Seven years ago (!) I did my original hammer mod for Metallica. Was limited to a set of 30, all hand made. I planned on making an unlimited cast version with a friend, and we just never made it happen. So that was it, just the 30, and I kept #1 for myself.

People still regularly ask me if I'll make more, and I've always said no, because I didn't want to re-do the process again, plus I'd need to change the design to keep the original limited.

The other night I got two more inquiries within hours of each other. Newer members saw my mod on a game for sale and wanted one, and I stopped to actually give it some thought.

It's been a while since I've done a mod, and I got the old itch to design something. Long story short I took a commission to design a new version, with the agreement that when it was done if I wanted to offer more I could, no exclusivity.

I challenged myself to up the quality of the original. My concept this time was instead of sculpting the 'wood' out of epoxy, could I build it using real wood?

Like the original there's a 3D printed core (this time in PETG to better withstand higher temperatures), still with hand-dyed leather and metal spikes, but now the outside body is built using laser-cut and etched hardwood (for this first one I used white oak), with a furniture-grade oil and wax protective finish.

The original top of the hammer has a skull with the edition number burned into it. I wanted to change that too, and after trying a bunch of designs settled on something that felt right. The coffin the balls appear in, with a lock and key set, each key with a 3 ring design to represent the 3 locked balls.

I made a few other engineering improvements with what I learned from the first design. For instance the spikes should be more secure now, I was able to use metal screws with a protective lip inside the hammer to protect the ball from contact, instead of the old plastic screws.

I'm really pleased with the outcome, I may need to make myself one and retire #1 of the original mod on my personal LE.

So here's the deal: I'm going to send the hammer to the man who commissioned it, he's paying $600 for it, and frankly got a deal because of how much work and time I sunk into it. Was a lot of fun though, no regrets if it stops here. That said ...

If anyone else want a ridiculous hand-built wooden hammer for their Metallica for $600 I will make you one. They'll be easier now that I've worked out the design, but still a custom, hand-built process.

Just shoot me a PM if you're interested. First come first served. I'll have to add extra to the price for international shipping, will cover it domestic.

I may try some more exotic hardwoods if I get the chance, was looking at Bolivian Rosewood, or Bubinga, probably just a matter of what I can source that looks cool. Might change the leather dye color some to make sure it matches the wood if I switch it up. Regardless, each one will be a unique piece, just due to the natural variations of wood, with the quality and attention to detail I'm known for. I have my own 3D printer and laser cutter, I'll do every step, nothing outsourced.

Regardless of if you want one or not hope you enjoy some pics. Thanks!

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The original #1 edition with the new version
Installed on my LE for context

Thanks man, it actually made me think about both you and Keith. Keith did the laser cutting on the leather on the original for me, said it smelled pretty bad. Now I've got my own laser and get to experience it in person.

tbh it's not as bad as I was expecting, heh.

The finished mod actually has a kind of lovely smell (it will fade over time) between the burnt oak and the oil and wax finish. I think I could probably bottle it as an International Man of Mystery cologne.

It's wild to think that it was 7 years ago.

Tell you the other legend who helped me with the original project, this guy named Scott Danesi (love you TheNoTrashCougar !) printed all the original shells for me. I was a real 3D printing noob then, the hammer armature was literally the first 3D model I ever designed from scratch. Scott had to explain some really basic stuff to me about, you know, not trying to print things out in empty air.

Now my 3D printer is humming along happily behind me as I type, starting two more shells for the first orders that came in.

Got a 50 watt OmTech CO2 laser in the garage with a 600x400mm cutting area, along with a CNC machine. I actually tried to CNC route out the slots in the wood slats that the leather sits inside of initially, but it was a real pain to setup and switch between machines, keep everything lined up, etc. Ended up just etching them out on the laser, was just easier.

This is what I always wanted though, immediate access to the tools to just be able to try things on my own, so I could fail and fix things without waiting on anyone else. I'll post some of the experiments I did later that didn't make the cut, so to speak. The 'hardest' part was actually the lid, I went through a lot of designs before I found something that felt like "the one".

Nah, you know me, always trying to keep busy with something, I'm happiest when I'm creating and problem solving. To be honest I was in a real creative funk a couple years ago, and now that I've clawed my way back from burnout I'm just grateful to follow any path that presents itself.

I haven't been as active in pinball lately, my arcade focus right now is on fighting games. Have more candy cabs than pins these days, and run a regular weekly gathering. A lot of Street Fighter.

But doing this hammer reminded me what a great playground pinball mods are. It's got me half tempted to try and get a new game just to find more things to build. I still have a half-finished Metallica mod from the pre-Alien days that I should dust off first if I'm in that kind of mood though!

Thanks Doug, hope you're well my friend. Miss seeing everyone.

Heh, understood. This isn't a time limited thing really. At some point I may put it on ice if I'm too busy with other projects to build any, but not setting any cutoffs or anything.

The best thing about 3D printing is the set-and-forget nature of things. Set these two to print before I went to bed last night, woke up to them ready. Got another one running behind me while I work, requires no babysitting.

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Opposite of the laser cutter, I never walk away from it while it's running. Too many horror stories. I've got an acquaintance who stepped out for just a minute while cutting acrylic cases for a project, the fire took out his whole machine and he was lucky not the rest of his shop with it.

Always good to respect the fact that you're cutting through solid material with a focused beam of light. It's a tiny bit hot.

Thanks to everyone who's put in orders so far, looking forward to being able to see several of these assembled next to each other before I send them out.

I'll post some more updates tomorrow for the people who've ordered to see the build progress, but today I cut the white oak for the next four builds, and now I'm getting all the pieces clean.

I mask everything with blue tape before I start cutting and etching, but this oak really kicks up a lot of resin when it burns, and some of it gets under the edges of the tape as the laser super heats things and the adhesive gets soft.

I like to give everything a pass with isopropyl alcohol and wipe off any sticky residue before it's time to put the oil and wax finish on.

I haven't cut the leather yet, you can see the slots etched into the wood so it sits nice and flush in the final build. That's the kind of thing that makes me really appreciate owning my own laser now. It took several rounds of test etches with various speeds and powers to find the right one to get the depth to match the leather. Would be really difficult to outsource that kind of thing.

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Someone messaged me last night to ask if I was going to number and limit these, like I did the first hammers.

The short answer is no. I honestly am pretty certain they're going to be much more limited than the first one, it's a pricey mod, only certain collectors are going to feel like paying for a crazy high end hammer.

But I don't want to cap it, because I'm tired of telling people "no" when they find out about something later and wish they could add it their game. That's what happened with the first one, and I don't want to repeat that. Just doesn't feel good.

That said, I get the desire for numbering, it's fun with a limited thing. So to compromise I'll be including a certificate with each one telling you the build number. Whipped some up last night, made a laser cut key to match the lid, because why not. There are 5 so far, if it doesn't go much higher then hey, cool. I'll track it, so you can always ask me what your number is out of X if you really care.

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All wood cleaned and finish applied, leather cut and dyed, starting assembly. Should have all four of these together by end of day and ready to ship. Which reminds me, need to order boxes and bubble wrap. Luckily Uline is local and gets things here next day.

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I'll post some more pics of finished hammers in a bit, been putting in spikes on and off all day. Advantage of working from home, can multitask at my desk. I'm putting off the last bit right now to type this lol.

So I had the advantage of starting from my existing design. I dug up my old CAD file from 7 years ago and while I ended up redrawing every aspect of it from scratch—and improving the design in several ways based on my experience with the last one and the fact that I'm not a 3D noob anymore—it saved a lot of time because I didn't have to measure anything. I knew what worked, how to attach the hammer to the game, what safely covers the ball etc.

I printed several versions as I worked out how the wood would function, about 3 hours per print on draft mode. The final designs are closer to 4 hours because I'm upping the quality for them. So it was tinker in CAD, print, figure out what was working, adjust, set another print and go to bed. Wake up to new model, try it.

Once I had something pretty final I started working up the wood forms, but first I started in chipboard. It's roughly the same thickness, but is really cheap, made from paper pulp. Great prototype material so you can just try stuff without literally burning through expensive wood. A sheet is a couple bucks, instead of $20-30 for a little piece of exotic hardwood. I happen to have a pic of the chipboard after being cut:

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You can see the 3D printed hammer in the background was still round then. Eventually it became a decagon to better support the wood.

After that I moved to plywood, again cheaper, but this time real wood. That's when I started experimenting with CNCing in the slot for the leather. I have a few pics of that too actually. First here's cutting the relief in with an ⅛" bit on the CNC:

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And then I moved it to the laser to cut the final shapes with more detail:

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Eh. It wasn't great. And it was a pain to set up the CNC, cut, move to the laser, try and align things, be off slightly and be annoyed, etc.

So I moved to using the laser to etch the relief in, and that point I had to move to the real wood, so I can accurately measure the depth of different speed/power combinations. I did around 6 tests, and I think if I'm remembering right it's 200mm/sec at 50% power to do them.

Anyways, you're starting to get the point I think, a lot of experimenting, trying things, retrying things. I basically spent most of a week working on it, sometimes in longer hours, sometimes here and there, or waiting for a new 3D print etc.

Oh, I'll make this as separate post, but I spent a long time trying to get the lid design right. That was just me being picky, and wanting something that felt right. I did plenty of designs that looked good, but just didn't click.

I did several variations of trying to make a Death Magnetic design, that's where the coffin shape for the final one came from. I tried making them 3D, with the smaller coffin inside, down a level. And it looked really cool, as a stand alone design. But kind of weird on top of the hammer itself.

The depth that made it neat just didn't feel right, you don't want something making your big beefy hammer feel hollow somehow I think?

So, in a last attempt to save the design I tried filling the lower coffin area with resin. Yeah. Uh, it didn't go well:

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But, one of the designs found the spider-web, which worked really well with the radiating spikes. And I still liked the coffin, because the hammer locks the balls in the coffin. I tried a spider on the web and rejected it, not on theme, the coffin was right.

After that it was just a matter of playing around with sketches until the keys and lock became the right look. It all felt right. Sort of a secret society deal (I realized later that I think I was subconsciously influenced by watching Doom Patrol, if you've seen it, the Department of Normalcy has a key badge in a similar feel, wasn't intentional though at the time).

You can see more lid designs, including the Death Magnetic ones before the resin failure in this photo:

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Anyways, that's the process. Gonna finish these spikes and post final hammer pics. And then, I just got a special request order I'm excited to work out, so I'll have some pics of a different looking design coming once I try it out.

Okay, first five finished. As I just told one of the buyers, but will repeat for the others here, I've got boxes and bubblewrap coming tomorrow, will probably get these shipped out on Thursday.

Going to work on the special request design tomorrow, so I'll post pics of that progress then, because it's fun to share.

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Had a request for a 'black' hammer build. The exact words were "More darker the better".

This is cut from wenge, which is African hardwood with a rep for being a bit difficult to work with. It blunts tool edges, and the splinters apparently get infected easily. Pretty metal wood.

Can't blunt the edge of a laser beam, but it was a little tricky to work with still. Had to recut one piece. Overall not too bad though.

Once finish is applied it darkens more, not quite an ebony, but about as black as I would go without losing all the detail. As it is the contrast for the etched lines is lower, but it's still a cool look. A little dark for my tastes, but I think it fills the request nicely!

As per the request I also dyed the leather darker. I think this look would also be interesting keeping the leather raw and light with more contrast.

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Since there was interest in the process for these I documented some of making this one, including shooting some video of the laser cutting. I'll try and find time to upload that later.

Thanks! I haven't had a chance to get the other process photos and video together, will post more later. Decided to spend time packing boxes instead.

All orders will go out tomorrow. Last one I had backed out for now, and that's fine, I only got as far as printing the 3D armature. Anyone wants one at any point I'll just keep making them to order if that happens.

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Thanks! I've got this Metallica mod I started in 2015 that I never finished. Some people know about it, a couple Pinsiders even saw prototypes back in the day, and then I started on Alien and kinda never finished it. Hit burnout in various ways after that, and it just got abandoned.

I'm feeling like maybe I need to finish it, and it's not LE or Prem specific this time, so we'll see how that goes. If nothing else, uh, I gotta make some things to use up this roll of bubble wrap, it was the smallest I could order for the hammers.

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You'll see how many layers I wrapped it in shortly, just got back from dropping them all off. If you're paying this much for a mod you'd hope the guy sending it would pack it well!

Thanks! I just got an order from someone who doesn't even own a Metallica, and wants my hammer just to have it. I won't out his name, but that's pretty serious support and appreciation, and I appreciate him back. Definitely don't expect anyone else to do that!

Also, I haven't forgotten about posting that other process stuff just haven't had time to deal with uploading the video, I'll get to it. Traveling this weekend to see family so maybe after that.

It's been both fun and funny to watch the mod game change over the years. When I first got started it was still sort of a random side thing people did for fun, make a little side cash you put back into games, but it wasn't really a big hustle.

I was talking to Chris from ColorDMD back when they only had a couple titles and were new, and I had just started selling my Shadow translite. No idea how long ago this was, 8 years?

I asked him how they gauged "success" for a color title. He told me the benchmark was Bill Ung's AFM saucer mod, one of the granddaddies of the truly original mods. I won't share the number sold, not really mine to say, but I did eventually pass it with The Shadow, and never expect to pass it again with anything I do, heh.

Now you get threads the day a game is announced with people talking about their mod plans, and writing about "their teams" that are working on stuff. More power to them, not judging. But it's definitely a hustle now. People planning mods based on reveal videos before they've even flipped the game. A lot of 3D printing, which is really neat to me honestly, but, sometimes more neat than others.

Again, no judgement, but you know how we talk how how Stern has to keep the line running? Some mods feel like that to me now, you make them because you gotta keep pumping product, not because your heart was really in it.

I just make things when I feel inspired by an idea and it seems fun. I know this is a stupidly expensive mod, and I won't sell many, but it was the way I wanted to make it, and it's too time consuming to even want to make a ton of them.

Doesn't have to be for a game I own, but that sure makes it easier to feel inspired, and more importantly be able to really make the quality be there.

I haven't bought a new game in a while, but I'll be honest, if I did it would at least partially be because I had some idea I wanted to try on it. Prices are insane, but I guess that's not a real barrier if I flip my Tron for something.

Please do, I would love to see people's install photos.

Toppers are interesting in that they're really open-ended, can do whatever you want, but I dunno. I've never been a huge topper person, so never really grabbed me. I thought about making my Metallica a topper using my extra Sparky once, but never did it.

I tend to like taking something that I don't feel represents the game as well as it could, or has some kind of issue, and upgrading it somehow. That's satisfying.

BTW - It's super unimportant, nobody but me even knows the order in which these are built and ordered, but I am tracking it. Every build is filed with its certificate, and I did my best to mail them out in the order they were bought. Making 7 and 8 now, and 7 will be set aside for the man who doesn't own a Metallica and still wants the hammer.

Just feels like the right way to do it.

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Hammers 7 & 8 shipped out this morning, I'm caught up.

I'm traveling this afternoon, flying up to The Bay for a visit with family, be back Monday. I'll keep an eye on things if anyone has questions or PMs, but might be slower to respond than usual, just a heads up.

Just my iPhone X, nothing fancy. I shot the beauty shots on my front porch with indirect sunlight over a piece of black mat board. Some minimal processing just using the phone controls.

Thanks for posting those photos though! I’m traveling this weekend and was trying to explain the project to my brother and sister in law and it was so helpful to have the comparison shots with the stock hammer.

Easy to install?

Have a couple more orders I’ll start on Monday. Should have a delivery of more white oak waiting for me when I get home.

The shaft is threaded, so technically the nut is just there for extra security I think? I know my shaft is threaded.

In theory there should be no problem deleting the nut. I ran my screw from the other side, with the nut on the right, I think it’s more hidden that way. So honestly I never think about it.

But I can look at the threading on that screw to see if there’s a way to replace it with a shorter one. I’ll put it on my list, still traveling so don’t have machine access right now.

Sweet! I always love seeing photos, but also feel relieved when my boxes all arrive safely lol.

Agreed, square block was one of those ideas that didn’t work like it was supposed to, normal newton ball is better.

If you look at this photo carefully you can see my tech:

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Best pic I have handy. But I ditched the block and went with a ceramic TZ ball for my captive ball. This prevents any nonsense with magnets, but also just looks cool.

Going with a normal newton ball also let’s you get some wild ricochet shots off it sometimes which can be very entertaining. I’ve never regretted swapping.

It’s not hard but been too many years for me to remember the details. It’s more involved than my hammer mod install but I don’t think by much.

I think I got my mech from Pinball Life.

I'm back home from my trip now and working on the two orders that came in while I was up in the Bay Area. Realized later I could have probably found a way to meet up with matlynch91 and hand deliver his lol, but it got there the same day I was in Oakland anyways.

Also, just as a personal point of interest, I think I'm moving to UPS for international shipping. Just got confirmation that a hammer made it to Australia and that was faster than USPS, and barely more expensive.

Was experimenting tonight with melting wax into the grain and etchings of the wood with a heat gun and then scraping it with a razor for an interesting finish. So many ways to weather and treat wood, it's a really fun material to find a way to work into pinball.

Which is funny, because the games we love are hugely made from wood, but rarely in the toys and outside of structure.

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Hammer #9 finished, working on #10 now and then caught up for time being on orders.

Still need to upload that video of the laser cutter, will get to it!

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I'm from The Bay originally, but all my family has left now. We all flew in for my dad's opening at a gallery in Oakland. https://fourthwallart.com

At some point I've got arcade business back in San Francisco to attend to though, so I'll be back up again.

I doodled thoughts for your topper on the flight back, nothing really settled in my head though. Thinking it over!

Number 10 finished, both 9 and 10 dropped in the mail this morning. Have someone interested in no. 11, but waiting for payment before I fire up the laser.

At some point when things really slow down I'll work on building my personal one, after handling all these I need to upgrade the one on my machine. I'll stash the #1 version of the original mod as a personal keepsake still, so don't ask if I'm selling it, not going to.

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Okay, finally found time to upload videos as promised. Here's the first one, this is a time lapse of cutting a hammer from white oak. But nice if it was really this fast in real life! As I mentioned before, you really never want to walk away from your laser while it's operating, that's when everything catches on fire.

I tried sticking the camera inside the machine during the cut, hence the somewhat awkward angle.

This is a real time video of cutting just the end, after the (slow and boring to watch) etching is done. Gives you a better sense of the speed of things compared to the time lapse. This is the one I did out of the wenge, with blue tape masking it off.

I've gone back and forth on whether or not it helps to mask it, and the truth is either way there's a lot of cleaning and post processing, not sure it truly makes a difference either way.

I shot this one from above, on the other side of the protective plastic, which is why it seems so yellow. You don't want to risk the laser beam reflecting into your eye!

Hammer no. 11 finished and packed up. Funnily enough with all the other custom stuff maybe the biggest pain in making these is actually just wrapping the leather and putting on the spikes. I finally got smart and tried soaking the leather first, gives it a little more pliability since I stretch it pretty taught as it wraps, but there's no real easy way to get the spikes on tight without just ending up with sore fingers lol. Tricky to grip, hard to get an Allen wrench inside the small cylinder. Just one of those things where you gotta monkey with it manually. And of course I added extra spikes versus the original design.

The way they're torqued down into the leather with Loctite I'm pretty confident they're not going anywhere on a game though.

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If it makes your wife think you're any less crazy you can tell her someone else who doesn't own a Metallica just ordered one too.

Have you seen the sarcophagus mod for Iron Maiden? I just posted in that thread that I get it, I don't own an Iron Maiden and I kind of want one anyways. Some mods are just interesting objects in and of themselves enough I guess.

I don't own any Spike games, in fact Metallica is now my most recent pin since I sold anything newer when I downsized my collection. I need to find one to take some measurements. I want to get an accurate layout of the screws on the top for instance so I can design a factory install, keep everything really clean and simple.

From what I can see the Stern Aces High topper uses some of the top of the back box screws to fasten down, and has holes over some of them to make it easy to line up? I'd probably duplicate that, and either laser cut or CNC a base to match.

Need to look at how the accessory power works too. I think from checking the manual that it's 48v, and I'll need to step that down to probably 5v for lighting and control. Just prefer to be able to test that kind of stuff.

Honestly I was flirting with the idea of letting my Tron go to get something like Iron Maiden or Godzilla just to have a Spike 2 system to be able to work on things with. Just a terrible time to get ahold of games like that. Even Godzilla, which is still being made, is a PITA to obtain.

Was sent some install pics from Jmwhite and I'm loving how the metal spikes look with the chrome-plated armor on this Roadcase version. Definitely a unique game now. Thanks for sharing!

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Dang, suddenly the chrome armor come out the woodwork!

What's the backboard changes you have? Are those some kind of mirrored decals over the stock one on top of the tesla coils?

Ah, interesting. My last Metallica mod I never finished before I started working on Alien was a new backboard. Keep thinking I should go back to it. It lights up? Sounds like I was a little slow to the game lol, but I think I have tricks in my pocket still.

Hammer No. 12 done and ready to go out.

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Thanks! Been a really satisfying project, glad people convinced me to bring this idea out of retirement.

I know it's pricey, but I'll be totally honest, I couldn't keep up with making a ton of these, they're just too much labor. One of those "enjoy doing it, but only so many at a time" deals.

Though after building twelve of them I've figured out a rhythm and smarter ways to do some steps, so definitely some good learning experiences if I ever tackle something along these lines again.

And I'll keep making these custom whenever someone asks for one, nice to not have to cut it off artificially. I feel bad when people hit me up years after I've done something and I have to tell them no. Not your fault you missed it the first time around.

If you haven't seen it already another mod along these lines is the Iron Maiden Sarcophagus:

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/woz-witch-red-smoke-mod/page/120#post-6926316

(Thread started a long time as a WOZ thing and just stayed alive through various projects, I skipped to the end where there's a good photo.)

Same kind of deal, expensive, limited, hand made, but man, the quality is top notch. If I had an Iron Maiden I'd have to have that installed, what an improvement.

Just got back in town from a trip, have a mostly finished hammer from before I left. Just need to make the lid, have to decide if I want to do a custom job for #13 somehow.

If nobody wants to claim this one now I'll put it on my personal machine. Always down to make more of these later if there's any interest.

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Well I love what you're doing with your Godzilla sign. The market is really full of mods these days, and some are very cool, but some just stand out above the rest. Yours is definitely one, has all the right ingredients. Creative idea, well executed, good package, and then the extra level of interactivity alone make it great. And then you let people customize it, and that really takes it up a level.

I was telling you I'm doing faux neon signs with LEDs, and I don't want to clutter up your thread with it, and you don't need my help bumping it, people can't get enough. But this is my thread, and I can clutter it up with whatever I please!

My first sign was for my arcade:

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I 3D printed the channels for all the lettering and design.

The "no drinks" sign next to it is just etched acrylic, but I'm animating it in ways that probably feel a little familiar to your Godzilla sign. Video here:

https://twitter.com/aurich/status/1406345523896872960?s=20&t=7WpiqnEb8b2GYLMfCk68RA

My next sign was a replica of one from the Loki TV show, complete with animation to mirror the show's sign, but I also added color changing controls. More Twitter video:

https://twitter.com/aurich/status/1418375720712040454?s=20&t=7WpiqnEb8b2GYLMfCk68RA

My latest is a bit of a play on words from the games Vampire Savior and Vampire Hunter, known in the US as Darkstalkers. No animation on this one, but I layered in etched acrylic and the silicone flex with an ornate frame design I laser cut:

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This time instead of 3D printing channels for the letters I carved them out of MDF with my CNC. It's a bit heavy, want to try a dense foam next time.

What I've found is it's a really powerful combination to have both additive and subtractive tools. For instance, in the vampire sign I just posted, and I'll look for some better photos and post them later, the skull is 3D printed and airbrushed, and the wings are laser cut plywood and leather. So I get the dimensionality, along with the texture and materials.

The laser is a bigger investment, in time, money, space, learning curve, needing to be able to vent it etc etc. Not as easy to pick up as a 3D printer. But I really love having it.

What I haven't fully learned to use yet is my CNC. But there are things it's better for than the laser, and vice versa. Just need to keep expanding my experiments.

Happy to answer questions!

The signs are done with a silicone flex tubing with LED strips inside that side fire, which gives it a really nice even illumination. With the density of LEDs and the silicone's glow you don't get hot spotting.

It's impossible to really photograph well unfortunately, the vampire sign looks much better in person. It makes for a pretty convincing neon from a couple feet away or more. Up close you can see things that give it away, but even then it holds up pretty well, it's neat stuff.

My first sign used an off the shelf solution, but then I started getting deeper down the rabbit hole, as I often do, and I started rolling my own. I buy the silicon tubing by the roll, and populate it with my own LEDs. That's how I did the noodle bowl sign animations, but using addressable RGB LEDs. Nothing on the market had the right silicone shape or LED density for that, had to do it myself.

The Gutter Trash LEDs are 12v, dimmed way down, they can get freakishly bright. The other signs are 5V, and not dimmed, and that does have the downside of heat. Not a great mix with 3D printed thermoplastics. I should have used PETG instead of PLA. But that's one reason I moved to CNC milling the slots. The CNC is also way freaking faster, and I can do whole signs in one block instead of piecing together multiple parts.

It's something I've pondered using for a pinball project, a topper maybe, but it's so time consuming I dunno that it's a great "product solution". Maybe if I can optimize it, and not have a lot of fiddly parts. The Vampire sign is the worst. The letter I with the X and cross shape means it takes 6 separate pieces all cut, soldered, and wired up to make a single letter.

But worth it for something cool and personal.

Honestly the real theme here with both you and stumblor is going overboard. Somebody is going to be very busy filling all those Godzilla sign orders!

Edit: I will take some more pics when I get a chance and come back to post them too.

I paid $7200 for my LE back in the day. It felt like an insane amount of money to spend on a pin at the time, but I splurged because it was a special game for me. Now people are asking that for their used pros ...

And here I am selling $600 hammers lol. I know I would have sold more if I made them cheaper, but they're just too much work and time to make by hand, even with the fancy tools, to have it make sense for me.

The trick is to find addressable LED strips that are the right width to slip into the silicone sleeving, with the right density to avoid hot spotting and give me smooth animation effects. I believe these are 144 LEDs per meter. I had to import everything from Hong Kong to get the right stuff. But they're standard strips otherwise, the only PCB is the Arduino I'm using to drive the animations and control the colors.

Diffusing LEDs is always the tricky part. So just musing, but could you split the difference? Resin print the characters at half height, just the front, and print a thin backing layer in PLA and glue them together? Best of both worlds?

Not that I'm trying to create more work for you lol, just thinking about it.

Just FYI I'm probably not going to be around Pinside so much again, at least for now. Was enjoying checking back in with the state of things, was really fun to dust off the ol' modding skills, and I'd love to find some more inspiration and energy for that again. But ... just not really into the vibe of a lot of folks here right now.

It's the three Ps I guess. Pandemic, politics, and pissiness, but people can't seem to not try and bring everyone down in too many threads, and I'm not looking for that kind of energy in my hobby time.

Anyways, can always message and me and I'll get it, and I'm not taking my ball and going home or anything, but if you don't see me around so much for a while again that's why. Happy to make you a hammer still, and I'll try and maybe a break will help me get back into working on some mod ideas, just see how it goes.

It just feels so much nastier to me now. Being critical of games is fine, I've written some essays in my days here about game design, but once you can't "keep it in the game" I'm turned off. I won't get into the specific examples, not trying to become what I'm saying I don't like to see, it is what it is.

I did some initial thinking about that topper you wanted me to work on, and then I've been too busy to spend more time on it. But if you're still into it we can talk.

Hmm, never had any issues with this brand of thread locker, and my original hammer design is 7 years old now. It's uh, literally the same tube lol. But in this case it wouldn't be a problem I don't think.

There's a PETG printed core which is strong on its own, but then the design is completely encased in wood which is self supporting because of the way its tensions against itself with the leather strap, and the threadlocker is only applied after a metal machine screw is run through both 3mm of wood and the leather, it doesn't contact the PETG in any way.

Still I was curious and applied a big ol glob of the thread locker on some PETG, I couldn't see any reaction between them. Appreciate the heads up, I don't see any cause for concern with the design or materials.

It's good advice. I thought about it today, and I didn't want to feel like I was rage quitting, so I came back to at least check this thread. Glad I did.

You've really been hardcore about saving that one thread! I respect that.

I'm not thin skinned, I've got over 21,000 posts here lol, I've taken a lot of personal criticism in my time here and lived. But at the end of the day I'm around to have fun. Making mods isn't my job. I like doing it, it's a fun design challenge. And making some side money is cool, of course. But it's not why I'm here, ultimately.

If it's not enjoyable to be around there's no point. And I've seen that hit other people too. I'm gonna ponder if there's a way to find a middle ground. But right now I'm just not looking to be surrounded by the bad vibes.

I still have that hammer I posted about 26 days ago sitting here, I haven't gotten around to installing it in my own game. Just checked it, still super strong and solid.

Oh I have 66 on mine, I use it.

Oh wow, that's a nice case for your hammer!

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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I mean, it's a pain in the ass to drag a game to a show, but I would love everyone there to get a chance to see the hammer, so my biased answer is go for it!

Hammers 20 and 21 are going to new homes.

21 had a request for some extra weathering to look more like the original sculpted run colors. Did it with a combination of airbrushing thin coats of ink washes before applying a beeswax and orange oil finish and then sanding things back. Did a light spatter wash on the leather to give it a little matching weathered texture.

20 is the standard white oak with the tung, linseed, and wax finish.

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Thanks, was a pleasure to be able to hand one off in person for once.

Just to keep the documentation going you are build 22.

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Sorry, only just now seeing this question. I have not released any Metallica cards. I have some that have been in progress for ... 8 years lol. But never quite got around to finishing them since they were tied to another project I haven't finished either. It all got interrupted when I did Alien and haven't ever really got momentum back on it.

Coming out of hibernation to post Hammer of Justice XXIII, on it's way to Baltimore.

I know I'm not around much these days, been focused on work and other personal projects and some pinball stuff for Pinball Bros that I think is being announced soon, but you can always message me to see if I have time to do a hammer. It's something I enjoy taking a break from other things to do.

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