So I messed up. Looks like I missed a spot on the mummies head so its a little discolored on the left side.20210902_141942 (resized).jpg20210902_142000 (resized).jpg And then I made the black knight maybe a little bit too dark to really see. 20210902_141917 (resized).jpg20210902_141824 (resized).jpgSo more than likely im going to fix the file and then reprint these (much later down the line) But for the time being I think from 10 ft back it looks good.

Hey man I dont know if this is a good price for one but literally this just came up on my Facebook feed today, haha I swear these computers are listening into conversations Screenshot_20210902-144148_Facebook (resized).jpg

Just thought it was funny, if you ever do a retheme though I'd love to see it. We aren't even close to be thinking about playfield graphics yet. But we will get there... eventually.

I just find it funny that it appeared on my dashboard after it was mentioned

Flipper bats came in the mail. Couldn't believe there were purple ones available 20210902_150008 (resized).jpg

So im doing all the actual build work. Its up to my brother to do the programing and power supply work and we are working together on the actual layout of the game.

Finally got a 1/2 sheet of maple 9 ply ply wood from LOWEs. Not the best board in the world but good enough I guess.

So I transcribed the dimensions I got online and from our own games, cut the flipper slots and drilled out the holes. The sling shot holes were a little too close together and needed to be wider and more forward so I have to change my file. 20210903_220037 (resized).jpg

Also good thing I haven't cut the ball trough or return hole yet. Cause it looks like my playfield support bracket goes right where it would have been.

I went with the Pat Lawlor outlanes/guidelanes design and honestly im very happy with how it's turning out for the super rough Version 1 playfield. All the colors and other stuff Is subject to change im just using what I have on hand for now

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So I (re)learned my lesson about getting information from the internet. It looks like I'm about 3/4 to 1 inch too far back with the flippers and slingshot compared to where the apron will sit. the apron just came in the mail today.20210904_134456 (resized).jpg

So I just need enough space for the ball to drain kn the right side.20210904_134559 (resized).jpg

After talking to my little brother, im not gonna redo the playfield just yet. This really only affects the right side drain and I really dont want to spend another $30 on a 2'x4,x1/2" board right now. Im waiting on more parts for the ball trough and the auto kicker so I can have all of that planned out on this prototype board. Its already messed up so there's no pressure to make it nice just yet.

I finished doing the design work on the display panel and now im looking for a place that can laser cut sheet metal, and then bend it since I don't have a sheet metal brake that can handle the job. I do like how this turned out though 20210905_170717 (resized).jpg

I have also been trying to figure out the ball return guides. Since we are doing the Lawlor design I figured we probably need his sized returns. The left longer side was in stock so thats great. Unfortunately the right side wasn't. MARCOS was the only place that even had it on their site and it said it was listed for reference only.

I decided to make a 3D model of the one from my brothers Addams family machine. I printed it out on my 3D printer to check if I measured stuff out right and it was dead on 20210905_154452 (resized).jpg20210905_154446 (resized).jpg now I can send this out to also get laser cut in stainless steel. I did the same for the left one so I figure might as well get them both done up.

We also talked it out and we have come to the conclusion that we are going with PROC and running mission pinball, so my little brother went ahead and bought a starter kit and a power supply, unfortunately according to him they won't be here until October at the latest so im just going to keep chugging away getting this cabinet finished up and then the playfield designed.

Thank you!

Not a dumb question, But Mbecker is right, this PF is gonna get very rough looking very fast. First ones are never pretty, but since this one is more of figuring out neat ideas or possible shots so the right side not draining isn't a huge problem. And now im DEFINITELY not worried about making this too pretty haha. All of the fixes to my mistakes and discoveries are going into a 3D file I made of the playfield so that when I do my first CNC cut, most of the major issues have been worked out.

Also more parts should be getting delivered today which should be fun to play around with.

Ordered the cliffy guiderails and so im waiting on those to come in, getting the panel laser cut, bent and then im gonna send all the metal pieces to get powdercoated.

Little brothers proc boards should be coming in soon so that we can start getting stuff wired up, and now I have a ball trough and auto kicker im gonna get bolted up in. Also bought some different color rubber just cause it rounded out the price (or was at least close)20210909_192930 (resized).jpg

Pretty soon im gonna have to do like it was suggested and make a playfield rotisserie, we are getting to the point where its pretty much needed.

Boy howdy am I glad I did this on the ugly board. Haha, lots of figuring out how it all fits together20210909_202904 (resized).jpg
But man it got uglier under there fast. But took away some good lessons from this board, and nothings damaged. Im not sure what that center cut part is that I drew out or why its on other machines but I dont need it with this ball trough.
Also learned to fit the Auto ball shooter first, then the trough, then the slings shots. After all that then fit the flipper mechanisms in between all of the other mechs. So for the next one thats cut ill have better positioning underneath to maximize space.

Ah, good to know, we aren't making the game for money making so im happy not including it still then

Sent out the files to sendcutsend (thank you Mbecker for the suggestion) and they're currently reviewing the files. We got the proc boards today and are just messing around with them for now, nothing super serious.

I will probably take a break from the actual pinball playfield for now and will start work on making a rotisserie that I can confidently use. Im kind of tired using a recycling bin to hold up the current playfield, and we could use the rotisserie for our other games too when we do serious work on them.

So we were going to build one, using the mitre saw stand and 2 posts with pivots but by the time we priced one of those out with sourced parts we were kind of close to the cost of one from marcos pinball, more so close enough to justify spending a little extra just to get a complete kit. We don't have alot of space in the little workshop area right now since everything's under construction, but his rotisserie does look really nice.

Man those look great but looks like its be a month or 2 for turnaround time according to his ad info. I like how he connects the back of the playfield though. I might weld together a bracket like that to fit the marcos rotisserie.

We ordered the Marcos one yesterday, its in my brothers name this time (we take turns buying parts and pieces) and they already gave us a shipping label, so I don't think we are going to cancel it. I don't mind the Marcos one and modifying it, we have a lot of parts ready to go and its better than my current solution of keeping the playfield on top of a recycling can, since we don't have a lot of space stuff is starting to get bent up moving it around and I need a faster solution. However I really like his rotisserie and some of the ideas so I Might buy it down the line if we do more builds or restorations.

also the display panel and locking bar is currently being cut out, looks like it will ship on the 16th so possibly the end of this week or middle of next week i should have that back to see if it turned out okay and im super excited to get them.

Tore the playfield down and trying to take the lessons I learned to modify my 3D file. 20210918_115248 (resized).jpg

Using the new measurements from the new file, i recut the other side of the same board to see if it ACTUALLY is better. And for the most part it was. The problem with the first attempt was obviously it was too far back and then less obviously the ball trough was angled wrong so it wasn't putting the ball where it needed to be. (Excuse the tee nut being used like a bolt, I need to buy more nuts and bolts) 20210918_115256 (resized).jpg

The issue i have now is the ball will sometimes bounce back towards the the ball trough or top of the apron so I stuck a post where it would bounce towards. This seemed to solve the issue of the ball bouncing up back into the apron, I also don't think this issue would be nearly as bad with the shooter lane having that groove cut out but I will probably keep that posts placement in the design anyways. 20210918_115312 (resized).jpg

I can't say for certain this is a fix though because I'm just manually pushing the plunger hard enough to shoot the ball out. When the ball trough solenoid is powered it will probably work with more Gusto, making the ball bounce more.

I'm also helping my dad work on his Williams fire right now and had to order some new star posts for him, but while doing that I came across these 20210918_132249 (resized).jpg I think it would be cool to light the post down under the apron to make it look spooky haha. Waaaaaay further down the line kind of thinking but it could be cool.

Ah, darn.... so this did not work. In fact I think the orange post made it worse, it was almost reliably getting stuck there. 20210918_155402 (resized).jpg

I appreciate it, could use any and all references. we have a couple williams machines here and it looks like they just have a bent piece of sheet Metal. And the theater of magic has a standalone post too but on the opposite side of the outhole. To be honest im thinking I got the angle of the ball trough wrong again.

See thats the one I used for the first cut but it interfered with the auto ball shooter. And the apron holes were also incorrect. I've used that one, some other peoples references from their homebrews and a couple reproduction bare stern boards in my cad file. I think im going to use that stern ironman image to try again today. As far as the radius I'm trying to make it all uniform so if there is one then I've set it to 3/16". Still working on finding a maker space near me with a big enough router to even test it out.

Honestly if all else fails I can also just bend up a piece of sheet metal to look like the williams machines too.

I have about 3 or 4 playfield scans inside the 3D model right now I've been using to reference where things should be including a Lawlor one, but im going to see if I can find a borg one! I think I MAY have found the issue but im not 100% sure just yet. 20210919_111526 (resized).jpg this is the outhole to Theater of magic, and its basically just mirrored what I have. I think I need to angle mine up more and then have the purple post below the shootout, not above. Im just not sure i have the space for it though since I also have the autoshooter. But I'll try it out today

I changed the angle on the trough shoot out and honestly I think this was the fix. This was the original 20210919_180555 (resized).jpg
This is the new cut but still not EXACTLY what I went with.
20210919_180617 (resized).jpg

The new still wasn't quite right so the cut out is wrong, plus I dont think thats enough wood to support the rear of the playfield, and like swinks said, I think the trough would interfere with the coin door.

I tried something in the middle and it worked. The back of the trough is still where the "old" cut is near the bottom, but the front of the trough is where the "new" cut is up top.

I guess I won't know if its fully working until we get power going to this thing but for now the ball doest get stuck back into the apron or shootout whenever I push the ball out hard. Time will tell I guess. But for now its working and im calling it a win. I think this will be even less of an issue when there is a ball groove cut in the shooter lane.

Thank you all for the help and advice.
also thank you BorgDog for the 3D models its definitely gonna help

I know I messaged you saying the same thing but man, thank you so much for the reference, I can't believe how close I was with just winging it. 20210920_003029 (resized).jpg
Good enough for government work haha.

Last post before I hit the hay but I think after a day of measuring, cutting and finageling, im ready to get the bottom portion cut on a cnc machine. So im either looking for a local service that can handle it or a makerspace to let me do it. But thats a tomorrow issue

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Thank you again to everyone that helped with the ball trough issue. Was losing my mind there for a second