1940's Hi Top restoration questions??

[bryans fan]

As tree-frog says WRINKLE, ( not Crackle ) finish was available from car parts shops. I have, in the past, bought Hycote black wrinkle finish paint. I don`t know if they are still in business. Address is HYCOTE Salmon Fields, Rotyton, Oldham. OL2 6HZ.

B T W it says minimum operating temp is 25 o C

[gameswat]

Hi - castings have been painted for a few weeks but only just bought a new digi cam as the old one died. Still need to figure the new cam out as it's a lot more modern than the last. As I said before I just spray acrylic laquer over the wrinkle for whatever colour i want. Since the undercoat is black it took about 5-6 thin coats to get full coverage. The brand available over here is VHT from the US. I've been doing this for over 10 years and the results are very hardwearing. In fact the wrinkle is one of the hardest finishes I've come across once it fully sets.

I've mocked up my own award plate art and just need to finish cleaning up the symbols for printing. I've ordered some special film from the usa that's used for making prototype PCBs. I plan to acid etch my own replacement award plate from scratch. The film is printed and then ironed on to be used as a resist to the acid. I got a quote from an engraver to do the same but the price was crazy. See how to here - http://www.instructables.com/id/How_to_ ... _with_a_r/

[willborl]

Cracking job mate, looks great

[gameswat]

Hey there - finally got around to finishing this project off. I had no luck even finding a photo of the correct award plate so I downloaded the best pic i could from a hitop on the net. Though rather small and average quality at best. But enought to allow me to make up the correct payouts with some detailed digital reworking. I was planning to etch the plate in brass and then plate it, but the night I finished the artwork all I had laying around was some alloy sheet the right gauge. So decided to experiment with that and had great results! In fact good enough that i decided to leave it at that. I used a special film that you print the artwork onto using a laser printer, and then iron the film to the metal to act as a resist. The real bugger was bending the sheet to the right convex shape without a roller. I ended up making a concave mold in wood with my table saw blade as the curve which was slightly smaller than the finished size. Then clamped it to the pedestal pole of my metal mill which was slightly smaller in dia. Once I removed the plate it sprang back slightly to the correct shape. Phew.
I also made up the Jackpot card using the artwork shown in a US catalogue i have. Scanned in ok but again needed to be reworked to look nice. Just replaced the $5.00 US amount with 1/2 pound UK. Machine is playing nicely once I ironed a few bugs out. Mech is a little sloppy but hey, after all the plays this thing has had I'm amazed it still works at all!

[slotalot]

Well done gameswat you have done a great job etching the award card, it looks very professional. was this your first try at etching? or have you done some before?

[gameswat]

First time etcher but long time wanter. I had a few probs that i managed to deal with, first one was using my parents laser printer that didn't print properly. So when i etched some lines cut through. I was able to sand back the surface to remove them all though. Luckily I'd over etched the alloy anyway so had room to spare. Next time It'll be so much better. But I was really happy with how detailed you can get the tiny lettering like in the bars, and they looked better before I sanded the crap out of them! Actaully looks a lot nicer in person, flash shows up stuff you don't normally see. I have a lot of machines missing tags and plates that i can now make myself -hooray.

[treefrog]

That looks fantastic......another thing I need to try out as I keep buying in plates from the states and they are rarely in good condition