Tabletop Pinball Refurbish and Customization Project

[z-kun]

A while back, my fiance threw his old Dragonball Z mini pinball machine at me so I could customize it and whatnot. It was already dirty, missing some of the figures that go on top of it, and whatnot, and I let it languish in my closet for a while due to other things going on at the time, so that didn't help. Another reason why I didn't do anything with it for a while is because I don't care for DBZ much so I wanted to change it to another theme, but I wasn't sure what. I've finally decided on Pokemon or the 2012 version of The Lorax as the theme.

For the record, here's a stock photo of what he gave me:

It's not much bigger than a standard sized computer keyboard, for reference. Definitely less than two feet long.
(I have photos on my phone, but I won't have access to an adapter to get them off my phone until later.)

But now I want to clean it up and customize it and get it at least somewhat functional again.  It was really dirty; one of the paddles didn't want to work right and the lever things that manipulate the balls in storage were stuck enough that they barely worked. Also, when I opened up the battery compartment, it turned out that at least one of the batteries had leaked. I promptly removed them and set them aside for battery recycling/disposal. The battery leakage is all dry now. I realize that the electronic portion of the machine may be ruined due to this (I also don't know if the other electronics still work). To be honest, as long as the ball launcher and paddles work, I don't mind too much if the electronics don't work. I don't need fancy lights and a score board just to enjoy smacking the ball around. But if I CAN get it fully functional again, that'd be cool. :3 I already took it apart and cleaned most of it (being very careful around electronic parts - I just wiped down those areas with a wet cotton ball).

At the current point in time, the battery area is the only dirty area that I have not cleaned. What's the best way to clean that area?

Also, the table art seems to be printed onto a sheet of metal, and the lights and springs are wired to the metal. So what would the best way to cover the art be? My guess is that I want a glossy vinyl sticker, because it'd be thin and durable, as well as not insanely difficult to apply. Is this a correct assumption? Where would be a good place to get an inexpensive custom vinyl sticker?

I don't want to do waterslide decal for the table art because I'd be terrified of getting the electronics wet.

I know I need to make a template to make making the new art easier (I've already got a tiny start on that).

[z-kun]

Clean up Process
Here's a cruddy before picture. One of the paddles was stuck, and the little ball launcher and ball storage levers were sticking fairly badly. It was also just dirty looking all around. The game didn't want to turn on at this point. I realized that there's a chance the electronics portion may no longer be operational, but that's okay. As long as I can smack the balls around, I don't have to have the sound effects and score board going.


First I opened up the battery area, and I saw why the game didn't want to turn on! At least one of the batteries had leaked everywhere! Here's the battery area, first with batteries, then without. Following the advice of fellow forum members, I mixed up some baking soda and water as a pace, gave the compartment a couple of good scrub sessions with an old tooth brush, rinsed it out, and then wiped it down with a little 98% rubbing alcohol. I also had to look under the art board where all the electronics were to make sure there wasn't rampant damage from battery acid. I saw a little bit of a stain in an otherwise fairly clean looking area (well, except for a bit of rust from the edge of the art board), but the stain took to the paste mix fairly well.

Icky icky icky!


I took photos of various areas as I took it apart in order to document 1) before and after cleaning, and 2) so I know what it's supposed to look like when I'm putting it back together. These parts are cleaned now. The parts that were just plastic got a good, full rinsing, and the parts housing electronics just got wiped down with wet cotton balls. A few things here and there got scrubbed with an old tooth brush as necessary.

No wonder the paddle didn't work on one side:


The scoreboard section lifts off the rest of the machine and has contacts to send power/information/whatever. The area with the contacts was actually fairly clean so I left it alone for the most part.


TO BE CONTINUED...

[Drnick]

Without pictures I can't really advise on the battery area other then if it's really corroded you could get a separate battery holder and then just wire this up to the relevant points. The only issue there is if the batteries actually slot into holders directly on the board, if this is the case then the contacts themselves may be corroded..  You could of course follow the trace back and solder wires further down though.  Get some decent sized pics up and I'm sure that assistance can be found.

[PL1]

At the current point in time, the battery area is the only dirty area that I have not cleaned. What's the best way to clean that area?

Lightly apply a thin paste of baking soda and water to neutralize the residual battery acid.

Once the acid is neutralized, you can clean off the residue using isopropyl alcohol and a toothbrush/acid brushes (shown below)/cotton swabs.



Don't worry about getting the electronics wet during cleaning, just make sure it is dry before you re-connect the batteries.


Scott

[z-kun]

Ok, I'll try the baking soda solution tonight. Thank you. :3 I've got some 98% and 70-whatever% isopropyl alcohol on hand in addition to the baking soda, so that ought to work if it's not too badly damaged.

Mwa-ha, pictures!


Here's the battery area, first with batteries, then without.

Icky icky icky!


I took photos of various areas as I took it apart in order to document 1) before and after cleaning, and 2) so I know what it's supposed to look like when I'm putting it back together. These parts are cleaned now. The parts that were just plastic got a good, full rinsing, and the parts housing electronics just got wiped down with wet cotton balls. A few things here and there got scrubbed with an old tooth brush as necessary.

No wonder the paddle didn't work on one side:


The scoreboard section lifts off the rest of the machine and has contacts to send power/information/whatever. The area with the contacts was actually fairly clean so I left it alone for the most part.

[Drnick]

That doesn't look too bad. Follow the advice and you should be golden.   You may want to edit your post as you are linking to the thumbnails rather then the full sized images.  You can use IMG width=400 Height=300 in your first image tag to keep the visible images thumbnail size

[PL1]

Can't tell from the battery compartment photos, but if the battery contacts are pitted or not shiny anymore, you may also want to use a soldering iron, flux and solder to re-tin them for a low-resistance connection to the battery and to block further corrosion.

I had to do that for my good multimeter recently when two of the batteries leaked. 

You may need to take this apart farther than the pictures show to be sure you got all the acid neutralized and removed.

You can use IMG width=400 Height=300 in your first image tag to keep the visible images thumbnail size

You can also leave off the "height=300" attribute and the board software will automatically adjust to maintain the aspect ratio of the original image.


Scott

[z-kun]

Ok, I gave the battery compartment a round of scrubbing with the baking soda mix and an old tooth brush. The dirtiest spring looks a lot better (it's still darker than the cleanest one, but it's shiny again). I kind of didn't focus on the second-dirtiest spring as much as I should have though; it's still got a bit of crap on it so I'm going to give it a second round of clean up.

Also, I looked under the art board to see how far the acid spread, and didn't see very much staining at all (one splat that dribbled near one of the lights), so I gave that a light scrub up, too. (Although now there's more baking soda residue than there ever was battery acid residue! XD I'll have to rinse it better during the second round.)

Can't tell from the battery compartment photos, but if the battery contacts are pitted or not shiny anymore, you may also want to use a soldering iron, flux and solder to re-tin them for a low-resistance connection to the battery and to block further corrosion.

I had to do that for my good multimeter recently when two of the batteries leaked. 

You may need to take this apart farther than the pictures show to be sure you got all the acid neutralized and removed.

You can use IMG width=400 Height=300 in your first image tag to keep the visible images thumbnail size

You can also leave off the "height=300" attribute and the board software will automatically adjust to maintain the aspect ratio of the original image.


Scott

I hope it doesn't come to having to re-tin anything, but thanks for the instructions just in case. :x

That doesn't look too bad. Follow the advice and you should be golden.   You may want to edit your post as you are linking to the thumbnails rather then the full sized images.  You can use IMG width=400 Height=300 in your first image tag to keep the visible images thumbnail size

Done. :3 Thank you.