The NEW Build Your Own Arcade Controls
Arcade Collecting => Pinball => Topic started by: pmowry on May 19, 2016, 06:29:11 pm
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Hello,
My wife bought me a 4-Player Playmatic SpeakEasy EM http://www.ipdb.org/machine.cgi?id=2269 (http://www.ipdb.org/machine.cgi?id=2269) for $150 from a local guy who did not have time to fix it as my 1st pinball machine. I was going to start a thread for my repairs, but let me know if it would be better on another forum. Anyway it had problems ejecting the ball because of loose screws and rails that should have been over some tabs were under instead and they were blocking it. So after fixing that and installing a $30 bag of rubber rings it is playable and everything seems to work except for a few lights. Playfield is in good condition as far as I can tell, but the backbox and glass are in bad shape.
The power plug is wrapped in black tape. Pulling that off, it is because the white plastic plug is cracked all the way through along one of the prongs. I was going to cut it off and put a basic new plug from Ace hardware, but this looks like the original to me. I cant find much information about this machine. Is there enough value to this machine to try and salvage this plug and any other parts I'd normally just cut and replace? I has going to drill out the lock on the backbox (coin door lock is already missing), but maybe I should learn to pick it instead. That's the type of stuff going through my brain.
So is this a type of machine I should do a careful restore with the prospect of reselling, or the type no one cares about and just be as careful as I want to be for the learning experience?
Thank you,
-Patrick
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Make sure backbox key isn't hanging on the back of the coin door.
Replace the power cord and throw away the old one.
Probably not worth a ton but enjoy your game and try not to permanently alter it.
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Definitely replace the power plug. Playmatics aren't highly regarded so won't be worth too much regardless but as long as you enjoy fixing and playing it that's all that matters.
Sent from my SM-G900I using Tapatalk
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Thanks for the feedback. Unfortunately no key inside. I'll search here and other forums on what to do/not to do. But I'm sure I'll have plenty of questions.
If anyone is interested I may start a thread about it here. But for now I just setup a server at home to track the progress. I need to see how to get wordpress to link the thumbnails in the posts to the larger image in the media library, but it will do for now.
http://projects.pmowry.dyndns.org (http://projects.pmowry.dyndns.org)
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I have a speakeasy pinball machine but missing the backglass. Can anyone provide a high res photo of their backglass of the speakeasy pinball by playmatic?
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Mine is in really bad shape, but all the black seems to be there. So maybe it can be used for an outline to fill in the details from the low-res pictures that are out there. I was trying to get it scanned, but none of my local print shops will touch it. I'll take a few pictures with a piece of grid paper showing through to try and help with scale and distortion. But my cell phone may have higher resolution that my Cannon :-\
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I had a Firepower backglass that was missing everything except the silver and black. I put a bunch of colored transparencies on the back of it and it looks surprisingly good.
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That Firepower backless is nice looking. I sent and email to bgresto.com late Friday to get their estimate on a repair. But since I'm concerned about the shipping I took a picture with it against a florescent poster board with graph paper along the sides to help correct distortion (original image is 3984 × 2988 if anyone wants it).
I also modified my home scanner, but I can't scan the bottom 4" or so because of the metal rail. Any advice on how to remove it, or is it glued on forever?
What I do have scanned is huge (20455x12180), but cleaning it up gives me something to learn on in the meantime. I'm just using the pick tool to grab colors off of internet pictures of the artwork. Once it is cleaned up I'm trying to reduce it to about 8 different shades, so replacing it with the real colors, or a better guess should be easy as search and replace.
Edit: I think I'll rescan with the poster on the back. To hard to tell the difference between black line and nothing.
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Any advice on how to remove it, or is it glued on forever?
To answer my own question in case someine finds this in a search:
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/tech-how-to-safely-remove-lift-trim (https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/tech-how-to-safely-remove-lift-trim)
"Hang the glass upside down by the lift channel an inch from the floor with padding underneath on the edge of a wooden box or frame with another one behind it. Let it sit in a warm place overnight and the glass should fall out of it.
The idea is to create a slot to catch the glass when it falls free. Sometimes it takes a couple days but eventually it will fall free of the lift channel."
I left mine hanging from the edge of a cabinet over night, it did not move. I'm afraid it may be glued in by someone using chrome paint on the rail. But I have plenty with work keeping me busy, so I can be patient to the weekend.
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Keep us updated on how that trick works out for you.
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If you heat up the glass slowly with a hair dryer this should loosen the glue, but be careful not to damage the paint. You should hang the glass up 1-2 inches and let it fall on a soft towel.
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My Playmatic Speakeasy playfield is in great condition which is typical for Playmatic pinballs. However, the old wiring, transformers and old fuse type is becoming a hazard . Costly fuses is a major issue with this machine. I am in the process of converting the playfield into a modified solid state pinball machine. Playfield sensors and relays will be process by visual basic code. This modification will allow this SpeakEasy Playfield to perform digitalized sounds and custom lighting scenarios not possible with EM pinball machines. I have completed the electrical requirements, digitalized sounds, playfield input control, scoring and slot machine simulator using visual basic. I am in the process of developing code to control the relay board for status lights on the playfield. This is a great and beautiful playfield for this conversion. Hopefully it all works.
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My Playmatic Speakeasy playfield is in great condition which is typical for Playmatic pinballs. However, the old wiring, transformers and old fuse type is becoming a hazard . Costly fuses is a major issue with this machine. I am in the process of converting the playfield into a modified solid state pinball machine. Playfield sensors and relays will be process by visual basic code. This modification will allow this SpeakEasy Playfield to perform digitalized sounds and custom lighting scenarios not possible with EM pinball machines. I have completed the electrical requirements, digitalized sounds, playfield input control, scoring and slot machine simulator using visual basic. I am in the process of developing code to control the relay board for status lights on the playfield. This is a great and beautiful playfield for this conversion. Hopefully it all works.
I'm not queer or nothing but I'd kind of like to make out with you right now.
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My Playmatic Speakeasy playfield is in great condition which is typical for Playmatic pinballs. However, the old wiring, transformers and old fuse type is becoming a hazard . Costly fuses is a major issue with this machine. I am in the process of converting the playfield into a modified solid state pinball machine. Playfield sensors and relays will be process by visual basic code. This modification will allow this SpeakEasy Playfield to perform digitalized sounds and custom lighting scenarios not possible with EM pinball machines. I have completed the electrical requirements, digitalized sounds, playfield input control, scoring and slot machine simulator using visual basic. I am in the process of developing code to control the relay board for status lights on the playfield. This is a great and beautiful playfield for this conversion. Hopefully it all works.
:o
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I am in the process of converting the playfield into a modified solid state pinball machine. Playfield sensors and relays will be process by visual basic code. This modification will allow this SpeakEasy Playfield to perform digitalized sounds and custom lighting scenarios not possible with EM pinball machines.
Wow, I was wondering if that was a viable thing to do. But electronically mine is just fine. So are you replacing the scoring and slot-machine reels with displays? I was not sure what you meant by simulator.
As for my glass, i'm not as patient as I thought. Another day of hanging and no movement. So I rigged up a hair drier this morning on low about 18" away with baffles to keep the heat on the taller side of the metal rim and let it propagate from there. No direct heat to the glass or paint. It has been running for a few hours (about 5 I guess), the rail is hot to the touch and the whole room is up to 89F. Still no movement. I'm going to turn it off soon since there is an obvious temp difference from one edge of the glass to the other...bummer.
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I Initially, was trying to incorporate an LCD screen behind a reproduction backglass and position the monitor to replace the slot and scoring wheels. Later, decided it would be much easier incorporating some of the original graphics on a LCD monitor framed like the original pinball top. Ill provide some of the photos later. (see attached pic)
Maybe, the glue is some kind of contact cement which will not melt. I would not heat up the backglass anymore since it may damage the original graphics.
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As for my glass, i'm not as patient as I thought. Another day of hanging and no movement. So I rigged up a hair drier this morning on low about 18" away with baffles to keep the heat on the taller side of the metal rim and let it propagate from there. No direct heat to the glass or paint. It has been running for a few hours (about 5 I guess), the rail is hot to the touch and the whole room is up to 89F. Still no movement. I'm going to turn it off soon since there is an obvious temp difference from one edge of the glass to the other...bummer.
The glass finally came loose. It was being held in by rust. I sprayed some WD-40 on the rail (outside gap against the glass edge only) and let it soak in for about 30 minutes. Then flipped it over, whipped off the excess and let it hang for a few days. It moved a little on its own this afternoon and I helped it a long with a slight pull. So no drop to worry about. The oil did not leech around to the paint side of the glass at all. But if it was in better condition than it was I don't think I would have risked it.
So I have a full scan of the glass (6 individual images combined with GIMP) and I'm starting to fill in the blanks. I'm just filling with colors in the scan itself. Once I get the palette reduced I'll try to paste in the RGB values for the real colors. If anyone wants a copy let me know. Especially once I get the people at the bar and poker table cleaned up. I think they would be good in the background for the solid state conversion.
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Great! Im so glad it finally got loose! Please send me a copy of the image!
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I definitely want a copy of that image as well.
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Playmatic Speakeasy pinball Update.
Playfield is now all wired and fuse protected.
Playfield box made.
Box plunger installed.
Playfield in box
Playfield lit.