A New Hope... "When you came in here didn't you have a plan for getting out?"

[RetroACTIVE]

We'll I finally got one... I had to drive to Pittsburgh to get it... ~200mi..  But I am wicked excited... i paid around 600 for it... The monitor (WG) needs some work but it is in very good shape... the insides are all 100% original (no cuts/splices or hacks).  The yoke appears to be fine... there are a few dings here and there but nothing major and from what I've been told, I am the 3rd owner of the machine.

I'm going to take a minimalist approach to this one... I'm going to fix the dings do some quick touch ups, clean the inside and service the monitor... thats it.  There is no need to dissect the machine as it is in very good shape overall and I do not want to create extra work that is simply not necessary.... besides I want to play the darn thing!

[Pop Culture Portal]

Wow! 

[Level42]

I think David's offer for a cheap yoke rebuild kit is still available.....


And welcome to the club

[RetroACTIVE]

I think David's offer for a cheap yoke rebuild kit is still available.....


And welcome to the club

I saw his offerings... and I recall your posting before regarding the rebuild deal.  I need to inquire as I double checked the action on the yoke and it seems it may have a gear issue when it is twisted all the way forward, so there may be a nick in a gear or two.

She ain't no cockpit... but I don't have the space for one without giving up one or two of my other games, which Im not willing to do 

[Level42]

Be sure to get the springs too...looks like yours needs them pretty badly

[Spyridon]

And welcome to the club

Where does one sign up for this club?  I got my Star Wars yesterday!

[Level42]

Heheh, it's a virtual club. And welcome

[CheffoJeffo]

---daisies---!

 

[ChadTower]

Don't question the rebuild kit, just buy it.  At that price it's a steal.  The yoke is your whole physical interface to the game - if it sucks so does your game. 

[RetroACTIVE]

Don't question the rebuild kit, just buy it.  At that price it's a steal.  The yoke is your whole physical interface to the game - if it sucks so does your game. 

...didn't think twice, it's already on it's way 

[Lyellin]

Is that the one that was on Craigslist for a bit? If grad school wasn't in my way.... and graduation, I was gonna drive out there and grab it - Pittsburgh is my old haunt.

[RetroACTIVE]

Is that the one that was on Craigslist for a bit? If grad school wasn't in my way.... and graduation, I was gonna drive out there and grab it - Pittsburgh is my old haunt.

Yup!  It was my first trip to Pittsburgh... that city has some wild topolgy!

[RetroACTIVE]

I've had a little time to dissect this thing... I found a few things...

#1 - Broken gear on the U/D pot.... not to worry gear replacements on the way!



#2 - Gooey old bumpers rotting and causing the controller to basically stick and not return to zero... (springs are actually ok)




Here is a pic of the inside / bottom and regulator board







Here are the PCBs ... they are super clean... except for the crud that the fan blew on them!  Not sure what the serial numbering scheme is on these but this one is an even 10000!









Good news... I could not tell what conditon the montior was in when I picked it up... its perfectly burn free!!  It aint no Amplifone... but hell I'll take it!



chassis..



"travelling through hyperspace ain't like dusting crops boy!"

[Lyellin]

Very nice, I'm glad someone here grabbed that. If it was up in... 6 months, I may have done so myself, and made that my first resto.

Yea, Pittsburgh is a bit... hilly. The development of the city and the surroundings is actually very interesting, as is the history of the city.

Does make for a lot of heart attack hills though.

[Level42]

One tip for the WG deflection board: resolder ALL connector pins. Then check them with a multimeter....

[RetroACTIVE]

Ok... I've dismantled the yoke controller to get it cleaned up to go off to powder coating this weekend.

I must admit... the darn thing is impressive... built like a tank.  Many many screws hold this baby together...

Here are a few pics...



You can see how incredibly gross the rubber bumpers had become in this pic...



I wouldn't call it an 'egg' shell but 'yoke' shell is appropriate... (BTW, ever notice how many people call it the star wars yolk)



"What a piece of junk!"

[RetroACTIVE]

...oh yeah, forgot to mention... in my zeal to get this thing apart... I broke the dang anchor pin in the nut!



RAM-CONTROLS HERE I COME AGAIN!  I already received Dave's rebuild kit... woah awesome stuff... can't wait to put this bad boy back together... it will essentially be new when I'm done with it.

"Sorry about the mess..." (flicks a coin to the bartender)

[RetroACTIVE]

Welp, I called my local powder coating shop... closed on the weekends      The good news is in speaking with them, they are able to give me a quote with a quick e-mail of a picture of the item 

I'm looking for an original finish... its a satin untextured/smooth black... I should have the quote sometime tomorrow...




"Where are you taking this... thhhing?"

[TheShanMan]

I'm enjoying this thread, RA. SW is one of my grails, so keep those updates coming! I'm also interested to hear how much something like that costs to get powder coated. I've never had powder coating done. How do you find a shop that does it? Just look up "powder coating" in the yellow pages?

[Level42]

Ever heard of "internet" "google" ?
 

[RetroACTIVE]

I'm enjoying this thread, RA. SW is one of my grails, so keep those updates coming! I'm also interested to hear how much something like that costs to get powder coated. I've never had powder coating done. How do you find a shop that does it? Just look up "powder coating" in the yellow pages?

Actually... there is kind of a story relating to how I found this place...

My wife and I were out to lunch at a local restaurant... I was mentioning to her I need to find the local powder coating shop to clean up my SW game controller.  I had heard through the grapevine there was a local shop but I could not recall where, and I had not started to look yet...  She looked at me and said oh "You want to go to Performance Powder Coating of Frederick".  I was like wwha?  She had  looked down at the little paper place mat full of adds and it was staring her right in the face, an ad for the place I was looking for.   

[ChadTower]

Actually... there is kind of a story relating to how I found this place...

My wife and I were out to lunch at a local restaurant... I was mentioning to her I need to find the local powder coating shop to clean up my SW game controller.  I had heard through the grapevine there was a local shop but I could not recall where, and I had not started to look yet...  She looked at me and said oh "You want to go to Performance Powder Coating of Frederick's of Hollywood".  I was like wwha?  She had  looked down at the little paper place mat full of adds and it was staring her right in the face, an ad for the place I was looking for.   

fixt

[RetroACTIVE]

Actually... there is kind of a story relating to how I found this place...

My wife and I were out to lunch at a local restaurant... I was mentioning to her I need to find the local powder coating shop to clean up my SW game controller.  I had heard through the grapevine there was a local shop but I could not recall where, and I had not started to look yet...  She looked at me and said oh "You want to go to Performance Powder Coating of Frederick's of Hollywood".  I was like wwha?  She had  looked down at the little paper place mat full of adds and it was staring her right in the face, an ad for the place I was looking for.   

fixt

HA!... took me a second but I found it   

[RetroACTIVE]

Got the quote back today...

Sand Blasting and hand sanding down to bare metal, Zinc Powder Primer and Powder Coat: $60.00

I'm also going to have them do the power block metal work... I'm thinking gold ... what the heck!



"5000... all in advance"
"5000... we can almost buy our own ship for that!"
"Yeah but who's going to fly it kid... you?"

[ChadTower]

Yeah! I'm not such a bad powdercoater myself!

[TheShanMan]

That seems like a super reasonable price with the sand blasting and sanding! I had no idea what something like that would cost, so it's good to know that if and when I want to do that it should be pretty affordable.

[Level42]

I payed similar prices (compared to our standards). However, each color is separate price.
At "my" local powdercoater (who I did find through Google by the way) it's best to give a whole bunch of parts in one go, as it doesn't matter for the price. It also helps a bit that this guy always seems to forget to give me a bill

F.I. I payed the same for the grey Midway coindoor as I did for all the little black parts of the Galaxian and MB.

Wish I could do it myself. Powdercoating beats all the other options IMHO. I'm in a marching band and we've had a number of rings and drum hardware powdercoated black that was originally chrome colored. It's been done 3 years ago, and there's not a chip or scratch to be found, and really, these drums are not always treated friendly.

Powdercoat metal parts on a cab, and I bet they'll last as long as you live....

[ChadTower]

Powdercoat metal parts on a cab, and I bet they'll last as long as you live....

Oh, most definitely.  In home use, though, wouldn't a well painted piece stand up just as long?

[Level42]

Maybe, but I still think powdercoating is way sturdier than (spray) painting.

By the way, that was a funny story RetroActive

I'm now looking at getting all the black metal parts of all my cabs (that haven't been done yet) in one go. That way it's very cost efficient too.

Sad thing is my powder coater can't do the blasting as he normally does really big stuff (gates,fences  etc.)

[ChadTower]

Maybe, but I still think powdercoating is way sturdier than (spray) painting.

There's no debating that.  I'm just starting to wonder if it's actually necessary or if he could put the $40 difference towards a backup flyback fund or something.

[Level42]

Yes, per game, it's a lot of money if you need to pay that. On the other hand, you'll never get the same finish with spray painting yourself (unless you have a HVLP set-up, which is also _very_ expensive).

AND it's a Star Wars. That alone deserves a little bit more than usual. And because it's the yoke, this will be touched a lot so it can't be sturdy enough.

[RetroACTIVE]

Yes, per game, it's a lot of money if you need to pay that. On the other hand, you'll never get the same finish with spray painting yourself (unless you have a HVLP set-up, which is also _very_ expensive).

AND it's a Star Wars. That alone deserves a little bit more than usual. And because it's the yoke, this will be touched a lot so it can't be sturdy enough.

I seriously considered painting this... as my DK2 coin door came out fantastic using spray and 0000 steel wool between coats.  I figured I'd leave the handles alone as they are in decent shape and because they are as you stated touched a lot.  Which left me with just painting the frame... and after I got it apart and looked at it... I figured sanding it would be a ---smurfette--- so that did it for me.

[ChadTower]

HVLP isn't that expensive if you already have the compressor and pneumatic stuff... which would also be used for sandblasting.

Funny I'm having two parallel powdercoating discussions, one here and one KLOV.  The other is about how one would build their own powdercoating oven which to my view is very very similar to a meat smoker but less complex because you don't have to worry about food issues.

[RetroACTIVE]

HVLP isn't that expensive if you already have the compressor and pneumatic stuff... which would also be used for sandblasting.

Funny I'm having two parallel powdercoating discussions, one here and one KLOV.  The other is about how one would build their own powdercoating oven which to my view is very very similar to a meat smoker but less complex because you don't have to worry about food issues.

I really think the sandblasting capability is key to any method... prep work is such a pain without it.

[ChadTower]

Definitely... ooh, I wonder if you could use the same box for blasting as you did for baking.  Just design the heater on a pullout shelf and you're good to go!  That wouldn't be hard at all.

[Level42]

What I read about HVLP is that you need a _REALLY_ big compressor to prevent it from running continously. One in the 700 bucks range....tell me I am mistaken as I already got a el-cheapo small compressor and I would love to try out HVLP...

[ChadTower]

What I read about HVLP is that you need a _REALLY_ big compressor to prevent it from running continously. One in the 700 bucks range....tell me I am mistaken as I already got a el-cheapo small compressor and I would love to try out HVLP...

I don't think it's that big a requirement but yeah el-cheapo won't do it.  But el-cheapo won't do sandblasting either.

[WunderCade]

Prices vary, but the important thing is that the compressor is at least a 15-20 gallon compressor. I found one (a Craftsman) at Orchard Supply for $99.00 US.

[ChadTower]

That's a bigass tank.

[Spyridon]

I got mine for $300.  26 gallon tank.  Works great!