Yeah, that was pretty cool. I couldn't figure out what he was doing with the hot glue until the end, then I was like ohhh yeah, right... to make sure it didn't fall/break on/onto the mill end during the last thin cuts.

I have a CNC router, I wish I had a lathe too. So cool. Machines are addictive.

edit : wow this thread has really blown up, I have not been on here much for a while. I know a local fella is trying to get people to build prototype machines, but it seems like everyone's going at it these days!

I've been using a bare Stern Star Trek playfield as a tool to get basic geometry measurements from, I figure if it's good enough for Steve Ritchie, it's good enough for me! The shooter lane had me puzzled for a minute until I just made a cone in solidworks and imported it into Aspire (on its side, subtractive). I still might let Solidworks do the machining on that part then run the rest of the file from Aspire, Aspire isn't quite as good with the 3d toolpathing.

Anyone here using SolidWorks or Vectric Aspire? I've had some personal stuff keeping me from working as much on my stuff as I've wanted to, then my CNC shit the bed due to some newb mistakes I made during initial assembly (various things), then yesterday my control PC hard drive crapped out. Fewf, one thing after the other but I'm back into it now and the machine is working like a boss.

Thanks for the info. What I was trying to say initially is that as a test I just made a cone in solidworks, exported it as a part; then imported the model into Aspire and used Aspire to subtract it from the playfield wood (there's an inbuilt function for this in Aspire). I only did this because I enjoy using Aspire compared to solidworks for your everyday type of stuff like light holes, any other cutouts, etc.

I'll have to look into using a more cylindrical model instead and see what i think of that.

edit multiple days later : ah, I googled pinball makers. Thanks for uploading that file, I now know what you meant by that.

Cool beans, I guess I'll try what you fellas are doing with the cylindrical thing. The cone approach actually did give good results from the point of view of the ball rolling up it with a consistent gap (edit : ie - cradled nicely) - I must have just gotten lucky with my measurements from the playfield I'm using.

I prefer working in Aspire for almost everything, but I know my way around Solidworks well enough to make a cylinder and export/import to Aspire then go from there. Thanks.

Edit 2 : Here's my basic template that I've been using so far (the little extra bits in the holes are just waste material), this is using a cone for the shooterlane cutout. I'll post again once I have used the cylinder approach. Thanks guys.

Playfield Template 1.jpg

Can you elaborate on this (doesn't cut well)? I haven't had any problems with MDF on my CNC (besides dust, which is a minor problem with proper dust collection), but if I'm missing something I'd be interested in knowing.

I certainly wouldn't make anything other than prototype parts out of MDF, but it certainly is handy for quick mockups on the cnc.

This has been an interesting read! I'm out of the loop and not working much on my project lately because we're expecting a baby and tearing our garage down / rebuilding while the weather is nice. Last winter put quite a beating on the old structure. Bonus : 125A service in the new one, so I'll essentially have a 750 sq foot 'workshop' with piles of power to play with.

Keep it up dudes, I enjoy reading this thread when I have the time!