Re: Removing Pop Bumpers: Why so darn difficult?

btrip wrote:
/rant on

Why do they have to use the long flat leads? It is such a pain.
Having to buy a new socket every time you take out the popbumper is
just ridiculous. I guess I could try to unsolder them but they're
stapled to the playfield as well... as if the solder wasn't enough to
hold them in place. Great design.

Take the staples out, or lift one end. They do and use almost everything they do in a pinball machine because:

(a) it's cheap
(b) easy to install in a production environment

At least they went to pop bodies you could remove the rod and ring from WITHOUT taking the body off. The only real part that might need replacing is the platter that requires the socket to come out. All the other bits are accessible without removing the bulb that normally need attention.


Oh, and another great design while I'm ranting... who's idea was it
over at Bally to solder ALL under the playfield bulb housings to a
wire strip that is stapled 500 times to the bottom of the playfield?

Again, cheaper to make this way.

Ingenious... Now if I have to replace a bulb housing I have to turn
the playfield upside down, suck the solder off, remove some staples,
put in a new one, screw it down, resolder to the stupid strip, and
replace the staples... all for a simple bulb housing.

Look at it this way, usually if one is bad there's more you haven't found yet. When I go completely through a machine I solder every single one of the sockets 'shut' (so it doesn't turn) and solder the activation wire to the "tit". It used to take about 15 minutes to do 2, and used a lot of paste flux, but since then I've found that radioshack sells crystal flux solder that works great for this and I can do 4 or 5 per 15 minutes. It makes a big difference in the bulbs and is much cheaper than buying sockets at a buck a pop (the new sockets are cheaply made also and I don't like them).

At least I'm
guessing that is the process :P Or what if I want to clean the
inserts? Or blow dry them to get them back level with the playfield?
Sure, I could just bend the bulb housings out of the way, but that
risks breaking them, and then having to replace them.

If they're that hammered they're going to break when you bend the tang, they need to be replaced anyway.


If anyone has any advice on how to make any of this easier, I'm all
ears.


Patience.... it's a skill that has a slight learning curve, before long you'll be doing it like it's nothing.

-scott CARGPB#29
.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Removing Pop Bumpers: Why so darn difficult?
    ... stapled to the playfield as well... ... as if the solder wasn't enough to ... replace the staples... ... Sure, I could just bend the bulb housings out of the way, but that ...
    (rec.games.pinball)
  • Re: Removing Pop Bumpers: Why so darn difficult?
    ... stapled to the playfield as well... ... as if the solder wasn't enough to ... replace the staples... ... Sure, I could just bend the bulb housings out of the way, but that ...
    (rec.games.pinball)
  • Re: Removing Pop Bumpers: Why so darn difficult?
    ... stapled to the playfield as well... ... as if the solder wasn't enough to ... replace the staples... ... Sure, I could just bend the bulb housings out of the way, but that ...
    (rec.games.pinball)
  • Removing Pop Bumpers: Why so darn difficult?
    ... stapled to the playfield as well... ... as if the solder wasn't enough to ... replace the staples... ... Sure, I could just bend the bulb housings out of the way, but that ...
    (rec.games.pinball)
  • Re: Removing Pop Bumpers: Why so darn difficult?
    ... stapled to the playfield as well... ... as if the solder wasn't enough to ... replace the staples... ... Sure, I could just bend the bulb housings out of the way, but that ...
    (rec.games.pinball)