I hope to be able to go to a future TPF to play this and another custom machine. They both look awesome and would be quite the experience.
I hope to be able to go to a future TPF to play this and another custom machine. They both look awesome and would be quite the experience.
Wow! What a beautiful piece of art! Nice job! I'd love to play this thing, but TPF is not in the cards this time around.
OK. So, the inserts are... well, inserted! Went well for the most part. Had to sand a few of them down. A couple of the arrows were overcut so I made a few various sized shims from the usable scrap pile. The weldment put it all together like glue. Really good, solid glue. It will take a nuclear explosion to get them out again. In pieces. Decals next, wax, then populating. 8 days....
IMG_6803.JPG IMG_6800.JPGQuoted from smokey_789:Here's my "invisible pinball machine"
Yeah if i owned a Special Force i would be turning it invisible too.
WAY COOL !!! THE HOME STRETCH, I can hardly stand the wait.
Rcvd LED kit today and all it contained was the LED strip. No power supply and such. Reordered and we will see. It is an afterthought anyway but not essential to operation.
Sooooooooooo it seems not all inserts are created equal. All of the white ones are cemented in very solidly. The red ones popped right out! What? Crap! Must obviously be made of the same type of plastic that the little bottle that contains the weldment juice is made of. Plan B is in effect...
Inserts are famous for popping out.
Rough the sides up with sandpaper, apply a layer of 3m plastic primer, and glue it down for good.
By far the most interesting thread on pinside I've seen in a loooooong time, might be the best, thanks again for the play by play.
Long day today, lots wrong, less right. 20y/o Weller up and died. Trip to Ace Hardware #1. Screws for mounting, well, everything are too damn long. Trip #2. Decided the 1/4" braid I bought for my ground rail should have been 1/8". Ace don't carry that so I dug into my bag o' tricks and found a local source of stranded 18ga. (The cloth covered kind strips so much easier than the plastic kind.)
**Bonus for guessing the donor play field.
IMG_6815.JPG IMG_6816.JPGRegarding mounting the flush GI lights. Staples out, screws in. But I didn't want to spend untold amounts of time drilling the little bastards. Buildy to the rescue again. This is a "Whitney" punch and it is just what the doctor ordered. Just put in the proper sized die and punch away. Gonna save me a ton in time and little drill bits.
IMG_6811.JPGYou are doing an amazing job and your documenting of it is great. Thanks so much for sharing it. I am not an EM guy at all and i just cant help but to continously check this thread to watch the progress. Your work is being appreciated by more than you realize as many that few it are not saying anything.
Dont know if its even possible, But i figure i might as well ask. Sadly, TPF is one of the shows that i have not been to and dont know if I will ever make it, but is there any chance that you might be able to make a trip up to Pinball Expo in Chicago this October to show off your machine. I know that many would be like myself and willing to danoate a few bucks to make it happen. It wouldnt take much to get a few of us to pitch in to help the cost involved with you making the machine and yourself appear at the show, and if it is planned right, you could maybe even do a small seminar to talk about the process of making a really awesome machine. As I said, im not an EM guy, but i sure would enjoy getting to see this machine in person
Troy
Mk1Mod0,
I've had some success with some plastic epoxy at the glue section at Lowes. It smells worse than regular epoxy; and seems to soften the surface of the plastic enough to bond the epoxy to it.
I used it to mount the Terran empire acrylic to the top of the pop bumper caps and it seems to be very solid.
Watching this thread is like what it was like waiting for the next goddamn episode of Breaking Bad to start each week...
Quoted from Atomicboy:Watching this thread is like what it was like waiting for the next goddamn episode of Breaking Bad to start each week...
It might be a long wait.
Yep. Gonna pretty much break for TPF now. There's no way it is going to be ready in time. Got to slow down, step back and relax again. I'd rather do it right than rushed. Next year for sure. Work continues at a slower pace... The only way this would come to Frisco is as a static display. And nobody wants that.
IMG_6818.JPG IMG_6817.JPGQuoted from Mk1Mod0:Yep. Gonna pretty much break for TPF now. There's no way it is going to be ready in time. Got to slow down, step back and relax again. I'd rather do it right than rushed. Next year for sure. Work continues at a slower pace... The only way this would come to Frisco is as a static display. And nobody wants that.
bring it
Bring it
Bring It
we want to see in person
Quoted from Mk1Mod0:I'd rather do it right than rushed.
Man I am so glad you said that. I was thinking the same thing no use rushing especially the most important part.
Best to Mellow!
Sorry it won't make it. I was thinking that things were not close enough last night ... but figured you had some plan other than working your ash off.
Star Trek: Mirror Universe will as I just got the Nixie displays working 100% thanks to Oliver in Sweden.
There's always next year. It'll be ready and perfect. Glad to hear you got all your issues straightened out. I would offer help, but it seems most of your problems are WAY over my head. See you at the "Star Trek row."
Take up the offers here to get it to EXPO, its a good show and a great social event...
You will have piles-o-fun !
You have me so damn nervous at this point they had to up my BP medicine. I cannot imagine the tiniest error at this point in the project. Via con Dios.
Quoted from KingNine:I vote you bring it as a static display!! I want to see this project so badly!
+ 1
probably doing some kind of research testing for PF wear with or without mylar that is my guess.
Yes it is amazing! They're coming to take him away! oh me oh my to the funny farm, where life is beautiful all the time. I let you finish the song in your head.
Quoted from Mk1Mod0:There's always next year. It'll be ready and perfect. Glad to hear you got all your issues straightened out. I would offer help, but it seems most of your problems are WAY over my head. See you at the "Star Trek row."
I'm glad you're waiting until next year. Would have been a shame to have a Best of Show battle between the two of you - especially if they didn't split it.
Quoted from Craig:Every time I see new posts on this thread I get excited. Eager to see the next step.
In the midst of all the new machines getting developed, I'm more intrigued by this for some reason.
Quoted from Zitt:Enough resting... We crave updates.
Hey, I needed a vacation from my vacation! But then, don't we all? And trust me... no one yells at me louder than these three!
SI12EBD.jpg
Assemble me! Clean me! Repair me! PLAY ME!!!
Meanwhile, between work, overtime and a plethora of honey-dos, I did manage to take Vid1900s advice to heart and used some recently purchased epoxy to get the red inserts permanently inserted.
IMG_7084.JPG
Also been researching and testing how to best go about polishing all the horrible scratches that managed to find their way onto the polycarbonate play field piece. While I have become quite proficient at refurbing the acrylic, the poly is another matter. While a much tougher material, the poly actually has a softer surface that is easily scratched and tough to get back to a crystal clear clarity. So with a plan in place, I will be wet sanding up to 2500 grit this weekend. After that, population of the play field will resume.
IMG_7086.JPG
Also rethinking my plan for labeling the switches and lights on the P/F. I think I will shrink what will fit onto the inserts themselves and that should be making for a much less busy P/F. Minimalist is the watchword of the day here. Will also spend some quality time this weekend, weax permitting, on the back box. Then there's wiring in the rest of the case switches, rebuilding the coin door, mounting the... oh jeez. You guys have GOT to check this out...
This is the kit I'll be running around the base and under the guts. Works as advertised. VERY happy with this purchase. Remote controlled and entirely programmable.
Quoted from Mk1Mod0:This is the kit I'll be running around the base and under the guts. Works as advertised. VERY happy with this purchase. Remote controlled and entirely programmable.
Is that the kit that has individually addressable LEDs? You can do sweeps and other special effects with them.
I noticed buffer pads today which polished scratches out of glass. I wonder if that's the right option for cleaning the poly?
Quoted from dothedoo:Is that the kit that has individually addressable LEDs? You can do sweeps and other special effects with them.
Er, no. This one is all or nothing. But it is 15' worth. You can adjust brightness, speed of change, fade, etc. and program your own custom sequences.
Quoted from btw75:I noticed buffer pads today which polished scratches out of glass. I wonder if that's the right option for cleaning the poly?
Don't know. Glass is pretty hard. I've found that the super high grit paper with water gets it pretty close, then Novus3 with a wool buffing pad does pretty good, followed of course by 2 and 1. Also did some trials with that high end airplane/speed boat wax. Holy carp that stuff is awesome. I will be putting it on my car!
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