"The Black Knight Rises" - Week 1 Progress

While a lot was accomplished in the first week, a sense of satisfaction is not present.  The road seems long from this end of the journey.

For the  non-electrical aspect of the restoration, I've been referring to the excellent "Vid's Guide to Ultimate Playfield Restoration", written by VID1900 about 4 years ago.  This being my first playfield restoration (Modern Firepower was built new), I'm not qualified to give any tips, merely point you in the direction of the information I've been using.

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/vids-guide-to-ultimate-playfield-restoration#post-547712


Day 1 - Saturday:
Though playfield evaluation and parts ordering had begun a few days earlier, I decided to mark Saturday as Project Day 1, since this is where the hands on fun begins.

Troy came over and assisted me in the full disassembly of the playfield.  Every part was tagged and bagged (or boxed).  Plenty of pictures were taken along the way, at various stages of disassembly, to document where various parts should be reinstalled.  We took our time to make sure no mistakes were made.

During disassembly, all the wires were cut off of the lights, switches and solenoids - except for those related to the Magna-Save magnets and solenoids.  We took special care to examine the Magna-Save wiring to reverse engineer the power flow - a task made harder because the flippers had already been forcibly removed and their wires cut free, and the flippers were wired in series with the magnets.  Eventually I came to understand how they were wired from the factory.

With the playfield stripped of parts, it was then cleaned with Naptha, Novus, and Magic Erasers.  This was many hours of back breaking work.

It's a dirty, naked playfield...

Read on for the day by day recap...



Day 2 - Sunday:
Though I was very scared to do it, I followed VID1900's guidance and sanded the lower playfield with 600 grit sandpaper.  I thought for sure I would sand away all the paint, and in a few spots I chipped through, but surprisingly the paint is very durable.  I sanded gently and randomly, trying to keep an eye on the reflections, and sanded until the old clear coat appeared mostly removed.

I also did some painting touch-ups, filling in pits, chips and holes, trying to color match as well as I could.

Took a break during cleaning to test fit the new Alvin G. drop target.  Troy said it looks like Tom Cruise's teeth.  Hmmm....

Day 3 - Monday:
At this point I had begun to realized that I needed to determine how thorough of a restoration I would perform.  Certain steps, like replacing the faded inserts with colorful new jewels, could easily add days to the project.  With less than 4 weeks remaining, I needed to be certain I could finish in time.

So instead of working on the playfield, I created a project plan.  I came up with nearly 100 different tasks, and put a level of effort on each one (i.e. 8 hours for sanding the playfields).  Then I assigned a number of hours per day to each tasks.  Fully mapped out, it appeared that a more aggressive restoration was possible, barely.

The project plan also helped me to realize that parts availability was becoming a big factor.  Though I had already ordered most of the parts, I hadn't ordered things like the new playfield inserts.  For example, not having the replacement inserts available would in turn delay the final paint touch-ups, the clear coating, the curing, the buffing, the reassembly, the wiring, and the testing.  So I had to start ordering parts immediately to keep from having supply related delays.

I also started work on the cabinet design.  Part of the design, the backbox, would have to change from Modern Firepower simply because I was going to use a different LCD monitor.  For Modern Firepower, I used a 32" 1080p TV, and it was gorgeous, but was also too wide to fit through my office door (DOH!).

For The Black Knight Rises, I decided to go down to a 27" monitor, which would let me shrink the backbox just enough to fit through the doorway.

But as long as I was designing the backbox, I decided to redo the entire cabinet design.  When I took Modern Firepower to the Southern Fried Gameroom Expo in 2014, most people didn't even recognize that the pinball machine was special and unique.  The cabinet was too similar to a real pinball cabinet, making it blend in among the sea of pins.

While a classical pinball cabinet design was right for Modern Firepower, now that I understood how the parts assembled together, I was ready to change up the style and make the cabinet as unique as the electronics and software.


Day 4 - Tuesday:
More work on the project plan to address curve balls as they came my way, and add tasks I had missed.

Cabinet design continued.  Also lots more parts ordering.  And I went shopping for cabinet wood.

Walnut... nice.

I wanted the cabinet to look distinct, while at the same time cutting out weight. Ignore the reflection... doh!

Day 5 - Wednesday:  
Cabinet design finished.  I didn't go quite as aggressive in the design as I initially planned, as I feared making it too small for all the parts to fit inside.  It will still look special and unique, though, so I'm satisfied with the new design.  Also worked some more on the playfield, and spent lots of time reading VID1900's guide to make sure I was doing the restoration right.


Day 6 - Thursday:
I got brave again, and followed VID1900's advice to remove the Mylars from the playfield.  There were 3 Mylars installed:  in front of both kickers, and around the pop bumper.  The kicker Mylars came up clean and easy with heat, but the bigger pop bumper Mylar took a little paint with it.  Removing the adhesive was achieved with several applications of wheat flour and 91% isopryl alcohol, followed by vigorous finger rubbing.

I also began the backbox design.  The backbox is harder to design than the cabinet, as it requires tight tolerances and careful measurements to get an LCD (and buttons), a DMD, speakers, and various hinges all properly aligned.


Day 7 - Friday:
I completed the backbox design, and double-checked all my measurements for both the cabinet and backbox in my cad software.  As parts started arriving, I had to make a few design changes to allow for the different sizes of parts versus what I purchased for Modern Firepower.  The DMD was a new model with different dimensions, and I went with a different brand coin door with slightly different dimensions.

I sanded the upper playfield, and the areas previously covered by the Mylar.

The three drop targets that came with the playfield were in rough shape, and the bottom mounted leaf switches were toast.  Direct replacement switches were not available, and I really didn't like that solution anyway, as the switches were the lowest item on the playfield and easy to damage.

My new micro-switches arrived from Marco Specialties, so I set about designing a way to mount them to the drop targets, and 3D printed the mount.  My careful measurements paid off, as the very first version worked perfectly.

Printing the new micro-switch mounting plate for the drop targets.  Wish I had a 3D printer years ago, I love this thing!

The playfield inserts arrived from Pinball Life, and after making sure I had all the right colors and sizes, I removed the old inserts from the playfield with a heat gun.  I also Dremeled out the old glue from the insert holes using a deburring bit.

Out with the old, and in(sert) with the new.

Week 1 Complete - 3 Weeks Remaining:
So at the end of the first week, the playfield was stripped, cleaned, sanded, and the inserts removed.  Going into week 2, the new inserts would be installed, the paint would be further touched up especially around the new inserts, and the playfield would be clear coated.

Also, with the cabinet and backbox designs complete, it is time to start cutting wood.  I'm looking forward to Troy coming over on Saturday to lend a hand or two.

All the various assemblies and parts that came off the playfield need to be cleaned and reconditioned, especially the drop targets and switches.

Finally, I plan to bake up a new batch of my circuit boards. I need some Red, Green and Blue versions of my pinball LEDs, and I've yet to assemble the new version of my IO Controller.  I figure it will take 2 or 3 days to hand assemble and bake them.  As the playfield will need 3 days to cure after clear coating, I've tried to stage these tasks to occur during this down time.

Week 2 promises to be a busy week.