Interesting pictures for today **UPDATED 06/18/09**

[Daviea]

I snapped off a few pics of stuff I was moving around today.  Just thought I would share. :-)

Tempest Spinner Shafts:



Food Fight Control Shafts:



720 Control Shafts:



Tempest Spinner Encoder Hubs:



Ok, that's it for now.  Just thought some of this stuff looked cool from certain angles.  I see this stuff all day long, but you guys don't. :-)

David Adams
RAM Controls

[Kevin Mullins]

Nothing prettier than precision. 

[Spyridon]

You don't do anything in small quantities do you?   

[Franco B]

Whoa, I just got back from work and I fell like I'm there again!   

Good work Daviea

[2600]

See that hole right in the center of the stack of 720 joystick shafts.  That's where mine was.   

[Daviea]

Thanks guys,

Spyridon -- nope, I can never do small qty on anything -- once I work any bugs out of the prototype, I go full steam and do at least 300pcs of any given part.  For some reason, 300 and 500 have always been my magic numbers.  For instance, 310 tempest spinner shafts, 505 food fight shafts, 512 720 shafts, 304 tempest encoder hubs..... The list goes on.  I think the idea behind it is two-fold.  1.  it cost less per part if I put time into a higher quantity.   2. I am less likely to run out of parts if I make too many to start with.  :-)

Whatever the reason, it seems to work for me. LOL

David Adams
RAM Controls

[Kevin Mullins]

Heck, just to tool up for any given part is enough for me too want to make large runs.

[Daviea]

Hey Kevin,

If people only knew how much work was involved in prepping to make the part, let alone actually running the part, verifying the dims, etc.

Of course, you know how it plays out.  If you've ever looked at a 720 controller or a SW yoke controller, did you notice how many parts they require?  Ouch.

I think it would be a real eye opener for many if they could see the entire process.

David Adams
RAM Controls

Heck, just to tool up for any given part is enough for me too want to make large runs.

[KonkeyKong]

Man, look how long it takes us to build one cabinet, that we buy the controls for.  Dave's building his own controls for what, 8 or 9 cabinets, from the ground up.  Pure insanity.

[Daviea]

Hmmm....

Well, so far I've been called:

...a little OCD (I'm not sure....my wife calls me ODD)
...a head game playing girl (take a bow mytymaus007)
...a smurf poop artist (thanks friz -- made me laugh with this one)
...insane (ok, maybe a little)

LOL

I love doing this repro work, so even the most tedious of this work still seems like it's playtime for me.

David Adams
RAM Controls

Man, look how long it takes us to build one cabinet, that we buy the controls for.  Dave's building his own controls for what, 8 or 9 cabinets, from the ground up.  Pure insanity.

[SirPeale]

You know a reproduction part that would really go over well?  Replacement Wico leaf switches for joysticks.

[Ginsu Victim]

Hmmm....

Well, so far I've been called:

...a little OCD (I'm not sure....my wife calls me ODD)
...a head game playing girl (take a bow mytymaus007)
...a smurf poop artist (thanks friz -- made me laugh with this one)
...insane (ok, maybe a little)

Let me add one:

...a really good guy.

Despite past mistakes, you're committed to providing products that others would never bother with. I'm glad we have you in the community. 

[Daviea]

It's on my massive to-do list.  I never did get any original NOS leaf switches to look at from anyone, so it's way, waaay down the list.

I already know how to make them, I just need originals to take measurements from.  I also need to do some legwork to figure out price points (as in how much is TOO much to sell them for?)...

It's very possible that someone else might get to these before I have a chance.  It seems more like something that Randy at GGG would take on....  He seems to go after smaller one-off parts and this part seems ideal for him.  My targets tend to be much more complicated, multi-part projects.  I definitely bit off a lot of work when I dove into the Star Wars yoke and the 720 controller.  I'd still be willing to look at and research the leaf switches if I had an original part handy....but it really would need to be NOS so I could get GOOD measurements from it.

David Adams
RAM Controls

You know a reproduction part that would really go over well?  Replacement Wico leaf switches for joysticks.

[Kevin Mullins]

I think it would be a real eye opener for many if they could see the entire process.

Absolutely. 

And knowing that setbacks can and WILL happen regardless of how well planned out or sourced out the process may be.
Also not to forget the quality aspect, which is one thing that has been lacking in mass production these days. So it's good to see someone being as anal about the quality of their product as you seem to be. (lord knows I am)

Guys..... this ain't the kind of stuff you wittle out with a pocket knife sitting on the front porch. 

[Daviea]

It's kind of hard to grasp how this kind of work was done in the old days when CNC lathes, CNC mills and CNC routers weren't around.  Can you even imagine doing all of this by hand?  No thanks!  LOL

That said, even with all the snazzy automated tools we have today, there are still hurdles to get over with making parts.

I'll have a few more pics I'll share later this evening.  I snapped off a few while I was in the shop. :-)

Stay tuned.

David Adams
RAM Controls

And knowing that setbacks can and WILL happen regardless of how well planned out or sourced out the process may be.
Also not to forget the quality aspect, which is one thing that has been lacking in mass production these days. So it's good to see someone being as anal about the quality of their product as you seem to be. (lord knows I am)

Guys..... this ain't the kind of stuff you wittle out with a pocket knife sitting on the front porch. 

[Daviea]

Hey,

Here's my picture update for today.

I've been working hard on many of the ongoing projects at RAM Controls for the last few weeks and I decided to put a few hours into the Assault joystick controller today.  As you may already know, I own a heap of old Atari molds, dies and other various tooling.  Because of this, I have the ability to reproduce particular parts completely to original spec.  Since I was working on the Assault joystick project in particular, I took a few pics of some of the parts which have been finished and are ready to go.


Assault Joystick Right Hand Outer Grip Cover: (512pcs)

Interestingly, I have the original mold for both right and left sides (inner and outer grips halves).  However, the molds for left hand grips were stored improperly (during their time at Midway Games West, I assume) and damaged beyond repair.  Anyhow, I can make the right hand grips with ease by taking the molds to a local injection molding shop. :-)


Assault Joystick Red Triggers: (1008pcs)

Same here - I have the molds.  Matching the exact plastic was fun.  BTW, this picture is without the flash.  The plastic tends to react to the flash.


Assault Joystick Trigger Switch Mechanism: (1488pcs)

Same here - I have the stamp dies for all parts of this: two frame components, the lever and the small phenolic spacers.  All of these were made in-house.  The actual snap switches are Cherry, just like the originals used.


That's it for tonight.  As you can see, there's much more manufacturing processes involved than simple "machining" of components.  Above, we can see parts made through injection molding and stamping.  I don't currently have injection molding capability in-house, but definitely stamping.  I considered laser cutting the switch mechanism parts, but I decided that it was unnecessary.....why?  I have the OEM stamps!!

David Adams
RAM Controls

[Ummon]

Well, the machines were there decades ago. You just had to hand-run 'em. Like in The Mechanic. However, in another twenty years - perhaps max - there may at least be the technological capacity to assemble them in your home from carbon fiber-fed 3D printers.

[Kevin Mullins]

It's kind of hard to grasp how this kind of work was done in the old days when CNC lathes, CNC mills and CNC routers weren't around.  Can you even imagine doing all of this by hand?  No thanks!  LOL

Aw...c'mon now.
Where's your drive, your passion, to crank and turn and measure fifty gazillion times per part.?!?
Manual machining was my forte'.
Needless to say I did a lot of one off parts.  "You need a what for a what?" 

[Daviea]

Oh, I've done my time with manual machining.  In fact, I still manually turn parts from time to time - usually for one-off's since repeatability is insanely difficult to accomplish.

It's good for what it is, but running off a thousand pieces of a single part, I still can't imagine how people did it!!  We used to hire "mechanics" and "machinists" ... now we hire "button pushers"  LOL  Personally, I like where we are NOW.

David Adams
RAM Controls

Aw...c'mon now.
Where's your drive, your passion, to crank and turn and measure fifty gazillion times per part.?!?
Manual machining was my forte'.
Needless to say I did a lot of one off parts.  "You need a what for a what?"