I'm currently restoring my first pinball machine and the plastic under playfield parts for my Ball Kicker Unit were in a terrible state and to the best of my knowledge you can't get replacement parts for these, so I decided to 3D print replacement parts.

Fifteen minutes with my vernier and a scrap of paper and another 30 minutes on Sketchup and I had the part modelled.

Ten minutes later I was ready to fix the replacement part to the pinball machine.
I'm reasonably happy with the results and over the weekend will print the other 3 I need.
Got to love the fact that someone used nails to fix the other parts to the underside of the machine............

I've also uploaded the STL file to Thingaverse should anyone else want to print some.

http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:730610

Anyone else used a 3D printer to make plastic parts you can no longer get?
My printer is not good enough to make parts to go on the top of the playfield that are visible, but great for bits like this.

Ball Kicker1.png

Ball Kicker2.png

Thanks ALexF, I must of missed that on PBR when I placed an order with him a few weeks back now.
Though PBR is problematic for me to order from being I'm in Australia and I have to pay by moneygram, so its only worth me placing large orders with PBR as the cost of postage and moneygram makes it too expensive otherwise.
It costs me 10 cents in plastic to print this part so it works well for me.
The next big part to try and make is the plastic sweeper arm of the score reels as the ones on my machine are near impossible to find, but that will be more than one evenings work to design that part.

My 3d printer I got in December last year and I do love being able to say now 'I'll just go and print that part I need.'

LOL the doorbell, though I know what you mean.
Bottom line is I have been looking for an EM machine for nearly a year, but where I live the cheap ones usually sell for $1600 to $1800 which was outside my price range.
I got the restoration project Hollywood for $450, which by the time its finished will of cost me about $1000, but when you have a limitted budget you take what you can get.

The printed parts are not quiet as strong as die cast parts, but pretty close as long as you think about how to print the part, also new materials you can print with are coming out every month expanding what you can do.

Didn't realise they were originally nailed in Mike, I'm very much still on the learning curve on restoring pinball machines, although I've been wanting one for over a decade.

If I succeed in making score reel arms I will make the design freely available.
I could print and post them, but being that I'm in Australia it could work out better ordering them from Shapeways, but it will be a big job to design the score wheel arms. I think 6 out of the 8 arms on my machine have started to crack.

Once I have worked my way through all the myriad of little issues to make the game play correctly then I will worry about the score reel arms, and the small relays on the second player score reels that I need to fabricate.

I was a good feeling 6 weeks after bringing home a rusty, dirty and gummed up machine to be able to turn it and have it atleast half work.

Nicely done Jimmiex.
I tend to rely on my fanacy tools in my workshop to get me through, but I am always impressed by people that manage to do so much more, with so much less.
I haven't put 100 hours into my machine yet, but at a guess I would say atleast 50 hours.

Nothing wrong with the low tech approach.
My playfield has Mylar installed on it and I can see its not going to come off easily, so have just cleaned it and will leave that as is as I can see me ruining the playfield trying to remove it.

I use restorations like this to justify to my wife why I needed to buy those thousands of dollars of tools in my workshop.

Don't let her know I could achieve the same results for just a bit more time and no fancy tools as one of my other pleasures is spending 6 months investigating and then finally deciding what expensive tool I will buy next.

Now the fun is really starting, starting to measure up and design a replacement score reel arm to print out on my 3D printer.
score_arm.png

I'm still debating whether to size the rivet holes to match some 1/16 inch brass rivets I already have or try and track down the original style which I know is very similar to the ones you can get to repair Lionel prewar O gauge toy trains.

I will be making the part slightly different to the original to make it easier to print.

I hope to have the first draft printed by the end of the weekend.
I've a small arbor press that I originally got for fixing Lionel trains to set the rivets.
I am planning on reusing the original wiper blades as I don't have any spring steel to use in place of the originals. That and fabricating the wiper blades would be a PITA.

I'll keep you all updated and if they work will make the design available on Thingaverse.