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Complete Centaur - Wreck of a project

AlanJ said:
Underside strip down coming along nicely
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I must say i’m impressed with how the pop bumpers come out as a single unit. A real move forward in technology compared to the barbaric method used in earlier machines , eg Paragon!


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People always winge on about those pop mechs not being ‘williams std’ but I like them to. Data east used that idea to and got **** for it aswell. ‘Too much flex’ nonsense etc
 
Centaur must have been a big earner back in the day. Most playfields are absolutely shredded
 
myPinballs said:
It’s not the electronic design that’s causes a licence fee as much of willians and Bally designs originally came from ic manufacturers own data sheets which are free, but the fact they include single roms with multiple game code on it. Dip switch selectable etc.
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Ah yes that makes sense - so 2120 Bally code will be free! :) mental when you look at it like that.


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DRD said:
Centaur must have been a big earner back in the day. Most playfields are absolutely shredded
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They used to form a queue in Southport. Only had 30 mins at lunch so ended up on Mr and Mrs Pac Man or Lasercue instead.
 
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Today I cleaned bits of metal and plastic. Untrasonic going all day, tumbler full of small metal bits, decided to count what went in before I chucked it all in, so I can make sure I get it all out (need to invest in a sieve!) Find it helpful to do the top and bottom pf parts in separate tumbles.

No pics, its boring stuff.
 
AlanJ said:
My apron is rusty, through to the artwork, any idea who does apron decals for Centaur please?
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Moonraker said:
@new forest pinball ought to be able to tell you about apron decals...
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If I were you Alan I would treat myself to a new one while still available!.....bought these from planetary many times they are fabulous for the money.....but as per postage is not usually good.......here you go!.....

Fill yer boots!....😉

http://www.planetarypinball.com/mm5/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=PPS-P-5871-88
 
new forest pinball said:
If I were you Alan I would treat myself to a new one while still available!.....bought these from planetary many times they are fabulous for the money.....but as per postage is not usually good.......here you go!.....

Fill yer boots!....😉

http://www.planetarypinball.com/mm5/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=PPS-P-5871-88
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Thanks Keith - I will get one towards the end - may need other stuff, as you say shipping is silly. Add Import VAT and it gets crazy!
 
Another day of cleaning parts and stuff.

Question on clearcoating the playfield - would you have the playfield flat or vertical? - Flat = dust can gather, pooling if go too heavy. vertical = runs. I suppose the answer is always to apply thin coats!
 
myPinballs said:
People always winge on about those pop mechs not being ‘williams std’ but I like them to. Data east used that idea to and got **** for it aswell. ‘Too much flex’ nonsense etc
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I expect that Data East simply used the design inherited from the old-time Stern Electronics. Apart from the colours of the plastic frame, the DE bumper seems similar to those on the later Stern games, such as Cheetah or Flight 2000. The parts company Wico offered a very similar 'modular' unit, too.

But then, the earlier Stern games used the bumper from Chicago Coin, which was (depending on your view) the best/worst of both types - it was as per the unchanging 'Williams' type, but was built on a metal mounting plate and protruded through a large hole in the playfield. So service work could consist of unsoldering the coil and lamp socket, and moving the switch aside in order to remove/exchange the whole unit. It even had the rods threaded at both ends, so that it wasn't necessary to discard a ring with one rod damaged
 
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Today more cleaning, tumbling and polishing. and ordering spare parts. got stuff arriving soon from pinball mania and also from europe.

A bit annoyed with myself as i forgot to order a new set of plastics. but i’m a long way off completing, so i’ll do that on a later order. (must remember to get another europe order in before 1st Jan just in case we get another tariff war [emoji23])

I then turned my thoughts to replacing the knackered 7 digit score displays, i need 4 of them. So i thought sod it, I’ll build my own ! Should be fairly easy....... Trying to find a 7 segment display with a comma is the first hurdle!!!!!


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slow going waiting for parts from various suppliers, so i got to stripping the coin door and surround out and the very rusty lock down mech (now in a rust treatment bath)

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gave the coin door some cleaning and light polishing - it was dirty as
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polished all the frame. the hinge again is very rusty, so in the rust away bath overnight

now onto drop target mechs. these gave taken hours to pull apart clean and reassemble with new targets
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The 1-4 drop target has a set of 4 coils used to drop the targets automatically. one of them is burnt out, and the coil sleeve is malformed, so hunt on now for a new coil and sleeve.
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Finally my large sheet of acrylic arrived so i can now use it to make a playfield hole template. (probably overkill but it’s recommended and i’ve bought it now anyway)

tonight i’ll be ordering a load more parts, it’s never ending.........


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There’s something beautiful about a set of recently refurbished drop targets. There are some members that really do stuff right, not just spit and shine (which is fine) but top to toe and my word, they are great to watch.
 
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