Author Topic: Laser Cue - IT LIVES (Read 24462 times)

ChadTower · « **Reply #80 on:** December 12, 2005, 03:15:29 pm »

If I keep the sexy men then I will have an easier time later getting one with women on it... don't care about the women, really, but a lot of good ones have the women, like Xenon.

ClubNinja · « **Reply #81 on:** December 12, 2005, 04:08:30 pm »

Luckily, MsNinja prefers sexy women to sexy men, so the more pins featuring them, the better.

ChadTower · « **Reply #82 on:** December 12, 2005, 04:14:00 pm »

There are a lot of jokes in there somewhere.

ClubNinja · « **Reply #83 on:** December 13, 2005, 09:27:22 am »

Unfortunately, yes there are.

ChadTower · « **Reply #84 on:** December 31, 2005, 02:07:12 pm »

Haven't been able to work on this much over the holidays but I did get some soldering practice in... the boards are repaired, working, and ready to be sent back to me, so it will resume very shortly.

c64rulez · « **Reply #85 on:** January 02, 2006, 05:40:24 am »

mmmmm.....
It has finally occurred to me how do you get to be a zillion posts old around here

Good luck with your pin

ChadTower · « **Reply #86 on:** January 03, 2006, 09:58:11 am »

Yeah, I have a buttload of posts... but many of them are actually arcade based, so nyah.

ClubNinja · « **Reply #87 on:** January 03, 2006, 10:13:22 am »

Quote from: ChadTower on December 31, 2005, 02:07:12 pm

the boards are repaired, working, and ready to be sent back to me, so it will resume very shortly.

Hey - good news there. I'll have to motivate myself to repair the MPU for Bobby Orr someday (lots of damage on that sucker).

ChadTower · « **Reply #88 on:** January 03, 2006, 11:37:34 am »

Yeah, the repairs cost me $45 all told... incredible price, so I tossed in an extra $20 for some good beer for him.

ChadTower · « **Reply #89 on:** January 03, 2006, 09:00:27 pm »

Coil replaced... the two short wires extended with solder joins and electrical tape, all wires soldered onto coil tabs properly. All connections give DMM tone except one that I can't check because that wire seems to go off into a harness someplace.

That's my first coil swap, woo.

ChadTower · « **Reply #90 on:** January 06, 2006, 10:54:27 am »

One more coil sleeve last night. This leaves the flippers and the drop target bank. I think I'm going to leave the target bank coils alone for now, just cleaning the targets themselves. I want to get the top of the playfield finished off this weekend so the whole thing is ready to go when these boards come back in the next few days.

ChadTower · « **Reply #91 on:** January 06, 2006, 09:45:53 pm »

Erf... trying to get the rest of the major play coils done but am having some troubles... apparently the openings on these are smaller than usual and I don't have sleeves to match exactly.

Plus there is one coil here with two diodes rather than one and I'm not sure what to make of that. Need to figure that one out.

ChadTower · « **Reply #92 on:** January 07, 2006, 02:01:35 pm »

Picked up a few nice tips on how to deal with the aperture size/sleeve size issue, and some on how to get the sleeve out when it's stuck and the coil is sitll good. I'm going to try them out today.

ChadTower · « **Reply #93 on:** January 08, 2006, 11:45:09 am »

Tips are decent, though I'll hold off on detailing them until I see if the coils still work.

Boards arrived yesterday. Visually, they look awesome. Aside from the sockets and parts that are clearly new, I can't even tell the thing was hand soldered. He also installed a remote battery holder with QDs. Awesome, and it cost me about $80 total.

Did a few more coils, too. Left to do is one more play coil (slingshot) and then I put the playfield back down to strip, clean, and wax the top half the playfield. I also have to put the boards back in and test them. Not sure if after that I'll start pulling bulbs to clean/replace and clean lenses or just leave that for now and put the glass in.

The backglass still needs some serious love but I don't want to be spraying Triple Thick in my closed basement until the weather warms up some. It's too cold down here for it to work optimally.

ChadTower · « **Reply #94 on:** January 08, 2006, 08:20:46 pm »

Did the last main play coil, now to start plugging those boards back in and give it a test fire.

ChadTower · « **Reply #95 on:** January 08, 2006, 08:49:16 pm »

Just put the power board back in. I'm going upstairs to have a beer and watch the late playoff game.

ChadTower · « **Reply #96 on:** January 10, 2006, 09:12:32 am »

Flipper, audio, and display drivers back in.

Man I wish I had more than a half hour at a time to work on this.

ChadTower · « **Reply #97 on:** January 20, 2006, 08:25:18 pm »

Dude, rocking! I just got the final boards put back into place and fired this sucker up... IT LIVES! I was able to get into play mode, coin up, start a game, and the solenoids and switches I hit fired and registered points. I still have to finish the playfield, then when the weather warms up seal/restore the backglass... but IT LIVES!

And cool news, all of the displays are strong and bright.

c64rulez · « **Reply #98 on:** January 21, 2006, 12:42:13 am »

Great news (my pinball resumee is kinda null so that's all I can say

)

I wonder if bringing a machine back from the dead is more thrilling than creating one.

Show us some pics

ChadTower · « **Reply #99 on:** January 21, 2006, 09:29:54 am »

Yep, once it's done, pics will be plentiful.

ChadTower · « **Reply #100 on:** January 21, 2006, 07:45:53 pm »

Three regular flippers back in. They could probably stand a rebuild, but don't have the cash for the rebuild kit just now.

ClubNinja · « **Reply #101 on:** January 23, 2006, 09:19:25 am »

Sweet. I never thought I'd see those sexy space-warrior guys in action again!

ChadTower · « **Reply #102 on:** January 23, 2006, 11:52:16 am »

Well, it will be a while before I get to trying to work with the BG... have to wait until I can get a better temperature in the basement. So, when I get it fully done and in place, the oh tho thexy men won't be on display yet.

I have done some thinking about that, though... since a NOS bg is available for around $300 shipped... but I don't really want to spend that since the bg art is so thuper... maybe if I scanned the sucker, kept the title image, but came up with NEW art for the rest, I could have a better backglass/translite.

ClubNinja · « **Reply #103 on:** January 23, 2006, 01:16:39 pm »

Obviously, replace them with hot space warrior chicks.

ChadTower · « **Reply #104 on:** January 23, 2006, 01:46:21 pm »

Yeah, at least one of them anyway, so it's not ALL naked dudes.

Just wish I had any artistic tendencies.

ChadTower · « **Reply #105 on:** January 29, 2006, 04:54:31 pm »

I have the drop target assembly apart now... it's filthy. The targets are going to need new stickers. I'll get it cleaned and new sleeves in now, do the target stickers later.

ChadTower · « **Reply #106 on:** February 20, 2006, 10:12:53 am »

Stripped, polished, and 7 coat waxed the upper half of the playfield. Cleaned and polished about half the parts. Should be done soon. Pics have been taken but I haven't been able to post them yet.

ChadTower · « **Reply #107 on:** February 23, 2006, 06:36:28 pm »

A new backglass! Managed to find someone in NY parting out a Laser Cue. Didn't want him to do it, but since he was set on it, I bought his BG. Some nervous shipping and I have a very, very nice BG in possession with only a tiny bit of flaking in the bottom corners.

ChadTower · « **Reply #108 on:** February 23, 2006, 09:48:08 pm »

Polished, waxed, ready for stuff to be put back on...

ChadTower · « **Reply #109 on:** February 27, 2006, 08:59:39 am »

The rest of the playfield is back together. I removed the head and moved it to the other side of the basement. I picked up some sliding leg levelers and replaced two of them. I noticed I forgot about the legs and they have some surface rust. That will have to wait until I come back to the machine, probably in the fall.

ChadTower · « **Reply #110 on:** March 01, 2006, 09:04:09 am »

Got it into its spot and leveled... not sure the slope is perfect yet, though. I'm going to buy an angle meter (inclinometer) on the way home and slope it to 6 degrees. I think I'm going to put it at about 6 degrees. Those sliding leg levelers are decent. They will slide on the concrete but I would not recommend relying solely on them for much more than a small adjustment. It is still putting too much pressure on the legs when moved.

ClubNinja · « **Reply #111 on:** March 01, 2006, 09:56:26 am »

What about those rolling metal bowl-like things that you have - the ones that a pin leg can sit on? Have you tried rolling a game around with those?

ChadTower · « **Reply #112 on:** March 01, 2006, 09:59:12 am »

That's what I use to move it any distance. When you're only moving it a foot or two, though, or trying to shift it around for leveling, these things do make it a lot easier. They seem to have enough bite that the game won't slide unless you're really slamming it during play, too. I bought the batch mostly for vids, really, since those wheel bases that work so well for pins don't work nearly as well for cabs.

ChadTower · « **Reply #113 on:** March 02, 2006, 10:27:03 am »

Leveled width wise and sloped to 6 degrees using an inclinometer. Put the head back on. Took the shooter housing apart to clean and learned that there is a narrow plastic sleeve in there that badly needs replacing. I don't have any of those so I'll have to either submit an order for a $.60 part that weighs nothing ($5 shipping, joy) or find a local source. There is a local coin-op dealer here that I've never looked to for parts but I'm going to check there. I hear they have a World Poker Tour on the sales floor so I'll check that sucker out too. The stupid part is that their storefront hours are 8-4:30 m-f which means I have to get there at 8am sharp and then not spend much time unless I want to be late for work.

whammoed · « **Reply #114 on:** March 03, 2006, 10:03:32 am »

Keep up the good work Chad. I'm looking forward to a house with a little more room so I can get a pin. So your employer isn't very flexible with your schedule eh? Too bad, seems like a lot of IT type positions people are given some flexibility.

ChadTower · « **Reply #115 on:** March 03, 2006, 11:09:24 am »

I do have flexibility but try not to use it for stuff like going to buy a sixty cent pinball part... which is what I actually did this morning. Went over, picked up 5 shooter sleeves and a bottle of rubber cleaner.

Then played World Poker Tour, Nascar, and Elvis on freeplay for 20 minutes. I almost didn't leave. They had a brand new HOTD4 there that was breathtaking.

SirPeale · « **Reply #116 on:** March 03, 2006, 07:15:06 pm »

Quote from: ChadTower on March 03, 2006, 11:09:24 am

I do have flexibility but try not to use it for stuff like going to buy a sixty cent pinball part... which is what I actually did this morning. Went over, picked up 5 shooter sleeves and a bottle of rubber cleaner.

Yeah? Cool stuff, in'it?

You can do a heck of a lot more than clean rubber with it. Cool Guy uses it for tons of things.

ChadTower · « **Reply #117 on:** March 03, 2006, 08:56:27 pm »

That sleeve made no difference to the shooter. Apparently I need new springs. I hope NECO would carry those, that way I can go back and play WPT and Elvis for another half hour.

ChadTower · « **Reply #118 on:** March 03, 2006, 09:35:46 pm »

Okay... fired this sucker up to play. Absolutely needs all flippers rebuilt. They suck. GREAT snap, 50v snap, but they just need rebuilds. No way around that. Great news that it's fully functional, though.

ChadTower · « **Reply #119 on:** March 03, 2006, 09:53:44 pm »

Yeah, electrically, all looks great. Didn't see any issues. Mechanically... need to rebuild flippers, tweak drop targets, some bulbs are out.

Gotta say I LOVE the POP that the 50v Sys7 gives the playfield. Holy crap that rocks.


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