Gottlieb Cactus Jack's playfield query

[slammer]

A quick question on the playfield of a Cactus Jack's.

It seems to have some type of clear coat, not like a Bally/Williams Diamond coat.

I am just about to remove everything on the playfield, it also has a factory mylar over most of the playfield.

It is quick dirty, and when I used nifty I found a lot of small half moons indented into the playfield.

It is safe to hit it with the Novus 3 with a 3" oribital to clean it up?

Cheers Angelo

[Retropin]

I wouldnt go anywhere near a PF with an orbital - can understand why you would do this, and theoretically, it should be OK. But things do go wrong with power tools and if it happened to you once - its once too many.
 remember - your PF has holes in it for the bulbs etc - these have edges - sharp ones.
So you may find that you wear through the buffer or you could snag on one and at 600rpm or so this could be catastrophy for your pf.

No matter what you do to a pf - my golden rule is that gentle steps are much better than the jack boot.
personally, i wouldnt do it, but thats me - unless i can guarantee that it wont go wrong - i dont do it.
 An extra 3hrs polishing is much better than a potential restore

[Pinball Fixers]

I wouldn't go near the playfield with an Orbital either, far to easy to damage the playfield. I have used small buffers on the playfield, but you still need to be careful.

Probably better to polish it with the Novus by hand, after using Nifti to clean the playfield first.

Nino has written up a thread about how to get rid of the ingrained dirt if it's really bad here: http://aussiepinball.com/index.php?topic=66.0

[Strangeways]

I concur with Gavin and Owen - No power tools near a playfield.

As Owen indicated, the "half moons" are Ball Swirl. You found this under the mylar ?

If possible, post a picture or two, Angelo.

[slammer]

I think that saying an orbital is wrong.

I have a kit which i suppose is a small buffer, like the treasure cove kit that you can put into a electric drill.

I am going to use a right angle air die grinder and back off the pressure so it goes very slow.

I will get some pics up this arvo

Cheers Angelo

[Pinball Fixers]

Using a small buffer will be fine... I think we all thought you meant something like an orbital sander!

Just don't put too much pressure on the playfield as you are buffing, and make sure you wipe up any leftover polish.

[slammer]

I suppose the main question is Novus 3 OK for this playfield?

It is a fairly mild cutter compared to car cutting compounds.

Cheers Angelo

[Retropin]

Once again, id have to say that i have reservations with doing this.

A cutter no matter how mild will cut, add to this the fact that you will be doing it at speed, it would be really easy to cut too far.
Youve got to be really careful withe removing ball swirl - it gets ingrained in the tiny cracks in the PF - the mechanical action of cutting to remove this will take the paint down to the depth that the dirt is - can you see my concerns here?

magic Eraser works by actually "sucking" out dirt - has an extremely high capillary action that will lift dirt and not cut down to dirt as novus 3 will

[Pinball Fixers]

Gavin's reservations are good points... but the majority of the playfield is covered by Mylar, so polishing the Mylared area will not remove any paint.

Still, if this is your first go at it, then take your time and be very careful if you do decide to use a buffer on the playfield.

[Strangeways]

I'll wait for the pictures before further comment on this one.. Very interesting !

[slammer]

Once again, id have to say that i have reservations with doing this.

A cutter no matter how mild will cut, add to this the fact that you will be doing it at speed, it would be really easy to cut too far.
Youve got to be really careful withe removing ball swirl - it gets ingrained in the tiny cracks in the PF - the mechanical action of cutting to remove this will take the paint down to the depth that the dirt is - can you see my concerns here?

magic Eraser works by actually "sucking" out dirt - has an extremely high capillary action that will lift dirt and not cut down to dirt as novus 3 will

Are we talking about using the magic eraser with any other product?

I have used some on the playfield, just dabbed in water and then pinched to make it moist.

It removed most of the half moons, I will post pics soon

I thought  these half moons would be in the clear coat of the playfield, not below them.

There is no sign of any wear on the mylared area, just the other sections

Cheers Angelo




Cheers Angelo

[Retropin]

I use ME with Meths - dissolves grease and dirt. ME then sucks it out,
 But can be used with just water, or water with a touch of detergent etc....is all good.
The action of the ME drawing out dirt to the surface is the real cleaner

[Strangeways]

I never use water near a playfield.

I use isocol or isopropyl alochol. Isocol at the chemist, Isopropyl alcohol at bunnings. This is excellent to use with ME.

[slammer]

http://www.cardomain.com/ride/758664/2

(I could not get the pics to come up this time here)

If you look at the bottom of the page in the link above, you can see the striped playfield, cleaned just using nifty and Magic erasers.

Also you can see what I mean by the half moons, or ball swirl marks.

I have to wait till Monday till I get my Novus 3 back from a mate.

I put all the plastics posts in the dishwasher tonight, and all the small stainless parts went into the tumbler for the next week.

Overall, pretty happy with my first strip to bare bones playfield, only two broken posts thanks to Gottileb using loctite every where!

Cheers Angelo

[Strangeways]

That's ball swirl - and not that bad. Sometimes, you can simply use Novus 2 - especially on Black areas - as it "fills the cracks".