Mini Pinball project

[melon]

Hi there guys,
After finishing my mini galaga now I'm into another project, a really small virtual pinball. So let's begin.
Here's a drawing of what I want:



As you can see, its really small, it'll have a 18,5' 16:9 monitor for the playfield and a 14' 4:3 monitor for the backbox:



I decided to use mdf (1cm thick) and I've screwed it, as you can see the backbox:



And you can see how it is attached to the playfield, like the real pinballs, but made of wood:



And here with the monitor, just to test how it fits:



And here is everything:



And checking that it closes correctly



And here is the backdoor, there will be a fan extracting the hot air, thats the hole you can see:



I'll keep posting more images (I have thousands of them!)
Hope you like it.

[ninjasquirrel]

Nice work melon 

I loved your mini galaga can't wait to see where this one goes!

[opt2not]

Good looking start, this thing is going to be awesome! I'm really liking the size, as well as the top attachment.
More pics please! 

[Sjaak]

Looking good!

[reptileink]

Sweet! Virtual pinball machines rock! 

[melon]

Well, I have some updates.

The lockdown bar:

The idea behind this mini pinball is making a mini replica of a real one, so it will have all the things that a real one has, but scaled down. So it will have a mini lockdown bar and, mini plunger, mini coin door... Now let's work on the mini wooden lockdown bar.

I used 3mm MDF to make it:



I glued it, so it looks like this:



I sanded it to round the edges:



Well, more sanding and I can prime it:



That has been three coats sprayed.

I painted it with a black satin spray and it's ready:



And finally in its place:



From another angle:



And that's the mini lockdown bar

[filuren33]

I want to build one to.... This looks great, good job. 

[shrunkenmaster]

Looking great! I've been wanting to build a minipin myself, as I can't stretch to a good quality full-size playfield LCD. What model screens are you using?

[More Cowbell]

Very cool! I've wanted to do a virtual pin for a while but always come back to the fact that it's a big investment (flat screen tv's) that could come out crappy in the end. Using monitors seems like a feasible way of getting it done without breaking the bank. Great idea. Keep up the updates.

[NIVO]

very well done so far melon.

[jbarnatt]

What do you use for hole filler?

[Mr.Ian]

Yet another awesome project. I will keeping an eye on this one

Love your work..............Now i have to justify one to the Mrs !!!!

[melon]

Hey, thanks for your comments

Very cool! I've wanted to do a virtual pin for a while but always come back to the fact that it's a big investment (flat screen tv's) that could come out crappy in the end. Using monitors seems like a feasible way of getting it done without breaking the bank. Great idea. Keep up the updates.

This one isn't going to be a very big investment. Mine is small, so I'm using monitors. A 18,5 inch acer monitor for the playfield (it was 80€) and a 14 inch Airis for the backglass I got from eBay (it was about 30€). About the electronics, it will be the most expensive thing. The Motherboard, processor, graphic card, memory, hdd, PSU, audio amplifier, controls... something about 400€.

Well, I have more updates.
Lets paint it. First I primed the backbox:



And here a photo with my mini galaga



I painted the backbox and the back panels with a black satin spray paint.



And another shot...



The next is the fake coin door, based on the work I did in the Galaga, but a little improved.

[Mr.Ian]

Beautiful !!!!!

Love the pic with the galaga machine

 

 

 

[More Cowbell]

Nice! I will be really interested to see everything that goes into the electronics setup from layout to splitting the monitors to software to computer specs once you get there. With pics. That's always been a big holdup for me as well. Does anyone have links to that type of info as well?

[Yvan256]

I really like how the backbox can fold on top of the playfield like a real pinball machine. At that size you should be able to put real coin mechanisms at the front, or at least home-made but fully working and scaled-down ones.

[melon]

The plunger, part 1:

As I said before, the idea behind this mini pinball is making  a mini replica of a real one, so it will have all the things that a real one has, but scaled down. So it will have a mini lockdown bar (allready made) and a mini plunger.
I cut a piece of MDF and sand it until it gets the shape I want:



I also cut some pieces of a 3mm MDF to make the edges:



I glue it, apply woodfiller, sand and prime it. Also attach another piece of MDF so that it fits in the front of the mini pinball:



Now I cut out a hole in the front panel for the plunger (there is also the hole for the "coin door"):



The attachment system consists on some MDF screwed at the backside.



When I want to fasten the plunger system I only have to screw it from the backside:


And now the secret behind the "coin door"...
Hope you like it.

[Bender]

love the little details like the area rounded molding around the plunger plate and the little coin door on galaga cab, just great!

[chris77]

hey melon, great work!! I love those mini projects   

can't wait to see it finished

cheers
chris

[wonderpuddle]

Damn melon, you are a talented dude.  I didn't realize you built a mini galaga, too.  You're creating quite the collection.   Can't wait for you to finish this project.  You are going to love it.  My mini pin city is still probably my favorite toy.

[melon]

The "coin door", part one.
The aim of the coin door will be to make something that looks like a coin door, but it will really be a mechanism that will have all the controls hidden (volume control, some auxiliar buttons, an USB port, etc). Let's see some images.
First I get a CD case. Its one of these that you push and opens, push back until you hear "click" and it is closed:



I dismounted to see the mechanism that leads into:



The mechanism dismounted to see it better



The black piece moves towards the small blach lane. It has a spring inside that makes the strength to move out. When reaches the bottom there is a small plastic piece that holds the mechanism. The way to get rid of the closure is pushing a little click and the black piece is released (sorry if you don't understand it well, my english level is not so good to explain this kind of things)
Well, I have to attach it to the cabinet, so I make a little support:



Now I srew the mechanism:



I also make a small MDF piece to hold the small plastic piece that holds the mechanism:



So, the result is this:



I guess you know what I want to achieve...
I cut more MDF pieces to get the front of the coin door attached to the mechanism:



And this is the thing I have at the moment. The coin door closed:



If I want to change the volume, or use some auxiliar control (exit the game, reset the game, or whatever wich doesn't mean play) i only have to push it until I hear 'click'...



... and it opens, showing what will be a complete auxiliar control panel:



Well, and this is the actual state of the machine. I'm working on it right now, installing the monitors and the electronics, I'll upload more pics soon.

[ninjasquirrel]

Nice scavenging by using the cd holder Melon! Keep it up 

[njay]

nice work melon i like your mini pin and TAF

[ChurchOfSolipsism]

Really looking forward to reading more about this. Excellent.

[opt2not]

Hey melon,

I'm assuming that 3mm MDF is the same as hardboard? How do you like working with that stuff? I've used it for other projects and find it to flake off pretty easily, sometimes hard to get a clean cut or a solid enough piece that doesn't crack under a small amount of pressure.

[kizer]

Super cool project. Added it to my list of bookmarks to follow.

[WhereEaglesDare]

Any updates yet?

[emphatic]

Spectacular. 

[drventure]

Very nice with the CD mechanism! 

[melon]

Hey, sorry for the delay, I've been sooo busy, but I have some updates to show 

Hey melon,

I'm assuming that 3mm MDF is the same as hardboard? How do you like working with that stuff? I've used it for other projects and find it to flake off pretty easily, sometimes hard to get a clean cut or a solid enough piece that doesn't crack under a small amount of pressure.

Well I neved worked with it before, but I'm satisfied with the result at the moment, I hope the lockdown bar hold.

I made a support for the playfield monitor. It will be foldable, so that I can access to the electronics when I need it, it consists on 2 pieces of MDF, joined with hinges... well, better watch the pics, as it's hard to me to explain it in english.



Here attached to the monitor:



Here the system screwed to the cabinet:



Here opened:



Here the monitor installed:



And if I want to have access to the electronics, I can open it:

[Pinball Wizard]

Your creations are amazing. Very ingenious approaches to concepts of how to access things. Not only that, you will sit down and actually think everything out not just jump on it.

[Kurt]

That's awesome man well done.

[Mr.Ian]

I Hate you

Perfect execution of a perfect idea, i love your work, and cant wait to see more results....that will make me even more jealous !!!

[dkssprs]

great idea
cant wait to see the final result.
Many gratz 

[Paladin]

I love the flip up monitor!  Keep the idead and pictures coming!

[milkit]

just curious.. what type of pc setup are you planning? it seems like that is the biggest cost of these virtual pins usually with the need for high end cpu/video

[melon]

Thanks for your comments guys 

just curious.. what type of pc setup are you planning? it seems like that is the biggest cost of these virtual pins usually with the need for high end cpu/video

That will be the next step. But I can tell you it wasn't expensive, PSU, motherboard, memory, processor and Graphic card were about 300€ (370 USD).
Well, I've painted it. Black satin spray, but it will be covered with vinyl (it will be an addams family mini replica)



Here a shot from the front:



Manual and automatic plunger, and a little start button at the fron of the cabinet.
I've also made a system to fasten the lockbar:



And in the cabinet:


So I only need to push the lockdown bar to lock it.
Here with the lock bar attached and with the monitor, backbox and buttons:



Here a closer view of the little start button:



And that's all for now. I'm working on the electronics, so stay tuned

[Pinball Wizard]

So I am probably stealing this entire design someday soon. Truly amazing and good looking. I have been thinking about getting a pc together for this to convince myself to spend the money. Your setup is so much cheaper than most and I like it better.

[melon]

So I am probably stealing this entire design someday soon. Truly amazing and good looking. I have been thinking about getting a pc together for this to convince myself to spend the money. Your setup is so much cheaper than most and I like it better.

My PC is adjusted to what I want. It will run only visual pinball (I don't like future pinball), and as my screens are small I won't have a huge resolution (1360x766 for the playfield and 800x600 for the backbox, maybe more) so I won't need the same PC that I would need if I ran it at full HD. My GFX is a 9500GT, wich is a cheap one, but powerfull enough to run everithing with my config. I'm testing it right now and I can run  Hyperpin, visual pinball and visual pinmame with no problem and it's smooth (I've only noticed some little problems in one table with multiball, with GI and flahers effects at the same time, but barely noticeable)

[Pinball Wizard]

That is the video card I have in my mame pc. It runs linux not windows. Best part was that I got the video card for free. Great to have a friend into video editing where they are always upgrading to the newest and greatest often