(Topic ID: 150485)
Sana'a
Norwalk, CA
Quoted from h_2_o:OK working on a ramp with a friend and got a good pull. Lets see if anyone can identify the ramp from the picture.
ramp_(resized).jpg
Cyclone
Ottawa, ON
Quoted from Shovel:Definitely Comet.
Will you make more? I'd definitely be interested. I've been looking for ages for one. Heck, I'd bet most Comet owners are.
Hell yes they are !
first reply got it on the nose yes it is a comet. And yes I will make more I have to do a fitting soon (mostly time is what is against me) after that I am happy to make them. Now one thing that surprised me in doing this is the actual cost, now I know why people charge what they do for those dumb things. When I fit it I will post a picture.
Béziers
I'm also debating if i do them to predrill the holes for people or have them do them themselves because as we all know each machine is unique in its own way.
Sorry I will not be doing the corkscrew ramp currently because last i checked it was still available to be found
As for the ramp I believe i found a good(descent) way to cut it. It still takes quite a bit of work but at least it looks descent, well as good as the original and most important it actually works. Everything lined up when I had it in and i hit the ramp probably 50 to 100 times without issue.
Now for the part some of you are probably wanting to hear, yes I will be making more but like all good things it comes with caveats, hopefully I remember them all here and people can chime in accordingly.
The screw holes. OK there are 3 at the entry of the ramp, 2 at the ball drop, 2 closest to the backglass and then there is a solo one off the the right. That one when I put it on my machine ended up pulling the ramp into place it basically pulled that side of the ramp down about 1/16" total. This is my first attempt ever to vacuum pull anything let alone create a pinball ramp. Now what I do not know is if that is an issue or if they do that on all ramps because each machine is a bit different or what. What i know is the ball never stuck anywhere even when I tried placing it by hand on the ramp it wither rolled back out or towards the drop. But I just want people to know it is there and see if that might be an issue.
next up, i have no stickers and no not plan on replicating them for this project. I think you can find them but if not sorry.
next up the plastic. I went with petg because that is what i noticed newer plastic ramps being made out of. I know the original one was not. I tried to simulate the original as much as possible including thickness just in case and it is nearly identical around the entire ramp(at least my original ramp) Now the thickness of the plastic i got was 1/16" thickness and like i said it was nearly identical to my original. Now what i'm curious about is if I should have went or should go to .080 (the next size up i can get) or will that cause problems with the ramp. but there are a couple of concerns here will it pull the same way or can i get a good pull? the next is not as big of concern for me but possibly others is going from 1/16 to .080 the plastic for my cost is well over double.
Finally the part some have been waiting for, I do not do this for a living, i don't even repair vid's or pinballs I just enjoy them and have a few, so yes I am going to do some and put them for sale. However with that previous statement I am in need of help from you guys here instead of making several to start off with shipping them out and finding out I made a huge mistake somewhere on it, how do i find someone here that not only needs a ramp(at a highly discounted price) but is a veteran with pinballs and can give an honest critique or review to me so that if i need to make changes they can do it in enough detail so that I can get it right so when I finally say "Come and get em" people will not be pissed at me about something I may have missed.
eww not sure then sorry, even though i did see them available not sure where and to be honest I did not look to see if they were oos mostly because that was not the ramp i was looking for. Let me get one good ramp done first then I'll determine if i can do a corkscrew ramp.
I puled this from a another discussion here of various plastic types.
plastic_compared_(resized).png
Seems PETG was a good choice.
In the limited reading I've done 1/16 (0.060") is the way to go. Hopefully others can chime in here.
AM unsure what you mean by the ramp pulls down 1/16, can you explain with images?
Yup I was running it without the metal entry ramp because nothing more than I wanted to see how it was going to work and looked.
as for pulling down. What I meant by that is the one attachment point on the ramp that is by itself between the top and where the ball drops, well when mounting the ramp I had the top screwed down and the ball drop screwed down. there was about 1/16" space between the top of the metal riser and the plastic itself that pulled the ramp towards the playfield when screwed down.
As a Comet owner I am also most interested in this ramp.
Progress so far is looking great!
And as Vid pointed out, the corkscrew would be a very worthy next project as that one seems to be in different state of brokenness on all machines.
Vid -
I believe Starship-Fantasy was making the corkscrew ramp at one time. Not sure about now.
-scott
Quoted from h_2_o:I am in need of help from you guys here instead of making several to start off with shipping them out and finding out I made a huge mistake somewhere on it, how do i find someone here that not only needs a ramp(at a highly discounted price) but is a veteran with pinballs and can give an honest critique or review to me so that if i need to make changes they can do it in enough detail so that I can get it right so when I finally say "Come and get em" people will not be pissed at me about something I may have missed.
I would suggest changing the tread title to say what ramp your making and your looking for a tester.
When I clicked on it I expected to see a old ramp that you didn't know what game it came from and were looking for help identifying it. Many comet owners who own the game and are probably looking for a ramp and might know alot about them probably wont even click on this thread because of the title.
I updated the topic, sorry for no updates recently been wicked busy with work. Hopefully this week I will pull a few more and go from there.
Quoted from vid1900:Back in the day there were black, paper thin, reproduction corkscrew ramps.
A few years back there were some thicker orange ones from Jim, but I have not seen them in a long time.
Vid, I believe some of the original corkscrew ramps also came in orange. I have a populated playfield from a Comet that was parted that had the orange corkscrew ramp installed albeit, broken in several spots. That ramp was paper thin to say the least... 
Quoted from Schusler:Vid, I believe some of the original corkscrew ramps also came in orange. I have a populated playfield from a Comet that was parted that had the orange corkscrew ramp installed albeit, broken in several spots. That ramp was paper thin to say the least...
Correct.
Factory corkscrews were orange.
The only replacements available back in the 90s were black.
Some orange ones popped up a few years back out of thicker stock, but are no longer available.
Quoted from h_2_o:I updated the topic, sorry for no updates recently been wicked busy with work. Hopefully this week I will pull a few more and go from there.
Sweet. Am ready to test fit. Also, have found a good pic of the ramp decal and will see what I can do in illustrator with it. I cannot find it anywhere.
I have a NOS center ramp and a decal. The decal has a hole in it where an operator put a screw thru it to hang it on the wall. I picked them up last year for my restoration project. Had to search long and hard to find them and they weren't cheap.
We have a Comet at the parlor that gets a lot of plays every day. I'd be happy to pay for and test the center ramp for you. Every ramp on it is busted and glued/taped together.
I can print up the ramp decals and might be able to scan/photoshop them soon.
sorry for the delay in the updates mostly good news. I have been crazy busy with work so that put a bit of a damper on progress, and that is for the most part the bad news. Trimming it out I found that a dremel/rotary tool with metal diamond grinding wheel ~3/4" dia to 1.5" dia works best. In case anyone else needs to trim plastic these are what I found works well https://www.menards.com/main/tools-hardware/power-tools-accessories/power-tool-accessories/rotary-tool-sets-accessories/6-piece-diamond-wheel-kit/p-1444421205164-c-10099.htm?tid=4949525551141943571
now onto the next problem that got me a bit stuck and I'm again going to ask a bit of help from anyone here who can help. It began with me trying to figure out how to cut the hole for the ball drop and wow did I over complicate that one. I tried every Wile E. Coyote idea in the book to make it as complicated as possible thinking it had to be difficult to do. In the end a simple hole saw on a drill press works pretty dang well on plastic. I believe only a little cleanup will be needed. Now is the part where I need some assistance. My drop hole is to far gone for me to get a good measurement on it. I believe it is 28mm diameter, if anyone could throw a set of calipers on theirs and let me know what you are getting it would be appreciated I will have to find and order one up soon. Then hopefully I can get one out to someone for them to check.
thanks and have a good day all.
h_2_o, just measured it on my Comet, hole diameter was ~28.5mm (not precisely round on mine either).
I think 28mm will be big enough.
Also, I have used Forstner bits on a drill press to drill through plastic before and they work really good. (I drilled a bunch of exactly 28mm holes with a Forstner bit for a home made Mame Arcade for the buttons. I think I got my 28mm bit from Amazon for around $10.)
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