I have been asked recently, in several messages, about our cabinets. Some have asked if we are having them built by outside contractors. I will be clear here and say that Homepin is building our Hankin table and pinball cabinets 100% 'in-house'.

For pinball, we purchase the plywood sheets directly from the plywood factory manufactured to 'A0' standards and we ensure that the sheets are supplied with a test certificate (CARB is the equivalent rating for the USA). After cutting the cabinet parts we send some smaller sample pieces from the batch away for testing at an independent testing centre to make certain that the product we are using meets regulatory requirements for some of the countries we intend to ship finished goods to.

The sheets are then selected carefully so as to work around any minor blemishes or damage in delivery and the various parts required cut to shape on our CNC and table saw, depending on the part. These parts are then hand routed, spindle routed and drilled to take the glass rails, flipper and start buttons and many other holes for various parts.

The separate parts are then checked and matched together to make up a cabinet set - no matter how carefully you cut pieces, there is always some minor difference. Cabinet sets are then assembled together. We "glue and screw" all joints and then clamp the cabinet overnight to ensure the glue sets and the cabinet is square. (you can see I have ringed the three screws we put in the corner joints and then fill in one of the pics below).

After the cabinet carcass glue is dry, we add some of the reinforcing structure such as the 'triangles' in the corners of the cabinet that will support the corner leg plate and a few other wood parts.

Then the partly assembled cabinets are undercoated with a water based wood sealer/primer and left again overnight. The next day they are lightly hand sanded and any imperfections repaired with wood filler and hand finished as required.

They then go into our new spray booth and get a coat of black paint on the areas that require it. Not every panel is painted simply because the cost of the water based paint we use is unbelievably high. It is several times more expensive than an equivalent I can buy at Bunnings in Australia and we are buying it in bulk, directly from the paint manufacturer in Dongguan! Again, we make sure every batch of paint supplied comes with the correct "green" certificate to ensure it is lead and heavy metal free.

After painting, the surfaces that will have decals applied are lightly sanded again and any imperfections corrected before applying the decals (we apply them wet).

One thing we are more aware of than any other manufacturer is that Homepin is "Made in China". We are all well aware of the negative connotations sometimes attached to those words by a few. There is no way that I will allow it to be used negatively against anything we manufacture. China is perfectly capable of manufacturing very high quality goods.

It all comes down to the supervision and instruction on exactly what is expected. You cannot ever get that by simply buying a product from a Chinese factory - it rarely happens. Homepin operates on an entirely different level from many other Chinese factories. We are not driven solely by price as many are. For Homepin, quality comes first and price is a secondary consideration. If we are unable to make a quality product at a price that will sell then we just don't make it! I have canned a few projects because we would have had to make them 'down to a price' and I won't do that.

More on machine assembly at another time.

PS: Before the "negative nellies" jump in and comment, I am well aware that a couple of the inside pictures below of one of our factory test cabinets shows no earth braid installed. We most certainly ARE fitting earth braid - it just wasn't fitted to this test cabinet when these pictures were taken.

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None of us here in the factory smoke

I do...oh, you mean any OTHERS - LOL

A busy week here this week. We loaded and shipped out another 20' container of Hankin arcade tables - this one headed for Perth Australia.

We load the containers at our factory door and employ a local forklift owner to come and load for us as it isn't worthwhile owning a forklift ourselves. Sometimes the guy comes and other times (like yesterday) he sends his wife. She is much more careful than he is so we always prefer her doing the job.

After loading the shipping seal is affixed and remains intact until the container is delivered to Homepins customer so that nobody can tamper with the contents.

Final picture shows the truck driver handing the authorization sheet to the factory gate guards that proves Homepin has allowed this container of goods to leave our secure compound.

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There certainly are a lot of headaches doing things here - even living here! The simple fact is though, most things to do with manufacturing are just so inexpensive here it would not have been remotely possible to do it in Australia.

I would never have considered doing this for one minute in Australia - just not possible.

Now if the Australian Govt wakes up to itself and starts offering incentives, like cheap rent, subsidised employees and tax breaks (like I get by being based in Hong Kong SAR) then I would consider moving the lot to Australia and just making the parts here. Then I would be assembling in Australia, much like American manufacturers do at the moment in the USA using a LOT of imported parts, mainly from China.

Part of our licence agreement stipulates that we have to provide one machine to ITV (London) so we plan to send a small shipment there to make it worthwhile. We are also in talks with an agent in the UK and the Homepin marketing manager is visiting London for a meeting with ITV and our possible agent in the next couple of months.

The chances are very high that Homepin machines will be available in the UK.

We have started painting the cabinets for our first pinball machine - Thunderbirds. It has been a LONG road but we are finally near the end of it!

There are two huge extraction fans drawing air from the open door where I am standing taking this video UNDER the waterfall and up through air filters. The waterfall traps the over spray and it falls into the trough in the bottom and is filtered by the action of the water pump drawing the pool through a second set of filters.

Our ply is 11 laminates and is exceptionally high grade and expensive - BUT - I believe worth the small extra expense per machine.

We built this booth to the size we need for painting pinball cabinets. I can't think of any reason why we would want a larger one?