I recently tackled a pinball playfield rotisserie project and these clamps are the perfect compliment. Easier to use than standard C clamps and the plastic non-marring surface makes it a little safer on the playfield surface. You can find more info about the clamps at the Irwin website. The $2 (each) discount is provided via rebate and you can only have 3 items per rebate, per household. So, I bought two pairs and will use the sales receipts and rebate forms with two different addresses. If you like these, don’t wait, last day of the sale is June 28.

I did some research and decided to model my rotisserie after the one found on Ed Cheung’s website. If you’ve never seen his site I recommend taking a look, he has some inspiring work on display. I bought the materials and used lumber I had on hand. The materials cost about $65, pricey, but still cheaper than a store bought PF rotisserie.

I made two mistakes here. First was the length of 2×4′s clamped on the table should have been longer. Second, my table was not sturdy enough to hold the weight and I had to prop up the mechanism. No good. I would have to build a different model for better stability. Not a big deal, just took more time.

I built two A frames and mounted all the hardware. Two scrap pieces of 1×4 made nice support struts on the bottom. I wasn’t going for anything fancy or adjustable, just stable. I’ll just remove the struts when I’m done, easy. I sized the length for the Flight 2000 playfield and mounted it in place with some C clamps. Works great and will make the removal of the remaining hardware a breeze.

Removing Mylar from a playfield with freeze spray

There are a lot of opinions on the best way to remove mylar from a playfield, so I encourage you to do your homework before doing this yourself. Start by searching the RGP Google group archives and perhaps read the tutorials on the marvin3m site. Take your time and have fun.

Read the RGP thread here.

I think the new process is a great idea and hopefully a less costly alternative to silk screened glass reproductions. Knowing a little about silk screening from my Berzerk control panel reproductions, I can only imagine the time and effort required to produce a repro pin glass. The cost certainly reflects this. Being able to produce the same quality effect on a translite could be a fantastic way to repro some backglass art that might otherwise never get done.

Pinball restorations are a worthy cause, let Steve Young or the pin community in general know how you feel. Get involved and help save some games!

I was anxious to open it up and move it into the game room, but I’d need help. I called my friend Bill K and he agreed to come over. We took our time and carefully opened up the box. Pulling out the sealed air foam inserts and cutting away the box until a hand truck could safely be used to move it off the pallet. There’s nothing like the smell of new pinball!

After we had the game safely off the pallet and strapped to the hand truck it was time to move it into the basement. Stair climbers and an extra hand make it easy work, especially when you have an exterior staircase. Double doors and a walk-out basement help too, no messing around here. Once in the basement Bill and I attached the legs and gave it a general once over.

We moved it into the game room next to the LOTR pin. I wasn’t sure if it would stay in this spot, but for now it was the best option. Powered up the game and everything looked good. I was able to play a few games, but only a few.

Every time the ball would shoot up the left orbit, or occasionally when it went through the garage door, a ball would get stuck somewhere under the mini playfield. I had to remove it to see what was going on. Turns out that the garage ramp piece was tightened down too hard. This pushed the ball guide into the path of the ball just a millimeter or two farther than it cared for. The ball stuck in place, as you can see. All I did was loosen up the screws a bit and it seems to play fine now. I also took some scans of the pinball plastics which I’ll post here. Email me if you’d like full size images.

I was excited to have a new pin for our first annual Halloween party, unfortunately the Friday before the Simpson’s Pinball Party started auto launching the balls, firing off the pop bumpers and other assorted craziness. Stern customer service was gone until Monday so the game had to sit quietly during the party Once Monday came I was able to determine it was a bad CPU. I’m waiting for it to arrive any day now, I hope.