Vectorbeam Space War restoration

And I wasn't as careful as I should have been. When I was taking the plastic parts off the panel I accidentally put the panel down on my knee and bent over a few of the switches. Had to bend them back into place by hand. I was sure I was going to break one but it seems I got very lucky this time.
That is lucky! They do seem to be fairly robust switches, or at least were robust. Some of mine were almost falling off, so had to hit them with some fresh solder. I love these games, but I swear I hate these Hutton designs. They're a pain when something goes wrong.
 
Laminate delay

I ordered laminate for this game (and for my Solar Quest) 5 weeks ago in mid-June. The first order they sent me the wrong material. Oops.

Second order I though was on track. After I got back from CAX I called Home Depot thinking it would be ready for pick up and discovered Wilson Art had dropped the ball again. Basically nothing had happened at all in the 2 1/2 weeks since my 2nd order. Some confusion about the product pricing which had nothing to do with me.

Friday, Home Depot re-ordered the laminate for me. I'm really hoping the 3rd time is the charm.

I'm learning how optimistic you have to be to start a restoration thread on a restoration that isn't completely finished. You just never know what will happen.
 
Laminate and Side Art

Spent a little longer working on Solar Quest than I planned (link: http://forums.arcade-museum.com/showthread.php?t=383889 ), but now I'm finally getting back to Space War. I cut the slots for the t-molding in the new base, sanded everything with some 120 grit (orbital sander) and started on the laminate. Here's how it looked ready to go:

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Then I cut down a piece of 3' x 8' laminate to about 6 feet and got it ready to apply:

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Once I trimmed off the excess it looked like this:

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It took me a minute to figure out which piece of side art went on which side of the game. Fortunately I had some old photos to consult. The art wanted to roll up from being in a tube for several weeks:

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And here's how it looks now:

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Here's a before and after of one side. Before:

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After:

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It's not a huge difference though I think the side art looks a lot better. The main thing is that all the swollen, smelly wood at the base of the game is gone. Remember it was pretty nasty. I even had a bug crawl out of it when I tried to sand it:

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Once I've finished side 2 and the front you won't be able to detect the repair without a close inspection.
 

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Nice, this bug keeps haunting me every time I see it mentioned, lol. Its morphed into this horribly nasty creature in my mind :-0
 
Capt' another great job, Q: is this the same self-adhesive laminate as you used on the SQ?
i was looking at the wilsonart site and could not find any info on this product, so am wondering how you were able to order it at Home Despot? (in case i want to do the same:)
 
Capt' another great job, Q: is this the same self-adhesive laminate as you used on the SQ?
i was looking at the wilsonart site and could not find any info on this product, so am wondering how you were able to order it at Home Despot? (in case i want to do the same:)

Yes, same stuff. I ordered it all at once. Here's the link: http://www.wilsonart.com/laminate/specialty-laminate/re-cover

I ordered 3' x 8' sheets which they used to list on the site but I don't see that size anymore. Next time I'll probably try ordering 3' x 6' sheets which should bring the price down. That size isn't listed on the web but it's all made to order so they might do it if you ask.

The Re-Cover material (self-adhesive vertical grade laminate) is product code 735.

Black is color: 1595
White is color: 1570 (Note: John from John's arcade uses Wilson Art laminate and I think he prefers a different white called designer white. It's a judgment call.)

You want the matte finish which is code 60. (Unless you want something glossier, but matte is what I'm using.)

Take all these codes to Home Depot in the special order/kitchens area. They can place the order, which usually involves calling Wilson Art, and you'll probably pay in full up front. Takes about two weeks normally.

Also, for a standard size cab you can order a 2'x4' sheet of black for the front of the cab if you need to do that as well. Home Depot actually lists that on its website and you can order it without going in to place a special order.

Good luck!
 
Laminated Side 2

Today I got to laminate side 2 of Space War. Instead of just posting the same pics I did for side 1 I thought I'd try to break down the steps in a little more detail. I know some people haven't used laminate before, especially this type so this will make it more clear how easy it is to use.

Once again I put the game down flat and cleaned off the surface with a microfiber cloth to make sure the surface is free of dust. I cut down the sheet of laminate to 3 feet by 6 feet using a regular box cutter and a metal ruler to keep my edge fairly straight. Then I place the laminate sheet on the game and make sure I have clearance all around because once this is down it's down.

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Once the laminate is in place I lift up one end (being careful the sheet doesn't slide anywhere). At this point I always run my hand lightly over the surface one more time to make sure nothing has gotten under the laminate.

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Then you peel the paper off the adhesive, just like doing side art, and trim the paper as straight as possible.

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Then you just start from the center and smooth the laminate down with your hand. Be careful doing this because if you press down in a spot where there's no cabinet underneath the laminate will crack and it could crack back onto the surface.

Once one end is down just lift the other end and peel back the paper. This is where it really helps if your previous cut was straight. If it wasn't there may be bits of paper that don't want to peel back.

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Keep peeling about a foot at a time and smoothing the laminate down with your hand. Also, it doesn't hurt to keep running your hand over the surface of the game to make sure nothing has gotten under the laminate. Even a tiny bit of wood will create an uneven surface where the laminate won't stick.

Here's the very top stuck down. Total time was about 3-5 minutes.

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Now that the laminate is down it's a good idea to apply some pressure to ensure it is completely attached everywhere. The best tool for this is a j-roller. You can use lots of pressure but again be very careful not to roll over the edge of the cabinet because the laminate will crack:

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Next it's time to trim the excess. Here's the laminate trimmer bit I use. I got this at Lowes. All that gunk on the bit is from cutting side 1 a couple days ago. Before I put it in the trimmer I soaked it in a cup of isopropyl alcohol for a minute and the goop comes right off:

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Trimming is very satisfying but it definitely makes a huge mess:

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After filing off the sharp edges with a metal file, it's done:

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No time to apply the side art tonight so that will have to wait for Saturday.
 

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Made some progress today, starting with the side art:

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There's a shelf on the inside of the game that holds the coin bucket. Mine was sagging, filthy and it looked as if it might have seen some water damage:

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I decided to replace it so I just cut it in half and pulled it out. You can see on the underside it had picked up some water:

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Here's the replacement. BTW, the coin counter shows 56,425 plays:

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Next up is the front panel laminate...
 

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The front laminate is much harder than the sides because you have to trim it to the exact size before it goes down. I measured and cut a piece with the router by clamping it against the straight edge of a spare piece of plywood and buzzing off the excess.

Once I had a perfect fit I started to apply it. That did not go very well. The old laminate on the interior of the side panels peels a tiny bit near the edges and it kept catching the edge of the new laminate.

Once I had the bottom stuck down it was hard to pull the top piece up in order to remove the wax paper and even harder to get it back down. I actually put a tiny crack on the left side but it's not very visible. Here's what it looked like when I finally got it down:

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Next I needed to cut the space for the coin door. I soon realized the wood block at the top was preventing the router from cutting the upper section of the door. I had to pry it up, route the top and then gently tap it back into place.

Once that was over I reinstalled the coin door:

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Tomorrow I need to rebuild the part of the game that holds the control panel. It actually came off in my hand when I was pulling the game out of my garage the other day. Then it's t-molding and I'll start to put it back together.
 

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Control Panel support

I mentioned that, when I was pulling the game out of my garage the other day, part of the control panel mount came off in my hand. Today I rebuilt it. I'm using screws instead of nails. That's the original piece leaning against the game:

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I also used some touch up paint to fill in the inner panels at the bottom where I rebuilt the base. When that was done I added the t-molding (That's my next project in the background):

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The cabinet is about done. I just need to make a new back door. The old one was swollen and warped from water so I cut it up and threw it away. Then I need to start reassembling everything, starting with the power supply and the control panel.
 

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Monitor repair

With the cabinet mostly done and the board off for repairs I spent the last week working on the monitor. Here's what it looked like when I got it:

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I took apart the chassis and removed the board from the frame. As you can see, there was some rust on the metal in a few places so I disassembled it and soaked it in rust remover.

Then I went to work on the board. Every transistor and capacitor has been replaced. Also, all of the larger resistors (anything bigger than 1/2 watt) and the trimpots are new. I took Bill Boucher's advice on substitute parts. If you're trying to rebuild one of these his site in invaluable: http://www.biltronix.com/arcade_electcomp_08.html

I did test many of the parts I removed. Most of the transistors were fine but several of the big resistors were more than 10% above spec (the manual calls for 5% tolerace parts) so I'm glad I replaced them. I also replaced all of the large diodes and both of the TL081 chips have been replaced with sockets added.

In addition I found a few problems created by whoever worked on the board previously. There was a big blob of solder between two connector pins leading to the bottle cap transistors. That may have been what shorted the bad transistor I discovered earlier on. I also found a resistor that had one loose end that was not connected to the board at all. Finally, one of the pins on IC7 was not connected to the trace. Someone had destroyed the pad so I had to use a lead from a spare part to connect it. Any one of those probably could have stopped the monitor from working properly/at all.

Here's the board with almost everything replaced.

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I actually replaced the inline resistors leading to the neck connector after I took this so those plastic shrouds are gone. And again, two of the four resistors were way above spec. I also have replacements for the two DACs and the LF13331 switch but I haven't installed them yet. I want to see if the ones I have are working first because they are pretty expensive.

Here it is all back together. I won't know if it works until I get my repaired board back:

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New Back Door

Didn't get a lot done this weekend but did tackle the back door. As I mentioned earlier, the one I had was so swollen that it was a full inch thick at the bottom and warped. I cut it up.

Space War is an unusual cabinet because it's wider than it is deep. So the back door is pretty large at 29 1/2" wide:

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Had to buy a new piece of plywood (sanded birch). The piece I originally bought for this became the new bottom and base of this game instead. The game isn't perfectly square so it took a while to get the door just right:

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I did two coats of flat black with a light sand in between. Eventually I'll add a lock but for now it's just a screw in the corner. Here's the final product:

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Next up I need to put the front panel back together.
 

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