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In Progress LW3: First Shop

nibsy

nibsy

Registered
Joined
Feb 7, 2013
Messages
190
Location
Fort William
Well, I'm in the middle of my first shop on my lw3. Never again will I criticise tables with some worn rubbers or bulbs out. Until now I've never appreciated just how much has to come off to change some bulbs and rubbers.
This isn't a log so much as a general chit chat about shopping as I didn't take any before photos, mostly due to the tight space I'm currently working in but I'll take plenty of after.

So how do people organise their shops? I've already had to have 3 orders and have just found another part I'll have to replace sometime but that can wait till I get a bigger order together.

I ordered rubbers in a 3 colour mixed pack from Canada which worked out about half the price of elsewhere and luckily I didn't get stung for import. I ordered tools, bulbs and bumper skirts as one was cracked, now I've found drop down target badly cracked.

So far I've completely stripped the playfield, cleaned all metal bright work using nevrdull which seems to have done a great job and even got rid of small rust spots. Cleaned up the playfield with novus 2, the field is in really good shape but was pretty dirty. Just finished waxing the playfield so it's nice shiny and smooth now. I could only get pop bumper skirts in red so have replaced all three, this turned out to be a bigger job than I expected thanks to cables for lights passing right through the skirt and soldered below so these were attacked with my iron. I was a bit wary of doing this as I haven't done a lot of soldering but it's all done now and looking good.
I've just started to fit bits back on now, replacing rubbers as I go. There's some plastics cracked which I can't find replacements for yet and with the way the cabinet and back box are this is never going to be a minter but it will play well and that's all that matters in the end. I've stayed away from led's as this is always going to be a cheap table with the condition of the cab and I couldn't justify the cost of led's as a proportion of the whole table.

So I've to finish rubbering and replacing the parts on the upper half of the table,clean up the legs then fire her up, do a final bulb, switch and solenoid check then see about enjoying her.
I promise to take some photos when she's finished any hints/tips greatly appreciated but for now it's going well. Cheers.
 
Nice one, and congrats on getting stuck in on your first shop.
Looking forward to seeing the pic's.
 
It will probably be cost prohibitive but does any one know the best place to look for plastics for this? The drain lanes and sling shots are good but the two either side of the table about half way up are in a bad way, thanks.
 
Well done for getting stuck in.
My work so far has usually had me play the machine for a few months, looking for the broken parts. Then assuming I will need to replace coil sleeves and other service parts so buying them all in over a few weeks. Then I start the job and hopefully have most of the spare parts I need or find away to get the bulk of it back together whilst the other parts come in. You can never tell everything that needs replacing just by looking at it but it is really annoying when something is needed or it won't go back together.

Good luck and get some pictures up. :)
 
Ok so I've virtually got this finished. I cleaned up the legs with nevr dull and tin foil which did a really good job of bringing them back, sorted out some connectors in the back box. I had to adjust 1 drop target as even when dropped was still proud of the playfield.
I fired her up this afternoon, no errors or faults showing only a few bulbs still out. The bulbs themselves are fine as are the connectors on the holders so I'll have to trace these back sometime. If I can there's some plastics needing replacing but I'm struggling to find these, a drop target and the drop target stickers need replacing as well.
Even with the rear legs at maximum and forward minimum I can only get the table set to 6 degrees which seems a bit shallow, all the legs seem the same length so I'm not sure what's going on here other than perhaps they're not the original ones.
So time to play this babe a bit whilst I source the few parts I need and trace the bulb faults.
 
Just remembered I also need to find the setting to give an initial shoot again or ball save when starting a new ball as there is non at the moment, I've had a look through the settings and manual but can't find it yet.
Can any one point me in the right direction?
 
Lovely work, that looks very clean and shiny.:cool:

I don't know if this game has a ball save, not all of them do based on time, some are based on getting no points like TAF.

Can you adjust your title for this thread to include the game name as the pictures may help someone place a part in the future. :)
 
nibsy said:
Just remembered I also need to find the setting to give an initial shoot again or ball save when starting a new ball as there is non at the moment, I've had a look through the settings and manual but can't find it yet.
Can any one point me in the right direction?
Click to expand...
Just had a look at the manual but can't see an option for ball saver time.
 
There is no option for ball saver time. On this era Data East the ball save is dependent entirely on a number of switch hits, 3 or 4 usually. The ball save functions until number of switch hits made - you can test this with the glass off. The problem on LW3 is that the skill shot involves hitting that bank of targets, which often results in multiple switch hits immediately and voila the ball save is gone :(


Great work by the way, looks lovely. I love LW3 !
 
No ball save, guess I'll just have to get better or nudge lots if it's draining.

I don't think I can change the thread title now, I tried editing the first post but it didn't give an option to edit the title, poss admin/mod can do this.

Anyone have any suggestions about the angle/legs and where I may be able to get plastics, I'll take photos of the ones I need later but there's about 4 large ones so I could see it being expensive and not really worth it. Thy don't affect play at all.
 
No ball saves forces you to think about the shots that lose the ball quickly, all good for your skills.

I have changed the title and included LW3, now the world can find you thread. ;)
It might just be the leg levellers that need replacing, before you start buying new things, check the length of the legs and the levellers and see if they all match.
I have a piece of wood under the back legs of TAF and CFTBL to protect the floor but it also raises them up a bit.
 
Plastics are hard to find for LW3 unfortunately - just a case of asking on all the forums and hoping someone has the ones you are after.

Yes - I was gonna say check the leg levellers are full length, I have seen shortened ones on some legs.
 
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