KISS, my holy grail pin is here!!

[Mr Pinbologist]

Another update:

As mentioned, i still had a few inserts to level.. these inserts i decided to try filling them with acrylic lacquer, but this time i removed them from the pf to do it! Basically i did the same exact thing as with the arrow inserts, ie spray acrylic on to fill and sand, fill and sand etc, until flat. It took about a day and a half to do it while waiting for lacquer to dry so i could sand, but it worked out pretty well. To sand them i placed a sheet of 800 grit wet&dry on a flat surface, sprayed on some Windex, and sanded until the black on the outside edge just started to disappear, then i would clean with Prepsol and respray more acrylic on and let them dry again. i did the several times until they were completely filled and flat. after that i gave them a sand with 1200 grit and finally a polish then installed them.

pics were taken half way thru the process, and you can still see the low spots.

[Mr Pinbologist]

And today despite the shitty rainy weather, i managed to get the rest of the painting done with no major problems  

In these pics i'm redoing the rest of the white sections so it all matches. I didnt bother doing the bits that would be hidden under the wooden guide rails (why bother when it'll never n be seen?!!) When it had dried i sanded it level first with 800 grit wet&dry and Windex then 1200 grit.

the pf is now pretty much done and ready for the mylar, but first i will go over the whole pf and look for any spots i may have missed when doing the touchups.

[Mr Pinbologist]

The mylar is on!!

Even though i had it spotlessly clean, somehow a bit of dust got under in one spot   not happy about that, AND it had to happen in a black section  

But you know what,  i'l tell you what i believe.... SHIT HAPPENS! Its not the first time it has happened and probably wont be the last. Luckily it only happened in one spot, as for the rest i couldnt be happier with how it has turned out...

The wood guide rails have been painted as well, just the top piece needs to be removed and painted, i wanted the side ones done and put back on so the pf wouldnt bend from the weight too much.

EDIT; the dust spot was near the bottom edge on the left hand side, i actually managed to lift the mylar and get the dirt speck out with a scalpel, though you can still see where it was, at least its now stuck down flat in that spot. Plus i burnished it down real hard again with the back of a teaspoon (with a piece of paper between the spoon and the mylar) so its less noticeable now.

[big dog]

It's comming along fast now,it will be ready to play next week the way your going .looking good Mitch

[SPURR]

Mitch, have you noticed that after about 1 week the mylar settles down and all visible marks on the mylar disappears.
This happend to my Terminator 2 I mylared last week. There was a fair few visible marks where I had relifted the mylar to remove some air bubbles as I was sticking it down. I just left it with out trying to remove and now there gone.

[Mr Pinbologist]

Just a little update this time:

1st two pics... I started doing the lamp inserts last night, starting with the lamp socket plate for the KISS letters in the centre of the PF. Just the usual solder the lamp barrel to the base trick, i wasnt sure how this would work considering the size of the metal plate, and getting enough heat into it for the solder to flow, but it worked well, just turned the heat right up on my soldering station and used a large chisel tip. then i soldered each wire directly to the centre conductor pin of each socket.

And a pic of the PF starting to go back together 

[Mr Pinbologist]

And here's my latest toy.. that arrived today  

My new Lyman tumbler, i had been waiting for this to arrive before i started polishing the metal parts, but i started without it, polishing some of the screw heads by hand    Now as i write this, some of the metal parts ( the ones i havent done by hand, and that were already clean) are being polished!!

It came with three bags of tumbler polishing media, im not sure what type of media it is, i'm currently using the walnut shell that David (firepower) sold me (thanks mate)  

 Can anyone tell me what kind of media this stuff is   looks like tiny rocks to me  

[Retropin]

looks like corn

This is all i use and works well. Digging the fragments out of screw heads or inside the chrome acorns is the only downside, but i think youll get this with any media

[tonyt]

Corn as Gav says. Purchased the same tumbler and came with corn cob media, works well especially with Flitz.

[Mr Pinbologist]

Thanks for clearing that up for me guys  i thought that it may have been corn but wasnt sure and wanted to ask.

I'll have to buy some Flitz to use, seeing as i have read a lot of good things about it on AP, i'm trying the tumbler with some walnut shell and Novus 3 as i write this. will go and check how the parts are coming along a bit later.

BTW, i bough the tumbler here  http://www.shooters.com.au    just incase anyone wants to know (or cares) 

[tonyt]

I will send you some Flitz to try Mitch, this way you can compare results.

[Strangeways]

that looks like untreated corncob - which is exactly what you want for normal polishing. You can use walnut shells, but they are really only used for heavy polishing.

Flitz is the only product I would ever use in a tumbler. You can try other products but you would need to double the tumbling time and they will not look nearly as good.

I use a dentist's pick set to remove the media from screws and use a magnet to remove small parts from the tumber.

I will guarantee that your new tumber will be your favorite tool in the garage.

[Bayview]

Where can you buy Flitz from as I am unable to find any??
I emailed the Yanks that make it, but never heard back from them!
Thanks in advance.
Bruce

[FirePower]

I saw Flitz for sale on an online gun shop in Canberra, never bought any but googling "flitz tumbling media :.au" produces

http://www.shooters.com.au/product.asp?pID=83406&cID=6055&c=152850  the same place Mitch bought his tumbler

I use a few caps of turtle car polish into the walnut shells - things came out pretty shiny to me.

Mitch, since you've now got corn cob, walnut shell and flitz how about some back to back tests of the different media and show results with pictures?  I've heard lots of opinions and did a fair bit of web surfing when I was making my tumbler but never got any opinion that I thought was better that testiculation 

[Bayview]

yeah thats funny. I just bought my tumbler from them also. Must have missed the Flitz.
Best go for another look.
Thanks