I’m just going to build one….

I’ve been obsessed with the game ever since I played it at the local pizza joint our family would frequent in the 90s. I have always wanted one but the right deal never comes or the price just keeps skyrocketing. I have a lineup I’m happy with but I still have a hole in my soul for addams family.

I was inspired by wallybgood’s builds years ago and have watched enough high end pins episodes that I feel like I am comfortable building one now. I work at a body shop and have access to a lot of the tools I will need, I do all the mechanical and electrical work here and have a lot of experience with metal fab so I feel I have a good amount of the skills to do this.

I ordered a mirco dark green glitter playfield and will be starting from there. I want to build the bottom side first and then start harness work and then complete the topside. I want to have a complete playfield ready to drop in before I move on. On the last build thread the big concern was the harness. That doesn’t really scare me. I have been saving wire harnesses from cars for about 3 years and will be scavenging as many wire colors as I can and will have to just order the stuff that can’t be found around the shop.

I wasn’t going to start this thread until I got a little farther but I guess here it is. It’s going to be a slow process but it should be fun. If you have any tips or are willing to sell parts please post or pm me.

Here we go!
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Forgot to add, my friend has a machine I can peek at for reference. My son loved it too so that will be extra motivation.

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Stripped down a harness for a 2019 ford mustang last night.
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Harvested some good lengths of 22awg wire. 33 different colors that are on my list and about 8 colors not used. Surprised there isn’t any white tracers used on this game.

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Still waiting on the playfield, sent cad files to sendcutsend to get all the ball guides cut. I do want to get the PF here first before I get more parts coming.

Did some digging in my spare bins, I’ll have to double check but I think the bumper parts and a couple coil brackets should be the same. I’ll tumble those and see how they come out.

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Started to make some playfield side rails tonight. I had some figured maple laying around I decided to use.

9CF17982-85E9-4DDA-8B16-36254FA27904 (resized).jpegI cannot decide if I should stain them smoke/dark or purple. Then it will be clear coated gloss I think maybe a dark deep purple might be the way to go. Accent the purple on the game a bit.
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Thank you! I have a buddy with a cnc I am hoping I can convince to cut one for me. If not I will make a cab and use my jackbot as a template. Unless a used cabinet comes up semi locally I could restore.

I was planning on using birch plywood. I have used it in the past on speakerboxes and a couple arcade projects. My friend has an addams I can check out for reference and I have a jackbot that should be the same cab I can work from.

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The cost I am not worried about. I am not rich but can come up with money in small waves. I have a couple other hobbies I am going to clear out of my life and that should give me a good start. Also have an extra vehicle I have had laying around and will be selling it to fund this, perfect time used cars are going for crazy prices.

I can’t justify spending 6-8k on a used addams that needs a lot of the work I am going to be doing anyways. I also really don’t care how long this takes but I am shooting for having it done next spring/summer. Hopefully be done with the playfield and harness this summer/fall.

Thank you. Maybe I’ll make an extra wireform when I make mine. I’ll let you know when I get to that step

Been following him since day one. I do plan on making a lot more parts myself than him, should keep the cost down a bit.

Playfield showed up!

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Flattened out a few inserts and prepped for clear coat. Clear should be here tomorrow and I’ll throw it in the booth. I didn’t get too aggressive with it I’m no kruzman or hep, but wanted to protect it a bit.

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I was on the fence about re clearing this thing but I gave it a little tap on an edge you can’t see and the clear chipped fairly easy. It seems too hard/brittle to me.

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I was talking about this with the painters and a ppg salesman. They have ceramiclear on them that is known to be harder than other clears. I think too hard of a clear will chip easy and too soft of a clear will dimple. There probably isn’t a perfect middle ground because the products used were not designed with pinball in mind at all. Either way I think what I put on there should help seal up the sharp edges that were made from being routed after the clear was applied. It seems like that is the main reason they start chipping.

Clear is on. Got a few fisheyes on the mansion so I will probably wait a bit and do another coat. Don’t want it to get too thick though.

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PF blocked out and prepped for clear again
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I’m happy with it now, minor dust that can be taken care of with buffing. Going to let this thing sit for a month while parts get gathered and then buff it. This clear layed out really well.

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All scoops on the way, all the flippers mechs, light sockets, switches, everything to build the bookcase mech is on the way. I’m going to be out of town for a week so it should all be here waiting for me when I get back. The only parts I will be missing from the bottom side with be the the light boards, high power board, thing motor, thing box, thing opto, and some kicker coils.

Plan is to start building and wiring the bottom side while saving a bit of cash to get topside parts coming. Excited to get wiring

Well I just got back home and we got 36 inches of shipping delay. My sendcutsend order showed up though. Pretty sweet deal honestly, the parts look great.

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More goodies in the mail! I’m going with all the pops in this color combo but I will be tinting the caps to match the smoked ramp.

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Scoops!

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Parts rollin’ in today!

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More parts. Looking like my package from Australia got lost though. Son of a…

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Pinside member Wallybgood did all the work on the cad files. I believe he has just made files for games he has remade himself. Can't thank him enough!

Ahahh! They found my package and came back. Whew

I think I can finish the bottom side with one or two more orders. Need to wait for a few of my ebay auctions to end to recoup some funds.

One thing I was hoping to find used or just cheaper is the thing motor. 329$ is steep for that IMO

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I can’t decide what to do. I have about half of the 22awg colors I need. So either order the remaining colors or order just the base colors and use a heat shrink label maker to label colors and components

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That is just a pic from google, I was looking at a p touch last night. Is there any draw backs? Seems like thats the cheapest option.

https://www.amazon.com/SuperInk-Compatible-Brother-HSe-211-PT-P750WVP/dp/B07H95SPBF/ref=mp_s_a_1_1_sspa

Testing out a new tool I have no idea how to use.

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Yesterday finished buffing some dirt nibs on the playfield. I’m not going to flat sand and buff the whole thing, I have a tendency to mess with things util they are perfect, or I ruin them. I’m happy with it.
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Started screwing stuff on last night. Getting a feel for how everything fits together. Still waiting on diodes or I would have installed them before the controlled lights and switches. Also I think I might weld up a rotisserie this week.

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I got the wrong 8-32 t nuts so will have to make another trip to menards to get the three prongs. Still missing a lot from the top side too. Don’t have most of the posts yet.

I have thought about the opto flipper switches. I like the way they feel on my jackbot, but I also like being able to cradle with the main flippers and hit jackpots with the upper on my whirlwind. So kinda leaning towards the old style. If thats even how it would work with this system I’m not sure.
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I wasn’t planning on doing a rotisserie but I will be doing more back and forth than I thought so. No biggie I’ll just make one.

3d printer. Should be useful, so far all my prints beside a test print have failed though haha.

Got my first print to work. Need to measure one of these and make sure this is the right size. I want to make pretty much everything out of this smoked clear resin. Star posts, thing box, bookcase cover…..

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I found an elegoo mars pro for 100$. Couldn’t pass that up.

I know nothing about these, but should be pretty fun either way haha

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The smoky black I bought was only like 23$ for 500g, not too bad. They make stuff that is cheaper too.

Tonight just laying a few more things out and test fitting. Trying to get a list of stuff I missed and stuff that will hold me up. Forgot to order the teeny hardware to hold some of the switches, and didn’t order enough targets. Woops

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Well I ordered a ball trough. All the parts match from the taf and bk2k manuals but the base plate. Hopefully will work or just need to be trimmed. *fingers crossed

The complete assembly has the same part number, thought that was odd.

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Well that gives me hope at least. Sweet

I’m actually just basing it all off of the manual. The t nuts I bought in bulk at menards. Turned out to be cheaper per and will have extra if I need them.

3d printed some posts today. Need a little work to be perfect but shouldn’t be hard. I wanted a tinted clear post and couldn’t find anything. I’ll print a bunch of these and throw a little clear on them to get the gloss back.

Also they seem just as strong as the oem posts.

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After cleaning/curing
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Got some time to work on pinball tonight. Nothing too crazy but started getting the diodes on everything.E2A44B90-B3D7-46D5-A61C-BADAC5273F08 (resized).jpeg

Also my curing machine for 3d prints showed up. Got some posts done, will have festers electric chair printing tonight.

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I’m using a UV resin printer. It hardens the resin layer by layer to print the object, but it doesn’t fully harden the resin. So you use a wash and cure machine to wash the parts of leftover liquid resin and then it shines a uv light on it and rotates the part so it fully cures.

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This is what they look like right out of the printer. Still needing washing and curing.

Chair print last night was a success. Still have to wash and cure it. I think I want to try to fit one of those flame bulbs inside this thing.

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I haven’t been able to smell since november 2019 so it had been no issue for me lol. I had it in the basement but moved it to the garage. My wife never complained about the smell. This one has a little carbon filter on it to keep the fumes down. I don’t think the smell is as bad as people say, but you probably wouldn’t want it sitting next to your couch.

Couple parts showed up today. I was trying to only focus on parts to finish the bottom of the playfield but got these used for a deal so I had to jump on it. Speaker panel will buff up nicely and probably repaint and decal the apron.

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Started on a rotisserie today. Need to find two thicker square plates for bases. This one will bolt to the playfield mounts. The front side will have a flat bar that bolts into the holes that hold the front playfield supports on.

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Finished up with the rotation station today. Only thing I did not measure was the bench. It’ll work though!

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Maybe I’m putting too much thought into this but it is going to be on this stand for quite a while and I don’t want it to warp. I wanted the same forces on the wood as if it was in the cabinet. So I made it mount at the points it does normally.

That’s my next order of business. Part of the reason I built the stand this way too.

Cutting some side rails tonight. Reminding myself of why I prefer working with metal

They’ll be alright though. Won’t be seen for the most part.

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Another wave of parts showing up this week. Finally broke down and got the thing hand motor (was hoping to find one cheaper). Excited to finish up a few things then get some things done on the top side.

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I got the plastics from planetary pinball

Did a bit of tinkering tonight. Hoping to get the thing hand and bookcase assemblies done soon and get the side rails on.

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Got one thing done last night.

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oh yeah, just been tinkering here and there no huge visual updates. Working on getting a smoked ramp at the moment. Also been working on the rails, probably putting too much work into something that won't be seen

Welp, I was determined to get a smoked ramp and it's just not going to happen I guess. Ordered a clear ramp today. I was kind of stuck on this so I can at least move forward again. LETS GO!

Also my source for a really affordable set of under playfield light boards is ghosting me, so if anyone has a line on a set or can make them please PM me. thanks!

Got this picture of a playfield in an email offering some parts for sale from florida. I thought the UK outlets were a little weird. Quick google search found the origin. Sucks too I really need light boards. So far three scam attempts and two times being completely ghosted after lining up parts.

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Awesome, I messaged you. Thanks for the reply

Made a huge jump forward today on parts. Cannot thank Sheev_Palpatine enough!

If I hadn’t logged into pinside to whine about almost getting scammed I would never have linked up with him.

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A bit of guide work tonight. Finally getting towards the part of the year where I’ll have consistent time to work on this.

A bit of a fitment issue with the inner guide. Not sure if its the playfield or the guide but the mount was right over a bulb so I had to cut it off and improvise.

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Bent up a couple more guides last night. Starting to kind of look like a pinball machine. I forgot to order rubbers and spade bolts so I'll have to build an order today.

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So glad I bought this little brake. This is so much easier than I was expecting. I haven’t started on the complex pieces yet though.

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Yep it has magnets on it, just pops right on the jaws. I went with the eastwood, I have their shear and it has been great for years. Looks like 14g is the max.

https://www.eastwood.com/eastwood-6-inch-vise-press-brake.html?gclid=CjwKCAjwzNOaBhAcEiwAD7Tb6Hc04OvHCGJ7zPwmPieBXDTl_cxPNH1IYvs538Y0Pt97iFluK-uxBRoCCk8QAvD_BwE&wcid=18399899718&wickedid=&wickedsource=google&wv=4

Slowly but surely. Finished up the bookcase scoop last night.

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Can anyone confirm some measurements for me? I think my ramp may be warped. You have to flex it pretty hard to get it into place.

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Yeah screw holes are no biggie but it doesn’t fit around the post and target. You really have to stretch it out. I checked with the seller and I guess they are all like that. So I’ll have to heat up and stretch it a bit. Glad I figured it out before I tint the ramp though.

Trough installed along with the outhole kicker.
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Been hopping around a lot lately, my A.D.D. Is in full effect. It’s all progress I guess. I started assembling pops and did a little GI wiring.
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I have a set lined up hopefully, if that doesn't end up working out I will take you up on that. Thank you!

Started assembling the bookcase mech this weekend. Did not get as much done as I would have liked (built the kids a backyard ice rink).

I somehow never noticed the little switch brackets on the back in reference pictures. So I cut up an old ball guide on my shear (ed sheeran) and bent them. Hopefully I can get this and the optos wired tonight and get it mounted.

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Bought a load of used stuff for a couple key pieces. I will be cleaning up everything I have doubles of. Hopefully someone else doing a build can use it.

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Just went through your build thread, looks great!

I have a lot of time to think about it. But if I do another build after this it will be a TZ, white water, or dr who.. fun game!

A few setbacks lately. We left town to go pick up a kitten and my old ladies engine let go. The spark plug ceramic shattered and bent some valves. These years of pilots had oil consumption issues anyways so I had a wrecked pilot at work I have been saving for an engine swap. Wasn’t planning on doing it right now though.

Donor engine out, preventative maintenance and swap to our car this weekend.. Then back to pinball stuff

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With removing the engine from the donor pilot I probably have 10 hours into this whole deal. I’ve never done a playfield swap but I’m sure if I dedicated some time to it instead of just tinkering it would be about the same amount of time.

I am excited I can finally get back to working on pinball stuff again, after I recharge a bit I will post more updates when I get some progress worth getting pictures of.

It’s all just bolts and wires. Just like pinball if you take it chunk by chunk it’s not that complicated.

The wife’s kid mover rides again, for now. Time to scrap the white one.

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A key component showed up in the mail today. Hopefully my cliffys show up soon so I can back to work. I am still having issues getting lamp boards made. I have the files to get it done but apparently there is some issues with them .

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Wow it’s been a long time. I finally tracked down some lamp boards! It was a good mail day today. Time to get crackin’ again!

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I have to get crackin on this. Have been picking up parts here and there. I still need to find a soundboard. I have a cabinet on the way from virtuapin, I think it’ll be a while still though. I’ve redone these rails a few times and tonight I finally got them done, not great but acceptable. I have an issue with stuff being perfect, super frustrating especially when tools hold me back. I have to just let it go and keep moving. Going to bring the rails to work tomorrow and sand them and pre for paint. Can’t decide what color to go with though. Got all the cliffys on and tinkered with a few things. More frequent updates to come!

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Nothing crazy tonight, bent and riveted the two ball guides for the train shot and one by the pop bumpers.

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Quick bit of tinkering tonight.

One more ball guide done and installed.
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Started bending on the shooter ramp.
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Had some extra time before lunch at work to throw some welds on the ramp. Forgot to order a ramp flap so I got that coming and a few other bits from mantis.

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I already ordered it. I am super indecisive and was thinking about building one, talked to kirk about it, talked to virtuapin. If I ordered it when I started kicking around ideas I would have it by now. So it'll show when it shows, It would be nice if it was quick but either way I need time to get the playfield sorted out still.

I have read virtuapin does great work but does take a long time. I haven't seen any pictures of kirk's work, no website to order from, and if you google
"kirk weaver pinball" nothing great comes up.

I can’t decide. I do have a lot of overpour from cars I save and I was thinking about doing the apron and rails a nissan color I like called midnight purple.

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I contemplated flaking out the cab and throwing a dark purple candy on it, then having custom decals cut. The decals end up being almost the same price as radcals though. I wish I could find vector files for the cab artwork, I want to make stencils for the lightning and print the rest.

Couple more parts showed up. I can get the shooter ramp flapped up and finished now. Rails are about ready for paint too. I need to order diodes and headers for the lamp boards, I wish GPE was still open.

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I have a ton of 4004s, the boards are labeled for 4007s though. I suppose they can be substituted.

Some dark purple (LP2) on the rails and apron today. Love this color.

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I was given a good vector file for the apron artwork. Not sure what colors I am going to go with yet but I plan on printing them without the black border. Maybe silver and gold. Matte black and charcoal might be cool too.

Went and picked up my parts at work. I didn’t want to bake the wood rails so I gave them some extra time to cure. It’s a shame this will never be in the sun!

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While at work I spent a few hours on my other little project.
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I’m happy with how this looks. I had 10 different ideas for colors for these parts, I’m so indecisive though, just have to pick something and move forward.
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Rails are in, FINALLY!…

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Little progress tonight, shooter gate installed, shooter ramp flap riveted on and installed.
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Opto and interrupter installed on the thing and bolted the assembly on. Eject assembly built and installed.

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Got it, I think one screw was a bit loose making it do that. Tightened the other one slightly and it straightened out.

Planned on getting the diverter done tonight but marcos didn’t send me a coil stop.

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That makes sense, thanks for the tip. I will put something on there for sure.

Thank you. I have set of boards that were gone through by Chris Hibbler. I am missing a sound board still though. If nothing cheap pops up for sale soon I will probably buy a bare board and build one myself.