S-PLUS RESTORED

[pinballmike49]

Sorry I dint have the pics from before but this is what the finished product looked like. It all started off with a shabby lookin s-plus machine. some members said it looked like something that was fished out of the street when Katrina hit. The first thing was to remove and disguard the chop top box. Darrell to the rescue from slots4home  supplied the round top box. The machine was completely gutted at this time. A light sanding and a red paint job finished the interior of the cabinet. Next thing to due was remove all laminate, it pulled off easy. I special ordered a 4x8 sheet of black laminate from Home Depot for just a little under a hundred dollars. Two cans of spray adhesive ran twenty dollars. I used the cabinet and top box as a pattern giving an extra 11/2 inches all around. This made it easy to applie to the cabinet and top box without any major mistakes. Next I used a Craftsmans wood router and went along routeable areas. The angle grinder was used in the other areas. When using the router dint force the cut, just keep a steady hand and go along with the cut . When done you will be surprised that all your cuts were straight and followed the contour. all other parts of the machine that looked bad including the front door were tossed. Using a like new front door the machine was reassembled at this time. I installed a five line rwb game kit in the machine and applied one of Ron's light up bill stickers on the front. The machine operates and looks like new. I would like to give special thanks to the persons that helped in this project, Dansgames, Jim at Blueridge, slots4home, railroad94 and Ron [ashron]. Will be starting a second one this year and will give you the before and afters on that one.

[StatFreak]

It looks nice. The 5-line RWB is probably my favorite S+ kit (depending on what day you ask me  , but it's always near the top of the list.) Those mixed sevens hit every 36 pulls in the long run on the SS4470 (95.103%), paying back 80 coins for 179.55 coins played. That's 44.556% of the total payback of the machine. All of my friends like the game as well.

[pinballmike49]

Boy that was a quick replie, thank you very much. At that time I was trying to list other pictures but it would only allow me two. your right about the sevens it seems like they always hit.

[StatFreak]

Boy that was a quick replie, thank you very much. At that time I was trying to list other pictures but it would only allow me two.

We used to allow 10 pictures per post until a couple of threads blew up and were lost due to bugs in the new forum software, so we now limit it to two. The crash was also the reason that we limit the size of the attachments. Just post multiple times and add as many pictures as you like.

[pinballmike49]

I said to myself I'll bet it only allows two pictures. Thats ok,...thanks Mike.

[CommTech]

Beautiful Job Mike! You do excellent work! 

[stayouttadabunker]

I'm so afraid to try a laminate job...I've never done it.
Black is always real sharp.
But I want a real nice wood grain to match my living room...
I've painted my walls pistachio with lime green plush carpeting and hot pink loveseats...lol
just kidding.......
great job Mike!...you have a real sharp looking machine now!

[westec1]

Super nice job mike

I would like to redo one of my machines
Like bunker says, "I'm so afraid to try a laminate job...I've never done it"
I've seen a lot of nice restored machines on here, but not much info on how it was done
Do you  have any tips on cutting and trimming laminate

Thanks
Wes

[ROCKET]

removed

[StatFreak]

 
Funny you guys should ask that, because that's just what I asked Mike last night on the phone. I'll give him a chance to post first since this was his project..

[pinballmike49]

Hi everybody back again. I'm listing a third picture of the interior of the the machine. A question was asked how to work with the laminate. I used the machine and top box as a pattern. You want to leave at least 1 1/2 inches around each section to be cut. The reason for this is once the glue is applied it is very unforgiving once you applie the laminate. If you make a mistake you might as well scrap that section. once the glued laminate is applied you cant lift the material without damage to reaplie. How did I cut the laminate ? I used a long blade tin snips and went slow on the cuts keeping the laminate flat. If you go fast or have dull blades it might chip the laminate. Some people have asked was it worth the cost in this project when not long ago you could purchase a S-2000 with back lit reels for $350.00 from Dansgames ? All I have to say it was something I wanted to due and not for profit ! Will list with a picture and show you the tools I used soon.

[pinballmike49]

Two more pics.

[Paladin]

Nice restore, that bill sticker looks like a real good match to the blue color of the game!

[westec1]

Like I said great job

Thanks for the extra pics and sharing the info on how you did it

[ROCKET]

removed

[Karaoke Mike]

Awesome job Mike. I like the details you used to explain what you did. Thank you K+

[pinballmike49]

Would like to say thanks to everbody for their coplements once again. This last post should wrap this project up. Yesterday I said  I would post the pics of the tools I used on this project. Here are a few pics:  ....Note the router, I used a cutting bit called a flush laminate bit. It has a small ball bearing on the end of it. This bearing follows the contour of the cabinet and gives you a perfect cut every time. Showing one can of Locite adhesive. This stuff is super glue to the max ! The tin snips I used to cut the laminate pattern. Angle grinder used to due the front end of the cabinet . All these items are laying on the last cut off section of laminate I used. Well that ends this project, thanks for viewing. Stay tuned for the second project, just waiting for Darrell to send out the second round top.

[a69mopar]

Great job Mike, The machine looks excellent.  and thanks for the pics. K+

W

[Neonkiss]

That can of spray adhesive reminds me of the Blues Brothers. 



<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/1y-LQd2e_Uw&rel=0" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/1y-LQd2e_Uw&rel=0</a>

[ROCKET]

removed

[stayouttadabunker]

Mike,
Can you remove the round top section from the main cabinet?
Or is the laminate one-piece around the whole thing?