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[37"/24"/15"] - '77 Bally Power Play "Donor" Visual Pinball Build
mwong168:
Now as you can see from my VP testing rig I had my old PC gaming computer in an Antec Sonata III case which is overkill and pointless to only lay down on it's side inside a pinball cabinet. So I found an old generic case at my office and gutted it.
This works out perfect as I was planning to mount the motherboard on a piece of board but this way I don't have to worry about mounting the power supply, optical and hard drives properly.
mwong168:
Now last Saturday I started to work on my cabinet now that I had the hardware and software side of this build under control. I honestly thought it would take me half a day to sand the cabinet and backbox but I managed to borrow a belt sander from my friend next door.
Took me around 25-30 mins with the belt sander so now I started mudding the corners, dents, chips and edges that have been damaged.
While I was waiting for the mud to dry I stripped all the existing wiring, grounds and brackets from the cabinet.
The mud still wasn't ready to be sanded so I started to remove the buttons and plunger so I could use them as reference for my pinballlife and lizardlick orders.
The buttons I will be replacing with standard HAPP translucent ones with micro switches. I was going to use leaf but they are really expensive and hard to find so sticking with what I am comfortable with for now cause I know it works. I saved the old leaf switches that came in the cab and might play around with those later on once my build is done.
mwong168:
All posts made now will be real time or current progress.
T.G.I.F!!!
Just got two boxes delivered to my work.
Pinball Life order was a new Williams complete plunger, Stern 3 button service panel, 8 black leg bots, Launch Ball and "Rock Me" button, leg leveller and rubber casters.
I ordered two mercury activated switched from ebay for $10.89usd shipped too. They don't quite look like the ones used in 1up's build but hopefully they do the same thing. In case anyone wants to order it here is the ebay link:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Mobilistics-Mercury-Tilt-Switch-Alarms-Lights-etc-_W0QQcmdZViewItemQQhashZitem2c53db4100QQitemZ190385438976QQptZCarQ5fAudioQ5fVideo
I will post later on how effective they are. I sent my legs out to get refinished and straightened as well so hopefully I will get that back next weekend. Two more shipments to wait for from groovygamegear.com for the LEDWiz+GP controller interface and all my HAPP translucent buttons from Lizardlick.com
Have a nice weekend everyone!
mwong168:
So I received the last of my goodies in the mail yesterday, LEDWiz+GP interface controller and all my HAPP translucent buttons.
Last night when I got home from work my daughter was still taking a nap so I took advantage and started to relocate the plunger on my cabinet. The original plunger was mounted higher and would cause problems for my flipper button on the right side.
I didn't even attempt to cut out the shape of the back of my Williams plunger and just ended up cutting a hole out the size of it. I already know how I will be securing it on the other side since I forgot to order the mounting plate and will take pics later once it is mounted. I filled in the old plunger hole with some mud and will sand it tonight when I get home.
The HAPP button and plunger now should be an issue since I plan to hook up a leaf style microswitch in reverse for the plunger. Another member on here posted a video and the end result looked like it worked very well.
Last night before I went to bed I started playing around with artwork cause that is the next step I want to get done before I start moving in the hardware. Here is what I came up with, I also lowered the resolution from 300dpi to 100dpi and size to make the image file smaller for viewing. The final image will be sharper and more crisp for printing.
The idea I wanted was I wanted the background artwork to continually wrap around the machine so where the sides and coin door meet the lines match up. That section in the middle is where my coin door is going to be and there isn't much space for artwork so going to pretty much leave it blank. Please don't make fun of my photoshop "skillz" as I need to probably spend some time watching all the tutorial videos posted by Billpa. I tried my best to cut out each one of the characters from a 300dpi flyer source to a transparent background. Nothing is final yet so let me know what you guys think. Thanks.
mwong168:
Anyways, last night I got bored and thought I would attempt or at least start to de-case my LCD so I can know if it will fit inside my cab or not.
Took out the obvious screws first and I was pretty much done de-casing in <5 mins. I left it sitting in the housing for now cause I don't have my cab ready or brough into my game room downstairs yet but I was able to lift all 4 corners up. The nice thing about my LCD is there are no seals which I broke so my 2 year warranty will still be in tact cause I can put everything back together without them even knowing :thrasher:
Another 5 mins I had removed the bottom bracket for the stand, speakers and side control panel with IR sensor.
Good news is the LCD measures at 20 1/4" wide and my cabinet is 20 3/4" :party: My friend who has a metal shop is bringing me back my pinball cab legs which I dropped off to him last week.
Originally I was going to just have him sandblast and freshen them up, after all these are over 30 years old. I also had to ask him to straighten one of the legs which I didn't realize was bent till I took these pictures.