November 12, 2009 - aka Day 8
Start of work
http://gallery.myhomegameroom.com/gallery/proto_cftbl_progress/DSCN1524Now that the parts are clean, I need to address the surface corrosion and contamination that the degreaser would not remove.
Some of these parts are typically pretty nasty. I think the worst ones are just zinc plated steel - and I've had NOS zinc steel brackets in controlled environments go to crap real quick.
Some of the parts are the ball guides, which get a line ground into them by the moving ball, metal on metal contact.
So, how do we clean them? I've used a few methods, some of which work better than others.
The ball guides can have the grooves buffed out of them with green scotch brite pads - which are readily available at the grocery here. I actually get huge ones at the warehouse club and cut them into smaller pieces. Then, I just need some sort of lubricant to 'wet sand' the ball guides. But, admittedly, the green scotch brite pad isn't necessarily coarse enough. I've used 120, followed by 220, then 320 grit wet/dry sandpaper in the past to wet sand them. Then, once they are done, I buff them up with a bit of mothers mag wheel polish.
A mild ball trail ground into this smallish ball guide... progressing from as found to ready to reinstlal.
And some of the 'zinc'd steel' parts that aren't stainless and are a little harder to polish up:
Playfield standoffs are *clean*, just not everywhere yet. Progression..
Nice, clean parts..
