My apologies to the viewers of the blog, particularly those
that have a vested interest. Between
traveling for work, and finishing up a bathroom project that I’ve put off for 4
years, making / selling a pinball mod I started a while back (cash never hurts
in the pinball hobby), I’ve had little time to work on any other pinball
projects in between. The cabinet is
nearly finished, all the hardware is on, I’m just waiting for updated vinyl
decals. Even though the playfield will
likely be mounted on a rotisserie for a while, I wanted to make sure I got the
cabinet done first so I can occasionally drop it in to test for maximum height
of playfield objects.
I’ve also been trying to finish stripping my high speed
playfield so I can do the overlay and get some practice since this project will
also have an overlay for artwork.
Today I didn't get much done, and I really wanted to. I mean I got some GI installed on the inlane, I finished routing the sling slots and got the solenoids mounted, then I realized I hadn't made all the brackets for the switches on the slings (I made one to test), and looking where it is I realize the bracket is too wide and I'm not sure it's going to be ok with just one if I narrow it down. I would make some more brackets, but I left my aluminum angle stock at work so it's going to have to wait until Monday. The other thing I need is a way to mount the roller cherry switch for the ball through to activate the solenoid. Thankfully I can just model that and print one easily at work.
There’s also a couple of things I felt I had to research in
order to get some of the parts done in the near future for this project. Fortunately a couple projects at work have
required me to look into prototyping vacuum forming packaging and prototype
molding, exactly what I need to learn about.
The first part I haven’t had much luck with in the
past. I’ve probably contacted 5 vendors
in the chicagoland area, and none of them have responded (and this is from my
work email with our logo in my signature).
For some reason, if you’re just some engineer looking for some info,
thermoforming vendors just don’t care.
Unless you’re in purchasing and can start tossing volume numbers at
them, they won’t even listen. Well I may
have found a somewhat local vendor that does both volume and one-off prototype
parts:
Vaccuum forming is obviously
exactly what you need for making clear ramps (I actually prefer this to steel),
but it can also be used for 3d plastics (think whitewater, or congo). Heck, it can even be used for playfield toys
(space shuttle). My first “dipping my
toes into the water” will probably be something I’m not just throwing money
away to practice. I’m going to try
recreating one of the 2 broken ramps that nearly every Williams Fire! pinball
has. The mod I just did was some
aluminum support brackets (because the hole mounted to the post always breaks),
so this adds strength to tie it in, plus the way I did it makes it look like an
industrial framework which adds to the aesthetics at the same time. So basically in order to vacuum form, you
need a positive mold. From what I’ve
been reading, the cheapest yet most effective way to do this is honestly just
filling it with plaster (the denser the better so it doesn’t break during
molding). Once I have my positive, I’ll
ship it to the vendor and have him run off a few dozen parts. If it works out well, hopefully I can start
selling them. Not sure if I’ll sneak
them on ebay as “NOS”, or try contacting Rick from PPS and officially license
them.
Ok so 2nd part.
We have a project at work that is low priority, but it’s still a
priority. We don’t want to spend money
on tooling because the solution will be resolved on a future product, but that
product is still a year away. I made
some prototypes from an RTV mold shot in urethane material, but vendors charge
a LOT of money to do this (but 10 parts is still 1/50th the cost a
permanent tool). So obviously this isn’t
a part that we can mass produce, even in the hundreds. Well I’ve been looking into what hobbyists do
for molding at home, and it seems like the company SMOOTH-ON is one of the
bigger ones, which also have very informative videos. Now while I’m sure I’ll eventually be able to
do a 2-part mold, I’d prefer one that’s one sided (meaning it’s flat on one
side). Well the part I’m working on at
work I was able to modify it to do just this, so next week I’m likely going to
go to the local BLICK store to pick up some materials to make both the mold and
pour the material. For about $25 you can
buy enough rubber material to make a mold to fill a 32oz cup, and the black
urethane is the same price. Urethane
doesn’t have quite the durability or strength as a polypropylene or a nylon,
but it’s many times better than any 3d printer can produce. So if I have the ability to start making molds,
that means I can make playfield toys, I can make custom mechanisms, and I can
even make inserts! Yea, the same company
sells optically clear material (same $25/32oz).http://www.smooth-on.com/Urethane-Plastic-a/c5_1120_1156/index.html
32 ounces of material = 57.75 cubic inches. I just modeled up a typical 1” insert, and it’s so little material. So little in fact that I could mold about 400 inserts, or just .06 each
I’ll likely try to use standard inserts wherever possible,
but it would certainly be neat to create some custom sizes, or custom patterns
that nobody has ever seen before because every manufacturer uses whatever is
available in the market.
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