People use lexan, we have used photo paper with double sided tape sealed with clearcoat along the edges. Works out pretty well.

It can be done. You need not only the plastic sheet, but a cutting plotter to cut the plastic. Then print the plastic. Before that you need a scanner and an artist to put the image right and cutting lines.
If it is cost prohibitive? oh yeah... it's a lot of work so you do it only when there's no alternative. I have done a few times, but only for plastics that are not available anywhere. I will do a sopranos slingshot soon..

It can be done.

Do you have any friends with a silkscreen press for t-shirts in their garage?

Hmm....... well, you can make a scan of that plastic then i can help you out to draw the cutting line to the new one with your guidance.
lmk if you need help.

What about getting a ramp remade, is that possible? I have a Who Dunnit that has the notoriously cracked main ramp..... Seems like someone should be able to....

More than a few people have built a home made vacuum forming table to do exactly this. Minimal investment required. Results probably heavily dependent on your skill level though.

Seems like this scroll saw would be ideal.

http://www.harborfreight.com/16-inch-variable-speed-scroll-saw-93012.html

Nobody has those machines at home. You have to go to a printing company. Witch sucks because most of them don't accept customers like us, just companies for mass production.
I work on the advertising business and i know a guy on a printing company, that's why i can get anything. But I rarely ask for these kind of jobs because the guys have to stop a 100 ton machine to do a crappy little plastic lol So i only do it when i can't find plastic sets.

there's a lot of hype about home 3d printing, and justifiably so, but there are lots of real limitations as well. Home 3d printers are not capable of smooth plastic ramps of a quality that would be presentable on a pinball machine. The results that come off a printer are ruddy and lined and not super high resolution. you can work the surface with various chemicals by hand, but it's really hard and you lose precision and will end up with a ramp that looks like you molded it out of play dough. it would both look terrible and break down quickly. you'd have better luck trying to recreate something mechanical like an actuator arm or bracket or something.

Cut two 1/8 inch Lexan or Poly Carbonate pieces to the correct shape. Cut with band saw, scroll saw or something similar. Sand the edges so that there is a nice finish. Now take a scanned image and print it using an ink printer. Laser printers work but normally don't do as good with the color. Use backlit paper. Sandwich the printout between the two pieces of plastic and install in the machine.

It's not as good as an original. Most people (non pinball geeks) won't notice that it’s not original. The Just make sure to spend time getting both plastic pieces the same and cleanup the edges.

How would you join the 2 pieces and seal the edges using the sandwich method?

I have successfully used a local print shop to do vinyl prints on PETG for me to reproduce plastics very reasonably. I do the artwork myself (300 dpi) and give them the file. A few days later I get the printed sheet of PETG from them and simply cut them out using a scroll saw (high tooth count on the blade) and drill the holes with my drill press. I think the last set I had them print for a Super Soccer was around $25 including the PETG.

Jeff

Any chance we can see pics of the result?

I've thought before that it would be a lot of fun to do alternate slingshot plastic designs, especially with the awful print quality Stern uses on theirs. Seems like laser cutting is the way to go for that.

I'll post an example when I get a chance.... I don't have any pictures available at the moment

I have done just that very thing (all plastics actually). It's a lot of fun and the print quality is quite respectable.

Jeff

Don't have to do anything to the edge. Let the caps or nuts hold it together. I've seen this done on a High Speed and had to look twice. With the room lights down and the lighting of the game it looked good. Guess you could use a small drop of super glue if you have a spot where they want to separate. Just be careful it doesn't wick into the paper.

Interesting idea to say the least. What about the thickness? At 1/4", which is quite thick, you have to make compromises almost everywhere to deal with the added height when rebuilding the playfield.

http://www4.pair.com/gribnif/pinball/plastic/

link that may be useful

1/4 inch would be two thick. Most have used thinner Lexan. I will be doing this on my Meteor if I ever get a scan of the right kicker plastic.

Right, 2 1/8" pieces = 1/4" in thickness. I don't think that would work well.

Here are some shots of a couple of the plastics I recreated for Embryon. These are vinyl prints on PETG. I'll work up another post in the next couple of days on how I do this.

DSC_5952.JPG
DSC_5953.JPG

Jeff

Wow. That's pretty awesome. Would love to see a full post explanation!

What's the thickness difference between the PETG and the original plastic? And does it hold up to heat from playfield GI?

Nice, please do, I'd love to read.

The thickness of the PETG is the same as the originals. In fact, the original plastics are also on PETG I believe so they do just fine with the controlled and GI lighting.

Jeff

I am about to try doing some repros for a couple of broken plastics on my machines as well

I am going to scan in the original, correct / complete the missing bits in an art program and and try printing out onto clear on my color laser printer to sandwich between a couple of pieces of petg

I may also try having the local sign company print me a vinyl color print to stick to the bottom piece of petg with another clear piece over that too

so yes keep posting on possible techniques

thanks

Alan Lewis showed a way to reproduce plastics a couple of years ago at the Texas Pinball Festival using a reverse decal process and they come out perfect. Rich Wiski did 3 plastics using this process on my Dragon Fist. The 2 slingslots and the one with the "Red" fist to the left of the spinner. He built the artwork from all the broken pieces and then put in the necessary artwork that was not avaliable from pictures. Then he did the magic.

They look just like original but they are two sided decals on plastic and one of the decals has Triple thick on it.

Here is the picture.

IMG_8377.JPG

For those following this thread, I spent a little time tonight documenting the method I use to recreate plastics.

http://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/how-i-recreate-plastics#post-1265004

Jeff

I know what you are describing. The PETG and the very fine scroll saw blades I use give me a pretty nice edge, but it is still just a bit rough. I suppose it would be possible to try to flame polish the edges of the PETG, but I haven't tried that... might have to give that a whirl and see what happens.

Jeff

If you're doing enough plastics it's probably worth just having a sheet laser cut, way easier, and you'll get super clean edges. It's not like it's that expensive either when you think about what repro stuff would cost you.

Got a scroll saw from Harbor Freight with a fine tooth blade and I made these rough cuts out of 1/8" plexi with absolutely no fabricating experience. Extremely easy to do and I'm very pleased with the results. Going to try the grinding wheel next and post an update.

http://www.harborfreight.com/garage-shop/stationary-scroll-saw.html

image-531.jpg
image-559.jpg
image.jpg

I found that the stone wheel on the grinder is good for very rough edges and the fiber wheel is best for most edges. I cleaned up the pieces quite a bit using this bench grinder:

http://www.harborfreight.com/bench-grinder-with-flex-shaft-43533.html

image-381.jpg

image.jpg

image-98.jpg

I ran off the prints on photo paper and will be securing it to the lexan using rolling glue. They turned out great!

image.jpg

image-755.jpg

image-898.jpg

Nice work Crash! I know LW3 isn't a loved game by most, but with it such an affordable entry level DMD, you'd think someone would make plastic sets as many have the same broken plastics and there's quite a few of these out there. Unless licensing is the issue which may very well be.

How do these look with the light shining through the material....Interesting....

Word of advice, drill the large holes before applying decals, or shavings will be trapped between the plexi and paper. Lesson learned, other than that they're perfect!

image.jpg

Installed the first 2 pieces and they REALLY look good with the GI underneath. Surprisingly they literally look no different than normal screened plastics.

image-576.jpg

image.jpg

Man, those are professional looking!!!
Mike

When I bought my plastic protectors set from Pinbits, they sent me 3 different plastics marked "test". One was identical to the stock plastic, one extended to the half-way point, and one that was flush along the front edge. I ended up using the "medium" one, and it has drastically reduced airballs. I'm not sure what their plans were for making them available.

Just done, Sopranos slings and safe top. You can't even tell the difference when installed:
2013-12-04 19.32.16.jpg
2013-12-04 19.31.44.jpg
2013-12-04 22.03.23.jpg

For large holes, use a blade to cut out after applying the decal.

image-840.jpg

Another tip for long plastics whose artwork will not fit on a standard 8-1/2" by 11" sheet. Merge the two pieces with a strip of tape going across the back seam and treat it as one piece when applying to the plastic. Turns out great.

image.jpgimage.jpg

Another long piece done using the same method.

image.jpg