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Author Topic: My Pinball Playfield Swap - Stargate - All Electronics Done!  (Read 47098 times)

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Buddabing

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Re: My Pinball Playfield Swap - Stargate
« Reply #80 on: March 19, 2006, 12:03:44 pm »
I disassembled the pop bumper assemblies, cleaned them (in the kitchen sink with ordinary dishwashing soap) and reassembled them.

I've also put the pop bumper mylar down on the new playfield and moved the remaining top-side parts over to the new playfield. Then I mounted the new playfield onto the second rotisserie, upside down.

I tried putting tape on one end of every part that I've unsoldered. Unfortunately, the tape came off. So on these parts I used a Sharpie. Some of the solenoids have three terminals rather than two, so I'll use two different colored Sharpies for that.




« Last Edit: March 19, 2006, 12:10:36 pm by Buddabing »
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Re: My Pinball Playfield Swap - Stargate
« Reply #81 on: March 19, 2006, 12:08:03 pm »
I've moved the light boards from the old playfield to the new playfield. The boards, like most things on the bottom of the playfield, were filthy. So I laboriously cleaned most of them with a paper towel. It was difficult because the sharp ends of the cut off resistors and other components tear the paper towel.

On the last board there was some solder flux remaining where the connector had been replaced. So I sprayed some solder flux remover spray on it and scrubbed it with an old toothbrush. The dirt came away very easily, along with the solder flux I was trying to remove. So now I will be cleaning the remainder of the boards with the solder flux remover spray. The active ingredient in the spray is acetone.

The dirt that is all over the bottom of the playfield, the wiring, boards, and parts is a fine sooty dirt. It is pretty easy to clean off, but it is all over every surface and some of the surfaces are difficult to reach.


« Last Edit: March 19, 2006, 12:12:22 pm by Buddabing »
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Re: My Pinball Playfield Swap - Stargate
« Reply #82 on: March 19, 2006, 07:33:43 pm »
I vote for the dishwasher method.  Never had a problem with it, especially with harnesses, as they are more durable than boardsets...

As clean as that PF is going to be... it'd be a shame not to have a squeeky-clean harness and cabinet inside, too.

Wade

I agree too.  I throw a lot of pin parts in our dishwasher at home.... much to the dismay of my wife..... "You're putting that in there?  It's filthy!"  It's great for the subways under the machine and regular ramps too.  I'm too scared to try my hand at flame polishing....

Just remember the dishwasher can take off decals/artwork and if you don't have it set to air dry it can melt plastics....  :o

Looks great sofar!  It's a very rewarding experience....

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Re: My Pinball Playfield Swap - Stargate
« Reply #83 on: March 19, 2006, 10:17:07 pm »
Tonight I won an auction for a set of plastics which will replace the ones I damaged and broke. Woot!

Thanks to PetitMorte for the info!

I tried taking apart my drop target assemblies for cleaning, but now I'm having problems putting them back together again.



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Re: My Pinball Playfield Swap - Stargate
« Reply #84 on: March 20, 2006, 11:00:29 am »

Out of curiosity... why would you put jet bumper mylars on a cleared playfield?

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Re: My Pinball Playfield Swap - Stargate
« Reply #85 on: March 20, 2006, 11:49:41 am »
The clear may crack with repeated impacts. Thus the mylar. I will also be putting mylar down where the ball drops onto the playfield from the ramps.
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Re: My Pinball Playfield Swap - Stargate
« Reply #86 on: March 20, 2006, 12:08:34 pm »

Does mylar offer any protection from impacts?  It protects against friction but not sure it gives much against banging.

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Re: My Pinball Playfield Swap - Stargate
« Reply #87 on: March 20, 2006, 12:55:39 pm »
I dunno. I was told, "Put mylar around the pop bumpers and where the ball drops onto the playfield". I said, "Yes Sir!" and obeyed.
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Re: My Pinball Playfield Swap - Stargate
« Reply #88 on: March 20, 2006, 01:37:10 pm »

Heh.  Certainly won't hurt.  I've never really thought about it as I have no cleared pins but I figured that the clearcoat would preclude mylar.  Maybe I'm mistaken.

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Re: My Pinball Playfield Swap - Stargate
« Reply #89 on: March 26, 2006, 07:52:36 pm »
I've reassembled the drop target assemblies after cleaning them. I haven't installed them on the new playfied yet, I haven't changed the decals yet.

Today I rebuilt the flippers. The flipper rebuild kit includes a lot of the parts of the flipper, many of which I don't need. All three flippers show small cracks. I'm thinking about putting some CA glue on the inside of the crack to reinforce them a bit.

It was nice that there were so many parts in the flipper rebuild kit, that way there is a lot less to clean.


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Re: My Pinball Playfield Swap - Stargate
« Reply #90 on: March 26, 2006, 09:58:09 pm »
Here's what the two playfields look like now. There isn't too much left to move. Next step is to move the remaining solenoids and do the decals.

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Re: My Pinball Playfield Swap - Stargate
« Reply #91 on: March 27, 2006, 11:13:11 am »

With all the trouble you're going through, may as well replace the cracked bats.  You know that's going to bug you once it's all together.

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Re: My Pinball Playfield Swap - Stargate
« Reply #92 on: March 31, 2006, 09:49:24 am »
I've re-decaled and installed the drop targets and kicker targets. I don't have any pictures of the process. All solenoids have been moved over and installed on the new playfield.

Next up, I need to install new ground wire for the light sockets. It involves stapling some wire into the underside of the playfield. I'm going to borrow an electric upholstery stapler from a seamstress friend of mine, a normal stapler won't work. I'm using picture hanger wire for the wire.

After that will be the sheared-off screw repair. I bought a magnetic screw finder to precisely locate the screw. I also got some needle-nose vice grips.

My new plastics have arrived. Replacements for everything I broke are included in the package. So dropping the playfield did not cause any permanent damage except to my wallet.
« Last Edit: March 31, 2006, 09:54:33 am by Buddabing »
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Re: My Pinball Playfield Swap - Stargate
« Reply #93 on: March 31, 2006, 10:32:28 pm »
The harness is in the dishwasher now, wish me luck..............

I arranged the harness so that the fuse holders and the mesh surrounding part of the wire bundle went into the top shelf of the dishwasher.

Pictures will be forthcoming.

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Re: My Pinball Playfield Swap - Stargate
« Reply #94 on: April 01, 2006, 03:52:06 pm »
Here are the pictures of the wiring harness, in the dishwasher and after I took it out. In retrospect, it probably would have been better to unsolder the leaf switches and clean those off by hand. Also, it definitely would have been better to remove all the light bulbs. Water got into the larger sockets anyway. The #67 sockets had water in them after removing them from the dishwasher. The #44 sockets had what looked like dried water spots like you see on glasses. I did not use Jet-Dry in the dishwasher, maybe I should have. I ended up removing all bulbs and cleaning the sockets out with my Pinball Resource socket cleaning stick.

While I was running the dishwasher it started making some funny noises. Maybe one of the wires was obstructing one of the propellers. Oh well, the wife hates that dishwasher anyway.

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Re: My Pinball Playfield Swap - Stargate
« Reply #95 on: April 01, 2006, 03:56:26 pm »
I've removed one of the two screws whose heads broke off while I was tightening them. For now I'm going to leave the other screw alone.

I first removed all metal parts around the screw in question. There were several. Next, I used a magnetic stud finder to locate the screw. Next, I drilled down on the underside of the playfield. I hit the screw on the first try. :) Finally, I gradually widened and deepened the screw hole until I could get the ends of some needle nose vise grips on the screw.

Once the screw was out, I filled the hole with wood putty. It'll have to sit for a couple of days before I can put all the parts back that I had to remove.

In the meantime, it's time to work on the cabinet body.

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Re: My Pinball Playfield Swap - Stargate
« Reply #96 on: April 01, 2006, 04:00:33 pm »
This picture shows the cabinet stripped of most of the wiring. The challenge will be to clean the transformers and power supply (not shown) without breaking anything, and to get all the nasty black dirt out of the cabinet.



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Re: My Pinball Playfield Swap - Stargate
« Reply #97 on: April 01, 2006, 05:12:46 pm »

That's some serious kickass work.   :notworthy:

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Re: My Pinball Playfield Swap - Stargate
« Reply #98 on: April 02, 2006, 08:43:51 pm »
Progress on two fronts. First, I stripped out all the wiring harnesses in the cabinet. I also took off a lot of parts from the sides of the cabinet in preparation of painting the cabinet. Then I sanded. Finally I put on three coats of black semi-gloss latex paint.

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Re: My Pinball Playfield Swap - Stargate
« Reply #99 on: April 02, 2006, 08:53:31 pm »
I put the wiring harness into place. I've also repopulated all the light sockets and screwed them into place. Some of the leaf switches may have been broken by the dishwasher, we'll see if that is the case.

They say that the wiring harness has "memory" and that the sockets will naturally line up. That is mostly true. There is one tricky area which has seven sockets in a circle that  I can't tell which socket goes where. Worse, these seven sockets are soldered to the ground braid. We'll see if I got them right when I start testing.

Next up I need to make sure everything is connected right. There are probably some more parts I should reorder, including those leaf switches. I also have to repopulate the fuses. Of course all the fuses look exactly the same but have different ratings.

I opened up the box of miscellaneous old parts that I got from the guy I bought the machine from, and there were some flipper bats in it.
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Re: My Pinball Playfield Swap - Stargate
« Reply #100 on: April 03, 2006, 02:25:02 pm »
Wow, you learn something new every day.  Dishwasher!?! 


What keeps water from seeping into the wires and causing corrosion?

BTW Budda, awesome.  I want to get into Pins one day.

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Re: My Pinball Playfield Swap - Stargate
« Reply #101 on: April 03, 2006, 02:48:01 pm »
Well, the wires are insulated. No corrosion is possible in insulated wires.

There are two problems with the dishwasher approach. One is that some of my leaf switches got broken. The other is that water got trapped inside some of the light sockets.

If I had to do it again I would unsolder all my leaf switches. There were not that many of them.

However, I would keep the light sockets soldered on, except this time I would remove all light bulbs. The sockets should be dry after the dishwasher is run. If not, just shake them out, maybe stick a paper towel down there to get any excess moisture out, and let the harness dry for a couple of days.

WARNING: Pinball is expensive!

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Re: My Pinball Playfield Swap - Stargate
« Reply #102 on: April 04, 2006, 01:57:43 pm »
Sorry to hear about the leaf switch, surely fixing that is much easier than cleaning that whole thing by hand.  The water in the sockets is pretty standard.  Light sockets, under chips (on PCB's), etc. usually hold some water after I dishwash them.  I usually just shake them out and let them air dry a couple of days, and sometimes I blow them off with my air compressor.

Looking good!!

Wade

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Re: My Pinball Playfield Swap - Stargate
« Reply #103 on: April 10, 2006, 09:53:58 am »
I spent this weekend working mostly on the wiring.

A light bulb went on in my head and now I understand why the wires in the wiring harnesses are striped the way they are. There are patterns of stripes, one with one color and two with another color. These match codes which are given in the manual for the various signals. So, black-brown-brown is code 011, red-orange-orange is 233, etc.

This new knowledge allowed me to check the locations of all the light sockets that needed to be soldered to the ground braid. Several of them were wrong and I would have had to unsolder them, correct them, and resolder them. There are about 17 of these soldered-in light sockets. I've now soldered those onto the ground braid.

The solenoid wires have the same color scheme as the light sockets so I am now working on those. There are a whole ton of solenoids in this machine!

I've also run the cabinet wiring harnesses through the dishwasher and they are now drying for the next couple of days.

I cleaned up the transformers and installed them back into the cabinet.

I spent some time cleaning up the metal side rails. After posting on RGP, the general consensus was that sandpaper should be used, with progressively finer grit. That seemed to work okay.

I was able to piece together the two leaf switches that were broken. I may not have to replace those after all.

No pictures, nothing was really changed appearance-wise.
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Re: My Pinball Playfield Swap - Stargate
« Reply #104 on: April 15, 2006, 05:16:57 pm »
The wiring is done. I've flipped the playfield over again on the rotisserie.

I moved the rotisserie so that is is right next to the cabinet. Then I tried to plug in the cables. Fortunately, there was just enough slack for all the cables to be plugged into the boards in the head. Yay!

I held my breath for the moment of truth, power-up. No magic smoke was released! The machine came up! Success!

I went through the self tests. All the lights work, my insight into the lighting codes worked out well!

Most of the coils work, but not all. Most of the switches work, but not all.

Next up is debugging the switches and coils. Then I have to put the ramps back on, they have opto switches in them.

I am very close to completion.



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Re: My Pinball Playfield Swap - Stargate
« Reply #105 on: April 16, 2006, 07:15:02 pm »
This afternoon I attempted to resolve why some of my coils are not firing. There was no voltage between one of the coil leads and ground. There was, however, resistance between the two coil leads. Marvin3m.com says to check the fuses. Sure enough, three fuses were burned out. I don't know how they burned out yet. It's possible that I wired something wrong and the first time I powered up the machine it caused the fuses to blow. I'll swap the fuse with a known good one of the same amperage and I'll see if those coils start to work.

To aid in testing, I made some extenders for my voltmeter out of some alligator clips and wire. I should have used white and black wire, oh well.

Also, here is a picture of how the playfield connects with the cabinet.

« Last Edit: April 26, 2006, 11:31:37 am by Buddabing »
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Re: My Pinball Playfield Swap - Stargate
« Reply #106 on: April 18, 2006, 03:21:24 pm »
Marvin has a nice trick for testing coils.

With the power on, clip one end of your 'gators to the side-rail.  Then touch the other end to the lug of the diode that is on the NON banded side of the diode.  The solenoid should fire.  This tests if the solenoid is getting power.

Don't touch the Banded side, as that will short and blow the solenoid fuse.

Then touch the gator to the metal back of the transistor that controls the solenoid.  The solenoid should fire.  If it does, then the solenoid is getting power AND the wiring between the driver board and the solenoid is fine.

w00t!

Bitten by the cabinet bug... obsessing ever since.

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Re: My Pinball Playfield Swap - Stargate
« Reply #107 on: April 20, 2006, 11:23:39 pm »
Some progress has been made.

First, I hooked up my new Pinball Pro subwoofer. I was disappointed. I expected the bass to have a lot more punch in it. It just sounds like a third speaker.

I was able to diagnose one major coil problem. I had soldered one of the coils with the wires reversed. This caused the fuse to blow. I reversed the wires and that coil works now. So now I'm short a few fuses, no big deal.

Today I also hooked up the remaining optical switches that are on the ramps, and the motor that controls the glidercraft. They work fine.

So now there are two coils that don't work, one switch that doesn't work, and one coil that may or may not work. All other switches appear to work.

Next up I'm going to change the bats on the flippers, clean up the new bats, and re-rubber them.

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Re: My Pinball Playfield Swap - Stargate
« Reply #108 on: April 21, 2006, 09:11:28 pm »
The two non-working coils are the "left kicking rubber" and the "left kicking target". Both coils have the correct resistance across the terminals, and neither coil has voltage across it.

I ran a wire continuity check. For the left kicking rubber, there is good continuity from the coil to the fuse, and from the coil to the controller board.

For the left kicking target, there is good continuity from the coil to the fuse, but there is no connection between the coil and the controller board. So somewhere there is a severed wire in the wire harness. Ugh.

I don't know what to do about the left kicking rubber. The solder connection seems sound, maybe I'll try to reflow it.

Suggestions welcome, I'm going to post on RGP.

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Re: My Pinball Playfield Swap - Stargate
« Reply #109 on: April 23, 2006, 05:05:05 pm »
This weekend I installed the flippers. There is a special allen wrench that is used to tighten two screws that clamp the flipper. I tightened them too tight at first and they barely moved. I loosened them up and they flip better now, but still too slowly. I was expecting the flippers (freshly rebuilt) to be a lot more lively.

It is also tricky to get them exactly in the right position so that the flipper goes in the correct arc.

I have attached two pictures, a bit blurry unfortunately, one shows the old cracked bats and the other showing nice clean intact bats.

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Re: My Pinball Playfield Swap - Stargate
« Reply #110 on: April 23, 2006, 05:13:36 pm »
It turns out that the left kicking target does indeed have wire continuity to the driver board. So I guess I need to test the power MOSFETs to the two non-working coils.

I had one coil soldered wrong, it is bad now. It didn't release any magic smoke but it shows an open circuit now across its terminals.

I'll probably go ahead and order three replacement coils.

I need to hook up the coin door. The coin door that was previously on there had a totally different connector to what is on there now. So I need to remove a whole bunch of small Molex connectors, preferably without damaging them. Does anyone have a good method for removing these? The Molex extractor tool I have is way too big, it was designed for power supply Molex connectors.

There is still one switch that won't register. I need to test that sucker with an ohmmeter to see if it actually closes when it appears closed.

 
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Re: My Pinball Playfield Swap - Stargate
« Reply #111 on: April 25, 2006, 06:36:34 pm »
After looking at the wiring, it looks like I had those two coils wired wrong. So I swapped the wires and they still didn't work. Then I swapped out the known good coil from my brand new knocker assembly for the coil in the left kicking target, which is the same type of coil. Still no joy. So I tested the power MOSFETs. They are bad.

So, if PBR carries these MOSFETs, I'll get a couple plus some replacement fuses.

On the bright side, I was able to fix the switch that wouldn't register.
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Re: My Pinball Playfield Swap - Stargate
« Reply #112 on: April 25, 2006, 10:22:45 pm »
Too bad about the coils wired backwards..... been there before.....

Ed at Greatplains would probably stock the mosfets needed as an alternate source for you.

http://www.greatplainselectronics.com/

Ed's a good guy.

Good luck with your repair!

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Re: My Pinball Playfield Swap - Stargate
« Reply #113 on: April 28, 2006, 11:37:58 pm »
While I'm waiting for my order (coils, coil sleeves, and MOSFETs) to arrive from Pinball Resource, there are a couple of things I can work on.

Tonight I attached the slam switch to the coin door. For some reason there was nowhere to put the slam switch, so I took two 4-40 by 1" machine screws, cut off the heads, and JB Welded the screws to the coin door.

I am also working on wiring up the coin door. The old coin door took vastly different connections from the new one. So, tomorrow, I'm going to go purchase a molex extractor at my favorite electronics shop.

One problem is that I don't have the wire or connectors to hook up my knocker or coin meter. It was suggested that I just use T-Taps and plain hookup wire to connect them up. Blasphemy! Instead, there's a guy on Ebay who parted out a Stargate who didn't sell the wire harness. I'll have him cut off the appropriate connectors (with wire) and send them to me. Then, all I need is the female molex connectors and pins.

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Re: My Pinball Playfield Swap - Stargate
« Reply #114 on: April 29, 2006, 07:56:32 pm »
Okay, I've ordered some Molex connectors and pins for the knocker and coin meter, as well as pin extractors.

Today I tried to figure out why my flippers are so weak. I figured it out, the end-of-stroke switches were wired up wrong. I fixed it and now the flippers are nice and strong. The problem is that they don't stay put. If I tighten the allen screws holding the flipper bat, then the flipper won't return to resting position. If I loosen them up, the flipper returns okay, but after a few flips the flipper works loose from the shaft and quits flipping.
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Re: My Pinball Playfield Swap - Stargate
« Reply #115 on: April 30, 2006, 11:38:02 am »
Raise the flippers up on the shaft a little bit, sounds like they are rubbing on the playfield.



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Re: My Pinball Playfield Swap - Stargate
« Reply #116 on: April 30, 2006, 01:21:14 pm »
Raise the flippers up on the shaft a little bit, sounds like they are rubbing on the playfield.

Here's how I've been trained to do this: lower them all the way, align them where they're supposed to go, then raise them about the height of a dime.

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Re: My Pinball Playfield Swap - Stargate
« Reply #117 on: April 30, 2006, 02:15:40 pm »
I figured out the flipper issue.

The flippers were not rubbing on the playfield. Rather, imagine the coil and the metal thingy that goes in it as like a piston and cylinder. If the piston does not go exactly aligned into the cylinder, it will bind up and not move freely.

So the solution was to loosen the screws and let the cylinder fall naturally into the correct alignment. Screws tightened, problem solved.

I am now waiting on two orders: one from PB Resource for the coils, sleeves, fuses, and MOSFETs, and one from a place online that has the mini-fit Molex connectors, pins, and extractor tools I need for the coin door.

My 2-bank and 3-bank drop targets aren't dropping very well, I need to revisit those. Then I should figure out where some of the leftover pieces go.



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Re: My Pinball Playfield Swap - Stargate
« Reply #118 on: May 05, 2006, 12:38:22 am »
I received my coil sleeves, extra coils, and MOSFETs today. I replaced the two MOSFETs in question and powered up the machine. Everything works except one coil now. I'm really close. I haven't replaced the coil in question, that is next.
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Re: My Pinball Playfield Swap - Stargate
« Reply #119 on: May 08, 2006, 02:18:02 pm »
First of all, awesome job. 

Here's my question.  I have been known to do some classic car restoration work.  After doing two thorough projects, my father and I determined that it would be cheaper, although less rewarding, to find a car that has already been built to a high level of qualty.  Case in point, he recently bought a '56 Chevy that was going through a divorce for $32K when the guy had over $60K in receipts for the car.  The obvious downside is that you don't get to personalize the car and make it your own.  Of course, you get to buy more cars!  LOL

Does this phenomenon equate to pinball?  Not couting your hours in the project, which I will assume you found to be fun/educational, would you have been better off to spend more money on a pristine Stargate rather than do this yourself? 


Just curious.  I am planning on buying a pin soon and wanted to know your opinion.