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Golden Tee Fore project (update on an old thread)
TOK:
OK, since I'm basically dead in the water until I get a monitor I started working on free fixes. ;D
The trackball was filthy. The ball itself looked all yellowed and scratched, and when you spun it (if you could even call it spinning) it felt like the case was filled with rocks.
Its a Betson ball, my MAME cab trackball is a Happ. When I took it apart, it was like a cartoon scene of opening a closet door. The ball, the bearings and screws all came piling out, probably in an attempt to escape the disgusting grit and goo that also came flying out with them. I laid it all back together to take a picture. Its afe to say this thing had a few beers spilled on it. :P
My initial feeling upon inspecting it was to just buy a new one. The prewired replacement for this ball is only about 60 bucks. That price, combined with the uncertain monitor cost made me decide to see how much I could clean it up.
I took it completely apart and washed all the funk out of the case. Pretty nasty stuff, but the glossy Betson plastic cleaned up pretty nice.
I separated the bearings and encoder wheels from the shafts, scrubbed up the bearing exteriors and soaked them in oil. There were very visible wear lines on the roller shafts. I decided to try some Brasso and a felt wheel on my rotary tool to clean them up.
As I let them soak, I began working on the ball itself. Every bad ball washing joke I ever heard went through my mind as I attempted to clean and polish this filthy ball. It came out pretty decent. There are a couple very minor spots of discoloration, but not noticeable unless you're staring at them. I wish I had taken a "before" close up, the whole thing was a brownish yellow.
The rotary tool polished the rollers up very quickly, they appear to have pretty much returned to a chrome luster. There are still wear lines where the ball rides them, but they are totally smooth and you can't be felt if you run a finger over them.
I cleaned the encoder pickups, put it all back together and gave it a test spin. It feels great! The gritty feeling is gone, and the wear lines on the ball shafts seem to have no effect on its performance. Amazing what just an hour of cleaning can do.
Off to look for monitor deals! :D
TOK:
--- Quote from: Lutus on May 02, 2008, 10:19:54 am ---The monitor can probably be fixed.
I have brought 5 monitors back from the dead. Before dropping the big bones on a new monitor see if you can fix this one.
Now you will be getting into the "dedicated" arena! :cheers:
--- End quote ---
I'd consider the repair, but the whole chassis was taken. All I have is the tube. I got prices on refurb chassis, and they're like $125 to $150. For that, I think I'd rather throw in a bit more and get a complete working used monitor, or maybe just spring for a new one.
I'd love to see both standard and medium resolution screen shots of Golden Tee Fore side by side to see if there is an image quality difference.
TOK:
I was on a bit of a roll this morning. I stripped the control panel to cut a new plexi overlay and I also pulled the dead monitor out. thats about as far as I can go today.
Next will probably be pulling out the guts and repairing some lower edge damage. Although the cab is overall in pretty good shape, its big and heavy, and the back corners got a little beat up. If the thing was working or an easy fix, it probably wouldn't be getting all this attention. ;D
Lutus:
--- Quote from: TOK on May 02, 2008, 10:48:02 am ---
--- Quote from: Lutus on May 02, 2008, 10:19:54 am ---The monitor can probably be fixed.
I have brought 5 monitors back from the dead. Before dropping the big bones on a new monitor see if you can fix this one.
Now you will be getting into the "dedicated" arena! :cheers:
--- End quote ---
I'd consider the repair, but the whole chassis was taken. All I have is the tube. I got prices on refurb chassis, and they're like $125 to $150. For that, I think I'd rather throw in a bit more and get a complete working used monitor, or maybe just spring for a new one.
I'd love to see both standard and medium resolution screen shots of Golden Tee Fore side by side to see if there is an image quality difference.
--- End quote ---
Oh, I either missed that in the initial post or something.
If it is just tube, then yeah, just get a whole new unit.
TOK:
Time to dig this old fossil of a thread up! I've actually been working on this cab, but not much worthy of posting.
I didn't have a spare arcade monitor while working on this, and I've been wanting a VGA converter, so I bought one of the Yaton/Y Plus converters off ebay. It works great, though only for standard res. When I had my GT board set for medium res, it messed up the colors.
Here is a giant cab with a tiny monitor. ;D
The other day I went and picked up a Neotec 27" monitor. This cab was made for a 25, and even thought its a huge cabinet, the 27" just fits. The Wells that was in there just had a metal frame mount, so I made a shelf out of wood and brackets at the top to secure it. What a difference from the computer monitor!
The Neotec looks huge and has a fantastic image, though it's only standard res (I bought it from an op that needed a medium res monitor and thought this was the medium res or tri-sync version, which it isn't).
Next up is to make a new monitor surround and cut a new bezel. The old one is kinda beat.
(mods feel free to move this if you want... Restorations forum didn't exist when I originally posted this.
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