stripping a playfield (underneath) tips?

have recently got around to giving my Tommy a nice cleaning up/restore.

 

i have so far taken the playfield out and have that on a rotisserie. most of the playfield (top side) has been stripped.

 

what i would like to know is what tips has anyone got for stripping the underside of a playfield. should i snip the wires off each assembly and bag them individually? and if i do that, i'm a little worried about how would i know what the wires will be for if there not connected to anything after (unless i mark each one as i dissasemble them).

 

i,m trying to work out the most practical and user friendly way of stripping the underside, so any advice will be a big help.

 

thanks

I try not to strip too much of the underside, can't see a lot of return for the effort. I leave the switches in place and just clean and adjust. I unscrew and remove the lamp sockets on the inserts and just push them to the side to clean the insert. GI, I just leave in place and clean the lamp socket from the top. For the mechanisms I remove the coil from the mech, leave it still wired and just tie it to something to support it. Then the mech can be completely removed, cleaned, tumbled and rebuilt. Like the topside I take heaps of pictures to aid memory and reassembly. The wiring I clean with a damp rag and some nifty cleaner, but I don't remove it. Good luck - maybe post some pics of your progress?

Why do you feel the need to strip underneath the playfield?

 

I generally blow the entire playfield with an air compressor, rebuild all the solenoids, remove and clean any under playfield ramps. Thou lately I have also been re-plating a lot of metal.

 

I the only time I remove everything is when I do a playfield swap.

Why do you feel the need to strip underneath the playfield?

.

 

well i guess i dont "need" to strip it, its just thats it is really really dirty underneath and i thought that was the way it was done to clean up the underneath...:unsure. thats why i asked, am it seems lucky i did.

 

 

i'll start by doing what you guys suggested and just compressor the underside, and any really dirty components - i'll dissasemble them one at a time and clean and replace before i do anything else.

 

any other tips or ideas.... i'm all ears :)

Im in the middle of cleaning up my JD pin and this is what i did for the topside, though it would work for underside also.

 

I take pics of each part as it is being removed. I keep a spreadsheet listing of ecach part taken off and keep numered bags of each part so i know what it came from. I also take an overall pic of the playfield and make it a graph entering coordinates of parts in spreadsheet.

Even with taking pics everytime i take something on a pin apart and put it back together i always seem to have an extra screw/nut/washer or some bit of plastic left over.<_<

Even with taking pics everytime i take something on a pin apart and put it back together i always seem to have an extra screw/nut/washer or some bit of plastic left over.<_<

 

That's what I'm worried about :)

 

I've taken lots of pics of the top and got that covered pretty well, it was just underneath that concerned me with all that wiring.. It's pretty grubby, so I want to give it a quick clean at least so the dirt doesn't come to the top of the playfield over time.

tip; don't strip the underside unless you really have to.

 

A full strip topside is pretty standard sometimes leaving the pop assemblies in place and tweaking out their switches. What i would worry about underside is that everything works 100% assemblies are clean and functioning 100% especially cleaning assemblies like scoops that the ball will come in contact with, cleaning each insert with windex/novus1 and a q-tip which makes a big difference. If you have heaps of dirt on the wiring harness spray some spray n wipe or similar cleaner on a rag to clean it. You could also strip it in sections if you wanted to and clean a quarter at a time, rebuilding before moving onto the next part.

 

If you do go a full strip, take plenty of photos including photos of back-box plugs, remove the playfield from the game, remove all fasteners from the underside before moving everything taking note of what kind of screws go where and more photos. Once you have them all out, you can really get into the harness with hot water and soap, spray it with the hose etc, try to do it on a hot day and blow compressed air through the harness to remove bulk of water then hang it in the sun for a couple of hours. You will find that the harness itself will have a really good "memory" and will sit back in place on the playfield without too much fuss. If you have the harness off the playfield you might want to give the underside of the playfield a light sanding, it makes it look like new. Another tip for doing a full strip would be to do it when you know you have the time/motivation to get the entire job done quickly, dont leave it sitting as a project in a million parts for too long or itll stay that way for a very long time[speaking from experience] :redface

 

Good luck with whatever you choose and post some pics if you can. The main thing is getting it to play 100%, tweaking everything out and... playing it! =)

By the way 1up, what game is it? This probably has some influence on how far you need to go in stripping. DMDs would benefit from more pulling down as more bits are hidden and complex, similar idea with subway ramps, scoops and poppers. An old EM may not need much taking apart to gain access to most areas.

 

Another thing you can do to clean harnesses is cut / remove one cable tie at a time to loosen the wires and clean them, then replace the cable tie and progress along the harness this way without de soldering anything.

Another tip for doing a full strip would be to do it when you know you have the time/motivation to get the entire job done quickly, dont leave it sitting as a project in a million parts for too long or itll stay that way for a very long time[speaking from experience] :redface

 

I agree 100% with this tip, I know how frustrating it is to leave a job half-finished and then not be able to/be bothered to complete the other half! Another tip is to make sure you have lots of space so you can move freely around the machine without having to step over parts, tools etc.

 

Matthew

When I did playboy, because I did it over so long, I unsoldered anything that was in the way or to big like coils, tagets bumpers and labelled the wiring with some masking tape. Plenty of detailed info.

 

A lot of DMD machines have the filthy dirty subway ramps, which from memory Tommy has, that may need quite a bit of wire and parts removal to even get close to removing them. They get so dirty cause no one wants to pull them out for a clean.

 

Lately I take lots of pics, but never used to. It all goes back together one way.

Good luck

lots of photos. when you think you have enough, take some more. photos (along with google) is your friend in anything you dont know inside out :)

thanks for all the advice everyone, i'm going try and clean the underneath without taking too much apart on the underside. i've got the top stripped at the moment and yes i've taken a heap of photo's, and when i finish a section i take more and more just to be safe.

 

this will be my practice run because after this sttng is on my list to be done, and that has lots of sub ramps to clean.....

You guy's left out the bit about have a wiring chart with plug & colour codes. It's very handy when your left with a green wire with blue stripes. :blink: