Pinball. From Scratch.
So everything came together to save me about 1.5 hours of driving last night after work. I still had a 3 hour trip to make, but it could have been much longer. But here is the cabinet, it all its 47-year old glory. It definitely needs a lot of TLC but everything seems to be usable. Cleanup to begin immediately, starting with the base cabinet. I’ll probably start with sanding and then patching dings and scratches, then move on to coin door maintenance (or maybe replacement), etc.
I just got back from Portland and I’m going on another (shorter) road trip: Lewiston. I found a pinball repair guy on Craigslist, and sent him an email on the off chance he had a cabinet to sell, and turns out he did! I’m going to pick it up tonight.
Speaking of road trips, I just booked my hotel for the Chicago Pinball Expo in October. I’m going to hitch a ride with the FastPinball guys, as they drive right by me on their way to Chicago. Plus they’ll have room to bring my game.
So the excitement of the last week-ish has been ebbing away (you can read about the wedding here), and things will return to normal soon. I heard from Aaron at FastPinball that the starter kit is almost ready to go, so I will be getting back to work real soon!
Last night I finished soldering and connecting the last bits of the FR4 milling machine. I also checked for any shorts, then powered up the Arduino to see if it would light up all the drivers and confirm everything is working. Sure enough, it did!
I hope to get a real test cut done soon, but I have a lot going on tomorrow and through the weekend (my wife’s cousin Julianne’s wedding). I also have to install the control software on a laptop, so I need to dig one up.
The FR4 Mill is almost complete. A little more work to do with the Y-axis motor and carriage, and a few more wires to work on. Also still have to install the spindle motor assembly.
I did all the SMD resistors and capacitors, and the edge connectors. I also soldered one of the card holders. That was enough precision work for me this evening.
While I’ve been waiting on my next building phase, I’ve been building my PocketNC FR4 desktop milling machine. It’s small and ultra-portable, and runs on an Arduino.
