I will consider the JD ramps. I'm at a point where I need to get a few things promised done. I'm in the middle of a last call GnR ramp run that turned out to be much bigger than I expected, but I think I see the light at the end of the tunnel. The GnR ramp was delayed due to a large number of the G ramps being rejected by the quality control department. (uh, me). So I decided to rerun a bunch of the G ramps. I am anxious to put this run behind me as in comparison to a lot of other stuff I do, these are tough. I am notifying the GnR folks on my list starting today. I am currently out of plastic for the rest of the GnR run, but picking more up tomorrow....actually the last stuff my supplier has at the moment in this special thickness. The NW Pinball show begins on the 31st and I will be done with this run by then. Next up is to complete the molds for Black Belt and Transporter as I have promised those for a long time. That will clear the board on real commitments and I can focus on what I will do next along with the new heater. I'm really anxious to lighten my load so I can focus on the next ramps.

Guns 'N Roses ramp update...

I believe everyone who had indicated interest has been contacted for ramps. At the moment I have just enough G ramps to cover everyone, but expect I will see some who no longer want them. R ramps will continue to be made on demand and at the moment I am short R ramps only because I am almost out of the thickness I use for these ramps and my supplier is out of this thickness. I actually have enough to cover everyone on the R ramps, but I do not want to make any more than I need since I'm short.

If you had indicated interest and did not hear from me let me know. There are already a couple Pinsiders that have not responded to the notification so I expect I will end up with 2 or 3 extra G ramps.

Please, those of you who have been notified that are no longer interested, let me know so I can whittle down the final list.

To all of you who ordered, thank you. Personally?...Whew!

Mark

Of course!....pm sent

This is the second set that I have seen that has been damaged by excessive heat at some point in transit. Sending pm and we can chat.

So...I think I am actually catching my breath with ramps. Pretty much wrapped up the Guns' 'N Roses...I seriously doubt I will ever do those again! Focusing on just filling orders for existing stuff and working on the molds for Black Belt and Transporter. I have almost finished prepping the Blackbelt donor ramp for casting. Will probably hold off casting the Blackbelt until I get the Transporter ramps ready...btw...going to do all three of them. Once I have all of them cast, I will probably be taking some time off to enjoy a little summer in the mountains while the molds cure. I chose to set up the Blackbelt mold first 'cause it was a bitch!

You all know I get lobbied for ramps a lot. Over the past couple years I have pretty much promised certain ones that I have not gotten to yet. The hardest part and probably my least favorite, is making the molds. I did get a request for one of the ramps for Radical, and I explained that it just was not on any near term radar. He asked if it would help if he made the mold...uh, yeah. So we talked a few times and he took a shot at it. He sent it to me just a week or two ago. He did pretty well....probably 90% there for me. He worked on it a long time and said he never wanted to do that again. I spent today tweaking his handiwork and have it ready to form. Hoping to pull the first one tomorrow. Attached are two photos...How he sent it to me and how I modified it.
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Couple things...Obviously we need angled edges all the way around for the form to release from the plastic. Also reduced overall size just to make the forming process easier. Last thing was there is a point on the inside turn of the ramp where the ramp wall stops and goes to the bottom...This transition point needed to be extended for a clean break.

I did get a Radical ramp formed today, however, some of the underlying Bondo was unstable and the plastic actually pulled some of it free. I will need to aggressively sand the entire mold and recoat it with a new layer of Bondo. Will end up completely grey when I am done. Probably a day, maybe two for me to fix it.

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Didn't take me long to change my mind. While the first pull wreaked havoc on the mold it formed nearly perfectly...just had to wash off some Bondo that stuck to the plastic. As I began sanding the mold I encountered some cracks in the mold so not confident I can continue and be as successful as I want. Not all is lost. I will use the first formed piece in the photo above to cast a ceramic tomorrow. This will insure we have a stable mold. Expect it will take 10-12 days to cure and then we should be good to go. Still many thanks to dung for the model. Once cured, it will only take maybe a day to finish the mold for forming. The fact that I too hate Bondo dust may or may not have had a role in this decision.

As my son and I brainstorm new design ramps we actually envision using CNC cut material to use for the first pull which then in turn is used to cast a final durable mold.

Not sure on the material, but not steel or aluminum and yes way too expensive, unless you are set up to do it already. My son has something in mind and I can't remember at the moment what it is. Contracting that out is very expensive and you still have to come up with the technical data to program it. Would make sense if you doing production like the old days where you were producing 10 to 20 thousand units. These days we have to consider only maybe 100 for runs at best and far fewer than that on some. While I do "runs" for new releases and some of the stuff I have already done like Guns 'N Roses (4 runs!), since I do everything, I can basically make ramps on demand. I really keep very little inventory. Making the molds is the hardest and most time consuming part. Even though I am actually going to recast what @dung did for me, he still did 80%-90% of the work. Forming is the easiest part and then finishing the ramps is a challenge as well and where you suffer the most losses. On the last run of GnR I threw out 26 G ramps.

@dung's Bondo ramp successfully and very nicely converted to ceramic.

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Good son!

Very possible to damage the ramp when making a mold. See photo below if Bondo is used to cast one. I do plan on doing the Whirlpool ramp fairly soon and I think I can do the other one as well. Can you measure the length of it?

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I can do that one with the current. Black rose is probably next up for me to do, so I will probably do both. At the moment, I am working on the molds for Black Belt, Transporter and we slipped in the one ramp for Radical that dung assisted with. The Radical ramp was cast a few days ago, the Black Belt ramp and the Transporter ramp cover were cast last night. I am working on the other two Transporter Ramps today. I hope to have those cast in just a couple days. Once those are all cast, they need to cure for 12-14 days. Once cured and finished I will produce all of them. Another game I want to work on is Demo Man. I can presently reproduce two of the three ramps. The third will require the new heater and will be one of the first ramps up when I get the heater done.