I have seen so far. I also started wondering why none of the translight lights are working (they have been before). Went over the machine some more and noticed that my flashers don't light during the "All lamps" test but work fine in real life... the general illumination string on the outside on both sides is out... LOTS of paint wear and tear and man alive is this thing dirty. Now... in my defense it is MUCH better than when I purchased it but... it must be cleaned or the dirt is going to finish it off... Plus due to over sunlight exposure on its last move with us into the house... the ramps are warped... and the right one even cracked due to the stress (ohh joy) :}. Anyways... this is just a start... more work as I have time :} |