slowly ramping up again

So it's been a couple weeks since my dog had his checkup from the doctor, and he seems to be 80% back to normal (once the other dog decided to play, and when he twisted his neck around he yelped loud).  Even the doctor said it might be a few more months before his neck muscles are completely healed, but at least the "don't let him jump and watch his every move" phase is over with.

So in the meantime, besides printing some jobs to earn money, I HAVE been working on the layout in CAD, and doing more tweaks on 3d printed mechanisms.  The trough and apron are simplified, and closer to a standard apron shape.  I'm also trying to make the cuts very basic and simple (so anyone with a jigsaw can make their cuts fast and easy), and so long as you have your 3d printed parts ready, you can make all your cuts, bolt all your parts onto the plywood, and have a lower end built in about 30 minutes (minus wiring).

I was struggling for a while where to put the VUK to bring the ball back up from the lower playfield, but I think I have it figured out.  There's going to be a lane just above the trough that will allow the ball to sneak back in without the player seeing what's going on.  Honestly my end goal is to potentially 3d print everything (so long as it will hold up).  I have a sling mechanism modeled up that I think would work quite well, and it would only require you to drill a couple 1/2" holes to mount it, plus the two 1/2" holes for the switches (again, make the cuts as easy as the mechs themselves).

There's this video recently of a guy that supposedly completely 3d printed a pinball machine (playfield, pop bumpers, flipper mechs, EVERYTHING).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NKl3aX-tyLY

I'll admit it's impressive, but the flippers are weak, and I didn't see the slings fire once (but the pop bumpers seemed to work well).  Problem is, that guy will never share his files, so that project dies with him.  My intent is to eventually get all of this on pinballmakers.com so anyone can jump in.