Replace flaking playfield - ideas?

[marietta_ken]

Anyone ever completely replace the surface of a pachinko playfield? I'm noodling ideas b/c I am considering trying to save a "junkyard" arepachi machine that has the field literally flaking off (see pics).

I know it won't be "worth it" from a financial standpoint. Is a potentially interesting challenge, though, to bring this pup back from the dead cosmetically, electronically -- well, pretty much in every way.

So, anyone ever replaced a bad playfield or feel good about a way to do it?

[wibbix]

Considering the damage, I would probably pull all the nails, rails and everything else. Taking lots of pics, of course. I would then crate a template of all the holes.

After that, it's a matter of a complete laminate removal and board prep. If the board is wasted, cut a new one. You need to identify everything on the back, too, as you would probably need to pull *everything*.

I can't imagine the difficulty in removing those rails, tho. I doubt you could replace the backing with them left in...

[who922]

Couldn't pass up the Arepachi!!! I don't blame you. Did you get them to come down in price?

[wrkey]

WOW.. it just hit me. Here's a suggestion from an experience that I have had with an old jukebox. I need to replace a front glass piece on my JukeBox (see my photo album) but the glass had these 'stripes' on it with a piece of celluid behind it. I had the glass remade easy enough but Ihad no idea on how to get the stripes on it. After talking with a friend of ours that has a business printing company, he suggested I contact a local maker of vinyl applicays (sp?).

This company creates vinyl 'stickers' for such things as windows, car wrappers, custom decals, etc. I brought the broken pieces of the old glass (it was in two major pieces) and using that as 'template' they created a vinyl 'decal' that they then stuck to my new piece of glass. This process worked perfectly and I can't tell the difference from the old glass and the new.

So, when I read this post, I got to thinking... I wonder if this process would work in this situation. So, here was I would suggest. First you'll need to remove all the pins and such from the playing cell. Then take the cell to a local car/business/sign graphics place and see if they could recreate the scene in a vinyl decal. It would not even have to be an exact duplicate, just close enough. Once, done you could strip off the old laminate, stick on the vinyl decal, and then put the pins and such back on through the vinyl.

With my juke box repair, the guys at the sign shop took such an interest in the whole thing, they jumped at the chance and it only cost me about $30 and this one repair doubled the value of my jukebox.

The company I used was RedLine Graphics on I-45 north in Houston Texas. Their number is (281-872-5800) and their email is redlinegraphics2003@yahoo.com This group is quite inventive and they might even be able to recreate your design given the dimensions and some good high res photos.

Good luck!

[luckydog]

I would leave the playfield alone for now and work on a good basic cleaning of everything.

then try to get it running properly.

once you have it working, then I would worry about the playfield

[dattia]

Now my thoughts are exactly the opposite. I have never seen a playfield with that much damage to it. I would think it would be impossible to ever get it to work properly with the surface being as cracked and peeling as it is.

Anyway, that would be quite an undertaking whichever route you go...good luck!

[Bigdog]

Ken,

Check out previous threads by Heavyguitarman...around September/October, he bought a vintage machine that had been painted and he stripped the entire thing down to the wood and started back from that point. He removed the nails, and refinished the wood, and even had a new design placed on the face of the machine. It was a cool process, and he took bunches of pictures along the way.

Check out the threads and make contact with him if you have any questions...great guy.

[JMSVERO]

I would have to somewhat agree with Lucky.
Before you spend all the time on the playfield, I would want to know it was going to work when I was done.
Jeff

[marietta_ken]

Yeah, pulling and replacing all those nails is what concerns me most. Thanks for the feedback!
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WHO922 -- ya got me -- busted! Yeah, for some crazy reason (maybe I just like stiff challenges and beating the odds), that crappy machine keeps nagging at me to come to the rescue. I've offered $10, but he took a pass for now. I'd have to drive about 45 min each way to pick it up if he changes his mind. That's about all I can justify putting into it as a potential throw away.

Luckydog -- excellent approach! If I don't sleep this off, and the guy comes to his senses, that's exactly what I'll do.
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wrkey -- That is such an outstanding idea that I'm inspired to us my first ever emoticon!
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Bigdog -- Thanks, I had already looked around for a thread on this topic. Sounds like exactly where I need to look.

[mudfud]

has anyone tried using epoxy resin, like they use to imbed and make table tops with, to cover the pachinko cell?

I was envisioning pouring a whole layer over the background, leaving the nails in place. if the background was too ugly, you could opaque tint the resin, and cover with a whole solid background color.

if might be tricky to feather the resin where the ball enters at the bottom, but using gravity and leveling the machine while the epoxy's drying could work.

there's plenty of room in front of the background to accomodate an 1/8 inch layer.

what do you guys think?