This pinball machine started out with me just designing and
building the custom pop bumpers, I wanted to build this
complex machining with tons of pop bumpers but since the
cost of building a custom machine is way out of our reach
I couldn't see this happening. I figured that I can make
and sell the custom pop bumpers to finance the build of a
pin ball machine. To get started, I needed to see just how
a normal pop bumper is built, So I bought one and mounted
it to a small piece of wood. Now I can figure out what
parts I can reuse and what parts I we will have to make
from scratch.
My friend and I found a scrap wood
crate that we dismantled to re use
the wood. So we started building a
full size table for the pop bumpers.
We layered all four of the different
pop bumpers out on the table and
moved them around till we found a
pattern that looked good. With the
pop bumpers mounted the mock up
started to look like a pinball
machine.
Here are the makings of the
moulds, I start off with card
board and tape. Lots of tape.
The thought is to set
everything up ahead of time
so that when it comes time
to poor, you don't have any
worries.
I went ahead a purchased a
Raspberry Pi mini computer for the
Pinball machine. My plan is to use
this for generating the sound
effects and maybe some visuals for
the LCD screen.
Here is the Raspbery Pi
that I will be using for
sound and some video,
It's available through my
Amazon Affiliate link:
I ran into some issues with
my moulding material getting
all lumpy and hard to work
with. I think this one batch
was (new old stock) since the
other molds came out just fine.
The custom pop bumpers consist of three main parts that
custom, the rest of the parts are from a Balley's pop
bumper.
First we have the pop bumper Cap.
The Cap's come in triangle, square and rectangle shapes.
Next there is the Striker.
The Strikers also come in triangle, square and rectangle
shapes to match the Caps
Then we have the Skirts.
Those also come in the three shapes as well.