My impression was he did not feel there was enough interest. Another Pinsider PM'd me that Twisted Pins had indicated they were going to do a remake, but theirs will be the stock black. I'm looking at making clear and possibly colors with an LED mod. Will pick up a Space Station next week to model the new ramp.

OH man is this gonna be GREAT!!

If I only sell one to Paul, it will have been worth it!

You da man Mark. Sure wish you were closer, be fun to hang and play pin together.

I'm also interested. Just sayin'.

I don't even own a space station yet, but if this was made, I'd still buy one so I have it.

Did you get the High Speed ramp installed yet?

Well whoever makes the ramps if blue is made absolutely needs to be Dk. Blue to match the upper mini PF.
i suppose i could spray a clear ramp with blue candy base and clear it as well to match.
If made out of acrylic does cliffy make protectors for this ramp and machine? becouse they would realy be needed if so.

If there is any opportunity to improve on the design based on how the ramp wore over time I will make modifications to avoid similar wear if possible. Until I get the machine in my hands (next week), I would appreciate any photos of the damage to your ramps.

I made my own stainless steel ramp protector for the right side of the ramp:

SS ramp protector.jpg

For the High Speed clear ramp I made I replaced the ball guide on the inside of the uphill curve with a piece of polished spring steel. Would be a simple modification to rivet a piece here as well.

Thanks for the input.

Both left and right sides of the ramp entrance on mine are broken where the base of the ramp curves up. But if the clear ramps are made of the stronger material I don't think the protector is needed. On the colored or black ramps only you can answer that Mark.

Thanks, Paul. Hard to tell until I pick up the game but that lower edge of the ramp appears to be a pretty sharp bend. A little more arc to it will probably spread out the stress.

Curves up on the sides. Sorry.

no, playfield is torn apart still, got really bad playfield wear so doing an overlay.

I just did my second HS playfield swap. 2nd one had a much better playfield than mine. Will probably clean it up and see if someone wants to restore it. Good luck with the restore!

I'm down for a ramp. Decals would be cool too

I am working on the mold now...Hope to have a test formed in the next few days.

How's that mold coming along?

Should have it finished today. Hope to form the first test today or tomorrow. Sidetracked by relatives visiting for a week....

dang pesky relatives.

Hmm what happened to the Op of this thread ?wasnt he already making these ramps?

Look at his activity on Pinside. Appeared to have given up for lack of sufficient interest quickly. Hasn't been on Pinside for 5 months.

First form done last night and rough trimmed this morning to check fit. A few minor adjustments and I should have it. After I get the clear ramp perfect I will try to do a blue acrylic that is very close to the upper left mini playfield.

IMG_0513.JPG

IMG_0514.JPG

Very nice freeplay!

I look forward to pics with the clear ramp. I think it will look like a test game, but whatever.

[EDIT - I see the pic was already posted in this thread. And yes, looks like a test game...]

Wow, those are looking good.

so uh how about sending one of those up to canada

I will be able to send to Canada. Have shipped a few of my High Speed clear ramps there.

Thanks for picking this project up.
I skipped the high speed ramp, but this is going to be very sweet in blue.

GREAT looking Mark. I hope the blue turns out, I really want one. That would look sooo cool lit from the underside with a few Comet led strips or some other kind of lighting.

Never too late. Making more High Speed ramps in the next few days!

Some retirement for you hugh Mark.

This is retirement! Doing something fun and filling a need. Will be working on an LED mod for lighting similar to the one Dennis_AZ did. Will use the existing Opto board on the drop target to trigger the lighting. Just a shot of the LED's I'm considering using. (they're just sitting behind the ramp)

IMG_0515.JPG

Yup your livin the good life. Or may be el wire instead of led's, the light would be a lot more even and would fit under the lip of the ramp on both sides. You may not even notice it until it lit.

They look really cool under the dark blue transparent acrylic.... and less noticeable when off.

Guess I better start saving my pennies, I would love a new ramp. Although my repaired one is working great a blue ramp would look sweet. Maybe I can add a fiber optic star field behind it, that might look really cool!
Brian

Fiber optic star field!?! That's a great idea!

I'll still be in for a blue ramp , I second the el wire, I already have several strands I can do later on

This will be saweeeet!

Ramp Update... First pull in acrylic blue was actually a re-melt of a piece of plastic I had tried on High Speed. Pull was unsuccessful. Did not pull to the full definition I can get with PETG, but worse, as I was cutting it out of the mold, the ramp just cracked in half. What I'm trying is cast acrylic which is stronger than extruded acrylic and has a much higher forming temperature. All that said, it sure was gorgeous. I'm going to try one more time to see if I can get a successful pull.

OH NOOOO, my blue ramp might just be just a dream. But the remelting might have something to do with it breaking.

Blue ramp! Blue ramp! Blue ramp! You can do it!!

Yeah let's start the chant, Blue ramp! Blue ramp! Blue ramp! .........

I'm going to try again in the morning with a new piece of acrylic. If I can't pull this off it will be a shame. The blue looks awesome. Too dark for a photo tonight. Might post a picture of the first pull (both pieces ) tomorrow.

Space is black.

I was a bit worried about acrylic working. maybe some mold release agent or power release? yeah 1/8" acrylic im thinking would have to be pretty hot to form. i dont think i have heard of extruded sheets i know its an option on rod tubes and other thicker acrylic products.
Might have to try the polycarbonate but unsure how it would react and then it would lose some of its chemical resistence and is more prone to crackling. the mini playfield is polcarbonate and they broke with less ball force than the ramp would endure.
Hmm has anyone seen any ABS plastic sheets in other transparent colors other than clear?

As far as i have have ever found blue acrylic comes in 1/8"-1/4" thicknesses it would be nice if it could be found in 1/16" thickness for this project but then it might be too brittle

I would suspect the acrylic shrank when it cooled down and contracted around the mold but the blue acrylic should be very close to the same color as the upper mini PF.

I'm not too confident with the cast acrylic. Cast has to be formed around 375 degrees, which like you mentioned will increase the contraction when cooling on the mold. I have located a source here locally that carries extruded transparent acrylic. I need to make a run to them for PETG anyway, so before I waste this last piece of cast acrylic, I'd like to try the extruded which forms around 300 degrees.

So... Looks like I will have to switch plastic vendors as my former source no longer carries the thickness of PETG that I want. Fortunately there is another local supplier that has one of the thicknesses that I need at the moment. I am not giving up on the blue acrylic, but looks like in order to get extruded blue acrylic, I will have to order out of state. Before I do that I will attempt a clear acrylic form just to see if I can do it. I will form that one tomorrow. Just for fun, the attached photo shows a clear ramp just sitting in the game and the attempt at the acrylic blue that busted in the mold. The blue is gorgeous, but as I said I have concerns about being able to successfully form it as well as its long term durability. If I can successfully form the blue, I expect I will be riveting ball guides on both sides at the entrance.

IMG_0519.JPG

Is it really that brittle? Does the plastic just snap if you try to bend it? Do those 2 types of plastic have a "grain" to them?

I've toyed with extruded acrylic before and did not find it to be as brittle as what I experienced with the blue cast acrylic. The form is a tight fit into the mold and it cracked as I was making the first rough cut around the whole mold. When I cast the clear one I will change how I cut it out of the mold to see if I can reduce the stress. Also, the extruded forms at a lower temperature which I expect will reduce the contraction as it cools

If I can get a detailed form then successfully get it out of the mold, I'm confident the ramp will hold up, especially with the ball guides. I am going to make the clear for sure, but will make it out of a little thicker PETG.... .125 vs the .100 I do High Speed with.

BTW... You can't really tell in the photo above, but the blue acrylic is a perfect match to the upper left mini-playfield