Lexington, VA
awesome looking!
(Topic ID: 67163)
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Super Straight
Segasa-Sonic, 1977
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Progress, slow but steady. Constructed my redneck engineering sandblast cabinet today. The ones locally available are not only too small, but not free. I hate not free. This one cost a large cardboard box that my new upright freezer came in, a roll of duct tape, a small piece of plastic and a few hours time. Tested this evening with sifted playground sand on the bar lockdown mechanism. Works. I'll load it up with the good stuff tomorrow. (Aluminum oxide.)
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IMG_5952.JPGHow do you plan on doing the playfield plastics? Printing a reverse image on translucent adhesive and applying to the underside I heard is a great way.
Quoted from Crash:How do you plan on doing the playfield plastics? Printing a reverse image on translucent adhesive and applying to the underside I heard is a great way.
If you look way back to the beginning, I tried to do decals with just black lines and hated the way it looked. After considering spray paint, I decided I would do the sandblasting for all graphics. (Case, plastics, P/F and B/G.)
Quoted from browne92:Be careful with the play sand. Silicosis is nasty stuff.
Agreed. My setup is near airtight. I use a half face respirator and then let it settle before opening up and evacuating the chamber.
OK, finally, some pay off. Took a 4-day weekend but I finally feel like I am actually getting somewhere. I swear it is all I can do to not rush this 'cause I only get one chance. So here's the coin door section with the mask applied on a makeshift stand I whipped up. Turns out the stand was too tall for my home baked sandblast cabinet and I ended up just propping the back with a 2X4. Anyways, I did the initial blast then pulled it for an inspection.
IMG_5958.JPG
Quoted from mario_1_up:that looks badass
x 10,000
damn fine work!
Quoted from moto_cat:Very nice! How about an acrylic coin box with some quarters in it ?
Off course you will have to make some acrylic quarters as well! 
Fun project!
I've heard of people running drills in reverse when drilling to keep it from grabbing. Have you tried that?
Sana'a
Quoted from browne92:It adds to the effect if you hide the light source.
Should be a helluva show stopper when done.
Yup. Just doing a little proof of concept test with a trial strip and some duct tape. The strips I intend to use are incredibly thin and bright and should be easy to hide. http://www.superbrightleds.com/cat/flexible-strips-and-bars/
You can buy in bulk length and then customize to need. These have copper pads every 3" where you can cut and solder in leads.
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IMG_5980.JPGQuoted from CraigC:For the back box insert panel you could use the wms press fit wpc style lamp sockets with the idc connectors on the back.
-c
Not sure which ones you are talking about. A pic or catalog link would be good... thanks!
BTW, if you haven't tried already, I did a little experiment last week and found that Forestner bits work well on acrylic too. I had to let everything cool a couple of times during the cut, as I could smell the acrylic getting hot. Might have helped if I applied more pressure to shorten the drill time and/or backed off the drill speed.
http://www.marcospecialties.com/pinball-parts/24-8818
Quoted from Mk1Mod0:Not sure which ones you are talking about. A pic or catalog link would be good... thanks!
this is just crazy, one of a kind for sure.
i can only imagine what the playfield will look like 
does the light for the cabinet is RGB, change colors every week or so depending on the mood you are.
Quoted from browne92:BTW, if you haven't tried already, I did a little experiment last week and found that Forestner bits work well on acrylic too. I had to let everything cool a couple of times during the cut, as I could smell the acrylic getting hot. Might have helped if I applied more pressure to shorten the drill time and/or backed off the drill speed.
Yep. I have done it but do not prefer it. You can cool it with water as you drill, just be sure to clean and dry immediately after. Low/med speed, light pressure always. Let the drill do the work, never force it. Whatever I have in the chuck of the press, it's just a slow, steady process. Pressure makes for chips/cracks.
Quoted from desertT1:Looking really good. What are you using to actually throw the sand around in your free blaster?
http://www.harborfreight.com/portable-abrasive-blaster-kit-37025.html Cabinet was free. The blaster was a couple bucks. This one actually works pretty well, as you can see. Performs with my home garage pancake compressor. I get about a minute of spray time to a minute of compressor run. Shooting with the 70 grit aluminum oxide.
Quoted from beatmaster:this is just crazy, one of a kind for sure.
i can only imagine what the playfield will look like
does the light for the cabinet is RGB, change colors every week or so depending on the mood you are.
Still undecided...
1) Three colors on cabinet(left side, right side, coin door), fourth for P/F and fifth for head.
2) Color changing all around.
3) Blue lower cabinet, green playfield, red head/ back glass.
Leaning towards #3. The point of the color here is to highlight and accent, not grab your attention. Always taking suggestions...
Great job. Looking at your LED backlit panels reminded me of these nice shots of backlit snowflakes.
http://www.natureknows.org/2013/11/amazing-macro-photography-of-individual.html
Quoted from Mk1Mod0:Another small piece completed, but good proof of concept for mounting and polishing. (No flames here - 220grit, 500grit, 1200grit, buffing wheel.)
Wow. That acrylic housing for (what I'm assuming is) the on/off switch is amazing. It looks crystal clear...and you did that all with varying coarseness levels of sand paper? Is that true? How long did you spend sanding at each of the varying stages you listed? ...and do you recommend a buffing wheel for the final stage?
More thanks and praise for this thread. Good luck with your project. Those LED lighted panels are coming along smashingly.
Sincerely,
Ryan Claytor
Elephant Eater Comics
www.ElephantEater.com
Quoted from RyanClaytor:Wow. That acrylic housing for (what I'm assuming is) the on/off switch is amazing. It looks crystal clear...and you did that all with varying coarseness levels of sand paper? Is that true? How long did you spend sanding at each of the varying stages you listed? ...and do you recommend a buffing wheel for the final stage?
More thanks and praise for this thread. Good luck with your project. Those LED lighted panels are coming along smashingly.
Sincerely,
Ryan Claytor
Elephant Eater Comics
http://www.ElephantEater.com
That's exactly what it is. Mostly won't be seen. Yep, a couple of minutes of wet sanding with each grit successively until that level of scratches are gone. (Using a block where I could to keep it flat.) Then the buffing wheel with polish for that extra shine. I happened to have an old bench grinder I hadn't used in years so I pulled the grinding wheels and got a couple of buffing wheels. One leather and one cotton. Makes polishing the metal and plastic parts extra nice and easy. I was actually surprised with the ease of this. And thanks.
1 week later
Been a rough week or two with cooler temps than normal and lots of work at work. Overtime is a good thing and I never turn it down. Today's goal, weather dependent of course, is to finish the blasting of parts for the cabinet sides and plastics. Took a lot of work to get the artwork ready. Now I just have to bring the images up in the Silhouette software, reverse and size, and cut.
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sidestencil-76.jpgthis is beautiful work, and should be so sweet when completed. Love the finish on the switch block - nice and glossy.
1 week later
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