54 replies to this topic

[Rook]

From your build pics at the top, it appears that your playfield LCD rests on top of the cabinet edges, is this
the case or does it actually sit down IN the cabinet itself?

I measured my DW donor cabinet body and it measures appx. 40" x 20.5, so I'm limited by what playfield
monitors fit in that space.

Thanks for fielding the questions, and again, great build!

[mameman23]

From your build pics at the top, it appears that your playfield LCD rests on top of the cabinet edges, is this
the case or does it actually sit down IN the cabinet itself?

I measured my DW donor cabinet body and it measures appx. 40" x 20.5, so I'm limited by what playfield
monitors fit in that space.

Thanks for fielding the questions, and again, great build!

Yes, the playfield lcd rests on the side of the cabinet edges. this is due to the cabinet being designed the same size as a williams widebody and the screen being a 46" model. To make a 46" screen fit inside the rails i would have had to build a machine that was wider than a std williams widebody and if you do that a std widebody lockbar would then not fit.

[Rook]

Can you tell me where you bought your side rails from? All the rails I can find online are about half the height of the ones you used
on your cabinet, and I imagine I'll need the extra height to hide the monitor edges.

How much space is there between your glass and the playfield monitor? Do your rails have a separate channel to slide the glass in,
or does it rest on top of the wood?

Thanks!

Edited by Rook, 26 October 2010 - 07:59 PM.

[PinBallReviewer]

Hey did you make or buy the cabinet art?

I have a High-Speed pinball machine that needs some new cab art for the sides the backbox is not bad though.
I might also look into doing touch up on the cab too.

---> 2 sheet 3/4" Plywood
---> used legs
---> new widebody lockbar
---> new "old" bally siderails
---> used coin door
---> used pinball shooter
---> pinball service buttons
---> new playfield and backbox glass

- 46" 16:9 lcd Samsung full hd 1080p screen
- 32" 16:9 lcd Sony hd ready 720p screen
- 17" 4:3 lcd Dell monitor dmd-screen

- pc-setup
---> winxp sp3
---> Quad core Q6600 3ghz
---> Gigybyte EP45T-DS3R
---> 4gig ddr3 ram
---> 64gb ssd Oz Agility (read: 230MB/s - write: 135MB/s)
---> nvidia gtx250 with 1gb ram (for playfield and dmd)
---> nvidia 9600GT with 512mb ram (for backbox/backglass)
---> soundblaster x-fi crystalizer pci soundcard
---> 2.1 Altec Lansing sound system with subwoofer
---> 600 watt 80+ arctic psu / 86% efficiency

- 2 industry relay for flipper-force-feedback
- 2 mercury switches for nudge left/right
- all connected to an ipac

- 3x 220mm artic silent fans for cab ventilation (2x cabinet / 1x backbox)
- Decals reproduced using Illustrator/Photoshop by myself and printed by local sign company


Build History (Days are working days on the build not calendar days)..

Day 1, Get pointed in the direction of the Hyperspin website by someone picking up an old Batman machine i had.
realize how far Visual Pinball has come since i last played with it on my pc 5 years ago. See the amazing machine
Chriz built, and get inspired.

Day 2, measure the Twilight Zone machine i have to get exact measurements and draw up dimensions.



Day 3, worked out how to get a Williams widebody pinball machine out of 2 sheets of plywood with the least number of
cuts but with the most long cuts being made by the supplier (B&Q).



Day 4, run down to local wood yard and get plywood cut to size.
dig out tools needed (wood glue, air compressor, air stapler, clamps, straight edges ,etc,etc)

Day 5. schedule a 'work from home day with work' and in between answering emails, start marking out the smaller cuts that need
to occur and assemble the cabinet.

Day 5, 8 hours later stand back and admire handy work.


Day 6, after acquiring the screen for the backbox, take the backbox apart and widen the top, bottom and back due to seller
of the monitor not knowing he had a 32" screen not a 30". ARGHHHHHHHHH.

Day 7, install the de-cased 32" and 17" DMD monitor.


Day 8, take MAC clone apart and use it for donor PC. setup Win XP and software.

Day 9 install the PC, pinball legs and take it for a test run.


Day 10, order up the parts i didn't have already.
Lockdown bar
side rails
Industrial relays
SSD drive
Playfield glass
Mercury switches
ipac

Away for 2 weeks due to work

Day 11, sand cabinet down and prime.
Day 12, sand primer to find low spots and fill with auto filler.
Day 13, sand auto filler down and prime again.
Day 14, sand primer down and apply 3 coats of gloss black

Day 15-17 let it dry

Day 18, test fit repro bally siderails. Find they are too long and need to be cut down, also hole precut in siderail for flipper buttons are in the wrong place. Decide to swap sides on siderails so section I need to cut off is the part with the flipper button holes

Day 19, Since the backbox had to be wider to accommodate the 32" screen I could not use a std speakerboard so I need to make one. Measure up the TZ one so i know where DMD hole needs to be and how high it is. Cut a new one out of 12mm mdf.

Day 20, decide to make dealing with DMD hole easier, I would do as Williams did and put a plastic cover over the speakerboard. Got a sheet of 2mm plexi and cut to size. Then cut out speaker holes and masked off the location of the DMD area. Sprayed inside of plexi black.

Looked for options for channel for bottom of speakerboard to sit in, found a plastic channel in hardware store that would work. Also needed something H shaped to sit over the top of the speakerboard and also accept the backglass. Could not find anything H shaped so got 2 more sections of square channel and glued them back to back to make an H. sprayed all these bits black.

Day 21, once I had speakerboard installed and found a trim piece of wood to sit in front of the top edge of the monitor, I measured the size i needed for the backglass.

Day 22, had Backglass cut by local glass company, masked of centre and painted outside edges black to hide screen surround.



Day 23, Started down the road of doing a Transformers theme for the artwork. There has never been a transformers pinball and I had access to some really high res images so thought it would look good.

Day 30, pretty much completed the artwork for Transformers and then see the sneak peak video of oooPLAYER1ooo's Doctor Who table on Hyperspin's forum. Reminded me of the Dr Who machine I had and how much I loved it. Also with the new Doctor Who series out it just felt right so I parked the Transformers artwork and started designing a close reproduction of the original Dr Who artwork from the pinball machine.


Day 33, send the artwork to the printers to get it printed out.

Day 34, artwork back, pinball legs off and time to sand the cabinet yet again. once sanded a good wipedown to remove any dust and start applying decals.

Day 35, Trim decals and fit legs. put playfield monitor etc back in and test run.





Day 36. Sit back and enjoy. Send picture to mate who has the Dr Who real table and when asked about the pictures believes it to be a real machine

finally got around to getting the coin door painted.




1 week from now, load into a container and ship to North America when we move

video

[mameman23]

Cabinet artwork I made and had printed for me.

[PinBallReviewer]

Cabinet artwork I made and had printed for me.

It is very good art printing.
Do you know if I could get some High-Speed cab art printed?

I am looking into either just putting on new decals or touching up the cab seeing which one might be cheapest.
Doing the touch up route will be very time consuming though.

[mameman23]

Cabinet artwork I made and had printed for me.

It is very good art printing.
Do you know if I could get some High-Speed cab art printed?

I am looking into either just putting on new decals or touching up the cab seeing which one might be cheapest.
Doing the touch up route will be very time consuming though.

place that did mine was in England before i left, but i am sure they can ship over. it cost be basically $75 to get the artwork printed. did a really nice job.
send me a PM and i can put you in touch with the shop.

[mameman23]

Can you tell me where you bought your side rails from? All the rails I can find online are about half the height of the ones you used
on your cabinet, and I imagine I'll need the extra height to hide the monitor edges.

How much space is there between your glass and the playfield monitor? Do your rails have a separate channel to slide the glass in,
or does it rest on top of the wood?

Thanks!

those are the bally reproduction ones by pinball dreams
http://www.pinball-d...r...=63&clang=1

there is about a 1/4 gap between the glass and screen. no rails just cover the screen with foam tape between.

Edited by mameman23, 29 October 2010 - 03:09 PM.

[PinBallReviewer]

Can you tell me where you bought your side rails from? All the rails I can find online are about half the height of the ones you used
on your cabinet, and I imagine I'll need the extra height to hide the monitor edges.

How much space is there between your glass and the playfield monitor? Do your rails have a separate channel to slide the glass in,
or does it rest on top of the wood?

Thanks!

those are the bally reproduction ones by pinball dreams
http://www.pinball-d...r...=63&clang=1

there is about a 1/4 gap between the glass and screen. no rails just cover the screen with foam tape between.

Alright thanks I will look into that site!

[Rook]

those are the bally reproduction ones by pinball dreams
http://www.pinball-d...r...=63&clang=1

Thanks mate, I appreciate it!

Well, finally made the commitment. I ordered pinball legs for my donor cabinet.

First step down the slippery slope I guess.

How did you ship that thing from England?

Edited by Rook, 01 November 2010 - 02:00 AM.

[mameman23]

those are the bally reproduction ones by pinball dreams
http://www.pinball-d...r...=63&clang=1

Thanks mate, I appreciate it!

Well, finally made the commitment. I ordered pinball legs for my donor cabinet.

First step down the slippery slope I guess.

How did you ship that thing from England?

Good, you'll love it once you get it done.

shipped my household contents over in a 20' container. not a lot of furniture, just the essentials (dvd's,mini,gsxr,pinball)

[Rook]

Did you add anything to your cab measurements before you cut the wood?
If you do it straight, you'll lose up to 1/8" due to the thickness of the saw blade.

I priced 3/4" birch plywood today. Yow... appx. $45 for a 4x8' sheet that I'll only be using part of.

What length were the staples you used with your air nailer/stapler?

I think I figured out what cabinet graphic theme I'll be using. I'll reveal more when it gets closer
to becomming a reality.

Need to save some cash for the VPM project. Just dropped about $150 on
fixing/tweaking my Williams Indiana Jones pinball. I'll be adding the prototype jackpot lights
in the DMD panel, as well as a couple protectors and some dead drop foam in the mode start.

[mameman23]

No, didn't add anything to the measurements. They were taken directly from an original twilight zone machine
Assumption was made all cuts where to the inside of the blade so you were not reducing it by the blade width.

staples were about 32mm long.

Edited by mameman23, 10 November 2010 - 12:36 PM.

[fiatbravodriver]

Hi hope things are good. Just wanted to say what a great result you have ended up with. I'm in the SW UK. Ive been thinking of making a pin cab for a while and when I found your thread I decided to go ahead this weekend.

I went off to b&q, the guy cut the lot from 18mm mdf. Ive only got a small punto but managed to get the lot in the boot without breaking the thing.

Ive spent this weekend screwing the pieces together. I could never have made a start without your plans because I'm just not that clever.

Getting your side art printed for £50 was a bargin. Please could you PM me the details when you get a second.

Thanks again,

James.

[mameman23]

Hi hope things are good. Just wanted to say what a great result you have ended up with. I'm in the SW UK. Ive been thinking of making a pin cab for a while and when I found your thread I decided to go ahead this weekend.

I went off to b&q, the guy cut the lot from 18mm mdf. Ive only got a small punto but managed to get the lot in the boot without breaking the thing.

Ive spent this weekend screwing the pieces together. I could never have made a start without your plans because I'm just not that clever.

Getting your side art printed for £50 was a bargin. Please could you PM me the details when you get a second.

Thanks again,

James.

cool, you will enjoy every minute of the build

printing was done in Watford at Signfirm.com

[fiatbravodriver]

Hi bud,

I cant find a widebody lockdown bar or bally side rails. So im going to ask for a quote at a local metal work place.

Do you have the exact dimensions handy or would you be so kind as to point me in the right direction.

Ta
J.

[mameman23]

Hi bud,

I cant find a widebody lockdown bar or bally side rails. So im going to ask for a quote at a local metal work place.

Do you have the exact dimensions handy or would you be so kind as to point me in the right direction.

Ta
J.

i can measure for you tonight, however the side rails should be pretty simple as they are the length of your cabinet. should be cheap to get done also as there is only 1 bend. I would suggest getting them done in steel and getting them painted or better yet powder coated. or simply in aluminum and you could polish those yourself easily.

lockdown bar a bit more difficult to do, will require bending outside of a machine and welding, then grinding. I would say thats better to buy new. the place in germany where i got my side rails from i think does repro's for around 100.

[fiatbravodriver]

Hi Mameman,

Thanks for offering to measure, I will get on the search for the lockdown bar.

[mameman23]

Hi Mameman,

Thanks for offering to measure, I will get on the search for the lockdown bar.

ok my bally rails that I cut down are 115.5cm long, 7.7cm wide and the top lip is 2cm

[fiatbravodriver]

Hi Mameman,

Thanks for offering to measure, I will get on the search for the lockdown bar.

ok my bally rails that I cut down are 115.5cm long, 7.7cm wide and the top lip is 2cm

Thanks loads for taking the time to measure them for me.