The Aussie Pinball Arcade
Aussie Pinball Forums => Restorations => Topic started by: dealers choice on December 30, 2013, 12:39:57 AM
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Well ive got what i wanted an em restoration. Ive baught a williams skylab. the cabinet is really poor but the back glass is prob 9.5 out of 10. The playfield is prob 8out of10. game plays but tilts when ball goes down trough(i thibk its just dirty contacts.) I will need advice on this being my first project. should the chimes sound at the atart of a game? Keep in mind there are no coin mechs (free play) the cab is really bad, should i just make a new one? How do i go about making stensils (materials etc) and what is thw right type of paint to use. I thaught id need new legs becauze of rust but after reading posts on ap i. will restore the originals.(thanks guys) ok so really all evlse i need to replace is rubbers and globes. please dont expect a post every week , but i will keep eveeyone updated as much az i can. also two of the red see through things on the pf are lifting. what is the proper adhesive to glue them. back down with?
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More pictures
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Nice restore pickup. Looks in good nick. One side of cabinet looks protected, the other side and front look like they were in a meteorite shower. Should come up real nice.
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nice pickup ^^^
if you haven't been to the the pinball database yet, do so as there is a schematic that you can download and learn a little more of what triggers when etc - like the chime unit
http://www.ipdb.org/machine.cgi?id=2202
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Thanks guys
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Nice looking machine - Keep the updates coming.
Will look very nice with cab redone.
This is how I make up stencils - may help http://pinballaustralia.com/cabrepaint.htm
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Playfield looks to have contact or mylar on it. This is a good start. The playfield therefore looks to be in excellent condition.
The backglass has some fade, but it still looks good.
Cabinet is where the challenge will be. From the looks of it, the paint will blow off if you used an air gun near it. The wood separation needs to be addressed. It is possible to sand the cabinet back and then bog and sand until it looks better, and at the same time check the stability of the cabinet and repair it as you progress.
The raised inserts need to be removed with a hair drier and pushed out, then the edges of the insert and the hole need to be sanded and then you can use Super Glue GEL.
The tilt issue will be one of the tilt switches or the plumb bob is not adjusted properly.
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Good luck with your restoration. That cabinet looks like it will be a challenge. It will interesting to see what you do with it.
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Thanks for the advice Nino. Only the top half of the pf is covered and has a big triangle shape missing on the right side. if its possible to remove it without damage id rather do that and recover the whole pf. Most of the transperancies on the pf have sunk so i will prob remove and raise those as well. ill have to look into the tilt issue as there is no ball in the tilt rail and plum bob isnt connected, also the solenoid on the stepper unit that selects which ball is in play keeps activating but doesnt spin the unit to advance a ball. so i was going to remove the unit and give it a clean as you have demonstrated previously. just baught some materials today for stenciling.
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If you haven't found the fault with the tilting,check the points on the tilt relay push them & watch carefully to see if they are closing as they are supposed to, then very gently adjust with pointy nose pliers,also clean points.......bill
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One thing i keep remembering you guys say about these machines is NO lubricants. stepper units in back box were covered in grease. after a quick clean the machine works fine. I will completely clean these at a later date. also on the match stepper there ars serious pits in the pcb material which will also be repaired.
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Yep.. steppers are the brains of an EM and dictate the logic sequence... if you've cleaned these up and still have a fault then go searching, but steppers are always my first port of call with a non worker
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Ok i removed the (contact or mylar) unsure bbut think it was mylar as it was thicker than what i cover the kids books with. It was about 35 degrees in the shed so i thaught id give it a go very slowly im pretty happy with the results. minimal paint loss where the mylar ended half way down the pf. you will see in one of the pics the shape of the missing mylar mentioned in an earlier post. also the line in one of the pictures from the edge of the mylar was thankfully easily cleaned up and not a wear mark.
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Great to hear the mylar came off OK .. I've never been brave enough to tackle it on any pin I've had
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Well im sorry to say ive been too busy to work on the skylab this week. but while i was welding i knocked up this pf rotissery. hopefully it works. wasnt sure what to use for the rotator . then i found some extra castors and stripped the wheels off.
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Ok while i agree that ranex rustbuster is a great product, i have come to the conclusion that these pin legs are too far gone. I got a quote of $300 to re chrome in the newcastle area, so its either paint them white or get new ones. and the pf rotisserie works a treat. except for the small screws i hat to put underneath the pf. back to work
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Finaly got to strip the playfield . are the nails to hold up the plastics sgtandard on a machine this age ? Also where can i buy new contacts as seen in the second pic?
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Contacts possibly from rtbb or pinball resources from overseas
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Sorry guys. ive unfortunately been very busy. i have made some progress although not as much as i would have liked. ive decided to make a new cabinet. which i have only cut out (nott routed the corners yet) i am doing mitre lock joints which were used on the williams machines. also i have started tracing my stencils. apart from that i have only given the chime box a thorough clean and replaced sleeves. hopefully it wont be this long untill my next update.
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Ok first off to explain my stenciling method. i am trying what millsy sugested and i think that will turn out fine with my past experiance (none)
The pf cleaned up pretty well but ill be making a call tomorrow about getting it touched up properly.. for the next week ive set myself a task of getting all the relays etc. inside the cab cleaned up. some of the relays have melted rubber gromet looking things , can anyone tell me what to use to replace them?
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This is the rubber in question.
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The ply wood that all tbose parts mount up to cleaned up very well,except for under the transformer. all the parts i want cleaned up are now diisasembled and in the tumbler. (Except for the jones plugs Gav) thanks for the tip. ill hopefully post a pic of the finished product soon
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This is the rubber in question.
That's a rubber grommet. You can use the brown grommet on RTBB ;
http://www.rtbb.com.au/catalog/advanced_search_result.php?keywords=grommet&osCsid=b18b556719806aca03e579fbf371315b&x=0&y=0 (http://www.rtbb.com.au/catalog/advanced_search_result.php?keywords=grommet&osCsid=b18b556719806aca03e579fbf371315b&x=0&y=0)
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Thanks for the link Nino,its much easier when you help like that as i wasnt sure what was what. parts arived from Greg (thank you ) Sorry i didnt make my self imposed deadline. (OFF TOPIC) due to family problems im puting the restoration on hold. i will update my progress when things are runing smoother. sorry guys @.@
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Just finished dismantling and cleaning the ball count unit. im very pleased with the end result. All but 2coil sleeves on this machine are still steel so. am replacing all of them as im only doing this once.
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That ball count unit looks amazing how and what did you clean it with.
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Hey plong, I used metho on a toothbrush to clean all of the dust and grime. etc off first. then i used. autosol metal polish with a different toothbrush on the plated parts. third step i use novus no2 on the copper with another toothbrush. it has given me a great result. Whoever owned this machine before me had greased all of the moving parts and caused a few problems. you shouldnt use any lubricants on these at all.
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Lol so much for taking pictures before dismantling. i screwed the mounting brackets on backwards.
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Just picked up on this thread. Great work. Keep the pics coming!!!
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Is there no end for the uses of novas 2. Thanks for the tips dealers choice I am off to get some autosol tomoz. Not actually doing a resto as yet but like to clean up all the steppers on my triple strike
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Dont forget to wash off tha novus with metho or something similar after polishing the copper ( it is a cutting compound remember)
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Great job on the stepper unit. Did you de-soldered the wires? . on steppers i use singer oil on the metal on metal arms and levers bushes etc. only the smallest amount though! . I have 3 Williams EM wreckers here if you need any steppers units , switches ,coils or other parts just ask. Keep up the good work on the game . nice looking layout with space theme .
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Thanks Ralph, I did de solder the unit as it is so much easier to work on. A tip for anyone who doesnt already know this. if your having trouble transfering heat on a soldered connection, get some new solder melted onto your soldering iron before trying to de solder that stubborn connection. you will wonder why you havnt always done this
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oh nice work,
looks like a big job building a cabinet from scratch.
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Hey Rich, cuting out the parts is the easy bit. I still havnt got the mitre lock bit set up right in the router.
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This is the stepper unit i mentioned earlier in the thread (match unit) that is pitted. Thanks to Ralph ive got a replacement on the way as well as a Z29 1250 relay i didnt want to order from the states. also thanks to Daniel for a copy of the schematics. Everyone ekse who has inputted into this thread, thanks as well. ^^^
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This is the stepper unit i mentioned earlier in the thread (match unit) that is pitted. Thanks to Ralph ive got a replacement on the way as well as a Z29 1250 relay i didnt want to order from the states. also thanks to Daniel for a copy of the schematics. Everyone ekse who has inputted into this thread, thanks as well. ^^^
now i know what you mean by the pitting , never seen it like that before, i thought just the copper tracks would be pitted, That must of had a coil looked on for it to be so burnt. hope the replacement got over there okay.
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looking good
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First off a big thankyou to Ralph for the bundle of goodies I received today. (The first pic) all i needed was a relay and match unit part. What I received was a lot more and helped out with a stuffed score reel coil as well. ^^^ So now ive cleaned up the match unit stepper ready to re install. and all of the score reel units are cleaned up as well.
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Pics i couldnt add earlier
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These are the remnants of the lock coil.
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Pics i couldnt add earlier
Only happy to help , I had a feeling you may need score reel coils so i put the extra coils and some switches. Is that the unit i sent you? OMG! i what it back now %.% . Nice job.can't believe the shine on those copper parts..
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Haha ( want it back) i only used the board off your match unit. the rest was cleaned up and awaiting the transplant to arive. ^&(
Thanks Ralph, Im pretty happy with how clean its all turning out.
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Its been to long,but I finally stripped and re laminated some new ply to the side thad been hit by the meteor shower. Ill hopefully spend more time on it soon.
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Looking like a huge effort your putting in to it. I will be worth it in the end. ^^^
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Your not wrong about a huge effort DSB. Once I decide to do something I find it hard to do half a job.I even had another cab cut out but decided to keep it original. I might use the other one for a vp project.
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I got some more time tonight, so I have started sanding the head box (but only the out side) I will tackle the inside another night. You will notice some paint left on but I assure you it is flat and smooth. the chip board had swelled and after sanding with 180 grit I was surprised how well it had smoother out.
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Looking good mate, you're well on the way now, no turning back
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In a srtange way I was thinking as I was sanding. Who were those kids that scratched their initials into this machine? History deleated!!
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I like scratches and dents on an old machine, I know you couldn't leave them as the cabinet was pretty stuffed. Shame. Nice work Dude, EM,s are as addictive as buggery, looking forward to my next one.
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....no turning back
I always have that sinking feeling for a while when I start or am about to start sanding the original artwork....best thing I found was to hit it quick and hard!
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Great thread and congrats on the excellent results.
I'd like to recommend Mr Pinbologist for any b/g restoration. Mitch is a pro and does great work for a reasonable price. Check out this thread on one of my b/gs.
http://aussiepinball.com/index.php?topic=10813.0
Mitch is just up the road, relatively speaking, in Wauchope near Port Macquarie.
Here's a nice tutorial on Williams chimebox repair.
http://www.pinrepair.com/em/index3.htm#chimes
Somehow, they never sound as good as the GTB box.
Looking forward to seeing this one through to completion. I remember Skylab as a fast and fun game and was sited in 3 places around the Blue Mountains when i was there in the mid 70s
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Here's a bgresto backglass with original colour saturation
http://bgresto.com/?p=527
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ahhhh, finally did some more work on the skylab. Sorry its been so long since updates. ive relaminated the front and routed the recess for the coin door.
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and the chipboard at the back of the cab was so swollen, theres no way I could of left it like that. so it was removed and a piece of ply cut to replace it.
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The board that holds the score reels and wiring in the head box has been stripped and sanded.
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All the hard work on that cabinet will be worth it once you get her painted again. Good stuff! ^^^
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Time to make new cab corner supports. Apart from destroying the 2 rear ones when I replaced the back panel, the two front ones went the best. I couldn't find triangular timber to make them, so I sanded down some quad. Just need to recess the leg bolt plates and glue and staple them in.
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Thanks for the link to Mitch's BG restore, I'll pm him and more than likely I'll be making a trip to Waughope.
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Thanks for the link to Mitch's BG restore, I'll pm him and more than likely I'll be making a trip to Waughope.
Have replied to your PM ^^^ ^^^