Need help: Pacman Cabaret

BrodySI-7

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Hey guys, this is my first restoration and I have a few questions. I looked around, but I'm hoping someone can just give me a quick, to the point answer haha...

What do I need to do before I mess with the monitor? I heard that it holds the amperage charge even when unplugged. What do I do to discharge it?

What's the best/ most successful way to strip the wood laminate?

I am sandblasting all the metal pieces in the morning tomorrow, so that should be easy.

What is the best kind of replacement wood laminate, that matches the vintage look?

Any info would be appreciated!

-Brody
 
Hey! I'm doing a Ms Pac CT right now myself.

For the monitor, there are many posts here on how to discharge it safely.

In a nut shell, you take an old screw driver with a wire firmly attached to it. Attached the wire end to the ground on the chassis. Using one hand and not touching the metal on the driver, tstick it under the sucktion cup looking thing on the monitor. It will pop, thus the discharge. Should repeat to be sure. You can also let the montio sit for weeks, not powered up and let the charge bleed off. I would still attempt a manual discharge though.

For the laminante, I seached the net myself and debated on what to do. I still have not decided. Some have bought Formica from Home Depot or Lowes and covered the cab with that. I found a couple of arcade places that have the covering too, but not many.
 
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thanks for the input. I just got everything sandblasted today and ready for paint. I will move on to the cab when I come back from the holiday weekend.

Did you just peel the old laminate off then? or are you putting new stuff over?
 
For my cabinet, I think I might keep whats there. I'm still not sure yet, as its not extremely, bad looking. My Asteroids cabaret is in better shape, but this one still is not bad for being original. Mostly my bottom edges like most CT's are scraped up. I might use some kind of trim to cover it.

Probably need a heat gun to peal your covering off though.
 
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Parts express is the best hope for walnut vinyl, 24" wide without paying an arm and a leg. Not the same as the original thermo fused stuff, but I know people have reparied the cherry colored reunion cocktails with the PE vinyl and looked really good.

Unless you are specifically going to work "IN" your monitor, there is NO need to discharge it. If you want to take it out to work on the cab, it's safest to just leave it alone and dont risk screwing up the discharge if you have no need to say do a cap kit or something else. Like I've seen posted before: Do you crack open your TV set and discharge it in order to move it from the bedroom to living room?
 
Oh yeah, Arcadeshop is where I saw it the other day and could not remember!
 
Thanks everyone, not sure what I'm going with yet, but I will post pictures when it's finished.

Don't these monitors store the amperage? Like the coil or magnet on the back, won't that zap the crap out of you if you touch it when it's holding a charge? I don't discharge my tubeless tv to move it since we are talking a 30 year advance in technology
 
The picture tube itself holds a charge. Several thousand volts, but very, very low current. Unless you plan to repair or work on the monitor, there is no need to discharge it. Simply carrying the monitor around isn't going to expose you to getting shocked. Just don't try to disconnect the anode lead (wire with the suction cup on the back of the tube) without discharging it first or else you're in for a surprise...

Also, getting shocked from a monitor will NOT kill you. (or, at least, it shouldn't. If it does, be sure to send me a note and let me know how it happened.) It will hurt like hell, and you are likely to slam your arm into something and cut it up, but the shock is not lethal. Just something that's best avoided.

-Ian
 
Need help: Pacman Cabaret.

The picture tube itself holds a charge. Several thousand volts, but very, very low current. Unless you plan to repair or work on the monitor, there is no need to discharge it. Simply carrying the monitor around isn't going to expose you to getting shocked. Just don't try to disconnect the anode lead (wire with the suction cup on the back of the tube) without discharging it first or else you're in for a surprise...

Also, getting shocked from a monitor will NOT kill you. (or, at least, it shouldn't. If it does, be sure to send me a note and let me know how it happened.) It will hurt like hell, and you are likely to slam your arm into something and cut it up, but the shock is not lethal. Just something that's best avoided.

-Ian

I would be more interested in knowing how he is going to contact you if he's DEAD than knowing how it happened. :)
 
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