Whats a good plywood to make a monster machine? Im ready to dabble in a custom pinball machine just for fun.Take parts and ramps from the best and make something crazy.I have limited space and always thought it would be cool to have a cabinet that sat low in front of a couch,if possible.A pinball coffee table.Im not that crazy about Stern pinballs,seems like their always based off of movie,T.V. or game show,though I own a POTC.I miss the imagination of Williams and Bally.
I would start with an old playfield that has not too much on it and which is cheap enough to mess around with. You're going to be drilling holes into an existing playfield, better make sure it's something that can be missed. Maybe an old Gottlieb game? 
I wonder if a clear sheet of Lexan would work instead of plywood for the playfield?
nice thing about it you could mount all the art work underneath or perhaps sandwich it between two sheets, one of the downsides I can think of the game may be too fast for human reactions?
Perhaps you could fool around with lighting the whole playfield from beneath kind of how a backglass looks when lit?
Everyone talks about California and the movies and the actors. Well let me tell you a little thing about 'California Red Wood'. Get a 4x8 sheet of that 1 inch think (if you can find it) and make you playfield out of that stuff! I am a construction contractor and have done some demos on old houses with that type of wood installed in them. All that wood is probalby gone now, but WOW, what awesome stuff. 125 year old houses are still, actually not too bad (structurally) around here. I don't even know if that is true or not, been in the biz for 25 years, but MAKE YOUR PLAYFIELD OUT OF THAT WOOD!!! DO IT DO IT!!!!
All ideas sound great.I like the idea of using "california red wood" the most, a fresh piece of plywood that I wont have any existing holes in the way.My biggest challenge is trying to place artwork on the playfield.Im an electrician going on my 2nd year of electronics engineering with Devry,part of the reason Im doing this is just to test my electronic skills.Appreciate the help all,Im still gathering some more playfield toys before I really know what the shape will be.I keep thinking of a haunted theme,seems like it would be easy to adapt existing playfield toys to it.Im also saving for a TOM or AFM hopefully before christmas,priorties first!
hello sb80,
No it's not mine!
It's a Belgium guy name Largo9. the pin is made with a gorgar.
He's now working on Iron maiden II (basis F14 Tomcat)
http://ericpinball.mijnbb.be/iron-maiden-ii-le-debut-t308.html?highlight=iron%20maiden
@sb80: If you are located in Europe we could make a trade? I want to sell my TOM and would love to trade for your PotC.
I'm also interested to know more about custom pins. Might make a good story for the site if we have enough of 'em. So keep 'em coming people!
It's all in the ROM's LorenZ. I've dabbled in it a little on a few machines but not to the extent of some people. I'd like to do more. I think it would be cool to do custom one of a kind stuff for people with the $$$ to pay for it.
Hello Robin.nowhere close to Europe,Im in central Illinois.Love to see Europe someday though.Never knew their was cutom pinballs of the type Ive been seeing the last couple days,its pretty cool.Ive decided for starts Im just going to use some cheap plywood and figure out what I want and go from there.My biggest problem is Im not an artist so I guess Ill have to find one eventually.Stupid question for anybody that knows,but are flatbed printers used for playfields?Im lucky to have some friends who use router tables but art is not my field!
sb80 .. have you thought about dabbling with something like a thick balsa wood sheet first to perfect your design and then transferring it to a more expensive wood ? That would be much easier and cheaper to work with until you got it the way you wanted.
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