Journalist Tool

Kineticist

  • HDashboard
  • IItems
  • ↓Ingest
  • SSources
  • KBeats
  • BBriefs
  • RIntel
  • QSearch
  • NName Review
  • +Health

v0.1.0

← Back to items

How To Clean and Wax Your Pinball Machine Playfield

Cary Hardy·video·21m 49s·analyzed·Sep 1, 2018
View original
Export .md

Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.019

TL;DR

Detailed playfield cleaning and waxing tutorial for pinball machine maintenance.

Summary

Cary Hardy provides a comprehensive guide to cleaning and waxing pinball machine playfields, covering maintenance scheduling, key wear areas (flippers, slingshots, lanes), product recommendations (naphtha, mill wax, Show Car Glaze, Tire Wet), and step-by-step cleaning/waxing techniques using World Cup Soccer as a demonstration machine.

Key Claims

  • Dirt and grime accumulation in high-play areas (flipper area, lanes) will eventually wear through paint to bare wood if not maintained

    high confidence · Speaker directly demonstrates and explains wear patterns on real machines, supported by visible evidence in video

  • Cleaning frequency should be based on visual inspection and play frequency, not a fixed schedule like every 30 days

    high confidence · Explicitly stated by speaker as maintenance philosophy; recommends routine-based rather than calendar-based approach

  • Naphtha is superior for playfield cleaning because it evaporates quickly and doesn't soak into wood or paint

    high confidence · Speaker explains chemical properties and demonstrates its effectiveness on the playfield

  • Magic Eraser can be used with naphtha for deeper cleaning but requires careful pressure control to avoid playfield damage

    high confidence · Speaker warns of potential damage if overused or if too much pressure applied

  • Mill wax specifically designed for pinball playfields can degrade over time if exposed to heat and moisture

    medium confidence · Speaker notes his own wax has become less thick due to garage storage conditions; speculates about degradation

  • Rotating rubber bumpers without removing plastics helps extend rubber longevity by distributing wear

    medium confidence · Speaker describes technique and explains reasoning but doesn't cite external sources

  • Tire Wet black magic spray should only be applied to plastics and non-playfield areas, not directly on play surface

    high confidence · Speaker explicitly warns against playfield application and demonstrates proper technique

  • World Cup Soccer is the dirtiest machine in speaker's collection

    high confidence · Speaker selected it as demonstration subject due to visible dirt accumulation

Notable Quotes

  • “the more and more that you drop over that dirt and grime the further that dirt's going to get dug into the play field with a clear coat or the wood and eventually the paint and then all you see is bare wood”

    Cary Hardy@ 0:53 — Explains the cascading damage mechanism from neglecting playfield maintenance

  • “This is not something that you do every 30 days. It's like basically how often your game is played just by a visual inspection or set up a routine thing.”

    Cary Hardy@ 1:46 — Establishes maintenance philosophy: need-based rather than calendar-based

  • “naphtha is a solvent chemical that dries very quickly guys so this is something that is very good to use because whenever you wipe down your rubbers or your play field it evaporates and goes away”

    Cary Hardy@ 4:37 — Explains technical advantage of chosen cleaning solvent

  • “Do not apply too much pressure and do not overuse it because it does and it will tear away the play field if you use it too much.”

    Cary Hardy@ 9:05 — Safety warning about Magic Eraser technique to prevent playfield damage

  • “I actually move the rubbers without taking off the plastics or anything and stretch them around to kind of give the rubbers a little bit of a rotation if you will and that helps the longevity of your rubbers as well”

    Cary Hardy@ 10:34 — Describes technique for extending rubber bumper lifespan

  • “it basically turns into a hard crusty thing that eventually can start breaking into brittle pieces and it gets all over the plate field and makes a big mess”

Entities

Cary HardypersonWorld Cup SoccergamePinsideorganizationTitancompanyBelieve in MargocompanyMagic EraserproductNaphthaproductMill WaxproductShow Car Glaze

Signals

  • ?

    community_signal: Cary Hardy creating educational how-to content on pinball machine maintenance, recommending community platforms like Pinside for maintenance tracking

    high · Dedicated video tutorial with detailed product recommendations and step-by-step guidance; explicit recommendation of Pinside maintenance logging features

  • ?

    product_strategy: Detailed guidance on playfield protection through waxing as standard maintenance practice to prevent wear damage

    high · Speaker describes wax as 'basically a buffer' protecting playfield surface; demonstrates two-layer application for enhanced protection

  • ?

    product_concern: Observation about Titan rubber product quality and effectiveness with cleaning solvents

    medium · Speaker notes Titan rubbers respond very well to naphtha cleaning but cannot guarantee same performance with other rubber brands

Transcript

youtube_groq_whisper · $0.065

0:00
What's going on guys? So you bought yourself a pinball machine, did you? You've got one. Congratulations! Now it's up to you to maintain that pinball machine. You can't just have a machine and just play it over and over again and expect it to go on forever without having some maintenance. And one of the main things I need to tell you how to do is how to clean and wax your machine.
0:44
Even with a glass on your game, you're going to get dust. You're going to get a bunch of dirt and grime and the ball is going to trail and run that dirt even further across your play field. and eventually the more and more that you drop over that dirt and grime the further that dirt's going to get dug into the play field with a clear coat or the wood and eventually the paint and then all you see is bare wood and it looks like someone has just taken a sander and just sanded on the play field that's why a lot of the older games that you tend to see either on locations or people even own is like around the flipper area especially the lower play field right above the flippers that will be the most worn area for a pinball machine because that is where the ball is consistently stopping and going whenever the flipper hits the ball and that stopping and going of spinning of the ball wears more and more on the play field and eventually wears off the paint to where you're down to the bare wood so i highly recommend that you make your own schedule and routinely set up to where you can clean and wax your machine accordingly to how often you play. This is not something that you do every 30 days. It's like basically how often your game is played just by a visual inspection or set up a routine thing. On pinside.com, if you're not already a Pinside member and own a pinball machine, I highly recommend you do that because even on Pinside, there are ways that you can set up routine and keep track of what you've done to your machine when it comes to maintenance logs. How often you change the rubbers, how often you've done a cleaning, how often you've changed the batteries. It will even notify you whenever you need to change the batteries which I want to say is every 12 months I think is whatever it's set up for. So upon deciding what game I was going to use as the primary subject when it comes to this I had to go through my collection back here and figure out which one I wanted to use and by far the one that looks the dirtiest and would be the best option for this video is I'm going to say World Cup Soccer. So there we go we've dwindled it down to just World Cup Soccer.

Cary Hardy@ 13:08 — Warns of consequences of improper wax application in inaccessible areas

  • “This is something that you're going to do just when your machine needs it. There is no particular day or time to do it. It's whenever you feel that the machine needs it by visual inspection.”

    Cary Hardy@ 20:28 — Reinforces core maintenance philosophy throughout video

    • product
    Tire Wetproduct
    2:42
    So let's pull this baby out and let's get started guys. Okay guys, so here's the play field and I want to go over the main areas and things to look for when you're trying to see if you need to clean your machine. So let's start with the flipper area. These flippers are basically medium grade when it comes to how dirty they can be. This is just casual play. This is not that bad, but this is actually the worst of all my machines right now. So going across, you'll see the next thing to look for are the slingshots. These tend to be a lot of wear area as well. All your other rubbers that go around the play field. We're just going to show you some certain key points. And for this particular machine, you can see the soccer ball could use a little bit of TLC as well. Then you have some of your targets that need to be hit right here around the goalie area there's a lot of traction that gets picked up as well and also one of your main areas is in the middle of your pop bumpers. Most machines have mylar in between that because that is a high traffic area so you shouldn't have to worry too much about the playfield damage but you still need to keep that area clean because that's where a lot of dust will accumulate.
    4:14
    it's difficult to tell in the video but the white area does have a lot of like a brownish and a blackish tint to it is nowhere near as bright as it can be and as it should be so hopefully after this cleaning we'll get it back to where it used to be some of the items that you will be using is naphtha now naphtha is a solvent chemical that dries very quickly guys so this is something that is very good to use because whenever you wipe down your rubbers or your play field it evaporates and goes away there's no worrisome about whether or not it's going to soak into the wood or into the play field or wherever you want to say so it's a really good thing to use because it gets rid of the dirt and grime a lot quickly and it dries so there's no worrisome about it going into your machine. Next up is this mill wax for play fill. This is a particular design for actual pinball machines. Now this wax you can purchase at Believe in Margo. I've had it for years I actually need to use the rest of this because I pretty sure that it may be going bad I don know about it going bad but it not as thick as it used to be and that probably because it been out in the weather in my garage and heat and moisture maybe has gotten to it but it still works and does its job This next product is Show Car Glaze. It's a mirror glaze. It's a really nice polish. Now, this is optional, guys. You don't really need to use this, but I'm going to use it because it gives it an extra little protection, and it makes it shine a little bit more. This is actually an item that you want to use whenever you clear coat your machine or clear coat your play field, but that's for a whole another advanced video on that tire wet black magic i can already hear some of the people spouting out stuff right here so let me go ahead and tell you i'm not putting this on the play field this is actually going to be going on to basically whatever the ball does not touch so this is going to be going on top of the plastics over the plastics around the area but not directly on my play field this product gives everything a nice shiny look it's basically makes everything just look brand new it's really really pleasing to the eye you'll see the finished product and then you have your basic glass cleaner and i've got the glass cleaner actually diluted even further than what how it comes and i'm only going to be using the glass cleaner on like the back glass or trans light rather and the playfield glass itself and of course microfiber towels best thing you can use i'm going to start out by getting this towel folded up and i'm going to use just a little bit of naphtha and then I'm going to just start going around and I'm not even applying that much pressure guys I'm actually just kind of applying just a little bit of pressure but I'm not using that much muscle at all I'm letting the chemical do its job and get away all the dirt and grime that's underneath and on the plate field I'm just going in small circles if I see that there's more dirt and grime in one particular area I'm going to spend a little bit more time in that area if I feel like I've the naphtha has already been evaporated then I'm going to put some more naphtha like I do right here and I'll go right back to where I was and continue going around usually in little bitty circles or back and forth motion and you want to definitely get around the flipper area and do not forget to actually get in any kind of small tight area that you can reach. This is just a basic of basic cleaning guys. I'm not going to go into the depth of disassembling the play field, removing certain portions to get to certain areas. This is just a routine quick thing to do if you want to break down your play field to get even further in the deep i applaud you go right ahead but as of this machine it's not even that dirty so i'm only going to do the basic of basic you want to put a lot of focus around your in lane and your out lanes guys This is where the ball is gonna be traveling the most your ball will be going through the in lane and out lane More than it will be going around your orbits
    8:43
    I mean look at the grime on the in lane right here this is picked up throughout the playfield or even in your trop area and then I'm going to get even closer around the slingshots but that just gets it eats it away now if you want to go even a step further guys you can get a magic eraser and use the naphtha and that's two in one shot but you want to be very careful with the magic eraser do not apply too much pressure and do not overuse it because it does and it will tear away the play field if you use it too much. Do not forget to get under your flippers guys that is also another area that needs to be cleaned. So here's the soccer ball after I gave it a nice little cleaning. I think it looks a lot better but you can even see this has actually been worn into the rubber right here that's been pretty that's pretty deep.
    9:40
    and I got between the pop bumpers over here got that all nice and cleaned up as well and watch how easily this comes off with a little bit of nap the guys the dirt just dis a friggin peers it's amazing these are actually Titan pinball rubbers I can't guarantee you how well it comes off with just regular rubbers because all my machines have tightened on them try it yourself let me know about it just melts that dirt right away with ease I'm not even applying that much pressure it's just like just just comes off I love it something I do with my slingshots guys is after I get finished wiping down the main area I actually move the rubbers without taking off the plastics or anything and stretch them around to kind of give the rubbers a little bit of a rotation if you will and that helps the longevity of your rubbers as well so they're not having the same point supply pressure at all times don forget your post rubbers these are also very important because you gonna be hitting those quite a lot as well And then of course any kind of target And then your orbits guys Don't forget to get both sides of that. I'm going to be getting both sides of mine, obviously. But that's another area where the ball will be making contact. Anything the ball touches needs to be clean.
    11:11
    Especially around your pop bumpers. Around right here, the lips to activate the pop bumpers. You want to get those. And then the wire rails. we'll get every portion of that wall wiped down and then the hard to reach places too the ball and this machine goes through there and one of your most important dirtiest part is the shooter lane and the shooter rod rubber do not forget that now on to the wax now the center of the play field i'm just going to just pour it on there because that's a very big wide open area and then I can just basically pour a little bit of dab on there and I'm going to use a different microfiber towel guys always anytime you're using a different chemical than what you've used before use a different towel so I'll be spreading this around small circular motions all around the entire play field this is something that you don't need to apply pressure to either guys you're basically putting a little protective layer over your play field to keep the ball from eating directly at what the next level is. This is basically a buffer.
    12:21
    So once again I'm going around the basic of basic whatever I can reach without disassembling the play field. I apply the wax directly to the towel before I go into small areas. I'm not going to just be squirting this wax anywhere I think I can reach. I put it directly on the towel and then I apply it via the towel to the plate field. You don't want to accidentally squirt wax somewhere where you can't reach it and then you've got to disassemble things to get to it. Because after a time when the air activates the wax, it basically turns into a hard crusty thing that eventually can start breaking into brittle pieces and it gets all over the plate field and makes a big mess. so whatever wax that you put on the plate field you want to make sure you get it all polished up after you've applied the wax you want to wait about five to ten minutes or whenever you get a nice little hazy look of wax and then using the other portion of the same towel if you want to or you can use a new one and just lightly like feather over the wax guys just to get rid of the haze. I'm not even, I mean, the towel's doing more work than my arm. I'm not applying barely any pressure. I'm just kind of just feathering over the play field and the wax to get it to bring a nice shine.
    13:59
    Anywhere I can reach, I'm going to be feathering over to get the play field nice and shiny again. Now, I'll rotate the towel around also. That's something, if you've ever waxed a car, It's pretty much the same thing you want to do here guys Rotate the towel around so the towel is all nice and dry with no other chemicals on it or other wax To keep giving it a nice clear look getting as far into the in lanes as I can
    14:29
    And at some point right here, I'm gonna be testing to make sure that my play field is nice and slick I'm gonna specifically gonna toss the towel around See how well it slides That's me just barely applying any kind of pushing pressure and it doing its best if I feel like there's any kind of like hold up at all that means I probably missed a little bit of wax so I'm gonna continue to rub it away get it all nice and polished up and I almost forgot the pop bumper area but I remember got that all nice and dry and waxed and polished up as well
    15:10
    on to the optional item to use guys basically i'm just going to put a second layer of wax on the machine once again same way big old glob in the center of the play field where there's nothing that's in the way and then i'll do the same thing i did earlier i'll apply a coat over the entire play field area let it haze over and then i'll feather away again to give it even more of a protection protective layer.
    15:52
    And once again guys, especially since I've already applied one layer of wax, I'm not applying any pressure while I'm doing this. I'm basically just letting the weight of the towel do all the work.
    16:06
    Thank you so just going to go over everything once again just like i did earlier slide the towel around and to make sure it's still all nice and silky smooth.
    17:03
    So here we are guys, going over it just to show you what it looks like after just doing a cleaning and waxing on the play field. Looks all nice and clean. The whites are all nice and bright and shiny again. Now it's time for the tire wet stuff. I've just sprayed a couple of times directly on the towel. Do not spray this on the play field or towards the play field. spray it away from the machine onto the towel so you don't accidentally wax up something you shouldn't i'm applying it to all my plastics guys anything the ball doesn't touch i'm gonna give it a nice little glaze over basically apply a lot of it and then just like did with the play field kind of go over it like right here i'm gonna do the soccer ball just to show you the difference that it makes like holy crap that might be a little bit too shiny uh let's let's tame it down a little bit there I went over it with a towel a dry end of it and gave it gave it a nice shine but not like you know glass that's we don't want that it's too much so like I said just go over everything all the plastics that the ball doesn't normally hit give it a nice little dry portion of the towel over gives everything a nice little glossy look to it and the coin door guys this is something I'd love to get all nice and polished up using the tire wet as well just go over the entire coin door and then BAM nice and shiny and reflective and the light makes it look good and here we are guys finished product The machine looks damn good if I have to say so myself. And then you can do your cabinet guys. Make that cabinet look really good. Now I can't vouch for how well it would do for painted on cabinets but for decals like this gonna do good now for the cleaner for glass cleaner spray directly onto the napkin and just gonna wipe everything down getting the light just right so you make sure you don't have any streaks and then get around the DMD or anywhere else that there's glass but don't spray directly onto the glass guys always spray onto the napkin or whatever you're gonna be using a microfiber towel and let's get this baby all jacked and put back into place
    20:09
    and we are done finished product all right back in its place took maybe an hour I don't know I didn't keep count probably a little slower since I was doing the recording process but other than that this thing is ready to go for another 500 games plus at least Once again guys, this is something that you're going to do just when your machine needs it. There is no particular day or time to do it. It's whenever you feel that the machine needs it by visual inspection. is one of the many ways to keep your machine going for years upon years. And that's going to wrap it up for this video guys. Please subscribe and hit that little bell button that way you get notified of whenever I post new things for you to see. I'm going to be doing all kinds of different things whether it be how to's with repair or diagnostics, like more cleaning videos, discussions or certain things. You never know I might post something that you may need to know about so don't forget to subscribe. Before you go like this video and leave me a comment down there. Do you clean your machine a different way? Is there a better way to go about doing it? Let me know down below. Until next time guys, peace out.