Picked up a black knight today

4 hour drive each way to Indianapolis, but it's home.  $750 is what he asked for it (he paid $800 9 years ago), and he had other people message him when I dragged my ass, but he did keep his word and not take other offers.  Now before you ask me how I found this steal of a deal, it needs work.  When I got there, it was sitting in the garage covered.  Right off the bat, I could see the rust on the inside of the legs (black paint on the outside, probably to cover rust).  No water damage on the back, that's good.  He pulls off the blanket, playfield has planking but no wear (not bad for an original playfield that's 32 years old).  Ok, that's a good sign, at least I can sand and touch it up easily.  Then I open up the backbox, boards look clean, no jacked connectors, no battery leak damage.  I fire it up, I get power, but no displays.  I decide even though the fuse holder is cracked off, maybe there's enough contact still if I bend it over.  I pop a new fuse in (since the old one is sitting at the bottom of the backbox), fire it up, I get displays.  Unfortunately, something is odd with the coinbox because a quarter gets jammed, and I don't see switches for the coin to hit, so I fumble and manage to get some credits up.  Unfortunately, the start button doesn't work (leaf switch is fouled up), but I mange to manually connect it and get a game started.  The flippers work (where they didn't before), but they are jacked.  They are loose as hell, and not really worth playing.  Also the balls aren't ejecting because.. get this, the solenoid is literally hanging from the playfield because the screws stripped out (which I will have to fill in).  So all in all, nothing that seems too difficult to repair, just needs a GOOD cleaning and a few things fixed and it might actually play somewhat normal again.

There is at least one cracked plastic, the backglass has some very minor flaking, but the cabinet is in good shape (just needs a little wood fill in black areas, the artwork is nearly perfect).

Where did I find it? Random non pinball collector who had one sitting in their garage not working decided to jump onto pinside, see who was looking for one in the chicago area, decided to message me. A few messages go back n forth, finally she posts photos in the sell market. I'm like "crap! now it's public!". So I finally call, and her husband answers last weekend. I explain I can't make it out that weekend, but can pick it up the following weekend on Sunday.

I'm sort of glad I was more prepared this time, bringing a toolbox with essentials (wrenches, screwdriver, fuses, multimeter, flashlight, drill with bits and extension cord (in case he went "whoops, I don't know where the keys are).  I wasn't about to drive 4 hours each way, only to find that I couldn't take something apart, or test to see how badly damaged it might have been (sellers aren't always so honest).

Here are some photos:

door actuator pin - starting the design

Ok, so I may not have even drilled the first hole in wood, but that's just how I am.  I tend to overplan, but it really does prevent issues from happening during assembly.  It's the measure 10 times cut once mantra that loops in my head.

Anyway, I have enough modeled in solidworks at this point where I could at least get the flippers mounted and wired up.  I started creating an apron troft, even if I don't quite yet have the ball eject worked out (probably going to use another actuator with a lever that flings it up).  I plan on using 1/16" aluminum and getting it lasered from a place like ponoko, as I think it will cost less than waterjet (my local place tends to do more industrial jobs, and usually has a minimal $50 lot charge plus programming)  My goal is to get all the rails to fit within a 12" x 24" piece, which on mcmaster is about $22.

Here are some photos of what I have so far.  I decided to go minimalist (and save precious playfield space) by having the ball eject ASAP.  This has been done on other pins, and it seems to work well:

Since my mechanism doesn't have a base plate, or any specific pinball parts (pawls, flipper bats and bushings are non-specific to any company), it will be cost effective and not infringe on any design patents.  Also the hole on the end of the solenoid should interface with the pawl beautifully.

New direction for homebrew pinball

I know my last goal was to go old school and create an all mechanical pinball (might still do that one day), but I need to jump ahead at least a little bit.  So I'm going to move ahead with using the door actuators for powering the flippers, I've got some old used flipper bushings, still have my new yellow flipper bats, I believe I have a couple pawls to connect the bats to the actuators, a spare ball, a full plunger assembly.  In fact other than having an automated ball trowl, and perhaps a few posts to stick onto the playfield, I believe I have all the parts I need to get a semi-working pinball going.

Here's my idea.. Crunching some numbers, I believe I can get a working full-size prototype starter kit (safe kid version running off 12v) for roughly $100 cost, and an "adult" 48V version for about $200.

My idea is "pinball in a box".  Basically in the kit you would get a basic playfield layout (talking flippers, couple side bumpers, an outlane guide, shooter lane), would end up looking something like the default starter playfield in future pinball (but in physical form):

No scoring, no ramps, no layout, just a blank canvas with the very basics to get you started.  I would include a template where you would drill holes for posts, the flippers, the outlanes, and you would simply cut/drill a piece of plywood you pickup at your local hardware store (save the cost of shipping heavy wood if it's something you can buy local, though I might sell pre-made designs at some point).

This could be perfect for the hobbyist that just wants to mess around, but the kid-friendly version would be really neat.  A parent (particularly one that is already in the pinball hobby) could buy this kit, let his kid layout a pinball like he wants, draw stuff on the playfield, then the parent helps clearcoat it.  I can't imagine what better gift you could give a kid than letting him design his own pinball.  Problem that exists right now, nothing like this exists.  The closest you could get to this point is finding an older pinball that has a scorched playfield (but functioning), but even then your looking at between $400-$600 easily.

Pin-2000 for a demolition man

This is the coolest mod I've seen in a long time.  This guy threw a P-roc system in his machine, wrote up some code, mounted a 26" LCD above the backbox, and turned it into what I believe is the first wide-body P2k machine.  Even though it's early code, he's got objects that are breakable, and some neat pop-up menus (not to mention a great scoring system).  I can't wait to see what he does with it:
http://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/dm-p2k-concept#post-391920