I’m planning on Spraymax 2k. It will be yet another first time experience for me.

Did you wet sand between coats?

Well it wasn’t as easy to find the Spraymax 2k locally as I thought. I try not to use Amazon if I can find something nearby but after four different stores I just ordered online. Package arrived around 4 and I was clearing by 6.

Took me longer than I’d hoped to level the playfield getting it perfect in one spot would throw it off in another. Wasn’t able to get it perfect everywhere but close enough.

I unfortunately don’t have access to a clean room or fancy ventilation systems but I do have a big empty commercial property that isn’t being distributed because construction is waiting on permits so I figured that’s as good as any place.

Bought respirator, goggles, and gloves and went for it.

Don’t worry fog in my goggles is from my sweaty forehead not a leak in my mask.

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Before even laying down any clear, just cleaning the playfield with mineral spirits you can see the cloudiness of the sanded inserts clear up.

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First and second coat 30 minutes apart very light.

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Was fully planning on wet sanding the base coat(s) but everything seemed nice and flat still. No fibers pulling up or anything that I could tell so I went ahead and started laying down thicker coats with 15 minutes between coats until the can was empty. Stopped when can was really light but before any sputtering.

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I’ll let this set overnight. I’ll wet sand tomorrow and probably keep laying down coats until I go through another can.

I’m probably not doing things perfectly but it’s all a learning experience and this isn’t the final playfield. Happy with results so far.

Do need to address the small gaps around my triangle inserts. They aren’t filling in the way I’d hoped so that’s something else to address tomorrow.

Is this art?

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So yesterday was clear coating take two and it was a learning experience. I started by wet sanding with medium grit paper and then cleaning with mineral spirits. I don’t think I let the mineral spirits sit long enough before I started my next step which is where things started going sideways.

I sprayed clear into a cup so that I could use a toothpick to drip liquid clear into the gaps around my triangle inserts. This was hard to control and I think IF I attempted again I would use a syringe. Anyway, the clear started to get gelatinous looking which may have been a reaction from the residual mineral spirits or who knows but it wasn’t pretty.

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I didn’t want to stop and waste an entire can of clear so I decided to go ahead and lay down two more coats. Half a can each. This can was sputtering a lot so probably going to see a good amount of bubbles in the clear but I’ll be sanding things regardless. Hopefully day three goes better.

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Luckily blobs sanded off easy peasy. Just put two more final thick coats down. Went through all three cans of clear. Honestly if it weren’t for the blobs I would have been happy with where I was already.

Clear coat is done! Going to give it two weeks rest before I start bolting things back on it. I’m really happy with my results. Probably can’t tell much of a difference on these photos I’m posting but here you go anyway.

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Thanks! What do you think of NW pinball show? Your game gunna be there?

I’m thinking about coming for sure. I’ve got friends in Seattle I’ve got to give myself some sort of deadline. I’ve only been to Expo so I don’t really know what to expect from smaller shows but thanks for the info.

Yeah. It’s going to come down to code. I’m confident I can have the game in cabinet and flipping by then but I don’t know that I’ll have much of a game to play.

Spent all of yesterday modeling ball guides to send of to the fine folks at send cut send. I’ve never used them before but I’ve heard good things.

This bad boy is 3 ft long orbit rail.

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Decided to try an ultrasonic cleaner out so that I could try and salvage some parts from the machine rather than buying everything new but a lot of this stuff is suuuuuper grimy so I’m not sure how much of it will be salvageable.

Before/After:

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Wasn’t as magic as I had hoped but it will be useful to clean up the parts that are unique to this game.

Finally got some glass for the trans light. Put a lamp behind it to get an idea of how it will look. Super excited. New speaker panel is getting cut this week. Haven’t finalized art for it yet though.

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Send cut send stuff arrived a week or so ago. As you can see much better than my tin snipped guides.

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Got a new speaker panel cut. I like the way it looks. Somewhere between DMD and full LCD screen. I like these proportions. Still allows for a full back glass. Probably just do a vinyl overlay on the wood and some custom cut speaker grills from SCS. Possibly light the speakers as well but that will be down the road in finishing work.

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Although I am super excited to get started populating playfield number two it was hard to fight the feeling that I’m going to mess up the thing I just spent countless hours making as good as I could. But these machines are meant to be played not ogled.

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Started hammering in T nuts where needed and found my first mistake in my CAD file. Was painful to take a drill to the playfield but alls well that ends well. Can’t even tell which whole was widened.

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First things first was making sure the new stern style slide hardware would actually work with the mechs in place. I had done a lot of thinking and measuring and figuring before making the bet that it would be fine but you can’t be 100% sure until it’s actually installed.

This is the guy I was worried about. It’s the lift ramp mechanism for the left ramp and it’s pretty tight but it works. I threw it into the cabinet to make sure.

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And then bolted on the rest of the mechs that I could from the bottom side before getting the rotisserie involved.

I was also slightly worried about the flipper mechs now that lights and inserts are involved but nbd.

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Been out of town and then catching up at work from being out of town but if I’m going to finish this by NW show I’m gunna need to pick up the pace. Goal is to work on it a little bit every day. Got the sling mechs mounted today and started throwing on ball guides on the top side.

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Today’s progress. Flippers and slings on. More ball guides on including the three foot orbit. It took some convincing but it’s in.

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Pops in. More ball guides went on. Bending metal has proven to be my least favorite part of this entire project. This two inch Little shit was a pain in the ass. To add insult to injury I riveted the spade bolts on backwards so I’ll have to redo that at some point but it doesn’t interfere with the ball so it will mostly be a point of pride.

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Making good progress. Playfield is essentially populated on the top side minus installing some optos. Next big steps are 3D printing version two of the subway system and figuring out the physical ball lock behind the backboard and vuk. I’ve got a new backboard modeled but need to get it cnced. Local guy says he’s 3 weeks out so may just have sendcutsend do it.

Two not so minor fuck ups: one of my ball lock stand up targets is right in the path of the subway and has to be removed. I could put it on the left ramp post instead but I really like ball and lock targets surrounding the right ramp because that is where you will in fact lock balls.

Second fuck up is that I didn’t put the whole in the top of the playfield for the diverter in the right place. I wasn’t thinking about the way the diverter would open up correctly.

I think I’ll still be able to make it functional but it probably won’t be as pretty as I had hoped.

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I’m planning on reusing what I can from the wiring harness. Plan is for PD-16’s to be mounted in the head with the P3. And then light and switch boards under playfield.

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Modeled backboard and subway for posterity.

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Backboard installed. Time to get some 3D printing done.

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They are reproduction Diner ramps. Wish I could take the credit.

After almost losing my playfield off of my diy rotisserie 3 times in the last couple weeks I’m ordering a Pin Doc rotisserie. Not cheap but worth it. I’m sick of trusting clamps with my hard work.

Will it ball lock?

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It has come to my attention that SLC Punk is currently streaming on HBO. For those of you who’ve never seen it or might want to revisit it. Disclaimer: a lot has changed in SLC since the 80’s when the film takes place. I promise you can get a good drink here now.

Lessons learned #264: Nothing in pinball is easy or straightforward. I definitely should have figured out/finished the back board/ball lock/diverter/vuk situation on the first white wood before doing a second. I’ve spent the last couple weeks troubleshooting this design But I think I’ve finally got it figured out for the most part. Although there may be Some ball stuck issues to address.

Good news is that I’ve got my 3D printer dialed in by a friend so I can now do long prints with little to no errors and less babysitting.

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So now just need to model and print the ball path that will lead to the vuk.

Here is the ball lock and diverter:

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Well my 3D printer WAS making beautiful prints for me with no issues but now is dying after printing for a few seconds. I’m so frustrated at this point. I’m so close to moving on to the wiring harness but I’m stuck until I can get my printer working again. I should have listen to Scott and bought a Prusa.

This gorgeous subway entrance is no good without the rest of the subway

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