# Earthshaker Pinball Restoration: Episode 2

**Source:** Cary Hardy  
**Type:** video  
**Published:** 2024-03-04  
**Duration:** 14m 21s  
**Beat:** Pinball

**URL:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ymvzC7PGViY

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## Analysis

Cary Hardy documents his Earthshaker pinball restoration with time pressure before Texas Pinball Festival. He details playfield repair (t-nut holes, center post), GI wiring installation, pop bumper assembly, board cleaning via ultrasonic, and flipper rebuilds using the Mantis upgrade. The video emphasizes hands-on technical work over documentation due to tight deadlines.

### Key Claims

- [HIGH] The original Earthshaker playfield had t-post center posts, which Cary is restoring to original spec by drilling new holes — _Compared playfield against two reference machines to verify original configuration_
- [MEDIUM] Mantis upgrade piece resolves known issues with the Earthshaker fault mechanism at top of playfield — _Multiple people told Cary the mechanism is a 'problem child' that wears down over time; he's preemptively installing the upgrade_
- [HIGH] New playfield has narrow mounting holes due to clear coating and manufacturing process — _Direct observation during pop bumper mounting screw installation_
- [HIGH] Shortened flipper spring after ultrasonic cleaning because spring became more elastic after cleaning — _Spring wouldn't pull plastic piece back to position after cleaning, so Cary shortened it_

### Notable Quotes

> "I'm merely one drastic mess up away from not being able to bring this game to the show. The pressure is on."
> — **Cary Hardy**, Opening
> _Sets deadline pressure and stakes for the restoration before Texas Pinball Festival_

> "My apologies if this restoration series isn't going to be showing you how I went about doing these certain tasks. I have been just really hyper-focused on just doing the tasks instead of documenting."
> — **Cary Hardy**, Early in video
> _Explains why documentation is secondary to task completion due to time constraints_

> "So that way I'm able to get those in there just a little bit easier. I don't like hammering into a new play field like that."
> — **Cary Hardy**, Pop bumper assembly
> _Shows preference for careful work (widening holes first) over forcing components into new playfields_

> "This is a mech that I have never seen before in my hand because I have I've never taken this machine apart before. But this is the one responsible for the fault at the top of the play field up there. And evidently this is a problem child."
> — **Cary Hardy**, Fault mechanism inspection
> _Identifies Earthshaker fault mechanism as notorious problem area requiring Mantis upgrade_

### Entities

| Name | Type | Context |
|------|------|---------|
| Cary Hardy | person | Pinball restorer documenting Earthshaker restoration for Texas Pinball Festival |
| Texas Pinball Festival | event | Upcoming event where Cary is bringing his restored Earthshaker |
| Earthshaker | game | Classic pinball machine being restored; subject of restoration series |
| Mantis | product | Upgrade piece for Earthshaker fault mechanism known to have durability issues |
| Harbor Freight Central Pneumatic | company | Manufacturer of staple gun and tools used in restoration |

### Topics

- **Primary:** Playfield restoration and repair, GI (general illumination) wiring installation, Flipper rebuild and maintenance, Pop bumper assembly
- **Secondary:** Board cleaning and restoration, Mechanical upgrade (Mantis fault mechanism)

### Sentiment

**Mixed** (0.6) — Cary is stressed about deadline pressure but optimistic about restoration progress. Shows confidence in technical approach while acknowledging challenges (narrow playfield holes, problem-prone fault mechanism, missing parts). Generally positive tone about work quality.

### Signals

- **[event_signal]** Texas Pinball Festival approaching as hard deadline for Earthshaker restoration completion (confidence: high) — Opening statement: 'I'm merely one drastic mess up away from not being able to bring this game to the show. The pressure is on.'
- **[product_strategy]** Mantis upgrade being retrofitted to Earthshaker fault mechanism as preventative measure despite current functionality (confidence: high) — Preemptive installation of known upgrade component to address known durability issues
- **[product_concern]** Earthshaker fault mechanism at top of playfield is known problem area requiring Mantis upgrade to resolve recurring issues (confidence: medium) — Cary states mechanism is 'a problem child' and 'people say that it takes a crap after a certain amount of time' despite his specific machine working fine
- **[technology_signal]** New playfield manufacturing process (clear coating application) creates construction challenges (narrower mounting holes) vs original playfields (confidence: high) — Direct observation: 'new play fields with the clear coating and the process of just building it these holes are usually pretty narrow'

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## Transcript

 We are creeping up on the Texas Pinball Festival. I'm merely one drastic mess up away from not being able to bring this game to the show. The pressure is on. My apologies if this restoration series isn't going to be showing you how I went about doing these certain tasks. I have been just really hyper-focused on just doing the tasks instead of documenting. There is still so much to do and I only have a few days to do it. So I've got two playfields to compare to to verify that this in fact is wrong but there should be a t-nut hole right here but there isn't one on this one it's much smaller than it needs to be so I need to make this bigger all right now my hole for my center post is also supposed to be t-noded but they've got it set as an option so the original game had a t-post I've got two other play deals to compare to I'm going to add the post in between the flippers so therefore I also need to drill a hole for that one as well so that's what we're going to do and I feel like I should matter of fact I'm going to I'm I'm gonna start with a smaller drill first, drill bit first. Man, even then I don't think I can. there we go all right so I've gone through and I've now got all t-nuts in place and I've got all of these particular two prong GI bulbs in place what I need to do now is start utilizing the wire here and getting all my GI lines connected and stapled down using the staple gun pneumatic staple gun that I've got in the garage I think my air compressor is ready to go all right All right so that gets me with all my lamp sockets in position to where they not going to just fall out if I was to move the plate builder or anything. Now it's time to start running my GI line so they've all got continuity to light up. Alright so there's one particular line that I'll have to solder and obviously solder onto the socket as well. I'm gonna pull these and put those over here. Alright so it's just a rinse and repeat of all that and just working my way around. For those that are curious on what I'm using. Good old-fashioned central pneumatic from Harbor Freight. This is the staple gun that I'm using and the staples I'm using are these right here. So take note of that of where and what to get. If I find them on Amazon then I will put links in the description down below. But good cheap staple gun that has yet to fail me but yeah it tells you what the maximum psi to you is basically this thing will not fire unless it has enough psi so you're saying how much psi should I have enough to where it goes into the play field so what we're gonna be doing now is all the soldering work got my soldering iron here I've got a desolder all the actual wire on that one I could just make new wire which I might as well but I figure I can be solder it clean it and then put it on here no big deal and then once I get finished getting all those and all the sovereign done on all the light sockets and I'm gonna check continuity to make sure that we don't have any bowls that are not going to work. all right so what i'm having to do is in order to finish the gi and everything part of the gi and getting things soldered for that is soldering the GI for the pop bumpers. In order to do that I basically have to build the pop bumpers so at least the top portion right here and in order for me to do that I have to get the mounting screws into the plate field and these new plate fields with the clear coating and the process of just building it I these holes are usually pretty narrow and it just really I don like hammering into a new play field like that So what I do is basically just widen these holes a little bit So that way I'm able to get those in there just a little bit easier. Alright, so then you have the three mounting screws that will slide in here. snug but not ridiculously snug and then each of these has wings on the sides that's going to dig into the wood on the top portion anyways now in order to get these to be level with the playfield like I've got on these I use the hardware on this to basically pull that particular bolt through the playfield and become nice and smooth once again I could just tap it in with a hammer and you know in a bit I don't like doing it this works just the same way it's just nice and clean doing it this way so that's what I'm gonna do now you're not gonna get a good visual on this probably but as I tighten it I'm basically pulling the head of that screw into the playfield all right that's nice and smooth so then I'll take that nut off and then I'll go on to the others so got the pop bumpers essentially built up right there but what I need to do now is hopefully the last bit of stapling for a good while and that is going to be stapling down all the GI leads for these pop bumpers and the best method to go about doing this is to tried and true what works. And what do we know that worked? The original play field. So I'm basically going to have this sitting right here. I'm going to bend these accordingly and on top of each other to where they're supposed to be touching. It looks like my power is all going to be coming in right about here as a central location for all three of them. Yep, and then I'll have my grounds going off over here. That's what it looks like. So that's what we're gonna do now. All right. I can just bend these down. We're going to put another staple up here. That's coming a little too far up for my liking. All right. so I going to snip off the excess leads right here because I don need those and then I going to solder and then get the diodes All in place as well We gonna think the Bare bones foundation of underneath the plate field is done got all of the GI wiring all done but even new Labels made for like the tilt switch the slow blow fuse for the solenoids all the GI and everything's good to go for the pop bumpers everything tests good on all of this and I've even got the trademark on there so I think we are ready to start working on the harnesses so get those in the sink or whatever what I'm going to do is basically just throw it into the ultrasonic for a few minutes and then get it out dry it all off and then do a complete reflow and all the connections so I always just do max this is the max for this particular one so throw it in there and let it have at it let's get this out of here it's probably a little warm but yeah it already looks a hell of a lot better than it did now get it all dried off and rinse and repeat on all the other boards oh man things are looking pretty good over here except for how I guess so let's do this one this is a mech that I have never seen before in my hand because I have I've never taken this machine apart before. But this is the one responsible for the fault at the top of the play field up there. And evidently this is a problem child. I've been told by a couple of people now. So I have the Mantis upgrade piece that's supposed to resolve, I guess, any possible issues. I'm guessing it gets worn down after a while or something. I don't know that people say that it takes a crap after a certain amount of time But this one was working just fine no issues, but I'm still gonna replace it obviously But we're gonna get this looking sexy because it looks like it definitely could use it so disassemble And there we have it with the mantis piece installed on there It's all nice and cleaned up mech works like it's supposed to funny thing is is that I had to shorten that spring because after we got cleaned I guess it became a little more elastic and it wasn't allowing this mech to do that because it wasn't pulling on that particular plastic piece back here hard enough to get back in position so I just shortened that spring in order for it to do that all right and I'm missing a spring right here for this particular mic for this buck is supposed to have that spring right there doesn't have one so that explains why I was having issues every once in a while on that buck so I I have got parts on order and that's going to be included with that. But let's get all three of these flippers rebuilt, shall we? I've got all new. I've got a whole flipper rebuild kit going. So let's get these looking all nice and sexy.

_(Acquisition: youtube_groq_whisper, Enrichment: v3)_

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*Exported from Journalist Tool on 2026-04-13 | Item ID: 39f566c5-8560-4916-af7a-43eb53462e56*