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The Pinball Diaries (what did you do today?)

brewmanager

Active Member
Nov 14, 2012
629
111
43
Scarborough, ON
Been using the Olympics as an excuse to hang out for hours in the basement and putter.

Moved LOTR from the repair bay spot back into it's regular slot, pulled TSPP into the repair bay, not because there's anything wrong with it but because I'm thinking it needs a shop. A 2009 build, it's logged a lot of action since I brought it home from Monkeybugs 16 months ago. I'm sure I've more than doubled it's game count. Right flipper is a tiny bit weaker, and new (white) rubber throughout is needed, so we'll get going on that.

So I finally finished my subwoofer wiring, with the exception of High Speed. I've got both subs rigged to a power bar so I can shut them off for late night play, as it's rather easy to rock the house and wake up the kidlets. LOTR in particular benefits greatly from the sub. I was a bit surprised that AC/DC wasn't more impressive hooked up - I mean, it helps, but it's not like LOTR, practically a new sound experience. Road Show is also quite nice with the bass.

So I was playing Saturday when all of a sudden the right flipper on LOTR went. As Menace had not a month earlier finished the board work that SHOULD have bulletproofed the flippers, I was a bit distraught. Luckily, the diagnostic quickly indicated the problem - a busted wire to the flipper coil. Five minutes with the iron, and I was back in business. However, not five minutes later the Shire switch stopped registering.

So with some trial and error, I got the Shire VUK apart, and diagnosed a failed switch. Of course, despite knowing that these parts are prone to fail, I don;t have a 180-5116-01 Vertical Upkicker fork switch on hand. If anyone does, I'd love to pick one up and either reimburse you or replace it in my next parts order. I usually try to do repairs as fast as I can so I don't forget how to reassemble what I've taken apart.

At any rate, since I had the Shire apart already, it seemed the logical time to put in the Shire cliffy protector, which certainly cleaned up the last troubled area of my PF. There's a few slight smudges over the ring counters between the flippers - but otherwise it's very nice and I'm quite happy with it. It doesn't really matter anyways, as LOTR has joined the keeper ranks of my collection. In fact, my only real issue is that there's nothing I'd part with right now. Stupid first world problems...
 

thewebexpert

Administrator
Staff member
Nov 14, 2012
351
89
28
Almonte, Ontario
Got to turn on the lineup for the kids (they had some friends over). It is so much fun introducing kids to pinball. It is also funny to see which games they gravitate to! Tron? NOPE, it ends up usually being either Toledo or Stargate!
 

DRANO

Super Member
Nov 15, 2012
2,827
519
113
Mississauga
Wish I had more to report.
Turns out my cough from last week turned out to be pneumonia... so I've been sidelined for a few days.

Messed around a little with Banzai Run and organized a few parts, but not a lot of energy left for much else that's pinball related lately. Seems all projects are on hold for a week or so :(

At least I've still been able to do a little wheeling and dealing from the comfort of my couch ;)
 

tim.sanderson

Active Member
What started as a little ramp work on my Jokerz has escalated to a bit of a tear down.

Between a case of Pabst in the fridge and my being serenaded by my YouTube 80's playlist, I'm trying my best to enjoy the last day of 4-day long weekend.
As I'm writing this, my work called to see if I could cover someone from 3 until 7.

I graciously declined.

"Let me hear your heartbeat. Let me feel your heartbeat. Let me touch your heartbeat. 'Cause I can change your heartbeat."
 

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brewmanager

Active Member
Nov 14, 2012
629
111
43
Scarborough, ON
Finally had a bit of time to tackle my Shire VUK issue. Mike Wong was kind enough to loan me an extra switch he had around. However he also showed me how to test a switch properly when I was over there Monday.

The new switch tested exactly the same as the old switch, so I took a chance, put Humpty together again and lo and behold - got the Samwise callout immediately!

Pleased, and again, with each repair I learn more. All you can ask for.
 

Grauwulf

Member
Nov 14, 2012
284
3
18
Corunna, Ont
Awesome job Walt! It feels good, putting something back together and having it work. :)

Yesterday I managed to fix 3 out of the 5 partially working/dead Bally/Stern displays that I had sitting on my shelf. Hopefully I can manage to fix the other 2 today.
 

mwong168

Administrator
Staff member
Nov 14, 2012
6,680
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Toronto
Glad you got it all sorted out and testing the old switch saved you some unnecessary work. Keep the switch just in case because you Gimli kick out uses the same switch with the "U" shaped actuator too. Now go DTR!
 

WARLOCK

Administrator
Staff member
Nov 14, 2012
1,824
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The Bluffs, Scarborough
Sweet! Nice job Walt.

Rygar is up and running. Will tell the story in later detail another time.

Time to get the rental 6x12 trailer today and get ready for the Montreal journey
Drano and I are taking tomorrow.

3 machines off to Quebec and 3 machines coming back to Ontario. We always try
to keep the count the same both ways. lol

When you travel with Drano, or me, you never know what else we may bring back.
Sometimes, we don't even know. Will write more Saturday when we return.
 

Menace

Well-Known Member
Staff member
Nov 14, 2012
2,440
255
83
Santiago de Aurora
Last night I broke my son's pinfixin' "cherry". Made the decision to tear the topside of my Special Force down for a small shop job, and where it's not a complex or expensive game thought this would be the PERFECT opportunity to have my 10 year old son do all the work. Was a great father /son project and he managed to get pretty much everything off the PF all by himself (with a little guidance). Now he wasn't impressed with all the cleaning aspect once all the parts were off (surprise surprise) so I'll be doing all of that on my own and then have him re-assemble everything. :)

D
 

Grauwulf

Member
Nov 14, 2012
284
3
18
Corunna, Ont
I'm looking forward to when I can include my son in the fun of pin-fixin. :)

I worked on my last 2 Bally displays today, got one working completely, found a bad connection at the display glass. Someone stuck a 7-digit display glass on a 6-digit control board which explains why the display doesn't work properly. :FP:
 

mwong168

Administrator
Staff member
Nov 14, 2012
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Toronto
Last night I installed SM pinbits plastic protector set, chrome spiders on the speaker grills, red super bands and wired it up to share the external Polk sub with Tron next to it.
 

brad808

Member
Feb 28, 2013
656
24
18
Brantford
mwong168 said:
Last night I installed SM pinbits plastic protector set, chrome spiders on the speaker grills, red super bands and wired it up to share the external Polk sub with Tron next to it.

Are you guys not worried about or experiencing conflicting frequencies and phase issues having multiple sources hooked up to the same sub? Or is it simply to run at different times?

Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk
 

WARLOCK

Administrator
Staff member
Nov 14, 2012
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The Bluffs, Scarborough
Urk! Back from Montreal.
Drano and I traveled 1200+ km in about 28 hours.
Not going into what we loaded/unloaded in that time.
Another day. Another great journey. More later.
 

DRANO

Super Member
Nov 15, 2012
2,827
519
113
Mississauga
WARLOCK said:
Urk! Back from Montreal.
Drano and I traveled 1200+ km in about 28 hours.
Not going into what we loaded/unloaded in that time.
Another day. Another great journey. More later.

Well... at the very least, w can say I now own my first classic vid :)