In Progress 1983 Bally GOLD BALL - Further Adventures in Budget Restoration

[Nedreud]

February 2015

HOMEMADE PLAYFIELD PROTECTOR PT.5

Here's a video of the grand reveal! After 10 days measuring, marking, drilling, routing, cutting, sanding I finally peeled off the protective film from the top:

FYI: Not Safe For Work as I mutter the "F" word a couple of times due to pleasure and surprise! Just turn the sound off

And a bunch of hi-res photos so you can see clearly just how super shiny this stuff is:













I've had a quick fettle and discovered I need to enlarge the holes for screw/bolt posts. I originally used a 3mm bit in a pin vice drill but it's not quite large enough. Lexan can crack if you force screws through it, so need to enlarge them to 4.5mm. Also, a little slack will help with any expansion/contraction. I'm also going to have to drill bigger holes for the mini-posts shown in the above photos. Because they need to be really tight (they have a nut on the underside) they pinch into the Lexan too much and cause puckering, so need to drill a hole that provides total clearance (this is like commercial protectors in that they are cut to fit over and around everything). I'm not doing this for star posts as they're quite wide at the base and distribute the force evenly (also they're not tightened down so much).

Now begins the process of cleaning and replacing all the hardware!

 

[kevlar]

That looks amazing. Well done.

 

[Nedreud]

February 2015
RE-POPULATING THE PLAYFIELD PT.1
After yet more tweaks, making some holes a little larger, making some a lot larger and drilling a few I even missed, it's finally time to start putting everything back on.

I started with the freshly re-sprayed wooden side rails which I fitted without the protector as they needed to have pilot holes drilled for the screws. Although the playfield was originally drilled and countersunk the rails were actually held in place with BIG nasty staples. They sure look good:





I also polished up the little shooter lane plate that sits on the side rail:



I then removed the rails, replaced the Lexan and put the rails back on again. I thought this was a good idea to hold the protector in place, but I started to get areas where it wasn't sitting flat. Much like putting a screen protector on a phone you need to work from the centre outwards to remove all the air bubbles. So, I removed the rails and will leave them till last. I will fit the rest of the hardware by generally starting with those nearest the middle and working towards the edge!

One thing I discovered was that the mini-posts in the middle were causing the Lexan to pucker as they had been cinched so tightly into the wood. To fix this I made the holes large enough to go around the base of the post and then used some small washers to pack out the recess under the mini-post and spread the load better. Ultimately this needs to be fixed properly by filling, re-drilling and fixing the artwork, but that's all for another day:



Then it was time to start cleaning, polishing and re-fitting things. Here's the spinner, bracket and rod before:





And again after a little TLC:



Apron clips (pair of metal bits on the right):



And again after some Dremel love:



4 plastic posts cleaned with Novus #1 and screw heads buffed, again with the Dremel:



I also cleaned and refitted the fourteen #555 GI lamps. So, now I have 4 plastic posts, 4 star posts, 2 mini posts, 2 star rollovers (modified to compensate for protector thickness), spinner mounted on single metal post, 1 apron clip and 14 lamps:



Need a tumbler... getting fed up of polishing small parts by hand!

 

[JT.]

And again after some Dremel love:

What bits do you use on your dremel to polish, and how long does it take to get them from that dull state to the high polish in the pic?

 

[astyy]

Really liking this @Nedreud !!! Now mine is playing, I clocked the hi score last night for the first time with 3 or 4 Gold Balls, the 2 mill indicator stays on and the 6 digit display clocks. With all my displays working now (for once) I'm still resisting the temptation to go 7 digit but think I may set some more conservative settings. Looking forward to comparing setup notes when you get to this stage.

Are the star rollers easy to remove? I noticed mine are a bit grubby around the edges and I might up the cleaning job on it motivated by this.

 

[Nedreud]

What bits do you use on your dremel to polish, and how long does it take to get them from that dull state to the high polish in the pic?

I use 1" felt buffing wheels in the Dremel with either green (medium) or white (fine) steel polishing compound. In this photo is my old cheapo mini-tool but I've now got a proper Dremel 200 Series. If the bits are really grotty I'll do green compound first but all the parts I showed in the post above were done with white. A round-headed screw will take no more than 30 seconds to do, but the screws with 1/4" hex heads are fiddlier. A piece like the apron clip probably took 3-4 minutes and I probably spent 15-20 on the spinner and rod (the bracket needed unbending and internal corners are always difficult to do).



All the parts in the photo above were polished with the Dremel other than the large metal plate on the left. I use the pliers to hold onto parts like the lilttle C-clips and it's even good for cleaning the brown fibre links! As shown, if you're really careful you can do springs. I slide them onto an old large screwdriver so I can get hold of them. Need to be careful as if they get snagged in the felt wheel your spring will get unwound and ruined in the blink of an eye!

 

[Nedreud]

resisting the temptation to go 7 digit

Go for it! It is my understanding that internally the code for GOLD BALL is 7-digit compatible. It is possible that you might need the custom ROMs for this, but I'm pretty sure the originals are like this hence why the customised ROMs inherit this feature. I think a hardware modification is required, but I think it's just 1 extra piece of wire for each display for the extra data.

Are the star rollers easy to remove?

There's a little technique to removing star rollovers. On the underside of the playfield remove one of the screws from the stack switch for the rollover and swing the arms clear of the hole. Pop the screw back in the hole to keep the switch out of the way and so you don't lose it! Then with a fingertip press gently on the white tip of the star that pokes through the centre hole. Whilst maintaining a gentle pressure slowly wiggle your finger around in tiny circles. This slowly opens up the 5 prongs that hold the star in place. After 5 or 6 rotations you should start to feel the point working its way down. If not, press a little harder. Be careful though as the prongs are rather brittle (I was lucky and got to practice this on my junk Paragon playfield, but I still snapped a prong on GB. I think it was already broken as it went with almost no pressure.) Eventually the flared tip will pop through the prongs and the star will fall out. They clean up a treat with Novus #1!

 

[Nedreud]

@astyy, from http://www.pinball4you.ch/okaegi/pro_soft.html (Jim @myPinballs just burnt these onto new ROMs for me):

add 7-digit displays for player 1 - 4 (optional), add version nummber, recalculate checksum
Installation notes (optional):
1) replace the four player 6-digit displays with 7-digit displays
2) Add an additional wire fom A4 (mpu) J1 Pin 7 to every player display pin 12 (don't connect the credit display !)
Installation notes:
1) burn both files on 2732 or 2532 eproms
After power on you will see the version number in the one player display
You can leave the 6 digit displays in place no dip switch is needed, because goldball internally works with 7 digit scoring.

 

[astyy]

I'm glad I asked re: removing the Star rollovers, I'm going to have to study that little @Nedreud technique a few times before going in.

I do like the sounds of the custom ROMs if only for the sound and game feature improvements, I'm not overly worried about clocking the game hi score (that's kind of quirky), for the moment I have my limited pinball funds sights set elsewhere, but Lukes 7-digit product does look excellent and you could flip between the orange originals and Lukes blue ones as a bit of a different look - I still may be tempted before the pre-orders close.

Although, I def have the field service kit ROMs, I'm sure they're not the custom ones as I don't get a version in the display when the machine boots. The other thing I'm not sure of is any modifications needed to the boards to support the different EPROM types, I saw earlier in this thread you went into this in some detail which I'm not up-to-speed with yet.

We can discuss this and Fish paper when we meet on Saturday

 

[Nedreud]

Field service ROMs came from Bally. A real software update from the manufacturer. Only the custom home ROMs from Okaegi show the version number in display 1 at switch on.

The mod required to run EEPROMs is easy to do if you can solder. Look at the MPU and you'll notice a set of points on the board labelled E1 to (I think) E33 with a few odd ones like E16a. You'll see that some are joined together with solid jumper wires. It's these connections that need to be changed to use different size EEPROMs. You can either make the connections permanent if you don't anticipate switching back and forth, or you could do what I did and put header pins on each E-point and then use jumper wires to change the configuration.

 

[Nedreud]

February 2015
RE-POPULATING THE PLAYFIELD PT.2
Not exactly a quantum leap forwards, but I managed to polish all the #8 Post Spacers along with their fixings (part number 02-4435) and get them back on the playfield. I do so like shiny things

Eek! Look at those! They all have corrosion that is particularly bad on one side. Noticed this on other parts too. Thinking about their orientation when fitted I suspect that this game was stored for a long time either on its side or end-up in a cold/damp place (garage?) and moisture has condensated on the underside of each part causing the uneven discolouration.



Nothing to worry about though as a few minutes on each post with the Dremel and felt wheel, followed by a final polish and protective coat of AUTOSOL, and things are looking much better!

Four of the #8 spacer posts sit in between the 1-2-3 spot targets at the top-right of the playfield:





And the other two spacer posts support the spinner:



The fixing posts are at least £2 to buy new and judging by the price of other posts these spacer posts can't be any less than £2 each, so I've just saved around £20-25 on these 6 posts alone!

 

[kevlar]

Wow, those posts look like they've been chromed.

 

[Wiredworm]

Damn Peter, I think I need to invest in a Dremel after seeing all this lovely shiny stuff.

Are the cheapo clones any good or am I better investing the moolah in a proper job?

Great work by the way - you're putting me to shame. I really want to get on with sanding my cab down but the crap weather and dark nights isn't helping much.

 

[astyy]

Agreed they looked beyond being serviceable. Is your real name Peter Dremel

 

[Nedreud]

Thank you everyone, very kind and positive comments. I have to say I'm getting very excited about how this is going to turn out.

As for the Dremel. I got a no-name kit on special for about £15 from Maplins. It's the green one in the photo a few posts back. Came with lots of handy accessories: grinding stones, diamond shapers/engravers, cutting discs, brushes, drill bits, sanding drums, etc. I originally bought it for model railway work and the little cutting discs do an excellent job of slicing track. As it's 12VDC it has a separate transformer but this makes it very light, almost like a big fat marker pen. I still use it for quick light jobs but it just doesn't have the grunt to sustain a job like polishing. At full speed it's also rather noisy.

This is where the Dremel steps in. I've only got the bottom of the range Series 200 but the mains powered motor is much more powerful. Polishing requires a fair amount of pressure and it definitely has the power to keep the speed up. Downsides are it's heavier, bigger and the mains cable is thick and heavy too, which can be annoying.

It seems you can get a Dremel 200 for just £35 on eBay: http://pages.ebay.com/link/?nav=item.view&alt=web&id=180707586463. That seems like a total no brainier to me! All you need to do some polishing is felt wheels and compound, both linked in my other post.

Ooh! Get yourself some white cotton gloves. So cheap on eBay they're disposable like 25 pairs for a fiver. Keep your hands clean and keep oily finger prints off your freshly polished shiny bits!

 

[JT.]

I find the Dremel OK for small items like those posts, but not so good on anything bigger than that (say, like metal brackets) as it tends to leave visible polish marks behind - they are easier to polish with a 150mm polishing wheel on a grinder though. Did you find a way to use the Dremel without leaving marks behind @Nedreud ?

I'm also finding that when polishing to a near mirror finish on larger metal parts, it's hard to get a completely perfect even polished finish on metal that's previously been damaged, e.g. by rust - I'm finding that the area where the rust used to be tends to be slightly discoloured compared to the rest. Nothing major, and in certain light directions you cannot tell, but annoying nonetheless.

 

[Nedreud]

I find the Dremel OK for small items like those posts...

Agree totally! Wouldn't use the Dremel for anything larger. Just use it for screws, bolts, nuts, posts, guide wires, switch leaves and anything else small, e.g., those little metal clips for the apron. You'd be there forever otherwise!

I've also got a 4" Pro-Max Steel & Stainless Steel 9pc Metal Polishing Kit from Metal Polishing Supplies UK. Bargain for a tenner. Turns your drill into a bench grinder. A bench grinder makes a better polishing machine and can easily drive the 6" wheels but I don't have the space so I just clamp my hammer drill into the bench vice.

You're unlikely to get an unblemished mirror finish on metal that has been damaged by rust without some serious re-working. You'd need to start with something like 100 grit and really cut through to fresh, clean metal. Then go up through the grades 300, 600, 1200, 2000, 2500 to start getting a scratchless sheen. Then you can hit it with the buffing wheels (sisal -> colour stitch -> loose fold) and compounds (black => green -> white).

Look closely at those posts above. They're very shiny but they#re still slightly marked/dimpled. I don't mind, this is a restore with original patina. I like that stuff is shiny but still looks and feels original due to patterns from ageing. Ultimate bling would take a lot more effort or simply buying new.

 

[JT.]

It seems what I'm achieving is OK then I'd post pics, but it's impossible to photograph accurately. Do you find that if you get the metal hot - a bracket or something - with the dremel, that also seems to change the metal colour? I'm not sure whether it's heat causing it, or whether the dremel is cutting through a layer of something on the metal surface.

 

[Nedreud]

Depends on the part @JT. Some things are nickel plated, like mini posts, so if you go at them enough you go through the nickel to the copper and eventually down to the steal. It is possible to discolour metal through overheating with polishing. You can burn the wax in the compound which can tarnish the metal. Yes, bits get warm/hot when you buff them but never too hot to handle! Think about chrome exhaust pipes on a motorbike going blue through getting very hot. This discolouration can be removed but it's a total f***er. Bits like brackets are likely to just be plain steel so should polish well but don't expect a mirror shine - it's simply not that kind of steel.

 

[Wiredworm]

I think that's what i've found so far Peter with my limited experience of polishing.

I took the kit I got from Metal Polishing Supplies to the metal back plate in my R&B and it looks a gazillion times nicer now than it did before - it actually has some shine whereas previously it was just a dull grey plate. But yeah, its never going to be a mirror shine as i'm still left with some texture behind.

I'm hoping to get it finished off in the next few weeks (once the weather improves) and when I do i'll post up some pictures.

Really cheesed off today - the weather here yesterday was lovely with clear blue skies and no rain. But we'd booked respite as we had a wedding to go to which meant no time for pinball repair. Get home today and almost immediately it turned overcast and started chucking it down with rain. Sods law I think they call that.

Maybe next week the weather might finally deem to cut me some slack so I can get sanding and polishing outside.

 

[DRD]

Remarkable what this polishing achieves. Hats off

 

[Nedreud]

February 2015
RE-POPULATING THE PLAYFIELD PT.2.1
Can't really call this a major update, hence 2.1, but I spent some time during a phone call meeting with my Dremel and a rollover switch (also did all the wire guides).



The one I polished was the worst of the lot, badly tarnished and a few rust patches. Scrub up a treat though

 

[bleargh45]

Can't really call this a major update, hence 2.1, but I spent some time during a phone call meeting with my Dremel and a rollover switch (also did all the wire guides).

Good grief!

What bit/end/wheel are you using on your Dremel to get into those tight spaces??

 

[Nedreud]

What bit/end/wheel are you using on your Dremel to get into those tight spaces??

Just normal 1" felt buffing wheels like these http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/151325500446. Have to take the wire out of the base but that's all.

 

[bleargh45]

Just normal 1" felt buffing wheels like these Have to take the wire out of the base but that's all.

Good on ya then... I haven't been able to get my wheels quite so tight into all the corners on those when doing that myself.

 

[Nedreud]

It helps to use decent polishing compound too. Probably impossible without it. I mostly use white but this little switch was a little more stubborn so I used green.

 

[Nedreud]

February 2015
RE-POPULATING THE PLAYFIELD PT.3
Another small step on the rebuild road. Grabbed some time yesterday (my birthday, day off work!) and this lunch time to finish off the rollover lanes. Considering that they looked like this when I started:



I'm now very happy that they look like this!









I also worked on the one-way gate, from this:



To this:





And finally this:



The one-way gate was probably the most badly rusted part on the machine. The top has come up pretty good with just a few minor imperfections but the underside it quite badly pitted. It would take a total rework starting from 60 grit to get it perfect. Considering its position at the very top of the table I don't think it's worth the effort at this stage.

So overall, slowly turning back into a pinball machine!

 

[Nedreud]

February 2015
RE-POPULATING THE PLAYFIELD PT.4
More fiddling this afternoon. Worked on removing the bell posts from 2 plastics. Tried the CPR method of drilling one out. ****. Not good. Now I have a semi-fooked post. Don't like that method so went back to what I did on PARAGON which is to wriggle them out. They were better fitted this time so I discovered a 7mm drill bit fits inside perfectly (blunt end first) and used that to get some leverage. All came out a treat. I then squished the ends with pliers.





Refitting was done by re-flaring the rivet-style head with a ball bearing in the vice. Worked a treat. This was the first one I did. For the others I put a hex screwdriver bit inside (blunt end first) to apply pressure from the inside:



All done:





Time to refit on the playfield. This sits in the top-right of the arch. I also added a polished M4 washer on top of each grey plastic spacer because the screw posts really cut into them:



Then it was time to break out the upper plastic and fix in place with brand new white acorn rubber nuts:





Again, very pleased with how this is turning out!

 

[cooldan]

kudos points awarded for the master polisher of pinball info

 

[replicas]

You have to bring this to one of the shows to let everyone drool over how good she looks.