Pinball Rehab

This is a seven part series to help those new to pinball, or new to repairing solid state devices. Each tutorial is written at a beginner level and intended to build upon the previous. Following are brief descriptions of each. Basic Electronics -- Covers the basic concepts of electricity, including AC and DC...

Most games haven't had the flippers rebuilt in years and yet it's one of the easiest ways to improve game play. In most cases two flipper rebuild kits will cost you less than $50 and the time investment is also minimal--a couple of hours. Note: This procedure requires some basic soldering skills (see references). ...

There are several techniques available when restoring damage to cabinet graphics. Which one you use depends on how the graphics where originally applied, the type of damage and the complexity of the graphics. The purpose of this article is to help you decide which is the best approach for your situation and link to the appropriate techniques....

Not all playfields need to be restored. If it's a player's game, if there's a single small wear spot by the ball drop or if you simply don't have the required skill set, just leave it alone. There is no shame in having a game that shows its age. Only you can decide if you have the...

If you want to learn how to solder, or improve your soldering skills, check out our basic and advanced soldering tutorials, including videos. The Basic Soldering Tutorial and Basic Desoldering Tutorial are oriented towards beginners who want to repair wiring or replace solenoids, diodes and switches. Both are structured to get you soldering quickly and properly and include quizzes...

So you've decided to buy your first pinball. Most people enter this process with both excitement and some trepidation. We've put together the following articles to guide you through the process and hopefully make buying your first pinball both fun and successful. Deciding What Pinball Game to Buy This guide will walk you...

There is probably no more contentious discussion on the Internet than the best wax to use on a pinball playfield. So before I enter the fray, let me say your choice depends to some degree on your objective. If you're going for a mirror-like finish, you can't beat a carnauba wax. Carnauba is graded by...

While a pinball game isn't of much use without pinballs, they are also your playfield's worst enemy. A scratched, pitted pinball is the equivalent of rubbing sandpaper across the playfield. So clearly spending a few bucks on premium pinballs is a wise investment, but which premium pinball is the best and how frequently should they be replaced?...

If you look closely at your playfield your are going to see thousands of tiny scratches. The majority of those scratches were caused by improper cleaning. So when cleaning a playfield we have two goals: get the game clean plus minimize adding any more scratches (which can only be removed through polishing). The first question...

A couple of guys at Professor Pinball (Wes and Eric) have come out with what is probably the coolest pinball mod I've come across. Even better is that it's not only a mod, but a toolkit that allows you to develop your own one of a kind mods which interact with game play. Mere words cannot...

All solid state pinball's use a switch matrix and although the actual implementation may vary slightly, the theory and troubleshooting are the same. The purpose of the switch matrix is to reduce the number of driver circuits form 64 to 16 and minimize playfield wiring. This is achieved by pulsing each column sequentially while monitoring all...