The T3sk3y Defenestrator

For those that missed it, we lost the funkiest man on the planet early Christmas morning. The Godfather of Soul, James Brown, passed away at age 73 of pneumonia complications. Though James has had some difficult years over the past decade, to me he’ll always be remembered as one of the three B’s in music – Bach, Beethoven, and Brown (what else?).

I was lucky enough to see James in about 1997. Though he plainly wasn’t in the best shape of his life – he still kept up his reputation as the hardest working man in show business. He laid down about two hours of really really funky stuff while still doing his signature splits, back bends, and other crazy contortions.

I hope history doesn’t remember him for either his troubles with the law, his substance abuse issues, or his best known and ‘poppiest’ songs (i.e. I Feel Good, Papa’s Got a Brand New Bag, Living In America). His lesser known stuff has been re-sampled, emulated, and imitated by virtually everyone – and getting to know the source of the sound is enlightening.

Do yourself a favor – and check out things like Cold Sweat, Funky Drummer, Mother Popcorn, It’s a Man’s Man’s World, Sex Machine, Part I, or some of his other early 70′s funkiness.

It will liberate your booty..

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.. over at the T3sk3y ranch last weekend. I hosted the first annual “Jingle Balls” pinball party for about 20 last weekend. The Minnesota “Pinball Madness” gang does a roaming party each month so we can enjoy each others collections. December was my turn. A good time was had by all.. even the wives that got dragged along by their pinball-loving husbands. Of course, some of the wives were just as bad!

The highlight of the evening was a Secret Santa drawing for a pinball-related gift. Top score on my Flight 2000 machine got first pick of the gift table. Honors went to Bryan Kelly with a respectable 1.5M score.

Dave and Jason qualifying for the gift drawing – if only Dave brought a gift!

Check out the rest of the pictures at the Pinball Madness site: Link

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I’ve recently read a couple of articles on giving things a ‘steampunk’ look by etching copper plates by electrolysis. Though I never thought this was something useful or interesting, I got a couple of ideas on things I could do with my pinball machines. I think an etched copper credits plate would be *really* cool.

Here is an article that illustrates how to do a copper plate: Link

On one of the most stunning examples of this, the author made an etched steampunk pickguard for a Fender Stratocaster. This is so cool I can’t stand it:

Here’s a link to the entire article on making the pickguard: Link

Now.. where is my jar of Root Kill..

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One of the project I’ve undertaken during the month of August (as if I didn’t have enough already) was the restoration and preservation of a nice Flight 2000 playfield that I obtained last year. The playfield on my machine, like most, is severly worn to the point where it’s down to the wood in many places. This machine is 26 years old and was rather popular – so there are very few pristine examples out there. Nearly all of them have a large wear spot in the bonus area in the lower center, and absolutely all of them have severely flaked backglasses. When a playfield without all of the wear appeared on eBay last year, I wasn’t going to let it slip out of my grasp. Ultimately, I obtained it at a fair price.

It’s not a perfect playfield – there was minor wear around the inserts, rings worn around every playfield post, and significant ball swirling everywhere. I really had two options.. clean it up and call it good – or go all out on it and do a complete restoration. Since the rest of the machine restoration has been very thorough – I decided to go all the way with it.

My original plan was to send it off to be touched up and clearcoated professionally, but the fairly high cost (approx. $250-$600+) put me off since the value of the machine is only around $600. I was ultimately encouraged by some of the Minnesota restorers to give the DIY approach a shot and try clearcoating it with Varithane.

I started with the mylar removal. The playfield had factory mylar rings around the pop bumpers – and they had to go prior to clearcoating. I had already tried the freeze spray method on my Funhouse with great success – so this seemed like the right approach. The 26-year-old factory mylar didn’t give up with out a fight – it did come off with the freeze spray, but not without lifting a couple of tiny flecks of paint. The goo didn’t budge either – and it took some vigorous scrubbing with a Magic Eraser and Goo Gone to remove.

The next step was mitigation of the ball swirls. These are caused over the years when the topcoat cracks or gets scratched and grit works its way in the scratch. Until recently, these were impossible to get rid of. Some genius tried a Magic Eraser from Mr. Clean a few years ago with miraculous results. I’ve since used this on a number of playfields to good effect. I gently scrubbed the playfield using 90% isopropyl alcohol and the Magic Eraser and was able to clean up most of the ball swirls. I probably could have been more aggressive with it, but I really didn’t want to break through the artwork.

The next step was to touch up the artwork. This playfield was in very good condition and didn’t require much touchup. The main issues were some rings where posts sat, the black rings around the inserts, and a couple of small flecks in various places. Flight 2000 is fortunately one of the easiest to touch up since it’s a lot of solid colors and not much fine detail. I decided to use Michael’s acrylic paints since there was a wide variety of colors available and they are relatively cheap.

Touching up the playfield with acrylic paints

One issue that I discovered quickly was that color matching is hard. I decided very quickly that I was better off trying to mix the right color than I was trying to find an exact match. I also discovered (after the first coat of Varithane) that the color changes when it is coated with Varithane. What looked like an exact match really wasn’t any more – it darkened significantly as if it were still wet. To solve that problem, I discovered that a wipe with Naptha over a dried area would wet it and show it’s ‘coated color’ and I could adjust accordingly. I ended up mixing paints several shades light to accomodate!

To prep for the Varithane, I gave everything a very light sanding with 600 grit sandpaper. I followed that with a final rinse/wash with Naptha to remove remaining wax and junk and finished with a wipe down with a tack cloth.

The coats of Varithane went on over the next two weeks. Each time, I’d repeat the sand / rinse / tack cloth routine – then spray another layer of Varithane spray. Ultimately I ended up with 7 coats – I had to go a little heavier to fill in some low spots on the inserts. I found Varithane rediculously easy to work with – you have to try to screw it up. It self-leveled really well – and even small puddles didn’t really show. I had no problem with ‘orange peeling’ or cracking or any other craziness.

The third coat of Varithane just after application

One thing I wish I would have done ahead of time was to level the inserts with cyanocrylate (Super Glue). The Varithane didn’t fill as well as I had hoped, and I never really got things totally level. I attempted hand painting layers of Varithane in the inserts after about 3 coats. Frankly, this was a painful waste of time. It did level the inserts – but it was a royal pain and I spent half the time fixing bubbles. If I would have only leveled them *first*.

After the final coat, I put it on the shelf for a month to dry and cure. This was a really long month – but it went by quick since I had a newborn in the house. Little William was born the day I put on the first coat of Varithane. When the month had passed, I started the polishing process by lightly block sanding with 600 grit, then 1600 grit. After the 1600 grit, I used my Treasure Cove polishing kit to buff it to a very high shine.

Partway through the polishing process and it’s already starting to shine!

One problem that I had with sanding was that the wood around the screwholes was ‘raised’ in a sharp point. This would sometimes catch the sandpaper and rip it – making a big sanding scratch on the new clearcoat. This was very annoying since I had to go resand that scratch every time. Ultimately I can still see a couple – but if I didn’t tell you where they are, you wouldn’t find them.

Another sad epilogue was that the playfield had a very slight warp to it. When I reattached the siderails to the new playfield, it caused the field to flex making a couple of inserts pop slightly. It didn’t break through the clearcoat, but it did show a small white line.

Final results? Pretty awesome, if you ask me. I learned a lot by the process and will do it better next time. It’s not perfect by professional standards, but it look many times better and it plays really fast and smooth. I’d do it again in a heartbeat. I should have completed restoration pictures up soon – stay tuned!

Lessons learned?

1. I’d probably try a different paint next time. Acrylic was just too thin for the inserts – it took heavy coats to cover.
2. I’d pre-level the inserts with water thin SuperGlue
3. I’d be a lot more careful sanding around post holesd
4. Follow the Marvin3M guides at Diamond Plating a Playfield

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Here is one websites’ opinion on the 50 worst bands of all time. I agree with about 90% of this list and had a good belly laugh out of some of the comments. Here are some of the best:

32 THE HOOTERS
The great folk-rock scare
Philadelphians Rob Hyman and Eric Bazilian assembled a quintet that specialized in a vile blend of folk-rock and New Wave, in the process proving that the mandolin is more irritating than the synthesizer.
Worst CD Zig Zag (Columbia, 1989)

28 CRASH TEST DUMMIES
They said Brad Roberts�s voice was so deep it could be heard only by whales. Not true, sadly
If you want to be recognized as serious recording artists with a whimsical, folksy bent, it�s probably best not to notch your only hit with a daft novelty song based around the world�s silliest lead vocal and title it �Mmm, Mmm, Mmm, Mmm.� The remainder of God Shuffled His Feet, this Canadian band�s second album, was much worse. They released I Don�t Care That You Don�t Mind in 2001. No one cared.
Appalling fact They�re Canadian.
Worst CD A Worm�s Life (Arista, 1996)

10 AIR SUPPLY
The sound of eunuchs sobbing
Disproving the theory that lightning never strikes twice in the same place, Air Supply contained not one but two mewling, lovesick softies whose name was Russell. In the early �80s, the Australian duo�s gutless ballads � music so remorselessly fey it made Journey sound like Danzig � sent a generation of jilted lovers toppling into depression that was as clinical as the Russells� music. Mercifully, though, by the end of the decade, the pair had cried themselves to sleep.
Appalling fact Determined to ruin the festive season, Air Supply once recorded a Christmas album.
Worst CD The Christmas Album (Arista, 1987)

.. and of course, the king:

4 KENNY G
This guy really blows!
Hated equally by jazz and rock fans, Kenny Gorelick�s limpid instrumentals and obsequious cameos helped turn the soprano sax solo into pop music�s most feared clich�. He started his career with fusion hack Jeff Lorber, and his 1986 album, Duotones, established a steady market for anodyne, minimal background music, an aesthetic that reached its zenith in 1997 when �The G� set a world record by holding a single note for 45 minutes.
Appalling fact He graduated magna cum laude from the University of Washington with a degree in accounting.
Worst CD Classics in the Key of G (Arista, 1999)

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