Hey everyone... My name is Brian and my son is Connor (age: 9)

We have been in the pinball hobby for many years, most of you will recognize me from the pinball tournament scene. I ran the P3 tournaments and NPL tournaments for many years. Since having a family I haven't had the time to run tournaments anymore, but I have still be active in the pinball scene. You can usually find me at the Railroad Street Bar and Grill in a pinball league or hanging out down at the Pinball Gallery in Malvern.

Brian and Connor

Now onto the project! My son got very interested in the top of a home made pinball machine after watching the adventures of Ben Heck with AMH and after visiting the Pinball Gallery and seeing Total Nuclear Annihilation. After telling him the story and showing him the prototype videos he was very interested in making a pinball machine of his very own. So I started thinking of options.

Luckily we had a Kings of Steel sitting around which was not in very good shape. Destined to be sold or parted out, instead we would use it as a great base for a new machine.

To make the first project easier, we have decided to keep most of the basic layout and mechs but we wanted to make some tweaks to make the game play faster and be more fun.

But First we needed a theme! My son had gotten into Minecraft and loved the building aspect of the game. So we decided to make a new pinball machine based loosely on the themes of Minecraft and came up with the name Pincraft which is to have all original content.

Pincraft - The Start

Now that we had a theme we needed to figure out some basic rules and how the game would flow. So I printed out a playfield map and we jotted down some ideas and ready to get to work!

We will try to keep this thread updated, but I can't promise any regular updates... so just follow us and stay tuned.

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This game was the inspiration for our beginning... So thanks very much TNA for costing me tons of money and I am not even buying one (at least not yet)!

We first wanted to prototype the changes to the layout while we still have a flipping game.

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Here is the overall layout of KOS, We know we wanted to make it a faster playing game. So one of the first ideas was to remove the right target and make a loop that goes all the way around the playfield to the upper left flipper.

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Prototyping with Cardboard and painters tape worked surprisingly well. Here is our new loop lane on the right.

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Of course we have to test the change... which Connor enjoyed quite a bit.

Next idea came from a game we were working on at the moment, what if we added a spinner to the lane as well. This worked great, and I love spinners so how can you go wrong!

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Next we wanted to test auto opening and closing gates... as in the newer WPC style. This would allow the ball to loop all the way around if we wanted to or stop it to go to the top hole.

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We also wanted to test a drop target in front of the left gate. This would allow the ball to be shot towards the upper left flipper and then drop to make hitting the blue targets easier. Here we just used a red block taped to the playfield for testing.

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Then we added a new "jackpot" lane for the upper left flipper. This worked well. Ultimately I believe we are going to use a newton ball assembly here with a captive ball to hit the target.

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Play testing the game was lots of fun!

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Last for now we marked up the playfield with some ideas for the feature lamps... Helps to give a visual of the rules.

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Now that we had an idea of the rules and the layout on our flipping game, its time to say good bye to Kings of Steel and hello to Pincraft.

The first step was to strip the game of all the boards... These won't be needed as we will be going to the P3-ROC system.

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Connor wondering why I am taking his picture.

Time to remove the boards and even the light board.

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Game is looking quite bare at the moment.

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All the Kings of Steel parts are wrapped up and labeled ready to be sold. (PM me if you need anything)

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After all that work it is time to take a break. Connor playing our hybrid SW:E1 / RFM....

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Doing quite well I must say.. he got to Attack Mars all by himself even betting my best score on the game (for the moment anyways)..

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OK - Now back to work... (and a word of warning to Bally owners)

We had no plans to strip the cabinet at this time.. However we found the paint / sticker to peel off just by slightly peeling it.

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So a word of warning PROTECT YOUR EDGES!!!! At all cost... If there is any peeling edges seal them IMMEDIATELY!

Connor had lots of fun peeling the pieces off.

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Amazed at how easy it was:

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Took about 5 minutes for this paint to peel off and strip the cabinet bare

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And here is our pile of stickers left over...

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Well that was quite easy! Ready for any artwork in the future.

I had to take a few days off for business.. Next update involves stripping the playfield and preparing for new hardware... stay tuned

Thanks for the add to the list... it is appreciated!

Next step in this pinball journey was to prepare the playfield for new mechs and wiring. Since we are going to be going with RGB lamps, all the old playfield lamps and wiring had to go! So lets destroy this playing kings of steel game! There is no going back at this point....

First we removed all the lamp boards from the game

Connor removing the lamps

Looking pretty bare already, but the other lamp board had to go as well..

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Now we had both lamp boards removed....

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Time to get rid of all this pesky wiring... No need to be neat about it, although we will be reusing a lot of the wiring later.

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All the wiring has to go.

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Connor helping to clip the wiring at all the attachment points...

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At this point the entire wiring harness has been removed from the game.

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Now we need to get of all the pesky light sockets...

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These things are a complete pain to remove! Since you have to basically dig under the staples with a screw driver to raise them enough to get under them with a pliers to remove them.

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Hours of work later all the light sockets are removed. Cleaning the inserts and playfield of saw dust now!

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And there you have it... one completely cleared playfield ready for new wiring and mechs!

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Next update we will start adding the new mechs to the playfield in preparation for wiring.

Now its time for some fun! We are going to start installing some of the new mechs!

First thing we wanted to do was add computer controlled gates to the game. This will allow the ball to loop around the game and make the upper hole area a more special shot.

Here is a WPC style computer controlled gate...

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First problem we ran into is the existing mounting holes will not work, seems this isn't as simple as we thought!

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So we had to remove the t-nuts and drill new mounting holes, including the new hole for the spring...

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Besides chipping the bottom layer of plywood slightly, it is a good fit.

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Next we add the control coil to the bottom of the playfield, this is what allows the computer to raise the gate

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Connor testing out the new gate mech! Works great.

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Next we decided to add a drop target in front of the left gate. This will allow you to bounce a ball of the target and return it to the upper left flipper.

Here is the WPC style drop target mech with control arm (from PinballLife)

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I measured a drop target hole from Space Shuttle and made a template out of a piece of balsa wood.

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Testing out placement, need to make sure the top side and bottom side is clear. Then traced around the opening with a paint pen.

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Installing the mech in the hole went great...

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Here is the new drop target!

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Installed from the bottom side

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Testing the new drop target mech is tons of fun!

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Connor does a good job of making sure everything is lined up great.

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Ball returns perfectly to the upper left flipper.

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Next we will work on the new scoreboard display and prep on the cabinet while waiting for more parts for the playfield.

Playing around with the right area of the game we are trying to figure out what we are doing over here.. We bought a stern shooter lane ramp to use over the right loop around, so trying to play around with placement...

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Also we have this extra scoop assembly setting around, thinking about using this on the right side.

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Ultimately we decided to mount the scoop in a strange placement where you cannot shoot it directly, it will be mounted to the right between the posts. A diverter will allow you to shoot the scoop by looping around from the left.

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Now we took a break from the playfield to work on the cabinet and get it prepped.

We bought a Lepai LP-168HA 2.1 2x40W Mini Amplifier + 1x68W Sub Output available from Parts Express at:
https://www.parts-express.com/lepai-lp-168ha-21-2x40w-mini-amplifier-1x68w-sub-output--310-308

I believe this is the same AMP that is used on TNA. I have used it in the past on my Pin2k cabinet conversion.

First we need to build a mounting plate from some scrap wood

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Now we work on placing the amp

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And here it is in the cab

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All secured down, we are going to use the service outlet for power so we don't tap the 12v line any more.

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Time to work on our new score display. Picked up some plywood from the local hardware store.

Connor sanding the first cut of the plywood...

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Testing the first fit into the cabinet...

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Seems to fit pretty good, now we need to map out the speaker and display cut-outs.

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Time to drill the holes for the jigsaw

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Holes in each corner so the jigsaw can get started...

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Everything all cutout... I ended up using a dremel for the round holes as they were a bit tight for the jigsaw.

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Filling some of the splitting of the plywood layers after cutting

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And the first coat of paint!

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Getting the hinge right on the backboard was a really pain... We wanted to be able to hinge the display down to make servicing easier at least while the game was in development.

I ended up re-purposing the light board hinge. I needed to add extra wood pieces to the head to be able to attach this hinge.

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We then used standard gate latches to keep the backbox upright. Warning if you choose to use these, they will need to be taped if you transport the game as they love to come loose if moved.

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Here is the new display board in the game... Still needs speaker grills but otherwise pretty much complete

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Connor showing off the new display, also note the upgraded speakers in the game from flipper fidelity. The sub mounting is temporary, will most likely need an upgraded mount.

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And here it is in its hinged down version...

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LCD Display is from Pinball Life
https://www.pinballlife.com/index.php?p=product&id=4430

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I was a bit concerned with how fragile the LCD display seemed, so I added a piece of plexi-glass in front of the display, it actually gives it a nice gloss finish as well...

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Thanks for all the kind messages, it is greatly appreciated! This will be a very long project involving lots of work and I am dedicated to showing all of it to either inspire others or at least for others to appreciate how much effort is required.

Next step is to wire up the amplifier to get the sound system going!

Here is the back of the amp with the four speaker wires and wires to the sub woofer.

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Decided with adding more power supplies in, even if temporarily.. I would add a power strip into the game to make it easy to work on.

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Here is the new connector for the speakers. I attempted to buy a matching connector to the flipper fidelity set, but instead it was wrong. So just re-wired it anyways. This connector is important to make removing the head easier in the future.

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Here is the backbox speakers and display all wired up!

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After wiring everything up we realized most of the wiring loom in the cabinet will not be used... So lets remove it!

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Connor removing some wires, always fun! (putting them back not as much)

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Here is the cabinet all cleaned up with just our speaker wiring in place.

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And now it is time to start P-Roc-in! Here is the first PROC board installed in the game. A SW-16 for the cabinet switches.

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After testing out the sound system, it turned out our bass speaker mount was not working at all as planned... The speaker was rattling and is going to need a better mount.

So lets make one..

First grabbed a spare piece of plywood and marked out the ends of the circle.

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Now it is time for makeshift tools. Since I didn't have a compass I used a nail with a wire wrapped around it and a pencil. Worked great!

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here is the circle all cut out...

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Now I need to add holes to countersink the bolts used to hold the speaker firm.

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And here is our new mount in the cabinet...

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Worked great! Now I can consider the speaker system done and working well.

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Time for a break from pinball! We stopped by the Silverball Museum in Asbury Park, NJ. The kids had a blast. What a wonderful collection of pinball machines all in very decent shape and the admission was reasonable.

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Connor loved playing the old woodrails. He loves the older pinball machines.

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And Gwen getting inspired from Bowen's videos of Attack From Mars... Enjoyed her game greatly.

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A great evening!

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Well now that the cabinet is ready for the most part, its time to focus back on the playfield.

We decided to attempt to replace the ball area with a new scoop.

A few reasons:
- We wanted the game to be able to have multiball
- The Bally solution of the era was complex and the parts were hard to find
- The PROC and Skeleton Game will have this scoop code already written in.

Thanks pinball life again for the parts (no, I am not getting a discount.. not yet anyways)

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Connor removing all the old components in the scoop area.

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Thats all we did for now in the scoop... more is coming on this adventure soon!

We are also trying to add a new diverter to the game. We purchased a LOTR diverter but now are trying to figure out where to place it.

Where does this go?

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After looking at it over and over again, it was almost impossible to test this... So lets make a version of the diverter out of wood (so we don't have the rod sticking out in the way!)

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Then lets tape it all to the playfield and give it a test!

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Connor's favorite part for sure! Worked great and added lots of variance to the game since the ball won't directly return to the flippers (hint: it goes right to the slings)

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Thats it for now! More updates coming soon...

Now it is time to mount some boards!

We are going to use the P3-Roc system and decided to use the PD-16 controller boards and mount them in the head. The SW-16 and LED drivers will be mounted to the playfield to make wiring easier.

The P3-Roc board mounted...

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Two PD-16's sitting next door...

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And the head with all the boards mounted...

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Next thing to add to the game was the diverter gate... This is a brand new mech that wasn't in the original game and was an idea I had after looking at the playfield layout.

Trying to find a good spot for the gate:

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Well I guess that was the spot...

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Connor screwing on the controlling mech, which is essentially a flipper mech with just a hold coil.

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Almost done...

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Shiny new mech (missing lots of parts yet, but thats ok!)

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Now it is time to figure out this shooter ramp and diverter puzzle...

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Only solution I could come up with is to fab a new side rail to hold the shooter ramp and allow the ball to roll smoothly...

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Also trying out a gate we found, this will be the skill shot of the game.

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Now it is time to cut out the new scoop area. Nothing like putting a giant hole in your only playfield, kinda nerve wracking..

Step 1 was to make a template out of wood and line it up on the playfield...

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Then using a dremel cut out the whole and round the edges a bit...

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And there she is, a brand new scoop...

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And the underside view...

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This is a used scoop from RFM, it isn't super pretty but it will get the job done.

Next area to tackle was the Newton ball assembly... luckily we already had an existing hole to use.

We found these rails from an on Time Warp part bin, and they looked just the right size.

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Now I made a template for the hole needed for the target and drilled it out. The F's next to the holes indicate that they need to be filled in at some point.

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Here is a re-used target (the right target) in place and working great!

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During the break it was time to clean up the drop target assembly..

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A little Brasso and everything shined up nicely...

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Old KOS targets waiting a new home

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Now it was time to work on the new ball trough area. This had me the most nervous of any of the hardware projects that we were working on.

Cutting out a huge hole in the only playfield we have and making sure everything is aligned right was no easy task.

Again I made a template out of wood to use to mark the playfield. Even after I made a few adjustments before starting the drilling.

Here is the start of the cutting the hole out.

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And then the saw stopped working.. couldn't figure out why for a few seconds...

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OPPS! Flipper mech was in the way. Luckily these can be easily rotated, so just removed it for now.

No more going back to kings of steel at this point!

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And here is the final cut out hole. I decided it bring it in a bit to accommodate the apron bracket.

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Amazingly the apron still fit on after installing the trough! This was a perfect fit... I honestly couldn't believe it.

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And here is the scoop sticking up...

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We did have one minor problem in that the old hole was a bit too long and the ball could technically get hung there. Simply solution was to just put some wire clamps at the end of the trough, no more ball hang!

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Working on the side rail was a bit of a challenge.

After cutting it out we were test fitting it and it looks like it will work well.

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Still need to add some add some angle brackets to be able to mount it yet.

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But the fit looks pretty good.

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Next update we will continue to work on the side rail and ramps and finish getting the main playfield components in place including the second computer controlled gate and some new switches we will need to be able to activate features.

Next mission was to tackle this side rail... We needed to add angle brackets to secure it to the cabinet and the game. The shooter lane ramp then fits under this and goes over the side rail on its journey to the top roll overs.

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First step was to add some new holes to the bracket. This bracket is made of strap steel. This hole in particular was to attach to the side rail.

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Then we needed to create some corner brackets. This was done using the cutting wheel on a dremmel.

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Connor filing the end product nice and smooth...

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A slot had to be drilled out of the existing rail as an attachment point to the new rail.

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The rail in place with the shooter lane ramp (the protective plastic will be removed later...

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Here the rail is attached to the side rail. A hole was drilled to embed the nut into the rail so it doesn't stick out.

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And here are the other brackets in place. We used washers as spacers as they were a bit too tall. Easier to do this then cut more new holes into the rail.

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And a side view of the rail attachment point.

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Believe it or not though, this transition does cause some issues. The ball does hit the metal and bounce to the post and back out. We are going to need to put a piece of mylar or a ramp flap over this transition to make it more smooth in the future. Since the ball can travel both directions it is important this transition works both ways.

Time to make some wiring looms... I ordered a bunch of connectors based on my other thread here:

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/p3-roc-connectors-and-where-to-buy

First connectors I tackled were some of the serial cables.

I bought this cable online since it has two cables plus a ground cable. It is also shielded to help with electrical interference.

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Adding the connectors is kinda of a pain. I have a molex crimper but it takes lots of time.

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Here is one finished serial jumper cable

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And here are the jumper cables installed in the game. (minus some cable management yet)

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We also started working on the solenoid harness. We are going to have four connectors going to the game. To make sure the correct ones are plugged into the correct plug, we are color coding them.

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And here are the finished connectors:

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Thank you for the kind words. Each step of this process I am nervous I am going to screw up and it will come out bad. Then once you get into it and work on it you get into the mindset of solving the problem and just moving forward. Once you are done you usually can't figure out why you were so nervous in the first place.

If you find something feels too big to tackle that day, just do some low hanging fruit instead. At least then you are making some progress and it will help calm the nerves. For example we worked on the wiring harness a bit because I wasn't worried about screwing that up. But I was nervous about working on the backglass... so we tackled that the next day.

I was very worried about it in testing, but then we just put some green painters tape and that eliminated 95% of the problem. I believe a simple working of some mylar in the area will help the transition. I am thinking that or a combination of that and thin ramp metal will resolve the problem.

The game originally had it the other direction because there was a one way gate there. Unfortunately the new metal is much thicker, so making it the other direction would actually make the problem worse for the ball coming the other direction.

Best solution really would be one rail going all the way around. I am in the mindset of lets see how far this project gets before I worry about perfecting anything...

Now it is time to create a backglass for the game! I didn't want the game sitting around in the gameroom while we are doing work looking so crappy. So decided we should make a proper temporary backglass for the game.

The idea was that it would be transparent so we could see through it to the PD-16 boards and the diagnosis lights making it easier to work on the game while in development. Later on if we wanted we could create a more proper design.

First thing we did was mock up the design in Photoshop. We started with the font and treatment for it. We wanted an 80s vibe to the game so we picked the font and logo below.

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Then we added in some awesome fade lines under the text..

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And then finally an "infinity" grid at the bottom for that full on 80s vibe.

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Then to make it easier to trace, we changed the color to a shade of green and inverse the graphic (remember, printing on the back side of the plastic)

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Then I used a software called postrazer to split the graphic into standard 8x11 sheets of paper for printing

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Then the paper sheets need to be trimmed to size and laid out

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And finally taped together.

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Then the plexiglass gets traced on using paint markers. This part was tons of fun.

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Here you see the outlines coming along

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And finally filled in a bit...

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After that was done there was lots of parts that were "thin" .. meaning they were missing a bit of paint. So the trick was lifting up the plexi to see the areas and filling them in.

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Here is the completed backglass...

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And installed in the game...

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Looks really good, but was missing something...

Lighting was what was missing... All backglasses need some sort of lighting behind them.

So I grabbed some old RGB LED strips and made a harness for them. Right now the plan is to hard wire them to green, but latter on we want to be able to control them to RGB in the future...

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And here they are installed in the game.

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Connor insisted we test them right away, so here they are with the glass off..

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And with the glass on... looking quite good if I say so myself.

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Time for some more Pincraft Updates! I am going to try to split the posts a bit more so it is easier to load.

Next step was to try to install a spinner into the game. We needed a hanging spinner because of the placement on the right lane. I bought one from Pinball Life that seemed to fit the bill well.

Next step was to try to install the spinner without damaging the game for testing. I used a wood block to try to mock the spinner placement.

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Everything was testing well and great... so it was time to wrap up the game for the day...

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OPPS! It appears we forgot how short older SS games were to the glass. Clearly this spinner isn't going to fit here!

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After looking for more options and realizing that there really weren't too many out there, I was determined to make the spinner work.

The question now was how we could mount the spinner and have it still work and still fit the game.

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We added a wood block below one of the holes and then started putting spacers in to see the optimal spinner height.

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Looks like right about here will work!

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The bill still spins and the glass fits well. Now it will be a matter of routing out the hole.

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While we are at it these non-white inserts will need to go. We wanted to test how difficult they were going to be to remove. Doesn't seem too bad.

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A little cleanup work to be done and then they will be ready for the new white inserts for the RGB lamps.

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After that we got a bit distracted at the Allentown PinFest Show!

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Connor liked the new Alice Cooper Game from Spooky also using P-Roc

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Aliens was also really awesome. It is a real shame these won't be made.

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And last but not least our haul from Allentown. A Stern Meteor and a Wild Fyre.

Need to clean up the game room a bit to get back started on PinCraft!

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Time to get this spinner FINALLY in the game. Here is the new hole routed out of the playfield to mount the spinner...

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And here the spinner mounted in the game (inserts to be fixed later)

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and HURRAY! The glass clears the spinner now...

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Now we need to add the post in for the moving gate. We need one for the gate to rest against and one for the gate to open against.

Connor is busy helping to add the posts in...

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Here is the post for the gate to rest against when it is in its closed position...

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And here is the gate for it to rest against when it is open. This will divert loop shots to the scoop...

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Now we need to add some posts to direct the ball around the spinner area!

Connor working hard installing these...

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And here is the final result...

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Here is the area with the diverter gate closed ....

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And here is the area with the diverter gate opened...

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We removed the inserts to install new white ones when they arrive for the new RGB lighting

Last step was to install a gate over the shooter lane for the skill shot.

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We needed to raise it up on posts so the ball would clear under it.... yes I checked the glass height this time!

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And here is the skill shot in action!

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This will send the ball to the scoop for a skill shot on the plunge... (and maybe for accessing three ball multiball in the future!)

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That is all the updates for now... next we will be working on installing the upper gate and the rest of the playfield hardware. Then it is onto wiring!

Small update.. working on getting the new drop targets installed...

The targets behind the drops will be used in the game to collect items...

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And the targets themselves will be the various enemies that you can encounter once you entire survival mode (night mode)...

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And we also have our wall target that is used to block access to the upper hole...

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And here is the drop target bank waiting to be reassembled and put back in the game...

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Here is the drop target bank all re-assembled and ready to go back into the game...

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And here is what it will look like when the skeletons attack... oooohh, be scared...

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Time to put this big drop target mech back into the game...

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Connor helping out of course... Very proud of the targets as he made them himself.

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And here they are in the game... looking quite nice.

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And took care of the other problem as well by installing a small piece of ramp flap over the two rails that was causing an issue. Seems to have solved the problem just fine for now..

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That is all for now, till the next update.

Took a small break to finish up a Xenon project that I was working on. Clear coated and all put back together, but just waiting for a few parts to arrive to finish...

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In the meantime we also painted the front of pincraft white and re-installed the coin door:

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Time to work on Pincraft again.. Yeah!

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We previously removed the right flipper to make way for the ball trough, so we finally got around to re-installing the mech into the game. It is now turned about 45 degrees to clear the trough.

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(yes I know the coil is very broken... have a new one on order!)

Next we removed a slam tilt switch and installed a SW-16 in the bottom area. This will be used for the lower playfield switches..

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Connor doing the honors to install the SW-16 board.

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We also decided to install some test LEDs. These are from Pinball Life and are the same LEDs used in TNA.

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Just checking mounting and placement options. Seems like a standard post rubber works best.

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And finally just a picture of the flipper re-installed in the game and our progress so far!

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Next updating coming soon...

Hey everyone.. This project was on hold for several reasons but is now active again. We have made some significant progress over the last few months, so I will try to catch everyone up on where the project is and try to update this topic more often!

Time to get rid of these old Kings of Steel plastics and make some new ones.

First step is to trace the design out on some plexi-glass.

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Then with enough patience and a Dremel anything is possible!

Here is the first pass...

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And second pass with the Dremel...

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And here they are finished and polished in the game...

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Also made a small plastic above the left flipper...

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Trying to get all the hardware finished in the game, it was time to re-install the gate and add some gate posts that it would swing against.

Here is the gate in the closed position...

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And here it is in the open position...

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Also the skill shot which will drop the ball into the scoop...

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Also filled some of the old playfield holes so the ball can run smoothly across the area.

Some more plastics being made, this time for the upper playfield area...

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Well here is where we got a bit side tracked.. one of the ways anyways! I got in an EM project called SureShot, and since it was quite beat up I told Connor that it was his game to restore. He loved that and took to the project right away. It was quite a challenge but the results were amazing. From almost trash to working (mostly) game.

If anyone is interested maybe I'll do a different thread regarding restoring this game.

Playfield out for restoration..
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Connor playing the first working game on it!
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Picture of the full game...
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Lets make some more plastics!

Here is the left side plastic installed...

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And more plastics...

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Now for fun we have to build our custom plastics. We made a template out of paper and traced them out and cut them out..

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Here is the upper side custom plastics installed...

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And the custom scoop plastic installed. Although we may extend this to go past the shooter lane.

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And if you are wondering why there is a giant bouncy ball in the scoop, well it is because it is hard to get the ball out of there without power! Easier to test the game without the ball falling in.

So a couple notes about plastics.

Cutting them with a Dremel is terrible! It is not very precise and it throws hot melted plastic everywhere. I wouldn't recommend it, but sometimes you have to use the tools you have!

The plastics are clear for the moment, but we plan to add designs later on. We are focusing on functionality over ascetics at the moment. We figure once we start flipping and programming the game we may want to change things, so it is easier to do before the artwork. Consider this a white wood without being blank!

Here is Connor creating some templates for the plastics...

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After plastics we are moving onto wiring and hardware! Stay tuned (briefly)...

Thanks Dave! It has been a great project so far.. I want to move faster on it but trying to include my son as much as possible.

Time to get power to these boards! I am using a server ATX power supply (modified to always be on) as the current power source. Will work great for getting 5v and 12v to the boards (although not quietly at the moment). Will eventually replace with something quieter, but the budget is already too high.

The plan at this point is to use the original power supply board to power the solenoids, and let the ATX power supply power the 12 and 5 volt lines.

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And here is power going to our first board, the cabinet SW-16

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Now lets get some power up to our CPU board and the PD-16 boards... Running these lines down to molex connectors that plug directly into the server power supply...

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Looking good all powered up, it is neat how the status lights show through the backglass.... I think we are going to keep it this way.

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Well another distraction arrived... This time in the shape of my first NIB pinball purchase: Total Nuclear Annihilation!

Two great reasons to own this game for anyone into homebrew:

#1 - It is one of the best pinball machines ever made.

#2 - It is very helpful in using as a template for wiring up a P3 based game!

Here it is in the basement awaiting setup:

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And here is Connor playing the first game. Of course he got to play the first game, and not me! But that is okay...

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Back to Pincraft! It is time to build some wire harnesses. We are going to build some harnesses for the coils that lead down to the playfield.

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That way we can easily disconnect the playfield for servicing by disconnecting the serial line and the coil lines. These lines run from the PD-16 boards down to the playfield. They are separated by bank so we can run different voltages if required.

Connor helping tape up the looms (we will add some zip ties to these later as well)...

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I thought this would be fun? (Gets boring after a while to loom up 32 wires...

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