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A Mother of Days

BlahCade Pinball Podcast·podcast_episode·41m 43s·analyzed·May 19, 2017
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claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.031

TL;DR

Blockade ep 99: personal stories, tournament prep, and detailed playfield restoration techniques.

Summary

In this episode of the Blockade Podcast (episode 99 of 100), hosts Chris Frebus (Shut Your Trap) and Jared Morgan discuss a car accident Jared had on Mother's Day, various pinball restoration projects underway, upcoming local tournament play in Brisbane, and strategies for specific tournament games. The bulk of the episode focuses on Jared's detailed restoration work on a pinball machine, including custom acrylic plastic pieces, playfield waxing, new rubber installation, and cosmetic upgrades.

Key Claims

  • The Netherworld Brisbane Pinball Club tournament will feature Stellar Wars, Batman '66, Tales from the Crypt, Metallica, Creature from the Black Lagoon, Twilight Zone, Spider-Man Vault Edition, and The Walking Dead Premium.

    high confidence · Jared lists the specific tournament games selected for tonight's meetup.

  • Fresh rubber and a freshly waxed playfield dramatically change ball behavior and can negatively impact initial scores due to unpredictable physics.

    high confidence · Chris notes that Jared's scores initially dropped after installing new rubber and wax, taking ~20 games to adjust.

  • Big Daddy Entertainment (BigDaddyEntertainment.com) sells pinball electronics parts organized by manufacturer and board type, with connector kits priced between $8-$18.

    high confidence · Jared references this vendor as a resource for replacement connectors and recommends it for System 11 components.

  • Tournament play at the Netherworld Brisbane club starts at 4 PM, with Jared typically arriving around 5 PM to practice on non-tournament games beforehand.

    high confidence · Jared explains his pre-tournament warm-up strategy to avoid jinxing himself.

  • Metallica has inline drop targets similar to those on Eight Ball Deluxe, positioned potentially in comparable locations on the playfield.

    medium confidence · Chris speculates about Metallica's drop target positioning relative to Eight Ball Deluxe after Jared mentions difficulty with inline targets.

Notable Quotes

  • “99 Blockades of pinball on the wall. 99 Blockades of pinball.”

    Chris Frebus (Shut Your Trap) @ Opening segment — Marks the penultimate episode before the podcast reaches episode 100 milestone.

  • “I was doing like death metal screams, basically, at me running into the pole.”

    Jared Morgan @ Mother's Day car accident segment — Colorful description of emotional reaction to backing into a light pole; sets comedic tone for the episode.

  • “Making pinball machines is hard, honestly.”

    Chris Frebus @ Industry news segment — Casual observation about manufacturing delays and production challenges affecting new pinball releases.

  • “You think you're in it all. You might call it tightening up.”

    Chris Frebus @ Tournament gameplay discussion — Describes the common tournament psychology phenomenon of losing composure and consistency under competitive pressure.

  • “Between the rubber and the waxing on the playfield, I have no clue where the ball is going half the time. It's physics at its best.”

    Jared Morgan @ Restoration work discussion — Illustrates the unexpected complications of upgrading playfield conditions on vintage machines.

  • “Imagine trying to program that. That would just be so difficult. You would have to pretty much randomize everything. You'd have to actually put a friction component in.”

    Chris Frebus @ Ball physics discussion — Highlights the complexity of simulating realistic pinball physics in digital versions.

  • “I replaced the machine screws...but the wood screws, I wound up keeping the same. But all I did was I just took a Dremel to the tops of them and shined them up that way.”

    Jared Morgan @ Cosmetic upgrades segment — Details Jared's approach to cosmetic improvements on a budget-conscious restoration.

  • “So he can use that and create stencils, and we'll use those to paint. That'll be better than doing the water slide decals, I believe.”

Entities

Chris FrebuspersonJared MorganpersonBlockade PodcastorganizationWizard AmusementcompanyNetherworld Brisbane Pinball CluborganizationBig Daddy EntertainmentcompanyFirepowergameEight Ball Deluxegame

Signals

  • ?

    community_signal: Pinside forum thread on 'nightmarish fixes' encouraging users to share problematic repairs and restoration solutions, fostering community knowledge-sharing.

    medium · Jared posted his Twilight Zone fix to Pinside thread, waiting for community feedback on repair quality.

  • ?

    event_signal: Netherworld Brisbane Pinball Club tournament with 8-game lineup including competitive titles like Metallica, Twilight Zone, and Creature from the Black Lagoon.

    high · Jared details specific tournament games selected and pre-tournament strategy of arriving early to warm up on non-tournament games.

  • ?

    competitive_signal: Metallica tournament strategy revolves around hitting Sparky target early for multiball, then stacking multiballs for high scores; Tales from the Crypt demands precise ramp shot execution.

    medium · Chris explains Metallica meta: 'nail Sparky, get Sparky going...safe-ish. Hit him enough times to get that multiball going. Once you get the multiball going, then it's go for everything else. Yeah, because you can stack multiballs.'

  • ?

    design_philosophy: Creature from the Black Lagoon and Shadow criticized as punishing/brutal tournament games; community resistance to Shadow as standby table due to difficult flipper spacing and ramp proximity.

    medium · Jared: 'I'm already not wanting to even contemplate playing that one' (Creature); Chris: 'We don't want that as the backup table exactly' (Shadow); hosts note Shadow's flippers 'miles apart' and ricochet issues.

  • $

    market_signal: Multiple pinball production projects in progress (Dialed In, Batman '66, Alien, Big Lebowski) with ongoing delays and manufacturing challenges.

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.125

0:00
this is a blockade podcast with your hosts chris and jared wizard amusement.com the site to visit for custom pinball shooter rods easy to install totally unique mention blockade podcast for 10 off your order wizard amusement.com sales restoration customization
0:30
You are listening to the penultimate episode of the Blockade Podcast. That's right. After this, we will have crossed the magic 100. But this isn't it. It's 99 blockades of pinball on the wall.
0:43
99 blockades of pinball. I'm your host, Shut Your Trap. Joining me is always halfway across the world, Jared Morgan. G'day. How's it going? Good.
0:54
So, yeah, we're just kind of doing some prep work for next week's show. um that being said we we missed our usual date of recording on the weekend so now we're on a weekday uh because you know a little thing called mother's day got in the way yeah that's right my mother's day was a little bit eventful um for all the wrong reasons oh no i um i got close and personal with a pole in the vehicle um and backed into it um so i was gonna pick up my mum from her retirement village and I thought cool well just reverse back into the side street and then we'll drive off and I didn't see the light pole which was a very light color in my blind spot and crunch I went what the I didn't actually say that I said a lot of other things in rapid succession i'm sure in rapid succession um and also had a massive rage in the car with my mom in it as well which was the the best look ever right so um it felt very cathartic at the end of it because i was doing like death metal screams basically um at me running into the pole and the damage to the car is it's not a lot but i'm not sure how it's going to go like we being a mazda three um it's a hatchback so the only bit that got damaged was sort of like the back part of the mazda three and and the problem with that is that that whole back panel is one piece yeah so it goes all the way from the back all the way over the door arch and to the front of the car so So unless the panel beavers are really good and they can just bash it out and get it back to normal again, I don't know what's going to happen with the car. It may end up being a write-off, which is ridiculous because it's only a small dent. But, yeah, it may end up being a write-off. And I don't even know what we're going to do if that happens. So, yeah, that was Mother's Day. So apart from that, that was okay. We went to Ikea and we had some food there and I also helped mum pick up something she wanted to get from Ikea. So the car is still drivable and anything. It didn't actually take out any lights or anything. So it's still roadworthy, still drivable. And I'm taking it to the insurance assessors tomorrow, which will be Wednesday, which is like basically a 15 minute drive in, drive out. They'll take some pictures and then about two days later, they'll say what the damage is quite literally.

Jared Morgan @ Firepower playfield painting discussion — Describes advanced restoration technique using laser-cut stencils instead of traditional water slide decals.

Metallica
game
Twilight Zonegame
Tales from the Cryptgame
Spider-Man Vault Editiongame
The Walking Dead Premiumgame
Creature from the Black Lagoongame
Batman '66game
Stellar Warsgame
Shadowgame
Panavisioncompany

medium · Chris cites Pinball Magazine updates mentioning 'Dialed In is starting production, and mentions of Batman '66, and code updates, and the Alien table has released...The Big Lebowski—they are because they were in the midst of a whole big ol' snafu and they might have actually maybe cleared it up.'

  • ?

    product_strategy: Spider-Man Vault Edition has received minor mechanical tweaks improving consistency and gameplay experience.

    medium · Jared reports Spider-Man Vault Edition 'done some minor tweaks to some of the mechanisms on it, and it's made a big difference to the consistency of that game.'

  • ?

    technology_signal: Use of laser CNC machines and digital stencil creation for pinball playfield restoration (custom acrylic pieces, insert stencils from PDF), suggesting modernization of traditional restoration techniques.

    high · Jared scanned plastic pieces, had friend trace them in Adobe Illustrator, created wooden test pattern, then cut acrylic pieces in 5 minutes; planning laser-cut stencils for inserts instead of water slide decals.

    • 3:36
    Yeah. Yeah, so the $700 excess later, let's hope it's a really, really expensive fix. I want it to be at least $10,000 worth of fix, which it probably won't be because the car won't be worth that much. None of those ride it off. Yeah. I don't know.
    3:52
    So many, many years ago when I was working at the Panavision camera rental house, I started there in their shipping and receiving. And so basically when you start, you were not even in the receiving department. You were in the driving the van and dropping off equipment department.
    4:14
    And so we had these minivans, and I'd never driven a vehicle of that size, and they basically throw you the keys and go, here, go deliver stuff. And you're like, oh, okay. Sure. So they get this brand-new van that they haven't even put the bed liner in it. so it protects from the equipment and everything. I hadn't even gotten that in. So we had the thing maybe all of three days.
    4:41
    And so I'd gone out on delivery with the thing. I come back into this parking lot. It was a little teeny tiny parking lot at the particular panellist that I worked at. And all spots were full except for one. And I went, okay. So I went to go drive to that. And my three managers, basically, from the various departments, they were all outside having a conversation. and so I didn't want to look like an idiot trying to pull into this parking spot and not be able to pull into the parking spot. I didn't want to have to do some six point turn in order to get into it and look incompetent so I was like, okay, here we go. I'm just going to go right in. It's fine.
    5:18
    What I failed to notice was the small concrete pole that protected the barrier gate, the fence and I pulled into this parking spot a little wide and just heard this giant Oh no! No, no, no.
    5:38
    And then, what else are you going to do? Because I wasn't parked correctly, so I backed out and grinned a little bit more and then finally pulled into the parking spot just fine. And I'm sitting there and I'm thinking,
    5:51
    okay, this isn't good. The three guys are standing right there. I'm like, what else are you going to do, right? It's done. What can I say? So I hopped out of the van and I went walking straight up to them. And all three of their models are just like agape. They can't believe it. Like I said, brand new van. And I tossed them the keys and I go, so is there some paperwork I need to fill out or what?
    6:16
    And it turns out that that was the best possible thing I could have said because they said pretty much if I had said anything else, I would have been fired. I mean, I'd only been there for less than a month maybe or maybe one month. but they said that attitude was exactly the kind of attitude that you need in the camera department so what do i need to fill some paperwork like where is it going and then and then and so i was all so you know it was like okay fine and the funny thing was is then i didn't have to drive anymore and then they just put me right into receiving so that was good oh so you got promoted because you screwed something up pretty much that's fantastic but then but then i started hearing all these stories of what other guys had done to the other vans.
    6:59
    And in comparison, mine was minor. Let me guess, they rolled it with a whole lot of really expensive Panavision gear in it? No, nobody rolled the van, but somebody had a forklift, the armature grind on the top of the roof because they didn't realize how tall the van was and they were trying to get underneath it.
    7:22
    I mean, there was all manner of thrashings that went about. But yeah, that was the best line ever. I have to take my hat off to you. Not that I'm wearing one, but I would if I had one on. It was very good. So that's when you mentioned the pole and you posted pictures on Twitter, I believe. That was what went through my head. I was like, okay.
    7:47
    That's like, yeah. So the wife wasn't best pleased because it's technically her car that she bought before we got married.
    7:57
    And, yeah, so she was less than impressed. But, you know, I always try and spin things with a positive slant on them. And I said, well, you know, yes, you know, it's going to cause a bit of inconvenience for us while they get it repaired. But, you know, it's really good. That really scratched up bumper that we had on the car, it's going to be completely replaced. Yeah, exactly. So, you know, like we're getting a brand new bumper, albeit for $700. but you know we're getting a brand new bumper it's going to look great and every time you open up the boot you'll see it and you'll be reminded of just what a great thing it was to have an accident yeah I'll just keep on spinning it that was my mistake for me but yeah fun right so that's going to be good fun yep good good fun Hey, why don't we talk some pinball like we tend to do? Yeah, let's do that. What's on the agenda this week? There's not very much digital action going on, is there? No, the beta for Paragon has started. I've yet to take a look at it, because it literally just started.
    9:10
    Right, today. Yeah. So I haven't had a chance to take a look at that. but yeah that is the only thing on the digital front I was even looking at I get now and then updates from I guess Pinball Magazine not that I subscribe but I think I got on their email list somehow yeah me too and a lot of times they'll post here's what's going on in the pinball world and all I see is a whole bunch of well let's see there's lots of dialed in is starting production and mentions of Batman 66 and code updates and that the Alien table has released that Big Lebowski, they are, because they were in the midst of a whole big ol' snafu and they might have actually maybe cleared it up to move forward. Maybe.
    10:07
    Geez. Making pimple machines is hard, honestly. Yeah. Geez. So, you know, that it's basically those are the kind of things that have been kind of going on. Yeah Just little side things that have nothing to do with the digital world and are too expensive for us to know about in the physical world Yeah exactly
    10:31
    Yeah. I guess the only other thing that's certainly nothing happening in the digital world so much, but today is the day of the Netherworld Brisbane Pinball Club meet.
    10:45
    And we picked the tables yesterday. I think I managed to get a vote in yesterday because usually it's announced within about one minute all the tables are picked because people just jump on it. So it's going to be a good selection tonight. So we're going to have another shot on Stellar Wars again, that big wide-bodied belly. This is going to be awesome. And then we've got Batman 66, which really, I could give or take. I don't really like the game, but, you know, whatever.
    11:10
    Then we've got Tales from the Crypt, which is probably one of my favorite games to play. I only recently played that probably within the last six months. It's been less than a year that I played it for the first time. And that thing has some exceedingly tight, not just ramps, but sinkholes, you might say. Shots to get the ball in. It's like, man, if you don't nail it 100%, that thing's rattling about. Yeah, it's brutal. It's a brutal game. I think I'm going to probably live to regret my love for it tonight. because yeah you're right if you balk it if you don't get that ramp shot that big ramp shot right and it comes straight back down towards the flip as you did you know it's not good the other one that's going to be I had a bit of a play on last time was Metallica and I actually did really well on Metallica last time which of course means I'm going to do absolutely terribly on tonight so that's going to really suck then we got my nemesis I'm curious do you have an actual strategy for Metallica?
    12:15
    Shoot the ramps. That's your strategy? Yeah, shoot the ramps and shoot Sparky a bit, I guess. I was going to say that whenever I've watched anybody in league play,
    12:27
    it seems like it's nail Sparky. Get Sparky going. Get that, because he's easy to hit and I don't want to say he's safe, but it's safe-ish. Hit him enough times to get that multiball going. Once he got the multiball going, then it's go for everything else. Yeah. Because you can stack multi-balls, I believe. Ah, that's why I did so well last time then. Because I think that's what I did. I got Sparky going. I got, there's like a captive ball or something you've got to smash a couple of times as well. This is just a pro. Yeah. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly. It's the hammer. I did that a couple of times. Yeah, yeah, I did that a couple of times. That was good.
    13:07
    So, yeah, I'm looking forward to having a bash on that one. I think it's going to be fun. then of course we've got Creature from the Black Lagoon again so that one's I'm already not wanting to even contemplate playing that one and then some evil bastard decided to put Twilight Zone into the voting pool and so that's in there as well what were they thinking? I've had really good luck with Twilight Zone in tournaments yeah and you know what I do is I just try and do that ramp combo.
    13:43
    Yeah, do the three-way combo to the piano and then do the slot machine. Yeah, and that keeps me relatively safe for where the ball's traveling and staying away from the pop bumpers as much as possible.
    13:59
    I don't know. I've had really good luck just trying for that over and over and over again, and eventually you get your multi-ball. once you get multi-ball, then it's kind of like, watch the score crank up, but yeah, when I aim for things, I do terrible on it. Yeah. Yeah, but when you're just going with the flow... Well, I said when I go with just that one strategy, and everything else is just random that I'm hitting and collecting points randomly, but when you're shooting all the way to the back of the playfield, that tends to be a safe shot. Rather than having your ball side to side, it's going straight up and down. Yeah. It should be... I did okay after I fixed it up last time. I got about $500 million on it. So if I can pull that up again tonight, I'd be pretty happy.
    14:49
    I had Jared post his fix on Pinside. They have a link or a thread that's basically nightmarish fixes or... Yep.
    15:02
    Just things you've seen on pinball machines that you should not see on pinball machines. I was like, Jared, you've got to post yours.
    15:08
    Yeah, I did. I actually, I'm not getting email updates on that thread, so I don't know if people are going, that's the best fix ever or you're a terrible person. Probably a bit little, six of one, half a dozen of the other, I think. Right.
    15:21
    So the last two are Spidey Vault Edition, which I played last week. It's really nice to play. They've done some minor tweaks to some of the mechanisms on it, and it's made a big difference to the consistency of that game. so that's really good and the very last one which I must admit I've never played before is the Walking Dead Premium so that is going to be a little interesting it's going to be fresh yeah unlike Metallica where bashing Sparky is safe similarly on Walking Dead yes they have the prison and it'll it's not kind just try and do ramp shots that's your best bet ramp shots I'm just going to do it ramp ramp ramp I've never figured out how to actually do modes on Walking Dead it just kind of randomly happens for me I've not been able to figure it out it's a weird table for me there's lots of blanky lights but I can't ever figure out the progression yeah it's going to be an interesting night tonight I think what I did last time is I got there and I immediately started playing my tournament games, and I just did so terribly on the first two that I just jinxed myself for the rest of the night. So I'm going to have a couple of practice games on the non-tournament games because, of course, there's no practicing on the tournament games up to the tournament starter, which is at 4 o'clock. I usually get there about 5 o'clock. So I'm going to just go around and have a bit of a bash around on a couple of other ones, and then I'm going to start my first tourney game and see how that strategy works for me. rather than just going in cold.
    17:04
    Do you find it difficult for in tournament to do like dead passes? No, I did it all the time on, um, twilight zone in the tournament. It worked really well. Um, surprisingly, cause that game is usually brutal.
    17:20
    Cause I find it when I'm, when I'm just in practice mode and relaxed, you know, I'll, I'll do the dead passes all the time and, uh, you know, let the ball just kind of bounce and I won't be flipping willy nilly. But man, once I'm in an actual tournament game, I like... You think you're in it all. You might call it tightening up. I'm just not relaxed at play at all. Yeah. Yeah, that's exactly right. There is one... I really hope this doesn't have to come to pass, but the standby table is a shadow.
    17:54
    And you've had a go on that one in recent times. Yeah. Boy, those flippers. boy they're like miles apart and so brutal that game and the ramps are super close to them and so you think oh that should make it easier to hit the ramps but the bad news is if you miss the ramp the ball just comes that much faster right back at the flipper yeah if you hit like on the left ramp if you brick on any of those stand up targets you are dead in fact you're so dead that sometimes it will actually ricochet off the targets and fly right over the flippers into the out hole so it's not a fun time that table so yeah I hope everything stays working because I don't want to have to play that one we don't want that as the backup table exactly speaking of real pinball what's been going on with your growing collection of pinball machines growing growing.
    18:59
    So frustration, maybe, or cost. Cost would definitely be a factor there. So I had scanned my clear plastic pieces. So basically everybody's familiar with the printed plastic. If you play TPA, you know what I'm talking about with the printed plastic. It's the decorations on the table that give it that cowboy theme, you might say.
    19:21
    But unlike a lot of Williams games that I've played, the plastic is double stacked. So you've got the printed plastic, and then underneath that, rather than using metal rails, they use plastic rails. Oh, yeah. The clear plastic, and it basically allows the light to shine through even more, illuminate the table even better.
    19:42
    And so I had scanned those pieces in and sent them to my pal who has a laser CNC machine. He also got a regular CNC machine, but he said he could do it on this later.
    19:56
    Everything is made with lasers. Why wouldn't you? Exactly. Two of my pieces have been broken so he went ahead put them into Adobe Illustrator traced the actual pieces that I had sent him and then added in the we kind of guessed as to what the broken end would look like looked on what the reproduction plastics look like and kind of figured it out from there.
    20:20
    I went over to his house on Tuesday last Tuesday. he cut those pieces up for me. First we did a wooden version, a wooden test pattern you might say.
    20:32
    Also kind of figure out what the hole size for where the metal standoff bills would be inserted into.
    20:39
    Oh, right, okay. Once we had gotten the template done, then we went ahead and cut our eighth inch piece of acrylic and it took all the five minutes for him to cut those out and then I took them back home with me put all the standoff bells back into those pieces and then installed it onto the table and it was one of those things where when I melted the standoff bells into the acrylic it kind of also because the holes were a little smaller than they probably should have been.
    21:17
    And so some of the acrylic melted into the inside of the bell. Drill out that to make the standoff bell have like it was where the screw, the wood screw that you drop in just should plunge right in. Instead I wound up screwing it in into place. And that caused some alignment issues.
    21:39
    Yeah, it would have. Yeah, because the screw was trying to go one direction and the hole was in another direction. So I was kind of fighting it. But eventually I got everything in place, and the acrylic looks great. I need to still redo my flipper guide plastics and adjust them a little bit because I've still got the ball hop going on. So I need to adjust the hole, get another piece of that cut, and hopefully take care of that.
    22:05
    But so while I had, you know, when I took off all that plastic, it was like, well, might as well depopulate the entire play field so I can give it a good wax. so I gave it a good waxing and I just went out and got some carnauba wax and put it on there and it was one of those things where I'm used to waxing a car and knowing what it looks like and waxing on a playfield surface it wasn't fogging up like I was hoping to I don't know if that's just what it wasn't gripping on or whatever but anyway I might have put a little too much wax on there and then I wiped it off the towel and everything and my neighbor had a tumbler for metal polishing. I was throwing all manner of things into the tumbler whether it be the springs on the shooter rod or the pinballs themselves.
    22:56
    I did all that and then I installed all the new rubber. I don't think I've ever played with a freshly waxed table and brand new rubber because that ball does wacky things.
    23:13
    Yep, it sure does. You know, I mean, it's interesting, the ball behavior, because you realize it's kind of like bowling, where that ball, yeah, it's spinning, but once it grips, it'll all of a sudden divert and do curveballs on you.
    23:33
    And then throw in the fact that the rubber, you know, I'm used to seeing what slingshots do when any of the powered rubber returns what they do. But it's the passive rubber that is shocking to me because, man, that ball bounces. Yeah, with beautiful fresh rubber, it's almost like they're powered, eh? Oh, completely. Yeah, I've got to say it messed me up for the first 20 or so games that I played because suddenly my scores were terrible. You were so used to such dead rubber, like with all the perish rubber that you had on the table. Yeah, because with the dead rubber, the ball just kind of brushes against things and kind of moves more in predictable trajectories, you might say. Yes, yeah.
    24:22
    Whereas now, like I said, between the rubber and the waxing on the play field, I have no clue where the ball is going half the time.
    24:30
    It's physics at its best. It is, it is. And I think that would be really difficult to program. It's not just a matter of having ball speed. You'd actually now have to incorporate the physics of traction.
    24:48
    Yeah. Imagine trying to program that. That would just be so difficult. You would have to pretty much randomize everything. You'd have to actually put a friction component in.
    24:59
    And also... Yeah, if the ball is spinning X amount of speed, how fast does it have to stop spinning before it all of a sudden takes a grip on the surface itself, and then what direction is it going to be flying.
    25:13
    In addition to, though, the waxing and the new rubber, I decided that I was going to add a little bling, if you will.
    25:22
    It's one of those things that I've always... Whenever you see any of the high-end restorations or whatever, everything is just super-duper shiny.
    25:32
    Obviously, I'm not doing a restoration right now. I'm just trying to make the thing function, but that doesn't mean that I can't do some things. And so the one thing that I decided to do was all of my screws, which were all dull and just kind of nasty looking, I decided I'm going to replace all those with brand new shiny.
    25:51
    And it turns out that pinball has weird lengths of their screws. Yes. So I wasn't able to replace... I replaced the machine screws. Those were the only ones that were fine going all the way through the play field because of the little T-nut that they screw into. But the wood screws, I wound up keeping the same. But all I did was I just took a Dremel to the tops of them and shined them up that way. But then what I did was I bought new washers.
    26:16
    And so anywhere where a screw was touching plastic, I put a washer into that. Good. A, to protect the plastic a little bit more, you know, spreads out the pressure. But also it just adds a little bit of more shine to it. But then also on the slingshots, they usually have these little plastic caps. white plastic caps. Yeah, toss those. Went and replaced them with silver caps. Oh, nice. So it's, again, a little jewelry there. And then there's a couple of other spots where they had the... It was like a little rubber cap, a little white rubber cap. Yep. And I took all those off and put the silver caps on those too. So, yeah, it's not a huge difference, but it is one of those things where you kind of look and you don't see any of that dullness anymore. So that was one little other adjustment that I threw onto the table just for the fun of it. That does sound good. It must be playing real nice now. It does play real nice. It's funny because when you were mentioning with Metallica, I'm wondering how I'm going to do the next time I play that because it's got those same in-line drop targets that Able Deluxe has. Oh, yes. And I haven't gotten good at hitting those yet, but I've gotten a lot better. And I'm wondering where on the play field it is in comparison to Metallica's, if it's in the same spot, maybe the same location.
    27:40
    Just one of those things where it's like, hey, that might become an easy shot for me. Maybe. I don't know. Here's hoping.
    27:48
    You have to get there and play one. I know. My next task with the table is the conundrum of the lights. I did get the new computer chip that I needed to replace on the lamp driver board because every single light that was associated with this one chip the U2 chip, those were all the lights that were out so I thought that, well, what Nick thought when he was looking at the table and trying to figure out the problem, he figured, hey, you replaced the chip that should fix the problem. Well, I got them from eBay and Nope. Did not fix the problem. So now everybody is saying what everybody's been saying all along. Replace the connectors.
    28:35
    So I guess it's time for me to try replacing the connectors. I got clued into a website that I wasn't aware of before. It's Big Daddy.
    28:48
    He's based out of Texas. I want to say it's BigDaddyEntertainment.com. I'm not sure. If you just Google Big Daddy Pinball, you'll find it. Anyway, unlike a lot of the other pinball parts websites, his is almost all exclusively the electronics aspects. So everything you want to replace on the boards, all your fuses, all your transformers and your diodes and everything. And the nice thing with his is he kind of bunches them by, not by game specifically, but by brand. so if you've got a Bally table and you have this you know what board you have then fine then he'll give you all the system 11 components exactly so he sells the connectors for basically all the boards that are on my machine and I'm it's one of those things where everybody says you should just replace every single connector and although he sells them as kits and the kits themselves aren't that expensive they're between $8 and $18 depending which is not bad at all but the problem is when you have six different boards to replace them all on it kind of adds up really fast I think I'm going to start with just buying the connectors for the lamp driver board and maybe for the solenoid board which is where that was the one that my connector, if it's not in just the right spot, the MPU goes out. Okay, yeah, you want to replace that for sure. Yeah, so that's one that I obviously want to replace.
    30:31
    But then I also need to buy the crimper tool, and it's one of those things where it's just going to add up real quick. Yeah. But in the long run, obviously you want it, so that'll be something that needs to get done on there eventually. I don't know how soon.
    30:48
    And as far as firepower goes, I am going to... Well, I need to try it out myself. Apparently, cutting frisket is relatively easy if you're doing it on a straight line, but good luck doing it on a curved line. No, okay.
    31:05
    I was advised to basically try it out, draw some curves on something else, put some frisket down and just to see that freehand ain going to work Um right In which case I don know exactly what I going to do Cause it might completely change my painting strategy. Yeah. Uh, all the, all the areas that are like supposed to be white, which is basically hidden by all the plastics. Um, it's where your GI lights tend to go. Yes. Those are all the areas where there's these crazy curves going on. Yep. And so that might be a case where, you know what, it doesn't get the white OL.
    31:50
    The inserts, my same pal that did the Laser CNC, he was saying, you know what, we can just create a stencil for all the inserts. I have a copy, a PDF you might say, of the sticker sheet that would go for the inserts. So he can use that and create stencils and we'll use those to paint. That'll be better than doing the water slide decals, I believe. And obviously then we won't be having to hand paint because anytime you hand paint you make the lines a little too thick.
    32:29
    Yep. So there's that. So I think it's right now at the moment it means just doing the red lines, the red lasers, and doing the inserts, and possibly filling in some of the black at various points on the table. But I don't know. Like I say, I'm just kind of of the opinion of since I can't do a complete restoration on the play field, then maybe the beat-up look isn't terrible.
    33:00
    Yeah. I don't know. I think once you get your eye in and you get the right brushes, because you've got to get good quality brushes if you're going to do this. No, I'm not doing brushes. I'm airbrushing. Yeah. Well, that's one approach. If you get it right, you can brush pretty effectively as well. Yeah, but the reason why you do airbrush is because it's a much thinner paint that you're putting on, and therefore you're not going to have any lumpiness next time you clear coat. Which means you won't get any bubbles like you got last time. Exactly, exactly. Ideally, yes, you would want to do it. But I don't know, maybe... There's got to be a way of working around that.
    33:48
    Maybe you could just do some passes on all the edges that are straight. There should be plenty of long runs there that are straight. Like you're saying, Like, cut your teeth on the lasers first. Right. See how you feel about it. Yeah, yeah. And then try an inconspicuous part, like maybe at the back of the play field on some of that white and see how you go with some of the curvy bits there. You might surprise yourself. You might actually be able to do it. The other thing you might get to try, and this is maybe a little controversial, is that even if you do overspray a little bit with the airbrush, you might just be able to wipe it off. and just go around it. Maybe.
    34:30
    You may just be able to do that. Get a Q-tip and just wipe it off. Right. So, yeah, I'd try a few approaches. The good thing is that you've already done the clear coat, the first layer, so wiping things off of that paint surface is going to be pretty easy. Yeah. So you can pretty much have a go and see what it looks like.
    34:50
    Yeah. And don't get too bogged down. Remember, this is your pen, and you can do what you like with it, basically. Yep It's funny because we had a yard sale this past weekend getting rid of all the boys toys from when he was a little kid because it's like you're not playing with these why don't we earn some money off of this huh so I got the bright idea of putting my pinball table out there just figured hey maybe people want to play it the short version is nobody so much as want to touch it I even had a kid look at it and go, what is that? Oh, really? Yeah. Okay.
    35:32
    But I posted on Craigslist that we were having the yard sale and kind of mentioned some of the stuff we had. And one of the things I said is, hey, come play some pinball.
    35:41
    And I got three responses. So was it for sale? I was like, no, no, no. I said, come play, not the pinball is for sale. And then I had a couple of people when they actually came to the yard sale, they're like, is pinball for sale? I'm like, no. It's not. I just got it. I don't have a for sale sign on it. Jeez. People wouldn't pay any money for it anyway. No. It's Craigslist. They'd ask like $500 below what it was worth. And then, you know, cry foul that you weren't doing a good deal. Right.
    36:13
    The good news is if I do want to sell any of these pinballs eventually, it seems like it'll be relatively easy to move them.
    36:21
    I don't want to. My whole thing is going to be if I sell it, I want to replace it. So if we can trade or you better give me enough money that I can buy one.
    36:32
    Yeah. Now, I know last time I pondered the idea of contacting my contact. Contact my contact. There we are. Yes. About purchasing a premium machine. I haven't yet done that yet.
    36:46
    It was a very chaotic week last week. So I didn't get a chance to do it. On top of that, you put a $700 dent in your car. Yeah, which, you know, may sort of impact things a little bit. Ah, impact, get it? Ah!
    37:02
    So, yeah, that's an interesting scenario. But, you know, I haven't given up on the idea. I think I'm going to be probably disappointed in what I can get for $1,000, but at the same time, I can look at it as an opportunity to practice my restoration skills, perhaps. so as long as it's electronically sound and everything works then cosmetic things I can fix generally speaking that's what I said when I bought Firepower yeah and look where it is now you're basically doing exactly that so it's possible it is possible I don't have any mates with CNC machines and tumblers not to my knowledge though certainly not in the neighbourhood so well you know it's funny because i wound up after i posted uh pictures i got a response from somebody actually a couple people where they were like so we can get these cut and but one guy he messaged me and he said hey uh you know your acrylic is just going to wind up shattering eventually he goes you really should have done this with uh with lexan i was like okay and he He goes, I happen to have sheets of Lexan, and if you'd be willing to cut it, then you can have the extra piece and cut one for yourself. I was like, oh, okay, great. So I let my buddy know. I was like, hey, how about it? And he goes, yeah, here's the problem.
    38:29
    He goes, lasers and Lexan, it winds up emitting a toxic gas. Oh, whoops. All right, good. so he's like I'm not doing it on the laser CNC he goes I can do it on the regular CNC except for it requires a certain bit because the Lexan will melt and so there's a certain speed that you have to be able to cut through it without it melting too much but the speed has to be enough that you don't wreck the bit so he's going to look into that a little bit for me see what happens. But I'm also like, you know what? He's only 20 minutes away from me. I don't care if I break some acrylic, then I'll just get some new acrylic made. It's not the end of the world. He's got the file. It took five minutes. We're good. Look, I've got 10 sets of these done. I don't care. Exactly. If they crack, I'll just put another one. Exactly. I would totally be of that opinion as well. Whatever. Yeah. the most amount of time it's going to take with the whole process is me taking the bells off and putting them back on big deal done that before you're an expert now yeah I'm an expert well hey folks we're going to wrap it up big things we hope I don't know some things are falling through some things aren't but big to do next week with the 100th episode.
    40:06
    Hopefully, we'll have a bunch of guests coming in and kind of reminiscing along with us. And who knows? Should be a good time. It should be. In the meantime, why don't you go ahead and subscribe to Jared and my Twitter feeds. Mine is at ShutYourTraps. His is at JaredMorgz. And then, of course, there's the all-important show Twitter feed, which is at Blockade. you can also visit our website blockadepinball.com fire off an email to us ask us some questions hey why don't you go ahead and share your favorite aspects of the podcast or things that you don't like who knows maybe we can read those too I don't know it can be all fun whatever you want to comment to us email us blahblahblockade at gmail.com yeah I think I've hit upon all the business aspects of those things. So, until next week, thanks for listening. Bye-bye.
    41:10
    WizardAmusement.com, the site to visit for custom pinball shooter runs. Easy to install, totally unique. Mention Blockade Podcast for 10% off your order. WizardAmusement.com, sales, restoration, customization.
    41:23
    Don't forget to leave a review on iTunes or your favorite podcast hosting service that Blockade is delivered to. You can't improve unless you tell us how. Now stop listening and play some bingo.