Removing Pop Bumpers: Why so darn difficult?
btrip
Why do they have to use the long flat leads? It is such a pain.
Having to buy a new socket every time you take out the popbumper is
just rediculous. I guess I could try to unsolder them but they're
stapled to the playfield as well... as if the solder wasn't enough to
hold them in place. Great design.
Oh, and another great design while I'm ranting... who's idea was it
over at Bally to solder ALL under the playfield bulb housings to a
wire strip that is stapled 500 times to the bottom of the playfield?
Ingenious... Now if I have to replace a bulb housing I have to turn
the palyfield upside down, suck the solder off, remove some staples,
put in a new one, screw it down, resolder to the stupid strip, and
replace the staples... all for a simple bulb housing. At least I'm
guessing that is the process :P Or what if I want to clean the
inserts? Or blow dry them to get them back level with the playfield?
Sure, I could just bend the bulb housings out of the way, but that
risks breaking them, and then having to replace them.
If anyone has any advice on how to make any of this easier, I'm all
ears.
/rant off
5voltsr...@gmail.com
Just another labor of love we pinheads must face :)
seymour-shabow
> /rant on
>
> Why do they have to use the long flat leads? It is such a pain.
> Having to buy a new socket every time you take out the popbumper is
> stapled to the playfield as well... as if the solder wasn't enough to
> hold them in place. Great design.
Take the staples out, or lift one end. They do and use almost
everything they do in a pinball machine because:
(a) it's cheap
(b) easy to install in a production environment
At least they went to pop bodies you could remove the rod and ring from
WITHOUT taking the body off. The only real part that might need
replacing is the platter that requires the socket to come out. All the
other bits are accessible without removing the bulb that normally need
attention.
>
> Oh, and another great design while I'm ranting... who's idea was it
> over at Bally to solder ALL under the playfield bulb housings to a
> wire strip that is stapled 500 times to the bottom of the playfield?
Again, cheaper to make this way.
> Ingenious... Now if I have to replace a bulb housing I have to turn
> the playfield upside down, suck the solder off, remove some staples,
> put in a new one, screw it down, resolder to the stupid strip, and
> replace the staples... all for a simple bulb housing.
Look at it this way, usually if one is bad there's more you haven't
found yet. When I go completely through a machine I solder every single
one of the sockets 'shut' (so it doesn't turn) and solder the activation
wire to the "tit". It used to take about 15 minutes to do 2, and used a
lot of paste flux, but since then I've found that radioshack sells
crystal flux solder that works great for this and I can do 4 or 5 per 15
minutes. It makes a big difference in the bulbs and is much cheaper
than buying sockets at a buck a pop (the new sockets are cheaply made
also and I don't like them).
> At least I'm
> guessing that is the process :P Or what if I want to clean the
> inserts? Or blow dry them to get them back level with the playfield?
> Sure, I could just bend the bulb housings out of the way, but that
> risks breaking them, and then having to replace them.
If they're that hammered they're going to break when you bend the tang,
they need to be replaced anyway.
>
> If anyone has any advice on how to make any of this easier, I'm all
> ears.
>
Patience.... it's a skill that has a slight learning curve, before long
you'll be doing it like it's nothing.
-scott CARGPB#29
Lloyd Olson
ring, three bolts for the coil bracket, two leads - unsolder and re-solder,
and two staples. Pop bumpers get way over complained. LTG :)
"btrip" <bryo...@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:7b83dffd-15b6-43b0...@m73g2000hsh.googlegroups.com...
Mad-Dog
I think you have forgotten the purpose of making pinball machines.
They were created to work for a year or two, collect lots of quarters,
get thrown in a dumpster or traded in on a new model. The were not
intended to be home consumer products. We made them that and have to
live by that set of rules and love it.
frenchy
>
> (a) it's cheap
> (b) easy to install in a production environment
I.e. it takes less time. It's like cars, for the most part they are
built to be put together quickly and easily, not taken apart. The
less likely something is going to need to be taken apart, the less
they worry about that in the design. You seldom need to take pop
bumpers off the playfield on a routed game, it's only when collectors
came into the picture that it became a pain. : )
Captain Neo
It's because you own bally williams titles. If you owned DE. You
wouldn't have any of those problems as the entire pop bumper assembly
slides right out.
Bryan Kelly
more room to work on the leads. Sounds like more work but it can make
for less time.
Bryan (CARGPB 14)
http://usergallery.myhomegameroom.com/gallery/bspins
Home of the EXECUTIVE Pin Footie http://www.pinfooties.com
seymour-shabow
>
> It's because you own bally williams titles. If you owned DE. You
> wouldn't have any of those problems as the entire pop bumper assembly
> slides right out.
Which still doesn't help if you have to change the platter etc. unless
they use quick disconnects like BALLY did, or STERN did.......
It's actually not that hard to do, I find rebuilding pop bumpers
satisfying in a way - you do have to remove the bracket on the bottom
though.
-scott CARGPB#29
seymour-shabow
>
> It's because you own bally williams titles. If you owned DE. You
> wouldn't have any of those problems as the entire pop bumper assembly
> slides right out.
Oh, also, maybe he has Gottliebs.......
-scott CARGPB#29
btrip
>
> - Show quoted text -
I own a JP and did notice that the bulbs use wires that are connected
to a bank of diodes. A lot easier... but to replace the skirts you
have to unsolder the bulb and take it out, right?
Captain Neo
>
> I own a JP and did notice that the bulbs use wires that are connected
> to a bank of diodes. A lot easier... but to replace the skirts you
> have to unsolder the bulb and take it out, right?
Don't know, havnt' had to take out the ones on my JP yet. :)
frenchy
> /rant on
>
> Why do they have to use the long flat leads? >>
Probably so they would be stiff to ease installation, but would also
bend out in just the right direction to end up where they need to be
(and will stay there) so that they don't short against other parts
like the coil mounting brackets. They are usually very close to other
metal parts.
chuck
I agree. I posted a year or so ago about how much I hated replacing
pop bumper skirts. I was going to post about how cool data east pop
bumper assemblies were. You can pull the whole assembly out by
removing 4 screws. But I removed them and found that a lot of the
mounts were actually broken probably due to the plastic being too
brittle and/or vibration.
pop bumpers suck =)
Ned Ledod
>
> - Show quoted text -
Amen. Ned.................
Ned Ledod
One other thing. Probably frowned on, but I usually solder on a 3 inch
piece of scrap wire to the light socket leads BEFORE I reinstall the
Pop bumper. I have big ole fat hands and it makes it a LOT easier to
solder everything back together. Ned..............
llabrevlis
appeared, and from the manufacturers point of view, the design was
very good, seldom in the first few years of service does much go wrong
with them. However, I agree that they are one of the more unpleasant
fixes that we collectors must do, would have been so much nicer if the
whole assembly was just wired thru a molex.
DG
seymour-shabow
That would be the worst application of a connector in a pinball machine,
there isn't much more than a pop bumper that produces the most vibration
(other than a shaker motor!)
-scott CARGPB#29
Sean Kavanagh
It's funny you mention vibration Scott...isn't that why the socket
leads are stapled down? I thought that was to help stabilize the
socket to cut down on vibration which causes the bulbs to blow
prematurely. But maybe I'm just giving them too much credit...
Sean
seymour-shabow
>
> It's funny you mention vibration Scott...isn't that why the socket
> leads are stapled down? I thought that was to help stabilize the
> socket to cut down on vibration which causes the bulbs to blow
> prematurely. But maybe I'm just giving them too much credit...
>
Maybe - I like what capcom did, there's a cushion around the bulb socket
to dampen vibration and hold the 555 socket upright.
-scott CARGPB#29
llabrevlis
wouldn't make the slightest difference.
DG
btrip
Well, I took them out last night and the staples were a bitch.
What I ended up having to kind of do was first, solder suck the hell
out of them, and then grab the little bit of the bulb lead that was
sticking out behind the staple and just pull up as hard as I could.
Those staples are really in there.
When I got done taking the three of them out and cleaning everything I
was so relieved. I went upstairs for bed and was laying there and
thought, "Shoot, this is a Paragon, I missed one..." *sigh*
Something to look forward to when I get off of work I guess :P
seymour-shabow
yeah, but then we're back to the cheaper/easier to manufacture angle.
Bottom line is they don't need to be taken apart THAT often. This is a
similar situation to the thread a couple months ago about putting
connectors all over the machine on coils, etc. - I'm against that too
and won't rehash the reasons you can look it up if you're interested in
my reasoning.
-scott CARGPB#29
Steve C
drop targets. Second to that is the light bulb "strips" that often need to have
their base soldered once you get them out because they spin so easily. Gottlieb
games are a pain with this strip. not only that but they didn't seem to like
phillips head screws.
stevebo
Steve C
stevebo
On Fri, 04 Apr 2008 07:01:43 -0400, seymour-shabow <seymour...@excite.com>
wrote: