Xenon Pinball - Time to Replace the Playfield

I had seen similar estimates of playfield swap time and thought "No way it will take me that long..."
And then I started on it-
Whew.
Not a task for the impatient!
Oh yeah.

After I get the side rails done, I think I'm going to remove and transfer the various post threaded sockets.

I do have a donor playfield, but it isn't complete. I may get the big stuff installed and then pull my main playfield and transfer the rest.
 
You can see the before on the rails.

Now here is the AFTER.

painted rails.jpg
One coat on the shortest rail (new side, this is the one that is on the inside of the ball shooter lane) and 2 coats now on the others.

Coming along nicely!

One more coat on the short rail, adequate cure time (24 hours) and I'll be drilling / mounting the rails on the playfield.
 
One step forward, two steps back. I looked and had drips on my rails, so I got out the Makita palm sander again, and knocked those down.

And when I did that, I noticed on one rail, I painted the wrong side of the rail. Argh. So I cleaned up the other side with the palm sander.

New light coats of paint are on and drying. I'll try to do another light coat later today, allow a few days for a full cure, and then start installing them.
 
I learned way too much today.

@p1001 - FYI since I know you will be doing something similar.

So again, I pulled the side rails of from the sides and top, cleaned them up, and repainted them. Then got drips, and sanded and repainted them AGAIN.

Then I had this GENIUS idea! I'd put the top rail on the old playfield, clamp it in place, and drill the screw holes. I got a template and checked and the screw holes looked right.

NOPE. They were off by around 1/4 inch.

So I thought I'd pre-drill the holes. I'm drilling from the bottom up, so I figured I'd skip the recommended bit. Yeah, not a good idea. Fortunately, any damage is hidden under the rails, but it's time to buy a bit set. I did drill the holes in the playfield, and then after mounting and getting the top wood in place (because everything keys off of that except the inside ball lane rail) and screwed it into place.

I had to change - I had 2" c-clamps to keep the game on the rotisserie, but the side wood rails wouldn't fit through them, so I grabbed some 4" c-clamps and my wood clamps from my shop, and used those - and it works great.

Once the top wood was in, it was easy to install the two side rails. You don't need to pre-drill the side rails if you use the same ones - they are soft wood. Even underdrilling made them a bit of a weak connection. I'll probably get 1/4" longer screws in the end.

I also got all the flange nuts transferred over. The 6 for the top ball arch - the holes were undersized, so I drilled those out one size under, and then pounded those into place with a dead blow hammer.

Also, for my larger clamps, I used a piece of tire patch material under the metal to protect the playfield.

Now for the painful part - do I take down the game and transfer a known wiring harness, or use the one on the donor playfield which has a number of parts missing, and then just harvest the rest for spare parts down the road?

Pictures or it didn't happen.

First picture - where I ended today.IMG_6520.jpg
Second picture - using the larger clamps and tire patch material, while holding the side rail in place with the wood clamps
Last picture - threaded inserts installed and top wood perimeter rail.IMG_6519.jpg

IMG_6518.jpg
 
I did find one other issue. The ball catcher (which hold the ball until you pull back the shooter) looked a little bent, so I removed it. It polished up nice, but someone had filed out part of the right side (probably because of a bad sleeve in the ball shooter). So I'm going to scrap that part. That's another thing making me thing of taking the in use playfield and transferring everything else.
 
I would say go with known parts to begin with for sure.
If anything misbehaves then you can always fall back on the donor piece.

I'll be following your progress as I'm about to do this with one of my pins!
 
I would say go with known parts to begin with for sure.
If anything misbehaves then you can always fall back on the donor piece.

I'll be following your progress as I'm about to do this with one of my pins!
I was thinking last night about this, and am resigning myself to taking Xenon offline and stripping all the parts I need from it.

There is just too much to do to not do this. I can do some things, and plan to strip off all the components of the old playfield and catalog / bag / store them for future spares. That will leave the ground wire, which I can then remove and apply to the new playfield.

This seems to be the best way to go. Any concerns from anyone?
 
This was going to be my approach but I wasn't sure which was the better route.
It might be a lot easier to use new ground wire. That way you can always go back and look at the old wire. New wire is probably going to solder easier also.

Now that PinRestore.com is OOB i'm not sure where to buy it. Maybe Wirebot:

 
I'll give using the old wire a chance since I have a donor playfield. I'm going to desolder all the parts and bag / tag them. The wire should come off easily using my FR301.

For now, I'm trying to figure out the correct posts to order. I recall Xenon having dark blue transparent posts. They have faded to clear or purple - light purple.

In looking at various restores and the original brochure, they were blue and ribbed. Can anyone confirm from a recent Xenon restore?
 
I found a reference on Pinside from someone who unboxed these back in the day - blue posts.

The best ones (closest height) are from The Pinball Resource or from the pinball wizard, so I'll get those in order.

Marco's were too short by 1/16".

Original height: Unclear, but using my digital micrometer on a few posts, I got 1.16 and 1.17 inches or 1 1/6" tall.
Marco had 1" (0.16 to 0.17" short, or around 1/8" (0.125))
The also had a 1 1/8" or 1.125", which is short 0.05".
PBR and TPW have 1 3/16" posts which would be 1.1875"

So I'll go that way.

I need 33, I'll order 35 and have 2 spares if I have problems
 
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The order for the posts is shipped.

While I wait for that, I was removing screws from the lamp sockets and anything else that was held in except the drop targets. I want to determ that before I remove the screws, I don't want it hanging off the harness.

I can see why people say 80 hours. Even removing the screws took a few hours, now I need to get bags and a marker, and then start desoldering parts, bag and label them.
 
It's been busy.

I managed to de-solder the (looking at the underside of the playfield) left upper part. I had to clean out my Hakko FR-301 - it had a large ball of solder in the catcher after I was done.

Here is a photo of the ground (and power for the top 4 lamps, 2 per side) wires:

IMG_6529.jpg

Plus the posts came in, and they are PERFECT!!!

IMG_6528.jpg

I wonder how long they will stay blue?

So now is the time to finish this, lay the ground wire, and then pull the playfield from the game and start pulling that apart. I'll need to take detailed photos and notes so I know how to attach what when I go to attach it.

Should be a royal pain in the rear!

(Yes, there is a new ball shooter shiny spring in there. I looked at the one from Marco, and it wasn't shiny, so I got a new one from the same place as I got the perfect sized posts. And saved on shipping!)
 
I wonder how long they will stay blue?
Don't worry about that. The originals did the same so it's not like you can do anything worse.
Nice job so far. Don't be overwhelmed. I've seen my friend do 2 playfield swaps, and although it seems impossible at first, it worked out perfectly 100% in the end. I mean with digital cameras and online sites, you have pretty much all you need including forums such as this one or Pinside for any special photos you might require.
 
Don't worry about that. The originals did the same so it's not like you can do anything worse.
Nice job so far. Don't be overwhelmed. I've seen my friend do 2 playfield swaps, and although it seems impossible at first, it worked out perfectly 100% in the end. I mean with digital cameras and online sites, you have pretty much all you need including forums such as this one or Pinside for any special photos you might require.
I have a ton of "short" staples, but none that are as small as the ones that hold the wires in place. They are the standard "arrow" staples.

Is there a special staple I should use, or am I "overthinking" this?

Mine aren't nearly as shiny as the ones on the playfield.
 
I haven't had any recent experience myself lately, there has to be an Arrow brand shorty type that doesn't go to deep. It is your project so you can overthink what you want ;-)
 
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