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That's How I Roll! (Skeeball build)

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thatpurplestuff:
Well, I’ve been looking for an affordable used Skeeball machine for over 6 months and I’ve had no luck.  It’s time to build one.

This thread is going to be a little strange at first, since I actually started building and documenting this thing in early March.  I didn’t want to be one of those people that announce a project and then drop off the face of the planet, so I figured I’d get past the point of no return before I posted any of my progress to be viewed by fellow zany arcade enthusiasts.  I’m nervous about this thing getting to the point of being playable but not finished, because that’s what happened with my MAME cabinet that is essentially a 2x4 frame with a control panel screwed on the front.  It was (is!) going to be a beautiful birch cab, and then I loaded up Rolling Thunder.  That was 5 years ago.

Throughout this build, I hope to make a list of all of the things that I’ve found that worked well and all of the things that, well, didn’t.  My design is based solely off of the information that I’ve picked up from helpful posters here (UncleT, RandyT, Ixliam, Jayhawk, and plenty of others), so I figured I would try to help out any future builders that are crazy enough to build one of these things.  Anyway, here’s the build log so far.  I’m going to post each build day by itself… otherwise my first post would be ridiculously long.

thatpurplestuff:
Day 0 (well, a few weeks of contemplating)

I’m going to start this project by creating the two parts that I feel will be the most difficult: the rings and the sloped area at the end of the ramp (from here on known as the hop-ramp).  If I can get these parts done and looking great, I think the rest of the machine will come together easily.  Yes, I am aware that I probably just jinxed myself.

I’m planning on using 4” white rubber wall base for the rings (“Baby’s Breath” is the Flexco off-white color description, which makes about as much sense to me as “Frost Glacier Freeze” as a Gatorade flavor.  Seriously, how many Gatorade flavor names are actually just different ways of describing plain water?) and I’m planning on using a similar technique to the one Ixliam did to create the ramp, only I plan on using dowels and a router table to hopefully speed up the process.  It may work well, it may fail spectacularly… time will tell.

I’ve emailed RandyT at GroovyGameGear inquiring about his JumpBall software and he was incredibly quick getting back to me.  Unfortunately right now the software doesn’t work with the newer GP-Wiz boards (the kind I currently have), but he kept my hope alive by saying that he might modify the code to work with the newer boards.  I would love to have a LEDWiz+GP in this thing to control things like the ball release, ticket dispenser (maybe), and ring lighting (maybe).  Anyway, Randy was very helpful and has high quality merchandise over at his site.  If any of you haven’t dealt with him, you should.  And no, he didn’t pay me to say that.

thatpurplestuff:
3/6/09
Purchased molding.  No turning back, although I’ve made some seriously fugly rings. I didn’t even bother taking pics of the finished ring from my first attempt because it was so awful.  I had imagined that using a round metal base would perfectly stabilize the rings while also providing a perfect way to attach them to the board.  I was very wrong.  The rings ended up making just enough of a gap between the two layers of rubber so that the pieces never quite lined up right and had gaps spread throughout.

 This wall base has potential, but everything I’ve tried so far has looked like hammered dog poop.  I’ve found myself just staring at this rubber thinking “Damn you, rubber wall base.”

thatpurplestuff:
3/10/09
I own a rivet gun.  I brought it home with high expectations, and so far I’ve made another badly warped, ugly, and essentially worthless 100 ring.  $25 well spent!

thatpurplestuff:
Thursday 3/12/09
Sometimes, it's the most simple solutions that are overlooked (at least for me).  It's not the most aesthetically pleasing solution, but I've found that by simply coiling the rubber molding and then riveting it in place I am able to achieve a near perfect circle without experiencing any warping.  I've decided that I'm going to suck it up and have some overlap in my rings... doing it so there is no overlap seems to be more trouble than it is worth, and quite frankly I was not able to get even one ring to look right without an overlap.  I've got rings that I think look pretty good, and more importantly I think will play great.  The only drawback from this method is that I’m guessing the rings will get dirty a lot faster than standard rings, because the inner part of the ring that the balls will be rolling on isn’t the smooth surface but the textured side that is supposed to be glued to the wall.

I’m also the proud new owner of a 4” hole saw.  We’ve got friends coming into town this weekend, so the project will be put on hold until sometime next week.  Onward and upward!

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