Quoted from SpaceGhost:Does anyone know of a silk screener who is familiar with playfield printing and who takes custom work? I read a couple threads where people are speculating the costs for a custom playfield print and I think they are WAY too low in their cost estimations
A lot of homebrew projects will simply do a vinyl overlay. If you want direct printing, I highly suggest contacting Charlie over at spooky. I believe he printed playfields for WOOLY. For sure he regrettably helped Skit-b.
I'm seriously considering using the technique that surfboard makes use of printing on rice paper and then laminating it to the playfield. The rice paper turns transparent, leaving only the printed artwork showing. Since it's using common inkjet technology, it's easy to make one-off designs, or to do multiples. A 40" by 48" print is big enough for 2 playfields, and would cost $75 at https://www.boardlams.com/ .
Quoted from Hardsuit:I'm seriously considering using the technique that surfboard makes use of printing on rice paper and then laminating it to the playfield. The rice paper turns transparent, leaving only the printed artwork showing. Since it's using common inkjet technology, it's easy to make one-off designs, or to do multiples. A 40" by 48" print is big enough for 2 playfields, and would cost $75 at https://www.boardlams.com/ .
I have been wanting to try this method for a while
another alternative is reverse screen print or decal to the underside of a polycarb playfield protector
Quoted from SpaceGhost:Does anyone know of a silk screener who is familiar with playfield printing and who takes custom work?
The thing about screenprinting is that it takes the same amount of work to print a hundred as to print one. It literally takes seconds to print, but hours to burn screens, mix inks, etc. So all the cost is in the setup.
Generally the charge is about $3 per colour per print for a minimum run of, say, 100 pieces. No shop I know of would take a job like a playfield to only print one or two.
Quoted from swinks:another alternative is reverse screen print or decal to the underside of a polycarb playfield protector
Printing on a playfield is the same as printing on paper - both are wood, remember! So you wouldn't be saving time or money printing on plastic.
The cheapest is by far getting a vinyl overlay printed - probably $75-$100 tops.
Quoted from jwilson:Printing on a playfield is the same as printing on paper - both are wood, remember! So you wouldn't be saving time or money printing on plastic.
The cheapest is by far getting a vinyl overlay printed - probably $75-$100 tops.
yes I know paper and wood are effectively wood products effectively and in my statement I actually meant and should of written "direct print or decal" not screen print, sorry
I have a belief that if it's worth doing... it's worth overdoing. 
We will need to make 6 of these. One of each will end up going to each person involved. If they decide to do the full build at the end, they will have the playfield ready to be populated.
Oh... And, we started the cabinet. Why am I building manually vs. CNC? Because all the CNCs are busy right now. They are going to be tied up for the next few weeks.
I want the lower cabinet done by Tuesday so... I will build it manually.
I purchased the 45-degree lock mitre router bit the way everyone used to make cabinets. Really cool. Never used one before.
Quoted from SpaceGhost:Received my fiberoptic wire today!!! Woohoo!
» YouTube video
There's close to 150 of those sign lights! How are you going to drive them? A 16X16 grid or something? RGB?
What's the plan for the neon star part?
Hi Mark. I'm going to drive them in bundles. I'll build some LED arrays if I can't find them. The neon star housing will have a few blue leds inside that will edge light the star. The slits in the faceplate are designed to allow pieces of clear acrylic to be installed. I will frost the outside (showing) edge of the acrylic to catch the light.
DDDwingmaster It would be easier but I don't think you will get the intensity of the direct lighting. We're going to be using the spinner below on the right orbit to control the letters of the sign so I may need more individual control of the letters.
Quoted from SpaceGhost:dddwingmaster It would be easier but I don't think you will get the intensity of the direct lighting. We're going to be using the spinner below on the right orbit to control the letters of the sign so I may need more individual control of the letters.
reminds me of TotAN spinning lamp lights
"I love the lightning!"
Quoted from DDDwingmaster:use several larger area LED behind it to light them up in sections?
I would imagine they went this route to avoid light bleed.. granted this can be done by created walls between the sections, seems like fibre optics might make it easier to simply tap them into a covered LED on a breadboard with the lamps spread out.
and as he's already pointed out, it allows him to control each light individually (not just each letter)
based on the coding, if you ripped a spinner, you could have it light up LED by LED, giving a really nice effect 
These are the fiberoptic wires I bought. I was mistaken when I spoke in the video about them being 4mm. They are .04" (1mm). Duh. That's one of the reasons I didn't bother with LEDs.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01MSYM91F/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s01
Someone asked me about the how I'm planning on cutting the holes into our cabinet. Normally, I would do this with a CNC router since I have them to use but right now they are busy for a while. In this situation, I'm going to use a hand router and templates. I'll show you how this works shortly.
To start, I laid out the hole patterns in Autocad. You can use pretty much any vector art program. You could cut your templates out of MDF or something else using hole saws, drill bits and jig saw. This will require you to clean up the cuts a little before you actually use the template but it works just fine.
I used the laser cutter here at work and cut my templates from 1/4" thick acrylic. I'm going to cut these holes at lunch so I'll post again in a couple hours.
epthegeek LOL. I didn't mean it that way... They are not mine. They belong to my workplace. I just meant that I would normally just load up the wood on the CNC and cut the parts via files. Much faster and easier. There is a lot to be said about building the cabinet yourself though. It's very rewarding and quick.
Quoted from SpaceGhost:Normally, I would do this with a CNC router since I have them to use but right now they are busy for a while
pfft, white people problems
rick_sanchez (resized).jpg
I wish had some of your equipment at work. I do have a nice fortus 400 3d printer at work that can handle larger jobs, and a machine shop that can do some small G-jobs.
Quoted from SpaceGhost:We don't even have a fortus. We have the Eden 500.... you rich people.
You wouldn't want to pay for a fortus. $120k for the machine, plus a $15k/year service contract. Believe me we've done the math and half considered farming it out to local printers. Unfortunately if you do that, your'e at the mercy of their job queue plus either waiting for shipping or having the inconvenience of picking up parts on your way to work. There's something awfully convenient about being able to print small things while you're at work, or if it's something large you stick your job in before you leave, and you'll have your part in the morning 20 feet from your desk. The crappy part of Stratasys is they force you to use THEIR materials (oh and they only give you access to a couple nylons, ASA, and polycarbonate). If you want your machine to run other materials, you literally pay a $10k fee to update the software to accept other materials. It's a big scam, and my hope is some of these hobby printers will get larger, faster, and more reliable and put some of these bigger companies out of business.
Haha. That's not as bad as I thought. I think our water jet was about that. Yeah. The materials from Stratasys are expensive. The rigur and verogrey get burned through so fast here. It's ridiculous. They are about $1200 per cartridge I believe. We pretty much run ours 24/7 for film and tv garbage.
The Raise3d printers are run as prototypes and throw away stuff. That's why I use those machines for my BS pinball stuff.
I'm going to print the Starlite Starbrigte sign on the formlabs printers. The detail on those is way better than the Raise printers.
Dang! Watching this thread is about as depressing as it is inspiring lol — I’m struggling to just find time in a week to get a couple coils wired up and hoping by New Years to have my first flips if I’m lucky. Can’t figure out how this is coming together so fast!
Just amazing work so far - crazy fast.
Mbecker It's only a matter of not sleeping and never taking a break. LOL. Yikes. Sounds a lot like work except it's more rewarding.
I just maximize my time by doing all my planning while I sleep and do the work when I'm awake.
nice work so far. love the fact that you cut the triangles to take up all of the dead space behind the leg brackets
I just noticed, no start button hole on the front of the cabinet? (or is that a pilot hole to drill it later?
Quoted from SpaceGhost:mbecker It's only a matter of not sleeping and never taking a break. LOL. Yikes. Sounds a lot like work except it's more rewarding.
I just maximize my time by doing all my planning while I sleep and do the work when I'm awake.
Sleeping!! Dang- that’s where I’m going wrong. Ha! I do planning at work and driving but I must lack the proper execution when home/not working
We might add that but right now it's behind the ramp so it doesn't make sense to add it if you can't read it.
That makes sense. I figured there must be a good reason as your attention to detail on the product is incredible. If this was a production game, you would have a lot of interested buyers.
LOL. That would be great but I don't think any of us can afford to start a pinball company and the licensing required for the theme. Maybe Stern will pick up the theme and make a cooler machine for sale. I'm sure they have the ability to really make something like this awesome.
I'll use this as my resume and see if a pinball company would hire me. "I'm sorry. Your videos are shaky and you are monotone. Good luck."
Quoted from Mbecker:Dang! Watching this thread is about as depressing as it is inspiring lol — I’m struggling to just find time in a week to get a couple coils wired up and hoping by New Years to have my first flips if I’m lucky. Can’t figure out how this is coming together so fast!
Just amazing work so far - crazy fast.
I’m in that club with you. Wired up all coils last night and most switches are done. Hoping to have it out of the test rig and into the cab this weekend.
Quoted from SpaceGhost:I'll use this as my resume and see if a pinball company would hire me. "I'm sorry. Your videos are shaky and you are monotone. Good luck."
still better than the reveal videos Stern used to put out before they got deadflip to come in with some cameras on tripods and a decent usb mic
LOL. Well thanks. I glad at least someone is watching the videos. I keep watching them myself by the view count doesn't go up. 
Started cutting the head. I don't think I'm going to build it the same way they did. Seems hokey to me. Changing things up just a hair.
Just starting to mount necessary components....
question:
why did you have to put tee-nuts on the backside of the cabinet?
that IEC inlet box doesn't weigh a lot and the a/c cord just plugs inside. personally, I would have thought that you would have had a much cleaner looking cabinet if you would have just secured the box from the inside using the #6x1/2" screws
Quoted from j_m_:why did you have to put tee-nuts on the backside of the cabinet? I would have thought that you would have had a much cleaner looking cabinet if you would have just secured the box from the inside using the #6x1/2" screws
T-nuts work by putting the pressure against the surface as you torque down the machine screws. Since the plate is being secured on the inside, they wouldn't work the other way (if you yanked on it, it would pull the T-nut right out). But to your point, as with most things pinball if you're screwing something down where a T-nut won't work, you simply use a wood screw (so long as the length is shorter than the thickness of the wood so you don't go through the other side).
Hope JPOP doesn't see this thread, he'll have a fit! First unpainted vents, now this. Is there no pride in pinball anymore?!!
Quoted from SpaceGhost:LOL. Well thanks. I glad at least someone is watching the videos. I keep watching them myself by the view count doesn't go up.
Started cutting the head. I don't think I'm going to build it the same way they did. Seems hokey to me. Changing things up just a hair.
Just starting to mount necessary components....
If I may make a suggestion concerning your HD leg braces. The thread inserts on the metal plate are only pressed in so they can still spin if a bolt is cross threaded somehow. What I do is put 3 spots of weld on each of those pressed in thread inserts. I've had 2 of those thread inserts spin because of a cross threaded bolt or the insert threads were bad so for all 14 of my game that have those plates on I have welded all the inserts. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. 
j_m_ Well, there is a short story for that. I have some plans that call for 3/8" diameter holes there. When I went to install the IEC inlet box, the threaded inserts are only for 10-32 screws. Maybe this is a difference between Williams WPC and Pin2000. Dunno. Anyway, in order to hide my now too large holes, I knocked the threaded inserts out of the IEC box and used 5/16" Tee nuts in the 3/8" holes. Now, it's ultra-heavy duty.
toyotaboy Had I not followed the plans and check my IEC box first, this would not have happened but it's not like this will bug me. The tee nuts are on the back. P.S. Do not let JPOP see this thread.
MustangPaul Thanks for the insight. I will most likely do that when I disassemble this again tomorrow. The TIG is already setup ready to go.
I put some of the mesh in and got two legs mounted. I have to do the back legs tomorrow. I ran out of time tonight.... wife said so.
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