After some customs clearance and paperwork at the port I managed to bring it home.
Now, how to move that 110 kg + packaging. Thankfully a colleague from work came to help me. Thanks a lot
Included from Hong Kong was an empty menthol Marlboro. Nice souvenir
Once it was inside the house and on a flat surface moving the thing around was actually quite easy. However if your door is only 70 cm wide, it is not possible to get it in through that
I wish I found an EgretII... Anyway I was prepared to clean it anyway, so dismantling and cleaning had to be done. The plan further was to move the parts into the gaming room, part by part to get it in.
So, it was time to unwrap:
From the outside it looked pretty nice, some scratches here there, but oh well. The smell however gave some clear indications that this cabinet has been standing in an environment where smoking is not prohibited... Anyway let the cleaning and examination begin. A lot of dirt inside the joystick panel:
Next step was to dismantle most of the parts, and remove the dust and dirt, at least most of it. A lot of black dust inside the cabinet, and a funny smell of cigarettes and electronics.
But vacuum cleaning and using soap water inside helped a lot. Removing the CRT was a bit tricky. It is about 40 kg, and not very easy to carry. According to some manual pictures it appears that you can attach some carrying "tool" to the screen. Maybe someone knows where to get that? That would be handy if you want to rotate the screen now and then. Some pics:
Some pics of the screen. Nice amounts of dirt and dust, but it worked like a charm. Remember, be careful with CRTs. After reading some safety instructions about CRTs on the net I decided to use my scuba diving glasses (with tempered glass) when handling the screen, to protect against an eventual implosion of the tube. I also (tried) discharged all exposed parts, connecting them to ground potential. Safety first! And always risk analysis
Time to get the screen back in place now rotated to fit to shmups and plug in a board: Voila, it works...
And there was much rejoicing
The next steps:
Get the coin system to work.
The cabinet is a bit noisy. I need to replace the power supply fan. I cannot imagine what else is making the sound.
The joystick panel is a bit "over used". Joysticks are loose, and not too precise... Further some buttons need to be hammered on to work.
The plan is to get in two new seimitsu sticks and some new buttons, brand/shape not decided. Actually I was wondering about replacing the whole panel as well, but I guess it is hard to find a nice one out there.
-Firebird
