Johnny Mnemonic Pinball Restoration: Episode 5

Cary Hardy·video·18m 8s·analyzed·Jun 17, 2021

Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.012

TL;DR

Johnny Mnemonic restoration: cabinet on hold, playfield disassembly begins with systematic component removal.

Summary

Cary Hardy continues his Johnny Mnemonic pinball restoration, moving from cabinet work (on hold pending decals and powder coating) to full playfield disassembly. He documents his systematic approach to stripping the playfield, including tools, organization methods using ziploc bags organized by quadrants, and strategic sequencing to avoid having to remove components multiple times. He demonstrates disassembly techniques and prepares to rotate the playfield for access to underside components.

Key Claims

Cabinet work is at a holding point waiting for correct decals and powder coating of metal parts
high confidence · Direct statement about current restoration status and bottleneck
Johnny Mnemonic playfield disassembly will require removing approximately 100+ separate components
medium confidence · Casual estimate ('maybe 100 more times') while removing initial ramps and mechanisms
Using quadrant/section-based organization in ziploc bags makes reassembly easier and prevents component loss
high confidence · Documented method developed from past restoration mistakes; explicit explanation of workflow
Some playfield components require desoldering to remove; certain switches are wired through small holes
high confidence · Soldering station included in tool setup specifically for this contingency

Notable Quotes

“The only thing it really needed was the decals and that's kind of a long story that I'll go into maybe at some other point maybe when I finally get my decals when it comes to them being correct”
Cary Hardy@ 0:33 — Indicates significant issue with decal sourcing/accuracy; suggests ongoing problem to be addressed later
“don't think that you're gonna be able to remember where everything goes. So, magnet antenna, a full nut driver set... I learned from my own mistakes on that”
Cary Hardy@ 3:48 — Reflects hard-won knowledge from previous restoration failures; establishes best practice methodology
“certain things are overlapping and connecting to other things that are even further underneath others so it's like oh I'm gonna take off my slingshots first like now in order to take up my slingshots that have to remove this which is connected to this”
Cary Hardy@ 6:12 — Demonstrates complex spatial relationships in playfield design requiring careful sequencing
“That way you don't have things spread apart too big and ridiculousness in your Ziploc bags. Just makes it easier to reassemble”
Cary Hardy@ 5:01 — Pragmatic advice for large restoration projects; prevents disorganization and lost parts

Entities

Cary Hardyperson Johnny MnemonicgameTitan Pinballcompany

Signals

?
product_concern: Decal sourcing for Johnny Mnemonic is problematic; correct decals remain unobtainable, causing cabinet work to stall
high · Hardy explicitly states decals are a 'long story' and defers explanation; describes decal sourcing as a significant bottleneck affecting restoration timeline

Transcript

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0:00

Hit me! Looks like I'm going to be starting on the playfield a little sooner than I thought I would be. honestly actually this is a little bit later than I thought I would be because I was wanting to get the cabinet done and technically the only thing it really needed was the decals and that's kind of a long story that I'll go into maybe at some other point maybe when I finally get my decals when it comes to them being correct like I said it's a story just for another time I want to see how the story ends before I go any further with that. So the only thing I've got left on here the cabinet wise is all these little metal parts that go inside the head. Everything else that's on here I don't want to attach because I'm gonna end up having to remove it to put the decals on and I just don't want to double work like that. So everything else that remains from the cabinet like corn dorns anything that's going to be in the way when it comes to applying the decals i'm not going to apply that right now so i'm going to get all this metal polished up that goes in and on the back box and then i'm going to be at a holding point on the cabinet at least and then we'll move on to the play field all right we are on to the play field for johnny mnemonic and this is going to take some time I believe. The cabinet is at a holding point until I get my decals in and until I can get the stuff powder coated. So I've got the essential stuff done for the cabinets. It's just at a holding point. So for the time being I'm going to be disassembling all of the items that on this playfield, completely taking it off topside. I might take everything off on the bottom side as well. I have not decided yet, although if I do decide to do the bottom side, that is going to make the clear coating portion even easier. So, nothing else to say here besides let's get started.

2:37

All right, I think I've got everything set up and ready to go for disassembling this plate field. There's quite a bit of tools that are your typical ones that you're going to be using for said job. What I like to have on hand when doing this is my soldering station. That is just in case the only way to get certain mechanical stuff or anything off the plate I need to desolder wires, then I've got that right there. Like certain switches that have been fed through a small hole, that's not as common, but it's there sometimes. So that's ready to go in case I need to desolder anything. I've got my magnet antenna in case for whatever reason I lost a screw and I can just get it out from under there. Because you want to keep all of your components contained in a bag for a certain section. It's just, everybody's got their own method. This is a method I've used for years. And I started this method after my first play field I disassembled and didn't do any of it. And so I learned from my own mistakes on that is don't think that you're gonna be able to remember where everything goes.

3:53

So, magnet antenna, a full nut driver set. This is available through Titan Pinball. This is also available through Titan Pinball. It's a nice little tool that's really handy getting up underneath plastics to hold while you undo the top portion. Very handy. All of that. Phillips, two different sizes. Wire cutters, strippers, you never know. Mini screwdriver set and a full SAE and metric Allen wrench set just in case as well I believe that should do me for all I need and then of course I got all of my ziplock bags that I will be utilizing to contain set parts in one section. So what I typically do is that I'll break it down into quadrants or eight different sections but I'll try to make sure everything in one particular section is in one bag. Like this would be a section, maybe this right here would be a section. That way you don't have things spread apart too big and ridiculousness in your Ziploc bags. It just makes it easier to reassemble and get certain things put together. You also want to take note of the pattern at which you took things off of the plate field so that way it makes reassembly easier also. So if you know that you started with this piece right here first then obviously you're not going to start with this piece you know you know first one reassembling because that wouldn't make sense so some of this stuff is real obvious for you people out there others not so much but yeah so things like that just take note of what order you took things off of as well and since it's my first time for disassembling this game then it's gonna be a little bit of a learning process for me as well on how things are going to be disassembled and I'll go over that in close-up here just a minute on showing you how I go about doing that. So when it comes to disassembling this playfield I'm gonna look over the entire area and see which section should go first because like this game certain things are overlapping and connecting to other things that are even further underneath others so it's like oh I'm gonna take off my slingshots first like now in order to take up my slingshots that have to remove this which is connected to this which goes all the way up here to this which is underneath this so that slingshot may not be the best thing to go after first this in this case I'm gonna be starting from the top and working my way down and where this looks like the first thing I'm gonna be removing is this ramp right here because the only way to disassemble this is this screw this screw and then this screw and this whole portion should come off which gives me complete access to this ramp underneath here which connects down here which allows me full access to my slingshots that's things that you need to take note of while you're disassembling this machine and reassembling of course so that's how I'm going to go about doing all of that let's start off by removing this so I've removed this screw this screw along with this diverter that connects to right here so that gets removed and this one right here so now this should come off a little bit of a finagling right there all right I've got my magnetic plate right here so all my washers make sure I'm not going to lose any of those and those will all go into the bag now okay so we've got a flasher bulb it's gonna be holding this down I'm gonna be following that flasher bulb to right here which is connected right here I'm not sure my bill just goes this my month with one hand all right good so now that that has been disconnected this hopefully with one hand, there we go, is removable.