From: ung@felix.filenet.com (Bill Ung)
Newsgroups: rec.games.pinball
Subject: Re: Protecting silkscreened playfield lightshields
Date: 19 Aug 92 20:09:16 GMT
Reply-To: ung@fritz.filenet.com (Bill Ung)
Organization: FileNet Corp., Costa Mesa, CA

In article <1992Aug17.181926.20929@javelin.sim.es.com> dpettit@javelin.sim.es.com (Daina Pettit) writes:
|In article <19540@fritz.filenet.com> ung@fritz.filenet.com (Bill Ung) writes:
||I just ordered (well, ordered and received) a new set of the silkscreened
||playfield lightshields for my HIGH SPEED game.
||
|Yow, Bill, I've heard horror stories on how much Williams charges for
|replacement plastics sets.  If you don't mind, how much did you pay?

For a (supposedly) full replacement set of plastics, I paid $83.00.  I
have heard that others have paid $50 in years past.  On the othe hand,
I ordered from San Francisco and live near L.A.  The L.A. place wanted
$99.95!!!

|I've never heard anything about preventative substances for plastics.  I've
|been led to believe that some plastics break because they're screwed down
|*too* tight--the ball, or something else, hits them and they can't give
|without breaking, so they do.  If the plastics are just loosely attached
|they can shift just enough to keep from breaking.

Breaking is part of it, thanks for the tips ... I won't screw them down
real tight.  My main objective though was to protect against scratching.
Any ideas as far as that is concerned?

|I get miffed every time
|I have to remove plastics to change rubber rings and find that someone
|screwed the nuts on the posts so tight that the post screw comes out
|instead of the nut.  This is hard on the plastics. 

Yeah, I've tried to remove some screws before and ended up having to
re-seat the post back into the playfield.  Ya know, most of the nuts
on my game are pretty tight too.  Guess I'll go home and loosen them.

|When moving a
|machine it is important to remove the ball(s), or at least move them to the
|plunger trough first.

I remove the balls whenever I life the playfield.  I had a ball drop out
once, even out of the plunger trough, and it made a really loud noise.  It
scared me though, because I thought there was a possibility that it could
take out the backglass.  Even if there isn't, best to keep them stationary
and not flying across the playfield in a vertical drop.

|Heat is also hard on plastics.  Transporting a machine in the daylight even
|when cool outside can warp the plastics.  The sun beats on the plastics
|through the glass like a little greenhouse and gets hot enough to do the
|damage.  One technique to prevent this is to put newspaper *under* the
|glass, or just throw a blanket over the whole thing.  The warping of
|plastics is not serious and can be easily fixed.  An article about a year
|or so ago in the Pinball Trader described how to do this.  It was called
|"Plastics-a-la-Bill".  The idea is to place the plastics print side up on a
|clean cookie sheet in a 200 or 250 degree F. (preheated!) oven until the
|warping starts drooping.  I think this takes around 10 minutes.  Remove the
|plastics and place them in a large book or something similar to hold flat
|until cool.  I've used this technique and have been very pleased.  However,
|I am fearful about what might happen if I left the plastics to cook too
|long.  

I'll hafta try this.  I should have lots of spare "test" plastics as soon
as the new set comes back in.  One or two on the old set are a little
warped.

Bill Ung
  ung@filenet.com
Newsgroups: rec.games.pinball