Maker Spaces are awesome. I joined one here in the Atlanta area last year to get access to their CNC for a virtual pinball and MAME cabinet projects. It takes some practice to get used to using a CNC, but it sounds like with your metal cutting experience this should be a piece of cake.

A couple of pieces of CNC advice:

- Buy your own bits and don’t use the ones at the Maker Space. For 3/4” plywood I used a Whiteside 1/4” compression bit
- Measure the thickness of your ply carefully and use that in both your modeling and machining software.
- Simulate your cuts in your machining software and inspect the results very carefully for errors. I had to do multiple recuts due to skipping this step.
- Use manually placed tabs and make sure you put them on any larger pieces you are cutting out. Putting them on small round cutouts (under 2” diameter) is difficult to remove and doesn’t really buy you anything.

I used Fusion 360 for my modeling and tool path generation, which output to a format compatible with the CNC Mach3 software.

You will need at least a 24” x 48” CNC bed for a playfield.

My Maker Space is only $30 a month and gets me access to a full wood shop, 3D printers, glowforge, welding equipment, electronics lab and tons of other cool stuff. Unfortunately it is a 45 minute drive from my house, so I only use it for larger projects.

Please reach out if I can help answer any questions. Can’t wait to see your finished project!

Make sure your bit radius is smaller than the corner radius of the inserts. You may want to start with a small test piece of wood with one of each of your insert sizes on it, and cut that first for test fitment. I haven’t done a playfield before but I can imagine there is little room for error on those.

You should also be really careful about measurements for all those holes you are drilling. I have had situations where either my measurements were slightly off, or the part I was installing was out of tolerance, and I wished I had just manually drilled the holes when I had the parts aligned for fitment. This mainly applies to parts that have multiple mounting holes.

For the shooter lane are you just trying to get the larger pieces of wood out and then you will finish it by hand? I think you can make the transition smoother by using a smaller diameter bit with a smaller stepover and stepdown. It will take longer to cut but I think look much better and minimize the manual sanding.

Must be exciting finally seeing the results of all your hard work! Good luck with your next cut!