Fishtales rescue

[robm]

Well its onto number two of the island haul - for those that haven't read the relevant thread, have a look here http://aussiepinball.com/index.php?topic=9757.msg126624#msg126624

This one will be a fair bit more work than the Addams i did first - this one required a re-decal. But before we get into that, a few before shots...









The playfield is dirty, but really very good - some light surface rust on the habitrails



The first job i started was to check the electronics over for errors. I'm pretty nervous about these machines as they have been stored in a fairly open environment for the last 7 years or so.  The first thing i did was insepct the power lead and 240V line going to the main switch.  Luckily i checked it as one of the main AC lines had been damaged or chewed through



So i installed a new double insulated cable to be safe.  Next step was to check the transformer, so i unplugged everything downstream of it, so power was just going to the tranny - blew the main fuse after a few seconds.  Disconnected the tranny from the main power switch and blew another fuse.  Assumed it was the line filter as the thermistor and varistor looked good with no visible signs of damage - plus the line filter had continuity across active and neutral.  Threw a new line filter in and it fired up no worries with a slight hum from the transformer.

Next, as i am nervous/cautious, i checked every set of output wires from the transformer for correct voltages - everything seemed to be in order. Just push the DMM leads into the female plug and turn the machine on - this way there is no way of slipped or allowing the probes to touch when working with highish AC voltages.




After that, i one by one connected power to each of the boards in the backbox.  Power driver board was sweet, all test points were perfect - 5.02V on the 5V line which i was very surprised with!  The CPU had no acid damage and started up the correct LED sequence which was great.

When i connected the sound board and turned the machine on, i was greeted with a shower of sparks, flames about 2cm long and some smoke!!!!! Turns out the capacitor C28 spewed its guts everywhere, so that board went into the repair pile.  The Display board seemed to be putting out quite high voltages - 152 and 140, i think these should be down around 120 or so, so will investigate that one further unless anyone has any tips??? I connected the DMD for a couple of seconds, and got a full display, but it seemed to be a combination of ribbon cable garble as well as a wavy/hazy look?

So then i pulled all the boards out, the wiring harness and all the bits and bobs from inside the cabinet. Pulled the siderails off and started to peel off the decals



It was great fun just sitting in the shed with the young fella (2.5yr old) as he loved rolling the ball around the ramps and passing me tools




I think i'm training him well as he seems to get the rules of hitting the captive ball, and his aim is pretty spot on!

[ Invalid YouTube link ]

[robm]

Started by fixing up the main cabinet.

First issue was there was a strip of timber at the top that was originally chipboard that had all swollen with moisture (see sitting on top), rippped this out and put a new piece of pine in



The rear of the headbox was all swollen as well, so bashed it out with a hammer and cut a new sheet out for it


There were plenty of chunks missing and parts of the cabinet delaminating, so went through quite a bit of builders bog patching up these holes and also extending the delamination as far as i could so that it didn't happen again in the future.

See this pic for an idea of the stuff i had to fill



This is the first application of bog, prior to sanding - its important to get into this stuff after about 1/2 hour as it sets rock hard and you will have a lot more work of sanding if you leave it too long


Here is a pic of one side of the cabinet with bog in the large holes (rear of cab) and fine filler in the tibmer grain and small scratches



After all that has been done and sanded plenty, i hit it with spray putty - not sure that this is its intended application (more for auto body work), but i think it works OK at filling in all the fine areas that i might have missed with the other applications - the pic below it the headbox with the new back installed


I also decided that the base was too far gone, so bashed it out - a pic of the cab with the first coat of black for the inside



Then it got too hot in the shed, so i decided to grab the playfield and bring it inside the house in airconditioned comfort!

[COLOR="silver"]- - - Updated - - -[/COLOR]

So in terms of the playfield - here are a few unglamourous shots







Basically threw the playfield in my home made rotisserie and started pulling all the bits off.  The only issues i could find were one coil that had its wires clipped off and the only reason it was having problems was that its bracket was a bit bent, making the plunger difficult to move up and down.  Other than that, the rear of the playfield is very very clean.  Rebuilt the flippers, pulled all the light PCBs off and washed them, checked all other mechanical components and linkages etc, and everything seems to be pretty good - although i won't fully know until i power it up and do all the necessary tests.

The backboard of the playfield was absolutely hideous with possum crap and everything all over it - the pins on the small PCB were stuffed.  So a new set of header pins and plenty of scrubbing ahead...





After a bit - it all came up great!


After everything was stripped, i put all the small metal parts in the tumbler for a few days to clean/polish up.

Cleaned all the ramps, plastics and posts etc, then moved onto the fun part, getting into the playfield


So with a mix of shellite, metho, nifty. magic erasers and plenty of rags and elbow grease you can get a very satisfying result



Then i got the treasurecove polishing kit out, and polished it all up





With everything clean, i'm now at the stage of repopulating the playfield.  Easiest way is to go through all the photos i took of pulling it down in reverse order. 

I've started putting LEDs through the machine - if you have a few machines and/or LEDs, its great to organise them by colour and type in this sort of case - heaps better than sifting through ziplock bags all the time!

[Strangeways]

WOW - that's one dirty game, and a huge challenge that you are breezing through. Great to see the kids involved. You are doing the right thing by checking the electrical wiring. That would be my biggest concern due to the game's history. Playfield looks fantastic after cleaning. Maybe all the poop provided a protective covering ?

Video has some very cool background music. Underrated album - "Hollow Years" is a epic song. I often listen to DT while doing long hours.

[goodolddays]

Going great guns so far Rob . Playfield looks great after cleaning .  How many hours so far do you reckon ?

[ktm450]

Coming along nicely, can't believe that pf what a mess

[robm]

Hmm hours are hard to keep track of, i'm doing it fairly slowly so i enjoy it and it doesn't become a chore, but i reckon around 70-90 so far, particularly with testing and doing all the boardwork, plus hours of sanding and bogging

[Blktgr74]

Thanks for posting these threads it's such a valuable resource for us guys that are just starting out

[pinnies4me]

Wow, what a job, and what a great job you are making of it! Real dedication Rob, great to see a game saved that easily have been written off.

[oldskool1969]

  Highly commendable 

[goodolddays]

Hmm hours are hard to keep track of, i'm doing it fairly slowly so i enjoy it and it doesn't become a chore, but i reckon around 70-90 so far, particularly with testing and doing all the boardwork, plus hours of sanding and bogging

Yep, know what you mean re hard to keep track of . My next resto I am going to try and document the hours cause so far I always guess .

I'd bet that the time that really goes in is way more than we guess

[robm]

A fair bit of progress today and yesterday

Got all the playfield back together fully and looking good, hopefully the coloured LEDs i've put in work well as i've tried to match the plastic colour to the LED for the general illumination lights - won't really know until i power it all up



Once that was done, i ventured out of the air conditioning and into the shed.  A bit more time on the sander giving the spray putty a nice smooth finish.  Then i gave a few extra coats of satin black to the inside of the cabinet, plus sprayed all the corners so that when i trim the new decals, there will be black underneath giving a nice edge.  

Then i cut out a new base for the main cabinet - set a guide up by clamping a straight edge down and cut it with the circular saw, then cut out the switch and speaker holes and glued it to the cabinet.

All looks pretty good with the new base and sides all black


I then started to reinstall the cabinet hardware, starting with the earth braid in the headbox.  Doing this stuff is fairly slow, but also good as you can see that the process is getting closer and closer to being able to fire it up for the first time!


Also i've been replacing a few plugs where the old ones are burnt - this is a very common issues, particularly for J120 and J121 which are the two plugs for general illumination.  You can see the old one i've snipped off is well past it and burnt!


Also have spent a lot of time cleaning up the wiring harness (cleaning all the wires with Nifti and rags), painting bolts and bits and pieces ready to install back in the cabinet so everything looks good.

[elkor-alish]

Amazing job.

Hard to believe it's the same machine.
I can't wait to see the finished product.

[Caveoftreasures]

Very talented and lots of hard work. Great to see the young bloke helping.

Let the young fella have the first game and take a photo of him shooting the first ball. Would make a great photo for years to come !

[andtan]

Very impressive Rob!

I am watching your updates with interest as I am pretty much doing the same thing with my WH20 and you are a few steps ahead of me. I too had to replace the headbox back section, and at the moment I am trying to decide if I should buy a drill press to put the vent holes back in or do it free hand

When you replaced the braid, what size staple did you use? I have been looking to get the same size as the originals, which I can find (71 series staples), it's just the actual staple gun that is hard to find at a decent price. Best local one I have found is around $169 + delivery, and none of the major hardware chains seem to carry them.

Look forward to seeing some more updates from you

[robm]

Thanks for the comments

In terms of drilling the vent holes - the best option is a router.

I (stupidly) replaced it with MDF - should have used ply.  Cutting a neat hole in MDF i found quite tricky - a holesaw seemed to push a few chunks out the back side of the MDF, as did a brad spade bit.  I ended up drilling small pilot holes for the tip of the spade bit (32mm - a bit smaller than the standard size) and cut from both sides - i didn't try going from both sides with the holesaw but probably should have.  The holes are OK, but not perfect.

I reused the old earth braid as it was OK,  i couldn't find the original size staples locally, so just got a manual $20 staple gun from bunnings and the staples are probably 10-13mm i think, a bit wider than the earth braid.  It would be nice to have an air stapler as the manual one doesn't get them right in all of the time and i need to tap them a bit with the hammer