I wanted to try to make a Pinbot topper for my friend and fellow pinsider AXRELAY using mine as a template...His game has the base only so we wont need to make it however its an easy piece to cut and mount if one was needed...Taking a piece of pipe (base of flagpole) that was about the same radius as the topper we marked a straight line down the pipe and also marked the center of a piece of red acrylic http://www.amazon.com/Acrylic-Cast-Sheet-Thick-Nominal/dp/B00OHUEY6U/ref=sr_1_1 purchased from ebay...
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my first attempt was to use a heat gun to make the acrylic pliable, but that didn't reach a high enough temperature so the next step was a small blowtorch. We only had one piece of acrylic so there was not a lot of room for error, but found that moving the flame slowly but consistently over the center strip of acrylic was the key...one of us (with gloves) was holding the acrylic while the other worked the heat and as it began to soften as he was holding it he began to pull it around the tube slowly and work it into place...there were a few areas during the learning curve that I held the heat in one place too long and got some bubbles but very minor imperfections, and the overall product has a few waves in it (If we did a few more they would come out a bit better now that we learned from some mistakes)...here it is after heat and form...
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next he had to trim the bottom (we left it a bit long to make it easier to wrap around the pole)...cut and glue some side caps and add 1" chrome tape (link to come) also from e bay
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not perfect but better than nothing, looks great from the players vantage point...Next up I am waiting for 8 lamp sockets (link to come) and a 6 pin molex(link to come) so I can fabricate the wire harness (again I have a real advantage by being able to put mine next to me for reference as I build a new one)...
(Topic ID: 156389)
Berwyn, PA
Montreal, QC
