Got brackets?

I don't, at least not quite.  So I got my 3d printed brackets, yea not a whole lot better.  I mean it is, but I'm still breaking the parts just trying to clean them (which doesn't bode well for strength), so I gave up.  It wasn't a total waste, by modeling everything up I figured out what the minimal space was.. so then I went back to making aluminum brackets.  Once I got the band saw setup with guides, it went really quick to cut down the size I needed.  Then it was a matter of overlapping the 3d printed part over the bracket to mark the holes and drill it out.  I made left-hand and right hand versions for space constraints.

I still have to create the slots, but I don't want to cobble it with a drill like I did before.  I'll either beg the machine shop at work to do it for me, or I may have found a way to do it myself.  I own a drill press, but not a mill.  I had no idea a "cross slide vise" existed, effectively giving you x and y axis travel on a drill press:
http://www.harborfreight.com/6-inch-cross-slide-vise-32997.html

Granted you aren't going to have any precision (or measurement), but for machining slots and pockets by eye it's plenty.

The lockdown bar is nearly fixed (at least the plunger lines up with the ball now), but I may have to file the notch on the lockbar down a little bit (not quite latching yet).  Figured out what I want to do with the shooter rod cover, decided to put a mixing slider as the "reference scale" while still tying into the theme:


Once I get it officially mounted, and the standard V-groove cut out in the shooter lane, I'll finally be able to plunge the ball (albeit I don't have anything electrical hooked up yet), but soon.

Cobbled

That's how I'm starting to look at this project, and there's nothing really wrong with that.  I mean this is supposed to be a one-off, so I'm not worried about making extras.  If you look at Ben Heck's first pinball, his was entirely cobbled.  I mean he made his own cabinet, he made his own custom low res DMD display from a matrix grid of 5mm LED's, he made his own toys, his lockdown bar I believe is a cut up piece of aluminum angle. But he also used 24V flippers (which are very weak), and if you watch gameplay (or ever played it yourself) you'll see it's pretty hard to make some of the ramp shots because of it.  Fact is the flippers he used were likely from an EM, and there wasn't a big demand for snappy shots back then, there were no ramps to get up.

One thing I've definitely noticed is that you realize how many fit issues you have.  It's one thing to take existing parts that were all designed to fit together nicely because someone engineered them that way.  It's a completely different story taking parts from multiple machines and merging them together.  Let's take stock:

Stern early solid state trough / slings
New Williams off-the-shelf new flipper mechs. shooter rod, legs
Lockdown bar / lockdown mech from a 1978 Williams Disco fever
Coin door from a Data East LAH
1987 Williams F14 cabinet (bought all the hardware except the lockbar parts above and the side rails)

I did manage to lower the lockbar mech by creating a new hole, but that created a new problem (the carriage bolt stick in too far, so I'll have to trim that back with an angle grinder), as well as the bracket overlaps the bracket for the shooter rod by about a 1/4" that will need to get trimmed back.  With the playfield in, the shooter rod now clears it, but it feels a little low (isn't quite centered on the ball), so I'll simply add some washers under the hanger brackets and it should all line up fine.  Also by lowering it about 1/8" lower than it should be, I may have an issue with the lockdown bar engaging now.  If that's the case, I'll simply widen the slot allowing it to line up.

Keep in mind it sounds like I'm really eyeballing a lot of this, and quite frankly I am (taking ruler measurements) which is way out of my style.  I'm very much a "model it up in CAD and make sure everything lines up within half a millimeter" sort of a guy.  But to model all this up for the sake of doing it, or documenting it just seems like a waste of time.

Whenever I finish this project and consider doing another one, I may seriously think about buying stock parts JUST in case the theme is desirable and boutique pinball building is still alive.

Tomorrow I should have my new 3d printed brackets, and I'll be "re-engineering" the lockbar mech.  If I get all that done I can get everything back together.  Oh I'm also painting a shooter rod bracket (the thing that prevents the ball from dropping through the playfield in the shooter lane) tonight that I stole from an extra high speed playfield I have.  I'm pretty sure it'll mount just fine, I just have to think about how I want to do the art for the plunger position notches.

brackets printed

So I modeled up a couple brackets, one for the ball trough, one for the long switches that are going to replace your standard leaf switches (slings, targets, etc).  The ball trough mounted great and feels strong, the other bracket has strength issues.  I already have the 3d model updated,  but the printer at work had clogging issues, so although they're printing they didn't finish before I left work, so I'll have updated brackets tomorrow.  Anyway, here's a quick video:

playfield in

quick update.. Decided to pop the original backbox on, and install hangers from a spare high speed playfield onto my playfield and see how it looks in the cabinet.

Marked the positions, everything lines up... but the shooter rod position is too low, it doesn't fit underneath.  My only guess is that because the lockbar mech is from a 1978 pin that perhaps everything was higher back then (coming just out of the EM era with very flat playfields).  So it seems I have 2 options:
1. Attempt to lower the mech.  It does seem higher than usual, but I'm lining it up with the bolt that holds the coin door.  If I can drill a new hole, maybe this is feasible
2. Make custom hangers that lower the playfield.  Not something I really want to do, those hangers are pretty thick steel, and both of them have to match otherwise the playfield won't be level.

I will say, it IS nice seeing the playfield inside a finished cabinet.  I think it'll help motivate me to keep going.

10.05.14 update - cabinet

Decided to finish assembling the cabinet.  Got the legs re-painted yesterday.  Had to re-adjust the position of a couple of the inner threaded plates for the legs.  I was stupid to trust my eye to line them up, if I were smart I would have stuck a bolt into the hole to not only act as a way to hold the bracket, but to line them up.

First comment from my wife as she walks by "I don't like the backbox, it's too narrow".  Now that I see it all together, I think I agree.  I only made a narrow backbox so that the LCD wouldn't have borders, but I think it looks sorta goofy.  I think it might also look weird when it's got a gap between backboxes in a line because you need space for the flipper buttons.  So most likely I'll be soon sanding down the backbox it came with.

 

Update 10.4.14

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:

http://www.centerlinemodels.com/vacuumforming.html

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 2^nd 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 1/50^th 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.

slight design change

I hate being one of those guys.  As an engineer, I hate when product managers and sales guys can't decide what specifications they want to hold a product to.  Well, I figure at this stage (and because I am my own boss on this non-profit journey), might as well make changes before I get too far along.

So what changed my mind?  Seeing some of the cool stuff other pinball manufacturers and hobbyists are doing.  Started off with Heighway pinball showing off a promo video with the LCD in the playfield:

Yes!  that's totally awesome!  Ok, I'm just gonna move the screen to the playfield.  Hell if I want I can play without a backbox if I really wanted to.  Then I thought.. Where the hell am I going to put a screen in my layout?  Lose the lower playfield? (DONT COMPROMISE THE DESIGN).  Maybe just a strip of the LCD, like the lower 1/4 of it.. Ok sure, even if I go with a 15" monitor, I'm going to have to tilt it at a weird angle so I don't sacrifice the rest of the space taken up by the monitor.  Ok kill that idea.

Then I started seeing some of the cool LED flasher animations the hobbyists are starting to put in Stern backboxes:

Crap! that's so awesome.  My favorite backglass of all time is still by far gottlieb's haunted house because of how they animated a still image just with lighting:

Ok, so I'm stuck on glass again.  I'm not sure I really want to have nothing but LCD like a JJP machine.  There's a reason why people complain about it, and it's not just because it looks bland when it's off.  I want that backlit art, maybe even add some strobes that are attached to the same playfield lighting.  Then I had another idea (maybe the first of it's kind).  What if I had a mixture of LCD AND backlit glass? Keep using the lower portion for scoring, but then use the upper portion of the LCD for artwork that pops up (maybe even animate).  I'd have cutouts in the art (like they used to do before DMD days where the scores would be embedded in the backglass), and I can have various sections be blacked out when the machine is off, but when it's on, those empty areas fill with LCD dots.
This isn't necessarily what it's going to look like, but you get the gist of what I mean by this photoshopped rendering: