I'm getting better at assembling cabinets.
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Mistakes were made, of course. Back corners routed wrong (luckily re-routing was an option, more or less), backbox back panel joint routed too deep, neck spacer not perfectly aligned - but everything can be addressed or worked around.

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Tonight was a night of glue and little else for the next 24 hours. Pictured:
- Adding a mating brace to the right side of the backbox, to address a routing error mentioned above - far left
- Assembling the neck spacer after predrilling some holes to attach it to the cabinet - center
- The lower neck pieces being adhered together for strength and to create a wider target on which to mount the rear glass channel - under the heavy wood blocks
- The cabinet itself, clamped together with ratchet straps and heavy tools - back

Tomorrow I will be bracing the cabinet with 90-degree corner brackets and standard leg plates, assembling the neck and attaching it to the lower cab, and most likely test-fitting it with legs and trim. Backbox assembly and leveling will also be an important step.

Up on legs!

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Spent a lot of time last night with prepping the cabinet to drop the playfield in, and didn't end up having time to put together the backbox (so no glue to dry for now). Tonight's task will be cutting some braces, routing the top and bottom surfaces of the backbox for T-moulding, and getting the backbox assembled enough to glue.

Playfield fits PERFECTLY on the slide rail mech.

Backbox not fastened down yet (balanced precariously for this photo).... but we're getting somewhere now.

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Not pictured is the two pieces making up the upper trim that holds the backglass in. Still being glued together, and those will be fastened in when dry.

Bottom of the backbox is shallower than it probably should have been - didn't think to compare the depth with the neck - but I've come up with a solution involving the speaker panel that I think will mask any obvious underhang.

Plastic test-fitting.
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Not perfect, of course. A few pieces were designed to fit around bent metal walls, and some walls couldn't be bent as tightly as I wanted. But otherwise it's starting to look more like the plan.

Meanwhile, Phase 4 of cabinet construction has been completed.
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Backbox hinging is near perfect, playfield slide rails nearly perfect, and generally everything fits just about the way I wanted. The only thing that really stands out to me is the playfield volume is about an inch deeper in the back than I expected. I'm not sure how this even happened, with all the measuring I did ahead of time, but at least I know I have enough clearance to do a Fire!-style smokey shield over the volcano crater.

Over two weeks now with NO updates! What could possibly be my excuse this time?

Well, I mean... I bought a house...

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Still have to get a whole bunch of stuff moved and unpacked. In particular, the pins. VB work will resume after things settle down.

In the meantime, Jesse - audio enthusiast of the Collective - is working at composing the game's soundtrack, and made me some recommendations for the physical side of this game's sound system. Unlike UT, you'll have no problem hearing this game at shows.

I've spent so much time on house-related stuff, etc... have I done ANYTHING on this project?

Well...yes, yes I have.
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I continue to maintain that I am not an artist; the front-and-center stars of the show were drawn by my girlfriend on a piece of high-tech artistry software, while the rest was done by myself in a combination of Photoshop and Inkscape. But aside from a few tweaks and a few more details I'd like to add, I think it turned out pretty good.

Our cast:
Hinata Akiyama, the science girl, leads the club and can cast energy spells.
Saki Kusachi can influence earth and stone.
Yumi Shimizu can manipulate water.

A handful of mechs are installed on Whitewood 2 now, with a few remaining to be transferred from the original and a couple more just needing their hardware fasteners. The shooter lane ramp has a bit of a ball-hopping issue I discovered with my phone's high-speed camera function, which hopefully won't be too difficult to resolve.

On the software side, I ported and rewrote the scheduling and event queue functions from Undertale, hoping to address some very rare "I'm just never gonna give your ball back" issues I've seen on that game. I've added more advanced sprite drawing functions as well as queueable effects such as fading, shaking, and sliding in or out of frame, testing it out on some "visual-novel-esque" scenes to make sure they are an authentic weeb experience.

It was also time to rethink that logo. Sure, Post #15's background smoke effect looked decent for real smoke. But real smoke has no place in a colorful anime.
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The black space on the right is reserved for debugging and visualizing playfield lamps and switches.

I'll admit, I'm proud of my new logo. I designed a particle effect to work with only two colors (dark gray and darker gray), and configured it to update at a limited frame rate, as would be expected for typical anime movement style. The reduced load on the graphics system, due to the intentionally low frame rate, actually works so well that my hotheaded work PC's processor doesn't even break a sweat rendering it. And the lack of prerendered frames keeps the program size down as well.

These nylon snap spacers were a cost cutting effort by Williams in the late 1990s.
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Don't design a new project with them. They suck.
I will be replacing these with mach.screw+sleeve+locknut on the final build. More solid, more reliable, less breaky as you struggle to squeeze them on.

In the meantime, I put myself on a standard of "try to work on VB just a little every day" - and accomplished a relatively important milestone:
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This is a list of every set of hardware fasteners (as well as rubber rings) that mounts into the playfield. Though I did have a bit of hardware left over from my last build, and more from parts playfields, it still didn't cover everything. This posed a problem, with me not knowing exactly what else I would have to order to complete the whole assembly.

Now that I know for sure what I need, I can take inventory of what I have (polishing as necessary), and acquire whatever is missing.

Also pictured is a bag full of the cheapest playfield inserts I could find. Of course, they aren't the final ones, but they'll allow me to test-fit lamp boards to know for sure that the circuit boards will fit. Speaking of which, I really need to get moving on that PCB design.

Having finished the list of post-and-screw combinations, and the map of where they go, I set out to distill them down to a raw list of individual hardware fasteners.

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I think I may have realized why this thing sat for so long - it's a huge drain on motivation when you don't have all the fasteners, and you aren't even entirely sure which ones you need to buy. Fortunately, I now have an itemized list, so - following some tumble polishing and the weeding-out of the rejects - soon I can head down the hardware aisle and fill a bag with screws of all kinds.

While working on this task, I decided to rework another area.
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The school entrance shot (upper left VUK) is straight through the courtyard (bumper area), but as I got down and looked at the angle, I got concerned that the post next to the bottom bumper could make the shot harder than it needs to be. There is also no effective way to get the ball into the bumper action from the right flipper, despite having a clear shot right through them. So I removed the post, removed a target that really had no rule plans (or associated lights!), and stretched the rubber ring a bit further back.

After a bit of experimenting, I found a rubber angle that will bounce the ball into the bumper zone if you aim too low. This layout also adds a bit of potential randomness as the bottom bumper is now more exposed to the rest of the playfield.

The metal cutting was done by SendCutSend's laser cutting service, then bent at home with some basic tools. Designs were done in Inkscape, measured using path ruler tools on an exported blueprint from Visual Pinball. Mistakes were made, but in general it turned out pretty well.

Best of luck on your project - hope to see it here sometime!

Having completed the list of hardware, as well as a quick inventory of everything I already had on hand, I took today's lunch break to go on a shopping spree for bolts and screws. Couldn't get everything - I have no local pinball stores, after all - but I did manage to nearly complete the list.

As far as the inventory on hand, a lot of it was pulled from those parts machine playfields in page one. Only thing is, they were in pretty bad shape. Lots of tarnishing and rust, very little shiny.

But everything changed when the tumbler nation attacked.
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After following Pinside's advice on which tumbler (the gray one with the black bowl), which media (walnut), and which polish (Mother's Mag and Aluminum), I fired up the polishing device for the first time in my life, and man, have I been missing out. My restorations are about to get a leg up, too. Anybody on the fence about trying tumbling, get off that fence and buy one. Pictured above is 24 hours of hands-off work.

The mounting holes in most of my steel walls ended up being just a tiny bit too small - 1/64th inch, to be exact. It may be related to how SendCutSend processed the files - the hole edges look a bit faceted, as if my vector was converted to a polygonal shape prior to the cut. I corrected for this with a small updated batch (including a new upper right ramp wall and a deflector for the hot spring scoop), but most of my shapes still had the slightly smaller holes.

Getting the playfield together this way was a bit of a struggle, having to find screws on the small end of their design tolerance and even then sometimes having a lot of trouble forcing them through the holes. As I took everything apart for hardware inventory, I decided this would have to change. When the screws grab the metal that bad, it would be much too easy to accidentally scratch a final cleared playfield.

Despite the material, and any hardening that may have been caused by a laser, a 9/64" cobalt bit enlarged the mounting holes with no problem at all, although doing it for almost every single metal piece was a bit tedious.
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I tested with an actual screw, a very stubborn one that took a pair of vice grips to extract from the hole. No binding issues at all.

As long as I had all the metal in close proximity to the bench tools, I also took a wire wheel to all the visible surfaces I could reach. Although a bit of manual polishing would be of further benefit, they're already looking quite a bit shinier - unpolished one on top:
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Nexy doesn't care much about this project, but Clark urges me to continue working:
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And work, I did - over this weekend I finished drilling all the holes in playfield prototype number two. With everything known for sure, I can update my hardware notes, and from there, my Inkscape illustration of where every hole needs to go and how big. Having assembled everything at least twice will also help by showing me where the playfield needs to be dimpled for wood screws, rather than taking a guess on a final assembly.
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Unfortunately, mistakes were made, as always:
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I also finished the tedious task of drilling 55 insert holes. The inserts are the cheapest ones I could find in bulk - opaque white 5/8" circles at a quarter a pop. Typical practices were followed - drill a clean hole to the depth of the insert with a forstner bit, then drill a slightly smaller hole the rest of the way through, giving the insert a shelf to sit on. These are obviously not the final shape and color desired for my design, but they accomplish the goal of being in the right place to appropriately test-fit lamp boards.

Once all the cutting and drilling was done, as far as I can tell right now, I sprayed it over with a layer of grassy green from a rattle can. By no means would I consider it a perfect paint job, but it seals in the wood a bit and gives the prototype a bit more color than the same raw wood and white paper that I've been seeing for all this time.
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Given a day or so to dry, I will glue in all the inserts and hit it with a layer of clear. It's not going to be a good clear either, but hopefully it will make everything flat and smooth enough that play testing will be a pleasant experience.

The 5/8" bit hole seemed to fit the 5/8" insert decently well. That said, I would definitely suggest doing test cuts for any size insert you want to drill for, just to make sure.

Inserts going in.
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Inserts in.
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My forstner drilling was definitely not perfect. A few don't lay completely level and a few are a bit raised. Hoping that some sanding and clearing will at least make it not completely bad. Worst case is I'll just pull the most raised ones and grind out some wood or sand down the bottom edge of the insert. Generally not a big deal as, again, not the final playfield.

In hindsight, clear inserts probably would have been a better choice, but again, not the final playfield.

This weekend was busy.
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Very busy.
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The playfield went from flat and light, to not flat and very heavy. My choice of relatively low-density birch plywood definitely didn't hold up on the bottom side, but again... not the final playfield.
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I think I'm going to seek out better pop bumper lighting, as this lights sit a bit crooked, apparently can interfere with the skirt, and don't light things up quite as bright as I would have liked. But it generally looks pretty good. Anybody going to hazard a guess why I chose black skirts, yellow bodies, and these particular cap colors?
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Aside from a few parts such as the slingshots, I've nearly reached the limit of what can be built with the hardware I have, so I'll be placing another order soon. With enough playfield hardware from Marco to make up the missing pieces, and fresh new clear silicone rubber from Titan, I should be able to nearly complete the topside assembly.

After that, I'll likely go back and do some serious PCB planning. Those lamp boards aren't going to design themselves.

I didn't get a huge amount done today. But I made sure to spend at least a little time on it. It would be a sin to not make progress on Groundhog's Day, on a game themed around time loops.

Ball trough is now fully mounted, screw hole locations perfected. I was very happy to see that when using the autolauncher kicker with the small footprint, there is miraculously enough space to cram it in alongside a traditional ball trough AND under a playfield support rail without any positioning conflicts.
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Thanks guys!

ALL under-PF coils have now been mounted. Still need a bit of hardware - Marco ordering will commence within a day or two - but I'm feeling pretty satisfied with my footprint pre-planning.

Pictured: The volcano scoop, with three balls locked inside!
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I've changed my mind once already about what type of display this game will use, and now the supply chain made me change my mind a second time. ("It's not my fault! The supply chain made me do it!")

Up till now, I was planning on mounting a ~17" monitor partway behind the speaker panel, which would leave a DMD-shaped area of screen visible through the backglass. But while shopping for PC components on Newegg, I was rather surprised to learn that 17" monitors, with the appropriate mounts and connectors, can be surprisingly hard to come by for a good price.

But you know what's actually cheap and plentiful?
27" monitors.
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I wasn't planning on it originally, but I do think this JJP-size screen will catch a lot of eyes once it's showing off visual novel art and anime girls. The photo above was a test fit, and I'm in the process of improving the mounting system to be a bit easier to work with.

The monitor is mounted through the VESA holes onto a piece of 1x6. After taking this photo, I realized I still need to cut access holes for the cables:
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The board attaches to a couple of runners that I've mounted to the back corners of the backbox. I could have just measured the right distance to the back and mounted accordingly, but I felt that adding spacer blocks touching (and glued to) the back wall will improve durability somewhat. This change in backbox design meant the knocker would no longer fit in the upper right corner where I had it, so I decided to switch things up and put it in the middle.
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Moving the knocker down from the roof allows service without needing to remove the small backbox lamp panel (above monitor), and I believe that slamming the knocker plunger into a solid 2x4 will produce a more satisfying thud than simply hitting the not-so-dense birch backbox roof.

Orders have arrived from Marco and Titan, awaiting installation. I was going to go with clear rubber, but a couple sizes I needed were either out of stock or not available in clear, so I stuck with traditional white. This is fine to me, as I always did like the look of white rubber. Marco was out of post studs - of which I need about two dozen more - so I'll be placing another order with PBL soon for those and for some deeper GI sockets for the backbox insert panel. I think I will stick with static lighting on this backbox, since most of the space is taken up by the monitor anyway. The bonus of this is that I can wire pairs of GI bulbs in series (running each at half voltage) and power it off the same 12v rail as the monitor. This means the only wires I need in the backbox are knocker 50v/driver, 12v/ground, and the HDMI cable.

What the VUK is this?

Granted, I manually actuated it for that short video clip. But this confirms what I very much hoped, which is that the hot spring VUK would fire smoothly and not take any bad bounces from rebounding off the wall.

Then I printed off a letter-size snippet of the playfield art, just to see how it looks in real life. Parts orders arrived and I spent a fair amount of time installing things. Aside from some plastics sitting freely to check their fit, everything here is fastened down.
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I also swapped out the flipper buttons for springless versions, and they are now smooth as silk to press. The PBL product page warned that they "will not work in Bally/Williams machines that use fliptronic opto boards." Like Undertale, this game is using aftermarket Williams fliptronic opto boards. I decided "Challenge accepted!" and bought them. Worked fine.

The frick, Mouser? You almost gave me a heart attack!
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Turns out, ATMEGA328-PU and ATMEGA328P-PU are two different parts. Thankfully, they still have plenty of the correct chip.
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I was slightly concerned for a while that I had fried one of my test chips (not that they're particularly expensive). Thankfully, plugging everything in today confirmed everything was fine, and after taking a moment to remind myself how to program them, I now have a two-dollar chip blinking a bright white LED with a PWM fade as smooth as an incandescent bulb. At last I can throw in my communications code and start turning these things into playfield controllers.

First thing to be completely DONE on this game is... the backbox lamp panel.
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Pictured: Clark inspects a corner bulb with curiosity, wondering why it's a warmer color than the others.

I decided my backglass would just be the game's logo along with some smoke and burning cherry blossoms - I'll post the art when I consider it done. Since the main eye-catching details will be drawn on the large monitor instead, I didn't feel the need to do anything special with the lighting. In fact, I decided, why not just leave it always-on, and wire the bulb sockets in series pairs, so the GI can run off the same 12v rail as the monitor?

The backside wiring needed a bit of extra thinking to accomplish this, but it worked out.
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Why so extreme? Just another case of "but I wanna tryyyyy." I like the idea of having just a bundle of six wires (plus an HDMI cable) going up to the backbox. It feels nice after the dozens of wires you have to deal with on the older games that make up most of my collection.
YEL/GRN: 12v supply for GI and monitor
BRN/BRN: Speakers
BLU/BLK: Knocker

A "Blast" from the past, from the Undertale thread:

Well, my friends, I think it's safe to say I learned how to use KiCad. Submitted for your approval: the entire Volcano Blast boardset, less the PC mobo.

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Pictured is about $165 worth of stuff, a surprisingly good deal IMHO. OSHPark does $5/sq inch and sends three copies of each board (which I actually had to ask around to confirm because apparently I lacked reading comprehension). So I did a lot of design tweaking to make sure as many boards can be duplicated in multiples of three as possible. There are only three small boards left over (two Teensy-LC Hub Boards and one Single RGB board).

This was an exciting order to get in the mail (as well as the four separate orders of parts from different suppliers with which to populate the boards). I'm especially happy with the flipper driver board (bottom left, and two stacked near the right). It's the size of a credit card and includes five solenoid drivers - two for authentic Fliptronics functionality, one reflex device (slingshot or jet bumper), and two coils free for anything else. It also throws in a ULN2803A driver chip that directly drives eight lights. The auxiliary solenoid board (far right) is a slightly shorter variant of the flipper board, supporting any five solenoids and replacing the lamp drivers with breakouts for more switches.

The single Teensy Hub board houses the delightfully cheap Teensy LC, along with a lamp/logic power connector and a set of header breakouts that can branch off to each board that acts as a controller. The remaining boards are (primarily or otherwise) playfield lamp boards. Some of them, such as the Duo+RGB board (top row) and the Trio Lamp Board (stacked in bottom center) include ATMega328P chips that handle lamps on these boards and others connected downstream.

Perhaps you may wonder what actually took me so long since my last update. Well, besides annoying time-wasting things like real life, there was a lot of testing to get done behind the scenes before I could even start designing these boards.

The first thing was board-to-board communication. The Teensy has a built-in USB board, which straightforwardly solves upstream communication to and from the PC with code I can directly reuse from UT. Getting Teensy to have a conversation with an ATMega was slightly more challenging. My earlier proposed comm protocol ended up being a bad idea, so I mixed it up a little and threw in another pin for upstream clock.

Now the Teensy board will set on/off for the next bit in a batch to all downstream boards at once, then fire off a clock signal (to which the boards respond by sending back their own next bit, from switches). It can then read the results sent back and move on to the next bit. Once all bits are sent (I figured 32 ought to be enough for anyone), it pauses for longer than a max pulse delay, resetting all boards to expect bit 0, and restarts from the top. The entire process of sending and receiving 32 bits takes less than 10ms, guaranteeing no noticeable delays in computer response to playfield events or vice versa.

While perfecting communication, I got a sobering but welcome reminder that the ATMega328 is an 8-bit chip, not 32-bit, and it does NOT have integrated floating point. Meaning that my "incandescent fading" code for lights, which was initially written with decimal intensity levels in mind, was absolutely devouring clock cycles. After a total rewrite that paid much more attention to data sizes and bitwise operations, everything started running a lot smoother, even PWM code.

There are plenty of other features I worked on as well, including light dimming at half brightness (useful for adding more RGB colors for that handful of lights, as R/G/B are handled as three individual lights), reflex devices with built-in protection against stuck switches, most of the features expected from Williams Fliptronic flippers, and switch debounce. I wanted to make sure I'd physically tested every feature on a breadboard before committing anything to PCB. This definitely took some time, but it gave me peace of mind.

Finally, I'm proud to report I flipped a ball around! One of the last tests I did before laying out the final board designs was fill up the solderless breadboard with transistors, program a 'Mega for two Fliptronic flippers and two reflex slingshots, and wire it up. I don't have especially good video footage of this test, but it felt AMAZING to slide the glass back onto the game, plunge a ball onto the field, and flip it around with mostly finalized hardware and firmware. I like to think that the science girl, Hinata Akiyama, would be proud of the progress.

Speaking of which, the other major time sink has been the writing of Volcano Blast's entire backstory as a light novel! Currently I have it written all the way up to the point where the game begins, covering the origins of the girls' elemental magic, lots of little details that will be thrown into art and callouts, and justification for a bunch of shots and gameplay mechanics. The game is basically good for all audiences but the light novel is a tad bit more mature-oriented. I will be making it public closer to when the game is finished.

Well, here's a bit to get you started! I'll probably release everything eventually, but here's the schematic and at least a board screenshot of the flipper driver board, the one I'm the most proud of. The mounting holes use the MountingHole_3.7mm footprint, and are exactly the right size to put a standard playfield wood screw through.

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Edit: For some reason, the pins on the lower right of the ATMega in this schematic are all getting connected together in the diagram. Ignore that.

Okay, that's interesting. I welcome any and all such unsolicited advice - even for things too late to change, it's probably something I can apply in another project. Given that this was literally the first eleven designs I've ever done in KiCad and there are probably many tricks I don't know, it was indeed helpful for the future. Thanks!

Fall - and cold weather - is coming, and for those of us without a dedicated paint shop, that means one thing.
GET MOVING ON THE PAINT. Time's running out.

Given this time deadline, I decided it was a top priority to get this cab painted, regardless of how done the playfield is, just to make sure I'm done needing the warm paint shop called "outdoors" before I lose access to it. So, I pulled the playfield out, stripped the cabinet of all trim and hardware, and brought it out to the garage. First order of business was sealing up the rough joints, which I did with some fiberglass filler.
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I wasn't sure where to get glass fiber additive, so I took the recommendation from a playfield repair thread, and thickened up the mixture with sawdust instead, as I had a whole bin of the pine variety ready for just such an application. I'm not entirely sure how well this concept turned out, as the resulting coverage definitely had some hills and valleys, but after a laborious evening or two of sanding, the cabinet joints looked and felt pretty good.
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After a thorough wipedown of the cabinet (during which I managed to forget the exterior, spoiler alert), I laid it on a rolling cart to inspect and/or admire.
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The backbox is not ready for painting; there were a couple of visible plywood voids left, which will take 24 hours to cure after filling, but the cabinet seemed to be ready to go after a brief modification to the plunger mounting hole so I could move the ball shooter 1/16" to the right.

Confident enough in the lower cabinet to move forward, I retrieved the rattle can primer and shot a layer.
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It's decent. Nowhere near a HEP job, but at this point it's not too bad for only being my second cabinet build ever. There was some dirt/cobweb or something stuck to the left side, which I'll have to take out in the sanding process. The rear side of the backbox neck is definitely not perfect - a tad bit lumpy as I had a lot of trouble sanding down the fiberglass - but in general it doesn't look too bad.
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The flat square cardboard box in the upper right of this photo is my speaker/vent grille, which I finally managed to secure by way of Grainger:
https://www.grainger.com/product/GRAINGER-APPROVED-Sheet-5PDH0

I chose a gloss black as a base, which I'll be applying all at once when cab and b'box are fully primed. I'm aware that gloss highlights the defects, but I think if the non-decaled areas end up looking bad enough in plain gloss black, I'll try throwing on some hammer texture on those surfaces. Currently awaiting a quote on the cabinet art decals. I think I'll wait to reveal the art until it's fully installed; it's no 90s Williams package but I think it turned out decently well.

Backbox primed, at least the surfaces that matter the most.
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Both cabinet and backbox use the primer sparingly, to reduce material costs and decrease the amount of work time required to - oh who am I kidding, I bought one can of spray primer and knew I was gonna frickin run out.

The speaker panel didn't make the primer cut list, as I feel it wouldn't matter so much since most of its outer surface area will be hidden behind speaker grille.
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I'm still happy I managed to find the stuff, but it was a serious challenge to actually get it cut. I'm not sure what the appropriate tool would be for that job, but I was stuck with a pair of aviation snips, and it was, um, lots of fun. However, I did successfully get all the pieces cut out to the desired sizes. Pictured, bottom to top: Speaker grille, bottom front vent intakes in cabinet, top rear vent exhausts in backbox. The square piece alongside them is the grille for the cabinet speaker.
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With priming complete, I think we're on track for a Saturday of painting.

Cabinet is painted. Photo came out slightly blurry, but I'm probably not going to retake it. After all, the blur hides the flaws.
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Saturday saw the first coat, today was all about sanding and recoating. Like Undertale, I chose the brush-on variety, and given that even the second coat had some runs, I think it was probably a bad choice and I'll probably never use anything but spray for a cabinet again. But I think I can work with what I've got here.

Backbox:
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I used a much smaller brush to make sure the tiny details at least got some paint - mainly the button recesses and the edges of cabinet holes. This photo makes the edges look particularly bad, but I feel like it looks a bit better in person.
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All that remains are a few other minor bits. Bottom of cabinet and backbox, mainly. I chose to paint the bottom surface of the cabinet because this seals it up and keeps finger oils from seeping in from moving the game - or even being seen at all, really. It will be interesting to see how the finished cabinet bottom looks, with the contrast of the silver carriage bolts holding on the lower speaker and tee nuts holding on the shaker motor. The whole thing should be fairly well sealed up, with all the speaker and vent holes covered up with freshly painted grille:
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The finish is more even than the picture makes it out to be, as I chose flat black for the grilles but had just sprayed it recently.

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Paint is done - and not a moment too soon, as this morning I had to throw on a jacket on my way to work.

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The speaker panel's paint looks a little rough, I'm assuming because I didn't prime it, but once covered with the grille I don't think it will look too bad. All the generally visible surfaces were already painted as of yesterday, but in the evening I finished up the bottom surfaces of both the cabinet and the backbox. All told, I used up almost an entire quart can of paint on this, with just a little left over that will probably be used for the playfield backboard.

Painting is done and dry, cab and backbox brought back inside to warm up!

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The edges were left unpainted so that the relatively thick paint wouldn't clog up the routed channels that the T-moulding is supposed to fit into. This will all be covered up once the decals are installed and the moulding is in place, with red on the sides and silver across the top edge.

I'm really happy with how the speaker panel ended up turning out. Even if it's not totally perfect, everything measured up well enough. I didn't think quite long enough before drilling the lower screw holes in the grille, and had them right in the middle of where the panel is routed out (and thus only 1/4" thick) where it meets the backbox floor. However, simple fix: drill pilot holes all the way through and use those five screws to help secure the panel itself in place!

Local sign shop can always be counted on to run a few days past estimated date of project completion... but their colors are gorgeous.

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Super excited to get my cabinet put back together with shiny new side art. Full cab art package reveal once it's all buttoned up again.

Phase Seven of cabinet construction is complete, and I think it turned out pretty darn good.
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Application process was pretty standard, and those who have applied cab decals before are already familiar.

Decals laid flat. (That's "Volcano Blast!" in Japanese.) Nexy examines my painter's tape and approves its use.
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Test fitting on the backbox. I thought I laid out the artwork on a canvas slightly larger than the cabinet panels for coverage purposes, but unfortunately I must have forgotten this step, as most of the decals were an almost exact fit.
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To make sure everything went on straight, decals were done in halves. Place still-backed decal on surface, tape down one half of it, pull and peel the free half and cut away backing, stick it down.
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Backbox left side fully applied.
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Cabinet left side fully applied.
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Remember how I said the decals were an exact fit? Well, that came back to bite me on the right side of the backbox, when the decal shifted as I taped it down and it ended up going on just a hair crooked. MEASURE TWICE PEOPLE

T-moulding went on pretty smoothly as well, along with the standard trim package. I will want to polish a few things up, such as the lockdown bar receiver, but otherwise it's coming back together well.

Thank you!

The logo text was drawn out on paper with jerky hand movements, then scanned and traced in Inkscape. I like how it turned out.

Fresh new-ish apron for post number 100!
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Already had an apron, the Riverboat Gambler piece you've been seeing on the whitewood. Just needed to spruce it up! I removed the operator sticker from the apron and trimmed off the shooter lane prongs from the shooter gauge (since the autolauncher fork holds the ball and would physically conflict). A spray can of Goof-Off made short work of the apron screening, but I would have to paint over the shooter gauge artwork; it did not succumb.
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After a thorough cleaning involving Goo Gone and a garden hose on jet mode, I shot both sides with gloss black rust-blocking enamel. Like most paint, it started off with prominent orange peel texture that smoothed out as it dried.
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Alongside the cabinet decals, I also threw in the apron stickers on my decal order. After a bit of trimming to remove the faint edge lines, they were ready for a perfect System 11 ripoff.
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Since then, I designed a new sticker for the operator adjustment switch bracket, which I'm sure I will post once the bracket itself is polished up. Around the same time as the apron painting, I hit the disassembled lockdown bar receiver with a can of metallic silver, which also came out looking nice.