Pinball has always had grumps and stupid arguments. Nothing new under the sun.

What's changed over the more recent years is the people who can't leave their culture wars behind. And it's not just a couple, it's too many now.

I'm opinionated as f*ck—I think anyone who's been around me at all knows that—and yet, I know how to keep it in my pants here. I'm just trying to talk pinball hobby stuff man.

Anyways, I'm just weary of having to dodge it all. I don't want to be padding out my ignore list constantly, and feeling generally irritated. That's not why I come here.

Hey, I appreciate that. And there are lots of cool people here still.

Just feeling fried by the nonsense, it saps my creative energy, and I'm trying to stay protective of that as best I can. I'm having a great time finally having a laser cutter, I'm trying to learn how to use my CNC for more stuff, I'm still 3D printing a ton, and I'm always looking for ways to combine it all.

I went to a big fighting game tournament recently and built a new stick to take with me to compete. 3D printed frame parts with laser cut panels, and a bunch of different materials and textures. Was a lot of fun.

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Gutter Trash is my garage arcade, I host fighting games there every week. Where I hang all my signs, and I do other little fun stuff for it, like tshirts and stickers.

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I'm always going to find my creative outlets. And I'm down to do more for pinball, but I dunno, just gotta re-find some enthusiasm for something. Maybe if it wasn't such a PITA to get new games these days I'd swap out something for a new title that would inspire me.

I'm mainly a Street Fighter player. My arcade is definitely Street Fighter focused, but I dabble in other games at times and my crowd plays a variety too. Smash to Marvel to Guilty Gear. I run everything from SF2 to brand new games, like to keep the variety up.

At Combo Breaker I entered Third Strike and Street Fighter V, those are pretty much my 'main' games these days. In Third Strike I have a scrubby Dudley (the origin of "Gutter Trash") the usual pocket Ken, and play a little Denjin Ryu. I main Laura in SFV.

I would call myself a decent player. I don't really practice seriously, I'm not super focused, but I've also been playing for years, and I do enter tournaments. I'm not going to be the best player in the room, but I can hold my own, and that's pretty much where I'm content to be.

The fighting game community is incredibly diverse, it's really a massive difference compared to pinball. I very much enjoy that, it makes for a healthier scene. There are jerks and idiots and dumb arguments like any decently large community still has, but by and large the really toxic stuff is called out and not tolerated.

Pinball, to me, suffers from being too mono-cultured. That's why the band pins are all ACDC, Kiss, Aerosmith, Rush, Queen, Led Zeppelin, etc. Nothing wrong with classic rock, but they're all aimed at the same audience and tastes. Old white guys with money is the audience, and I get it, but it does still get a bit predictable.

I'm doing a little consulting work on Queen, and I think it's going to be a cool game for Queen fans. I will admit I am not one, so my personal excitement for it isn't that high, just trying to help out with some stuff. That and making these hammers has been my only real pinball involvement as of late. I'm not even playing my own games. I don't even always turn them on when I host the arcade.

Keith Elwin is really the only person doing interesting stuff for me right now. If I could just go out and buy a Godzilla without hassle maybe I'd sell my Tron to get one and grab one of your awesome signs!

I'm taking the smart advice and just reading this thread right now, haven't completely left, and I'm not deactivating my account or throwing a tantrum or anything. I dunno how long people want to keep going back and forth with me over whatever on page 3 of my hammer mod thread heh, but I'll try and keep an eye on it.

I am doing my best to not be a hypocrite, and I'm not diving into politics and my specific feelings on the state of the world and how other people in my hobby are acting. I can't complain about others doing something and then act like I'm special and above the rules.

But, the world right now is really stressful, and I'm trying to balance reading the news, running the Ars Technica moderation team—and basically being bombarded with hot topics and personal stress and anxiety—with finding places to downshift and just enjoy things.

I don't need the extra anxiety from people constantly dragging their culture war baggage into threads. Just out of capacity to deal.

Anyways, enough of that, just trying to explain my thinking. Pinside is what Robin wants it to be.

I've got some rosewood here I kind of want to make a hammer with. I don't really have a need for making another other, but I want to see what it looks like, maybe that will be the one for my personal game. I definitely love this new design enough to want to replace my original modded one.

I need to do some reading up, I know the finish I've been using specifically says you can't use it on rosewood, because it won't ever dry properly. I guess it's a naturally oily wood, not sure what works on it.

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If nothing else I really should finish the one I started in freaking 2016. It needed a CNC and a laser cutter to make work (could possibly do it all on the laser) and I was outsourcing various prototype stuff for it. That's when I decided I really needed to have my own tools, it's just so slow to order up test parts.

You have an idea, you sketch it up, and then you have to pay for someone to make it, wait a week for the part, all so you can test it and realize it's not even the right approach. Bleh.

Now I just go out to the garage, fire up the laser, and toss some scrap in for a quick cut/etch and 10 minutes later I'm poking at it with some LEDs and realizing what's right or wrong. I can tweak it and do it over five times in a row no problem. It's just a huge game changer for my process.

If I had all these tools back then I would have finished it before getting derailed working on Alien.

Anyways, it took me a while to get it all, but really Metallica was the original motivation to make it happen. And now I use it all the time for all kinds of things.

Last weekend my brother was visiting and we saw a video about Hnefatafl, aka Viking Chess. We both like board games and got curious about what it's like to play. So I whipped up a quick board grid and some piece designs that night and cut them out of thick cardboard the next day. Airbrushed the colors on and had a perfectly serviceable board to play try:

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Turns out it's a lot of fun! So we spent an afternoon making a nicer one out of wood, and I sent it home with him to Eugene. Great way to spend a weekend, got to make something with my brother that he now has to remember it.

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When I joined Pinside I had been working on a design for a pinball cabinet that was Día de Muertos themed. Never went anywhere with it, just one of those projects I tinkered with and ultimately abandoned. I can't even remember what the real plan for it was anymore. But I had a folder full of reference images for it, and one of them was a tattooed arm with this face on it.

I needed an avatar when I was making my account and I just grabbed an image from that folder because it was handy. Nothing deeper than that, it was a cool face. People would be mad at me if I changed it now I suspect. You get to feel familiar with these old avatars when you hang out long enough.

I've met people at shows who thought my avatar was actually a picture of me in makeup and were surprised that I didn't match up to it.

Was told I should check my Shadow thread, so popping into Pinside to see what's up. Gonna give this thread a quick bump because I have a hammer I made and never sold, so if anyone wants one "in stock" lemme know.

Still pondering other mods, but been busy with trying to organize a bathroom remodel, sucking all of my extra energy.

Until some alien mfer comes and takes a dump in your private toilet.

We are going fancy upgraded Toto though.

Aquia IV with the S500e. I think I'm good with the jets not blasting me off the seat tbh lol.

This conversation took an unexpected turn lol, but I'm with it. We didn't opt for any auto lids or auto flush or auto anything, just a Washlet+ to hide all the wires and plumbing, and I wanted a one piece to make it all easier to clean. I would have been fine with any of the bidet models tbh, but my wife didn't like how sloped the back is on the lower end ones, so I got the nicer one. Works for me.

This will be our first Toto, but I'm excited for it. Really, the whole project is way overdue, the bathroom desperately needs a full tear down. The back porch is piling up with stuff and we're finalizing picking a contractor.

It ain't cheap though, so I really should get around to designing a new mod.

I know these hammers are stupidly expensive for what they are, not sure what the price point of my next one will look like yet. I'll be honest, I'd rather sell less mods and go overboard designing them even if that makes them a little pricey. But I'll try and pack a little more value into the next one, the hammers are very specific and singular, you get one cool thing, but that's it.

Nope, utterly random. Just total whim when picking an avatar, wasn't ever intended to be a big decision, but now I feel I can't change it.

Lucky hammer 13 is going to a new home.

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As always if anyone wants me to build them one I'm down to keep this project alive as long as there's interest. Clearly it's going to end up more limited than the original 30.

Been busy lately, just took our eldest to college, been a bit dark on the hobby front. Anyone who's done it knows how whirlwind that can be. But everything is going great, classes started, dorm working out, honestly finally starting to relax a little.

Time to get the ol' noggin working on projects again!

Since I'm around again, so just giving this a bump while I'm checking in. College is expensive, who wants a hammer?

Hammer #14 is a special request build. This one is cut from Purpleheart, to go with a purple-armored game. Always happy to take exotic wood requests if the standard White Oak isn't quite your thing.

This one also had an additional ask though, which was to not put any kind of finish on the wood like I usually do. Which is why it looks a bit dull and dry.

I use various oil and wax finishes generally to both protect the wood and bring out the depth. This time the new owner wants to try experimenting with oxidizing the wood first and then applying their own protective sealant afterwards, which apparently can enhance the purple qualities of the wood. Looking forward to seeing the final results!

Just to give you an idea of how this would look with a standard finish I put a little beeswax and orange oil 'feeder' finish on the scrap circle of Purpleheart on the right, and I did go ahead and finish the key for the certificate too.

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I'm not an exotic wood expert, never used Purpleheart before, but there's a really great lumber mill not too far from me that carries a wide stock, and will mill it down to the dimensions I need to laser cut it. Really wasn't hard to put in a special order with them for it.

Was really curious to see how this came out!

As a default I like the way the white oak I'm using looks, it's "the look" I had it mind when designing the whole package. But it's been fun to take a couple custom requests to match people's games/aesthetics.

My favorite part on both these other woods I've done (the other is the wenge on page one) is reading up on them before starting to watch for gotchas and finding warnings that they can blunt tools and be hard to cut. So far my laser beam seems un-blunted.

Also, apparently wenge splinters can get infected, it seems like pretty metal wood.

Had a few different people message me lately to ask if I'm still making these. The answer is yes, I'll keep making them as long as people want them.

I'm taking a break from Tron toppers to build #15, just about to put a little wash into the deeper etchings to pop them before I put finish on.

As long as I was getting the wood out to cut on the laser I did a second set, will keep them for if anyone else wants a hammer to save some time.

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Hammer #15 finished.

This is kind of a special milestone for me, my personal goal when I started this project was to make at least 15. The first version was 30, and I knew at this price point it would be harder to sell, but I had hoped to win over enough people with the design and details to at least do half of that.

I gave this one a little extra weathering on the leather, put in some minor scuffs and then added a patina of washes and inks over the leather dye to add a little more character. If this project stops here I'm very satisfied, and I appreciate all the support.

But always happy to do more if anyone ever wants one. Slowly removing the big plastic hammers from games!

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For sure. I’m traveling this weekend, but heading home tomorrow. I’ll send you a payment link and can build you one once I’m settled again.

Home, PM sent.

Taking advantage of the SoCal weather to build hammer #16 in the backyard while the animals get to roam.

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Someone said they wanted a hammer so I started making it, and then they changed their mind. Which is cool, I could have waited until full payment to start working, that's on me.

But I have all the parts ready to assemble if anyone wants one with a fast turnaround.

You got it! #17 in the house.

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One leads to another …

#18 done. I have a request for something different, still working it out, but #19 will be done in a bit with some sort of twist.

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Someone reached out to me asking if I could make them a unique hammer, but the only request was that they liked the South American purpleheart wood I'd used. This time though I did my own oil and wax finish on it. Other than that I was told to just use my creative juices to do something fun.

I left the leather raw instead of dying it, because I liked the contrast with the dark wood. To make sure this hammer really felt different though I wanted to give it a unique lid, and decided to laser etch and hand paint (combination air and hand brushing) an eye to go with the ones on the outlane plastics.

Hope they enjoy it, I know I enjoy a creative challenge. The OG look is my favorite, it's the design I settled on after a lot of sketches, but I never mind transforming it, the hammer makes a good canvas for different ideas.

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