Homemade pinball

[MarcL]

I made this Pinball machine just need to varnish to finish. Designed myself as I went. Various Ply, mdf and pine, coat hangers, springs and trunking/conduit.

20 Cedar ball points to score, 5 steel multiballs, 1 push button for an elevator and 1 button for steel play balls, 2 Ceder ball release tunnels, 2 plungers and 4 flippers.

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

[MitchellMc]

Welcome to the Bunnings Workshop community @OzStick. It's sensational to have you join us and great to see you jump straight into a discussion.

I trust our arcade enthusiasts will be delighted to have someone as knowledgeable as yourself join us. Get ready for plenty of questions about building arcade cabinets and everything gaming related! I know I'm now thoroughly contemplating building an arcade cabinet for myself.
 

Looking forward to seeing everything you contribute to the community.

Mitchell
 

[MarcL]

@Noyade Thanks mate, yes I designed it roughly prebuild (mainly the flippers position so i could test it as i went) so majority as I built. As with everything I do once finished realised some improvements can be made with the design. I have more detailed step by step photos of the build on my instagram: marcjlanders_art Thanks again for your kind words!

[MarcL]

@OzStick Mate thankyou very much! If i could ask your advise... I would love to learn at least how to make another with everything ive learnt to perfect the design. The dream is to make one with minimum of electric flippers/bumpers. Scoreboard would be nice too but still put a diff spin on that than the norm. I've looked into it and just found it super overwhelming with wiring and programming. I don't know where to start?

[EricL]

Hi @MarcL

Your homemade pinball designs are just awesome. I suggest building a blank testing board where you can try out some of the mechanisms that are relatively easy to install. For example, a pop bumper assembly or perhaps a target counter to score points. I agree there are just so many parts to choose from, I recommend doing a bit of research and seeing what parts are applicable to your designs.

Eric

[OzStick · Accepted solution]

No worries @MarcL - Pinball electronics and mechanics is a bit of minefield, even for people who look like they know what they're doing. I wouldn't even BEGIN to pretend to be that proficient, but I can at least try to have you pointed in the right direction!

To begin with, there are 4 distinct "eras" of pinball machine, each successive era making a huge technical leap over the previous. Rather than flesh them out here, the following reference does a great job of explaining each era using far less words than I would ever hope to:

https://www.thisweekinpinball.com/pinball-u/eras-of-pinball/  (opens in a new page).

Looking at your dream project, to start off I would suggest sourcing a couple of old flipper assemblies and a couple of old pop bumpers that have been harvested from "dead" pinballs and learn how they work. You could then install them into a test panel and wire them up to mess around with to further familiarise. You'd then refurbish them (rebuild kits are readily available) before installing them into your table.

I'd leave the scoring to begin with as that involves a lot of electronics with mainboards, driver boards, display boards etc which all "talk" to each other to help manage all manner of events that occur on and under a pinball table. In my opinion that's a step too far for you initially, so break the project down into more manageable "bites" and next thing you know you've gone from the kiddie pool to the deep end of the big pool with no floaties! 😎

You're far from the first person to embark on a DIY Pinball project, so take advantage of those who have gone before you and research their projects to get a better idea of how you may wish to go about it. For that, there is an awesome resource called Aussie Arcade which is a forum based website that covers every conceivable area of electronic gaming, specifically arcade gaming and Pinball. I will point you to a section that caters specifically to HOME BREW PINBALL PROJECTS, which you will find here:

https://www.aussiearcade.com/forum/85-home-brew-pinball-projects/  (opens in new page)

I'm not sure if you need to create an account and be logged in to view that section, if so then please do as there are quite a few Aussies making their own pinballs, some from scratch like yourself, so I reckon you will find some great stuff there! Don't be scared to join in and pick their brains one you've done some research - most of them don't bite......

Good luck and let us know how you go with it.

[MarcL]

@EricL  Thankyou Eric for the kind words and helpful advise, much appreciated!

[MarcL]

@OzStick Wow mate, thanks so much for taking that time to help steer me in the right direction. Your reply was above and beyond, you my freind are humble and helpful. Much appreciated!!

[Jason]

@MarcL,

Just wondering if you have photos of the table varnished? As you can see by the high pageview count, this wonderful project has been super popular with the Bunnings Workshop community and we'd love to include it in our Featured Projects section.

Thanks again for sharing and inspiring the community with your handiwork. 

Jason

[mich1972]

OMG !!!!! This is AWESOME !!!! The detail in your work. Amazing craftsmanship mate 😊