4 replies to this topic

[jthompson]

I am in the process of building a mini pinball cabinet. I am at the point where I need to order a custom made lockdown bar. My question is, how do I go about securing the lockdown bar to the cabinet? I know about lockdown bar receivers, but since I need a custom lockdown bar made, will I be able to use a receiver or will I need to find a different way to attach the lockdown bar. Would I be able to modify a lockdown receiver to fit my cabinet or should I try to figure out a different way to go about this? My cabinet uses a 27" monitor for the playfield and the main playfield box is 15" (38.1 cm) across where the bar would go. The inside where the receiver would go is 13 1/2" (34.29 cm). I've tried to look up the size of the receiver but I'm not having much luck.

 

Does anyone have any advice for me?

[Slydog43]

I built a 27" LCD mini cabinet and got a custom lockdown bar from Noah.  Don't remember the price, but are hard to make on your own.  Also looks great (maybe not as good as a williams bar, but nice).  Other option is to cut a standard lockdown down to size (opposite of what they did for some old wide bodies like orbitor 1 where they took two lockdown bars and made 1 widebody one)

[mjr]

I am in the process of building a mini pinball cabinet. I am at the point where I need to order a custom made lockdown bar. My question is, how do I go about securing the lockdown bar to the cabinet? I know about lockdown bar receivers, but since I need a custom lockdown bar made, will I be able to use a receiver or will I need to find a different way to attach the lockdown bar. Would I be able to modify a lockdown receiver to fit my cabinet or should I try to figure out a different way to go about this? My cabinet uses a 27" monitor for the playfield and the main playfield box is 15" (38.1 cm) across where the bar would go. The inside where the receiver would go is 13 1/2" (34.29 cm). I've tried to look up the size of the receiver but I'm not having much luck.

 

In general, the standard receiver should mate with any lockbar, standard body, widebody, or custom, because the only thing that matters there is the position of the latches.  The off-the-shelf standard body and widebody lockbars have the same latch layout, and I would expect that anyone building a custom lockbar for you would use the same layout too.  But it would be worth checking with your custom vendor to make sure of that.

 

However, I'm afraid there's bad news for your particular situation.  The standard receiver is 19-1/2" W x 1-1/4" D x 2-1/2" H, so it's too wide for your cab.

 

I don't think modifying a standard receiver is really an option.  You might be able to shorten it slightly with some determined hacksawing, but taking off 6 inches is probably too much, because there's the sliding latch mechanism to take into account.

 

You could probably improvise your own receiver by using a strip of plywood and routing slots for the lockbar latches.  To keep things simple, you could just carefully measure and cut for a snug fit, and rely on friction to hold things in place, dispensing with an actual locking mechanism.  Or you could improvise your own latching plates if you're ambitious.

Edited by mjr, 09 October 2017 - 07:49 PM.

[Brer Frog]

Here's a thread discussing a few different ways.

http://www.vpforums....showtopic=27829

[jthompson]

Thanks for the responses guys. Brer Frog. Thanks. I probably should have searched more before posting my question. After some sleuthing, I found the latch mechanisms that Hauntfreaks shows in his picture from the link you posted. I'll try to figure out how to make them work. If that fails then I'll try the nail method that gtxjoe shows in his post. The picture below is from Hauntfreaks post. Here is a link to purchase those in case anyone else is interested in trying them. https://www.amazon.c...uct/B01GROXCB6/