[WIP] Pincab 40" playfield de Paladin (Anglais) (70%)

Hi everyone! I've checked first if it was ok to make a WIP post in English, as French is not my maternal language. I can read and understand most posts and guides here just fine, but writing a complete WIP post in French would be difficult .

Here goes. I've created my own arcade cabinet about 2 years ago and it was the most fun and rewarding project I have ever done. It still fills me with pride and joy when I look at it. I wanted to do a project like that again, but I can't fill up my house with arcade cabinets so I didn't know what I would make next. Then I discovered the beauty that is Virtual Pinball machines. Of course I knew you could play pinball on your PC or console, but I never thought there were people recreating actual pinball machines with TVs and computers. The thing is, next to arcade cabinets, I spent also a lot of time in my youth playing pinball machines. My dad loved to go out and drink a few pints so I spent quite some time hanging out in pubs and getting coins to play on pinball machines .

So my next project got started. I started reading and reading, discovered the pinscape guide (omg how extensive is dat one, it's almost a bible!) and some others. I also stumbled upon this forum, from where I got some very good information as well. I liked this forum immediatly as I saw that there's an active community that likes to help others with information.

So after reading for a while, I decided on getting my hands dirty and at least start on the woodwork already. I didn't want to spend thousands of euros on it so I decided on reusing a 40 inch TV I had that wasn't getting much active use. I spent quite some time pondering about which size cabinet I would go for. I'd love to have made a custom size cabinet, sized to my 40 inch TV. But as, at the time, I thought you could only find custom made lockbars from a shop in Australia, I didn't want to go for that as that would be an insane cost in shipping and customs.
The 40 inch wouldn't fit in a standard body cabinet. I could do it if I routed out a slot in the sides, but that would make it tricky to easily remove the TV for maintenance work. So in the end I decided on going for the wide body cabinet, with leftover space to the side of the TV. I'll probably make a bezel for the TV. So I ordered the widebody lockbar (without the lockbar mechanism) and got started on the project. Of course, only a few days ago I discovered that one of the guys on this forum makes custom lockbars. If I had just known before!  But no big deal as now, if I ever find a cheap second hand 43" or something, I can just replace the 40 inch.

I'll add more stuff to this first post as I go along, like hardware used and such. I'll create new replies to this post with my progress.

So here are the first pictures I took, from the start of the project.

First a tryout of the monitors (40 inch Samsung TV, 30 inch Dell monitor). Not sure yet of the backglass monitor as it uses Dual DVI and it's not easy converting dual dvi to displayport or hdmi for current gen videocards without losing half of the resolution. So it would be a shame of using a 30 inch monitor and only using it for half it capabilities. Maybe I'll use a 32 inch HD ready TV I still have lying around.



Picked up two sheets of green MDF ("waterproof") at the local Brico (do-it-yourself shop, part of Carrefour in Belgium). The green MDF was discounted at the time at -40% and it doesn't soak up as much paint as the regular MDF as it's already saturated. Well that's the theory, I'll let you know if it's the case when I start painting it .
Also picked up these two beauties at 40% discount. Ok, I already had sawhorses, but those were in flimsy wood. On these, I can put the cabinet without having to worry that they will break. And a man never needs an excuse to buy some more tools! 



I had created a plan for the guys at Brico to cut up the wood in certain dimensions, so I could fit it in my car and finish cutting it to the right sizes at home. When I wanted to cut the wood at home, I noticed that they messed up (1305 mm is NOT 1035 mm dudes...) so I had to return the wood from one sheet and they gave me a new one. After getting home, I started on one panel of the playfield and the length was ok, but from side to side there was a difference of 2 mm. Apparantly their saw is not all that great... But I could fix that as it was the width and I had requested a bit larger dimension. But still. Don't get your wood cut at Brico .



I used my router and a copy bit to copy the first sidepanel to the second. Love those copy bits.



Finally put my table saw I bought half a year ago to good use.



Love this little tool. I decided on using dowels to join the wood. Then I don't have screw holes on the outside + I can put it together and take it apart in the beginning like an Ikea cabinet, just to try everything together before I screw it down. MDF isn't made to screw and unscrew multiple times in the same holes.



It fits!



Trying out the bottom without the dowels. Fits like a (very thight) glove!
My wife says I’m building a coffin...



Trying out the TV for size (I've put some cardboard boxes under there, thank God I forget to take out the thrash regularly).

Received my widebody lockbar + plunger + misc from pinballshop.nl and also some electronics stuff from Arnoz. Love the little pieces of art electronic boards. Especially the lama .



Never used a second flipper button on the same side in my life but hey, if everyone's doing the magna save thing, I'll guess I'll add it. At least I can use them as extra buttons. Planning on using a single button on the front which I can use as a shift button so I can double the usage of my flippers.



Dowelled the cab floor and used a great tool I picked up from PinCaBonAute's build : two Jupiler crates.



Received my used contactors from Ebay.



Also received my 24V power supply from Amazon.de. Got it like this. Sucks as I like perfect things but too lazy too start the process of complaining and sending it back . It works so... I'll use some pliers and try to get it reasonably straight.



Hooked them up and did some tests. Kind of dissapointed in the sound. I was hoping to get some more BANG for my buck.



Dowelling.



Test drawing of my plunger hole with my MPCNC. Yes I added a small marker from my kids, wrapped in thin foil to make it thicker to my router (powered off). Hacking stuff together++




Let's do this!




Shit works (with some filing).



Also routed the sides of the cabinet. Messed up on one of the sides that will carry the plastic rail for the glass. But not something I can't fix with some small wood inserts and some glue.
Also, the sun killed my grass. RIP.

a coffin,yes ,but a nice coffin!!

Trying out routing out an inlaid button hole with my MPCNC on some scrap wood. Looks good after some sanding to finish off the edges.



Going for the real thing!



Looks good. One hole should be enough for everyone .



Fitted and approved. Will have to wait to cut out the coin door until later as I don't have it yet. I won't go for the default crazy expensive Williams coin door but for a cheaper version.
Not sure I will go for a green button yet as I don't know the color scheme yet. But I like green and I love the Suzo Happ button.




Used the pinbalshop.nl leaf switch system. Works great. Had to move one of the acrylic blocks to the other side of the switch for the short button.





I've fitted everything together again. Clicks together like an Ikea cabinet and without screws losing grip in torn out MDF . Added the lockbar as a test without the lockbar mechanism. I have it, haven't mounted it yet as I first want to have the coin door to test fit.

Something I noticed and am not sure about : after adding the lockbar, it fits great, without the locking mechanism. But there's a space between the cabinet front wall and the lockbar. I don't know if anyone actually reads this but if so : is this normal? Should I fill it up with something? Picture from below for illustration.

hi paladin,it'snt normal the space behind the lockbar.but if it is solid ,why not?

Another package from L'Atelier d'Arnoz! Bought the Master of Mosfets, the ROM service card and Calibre.



Investigating how to hook everything up. Reading the tutorials and manuals crack me up. I love the PWM tutorial. Recommended read, great info and lolz!: https://shop.arnoz.com/laboratoire/2020/01/12/cest-quoi-le-pwm/



Also received the legs, sidechannels for the playfield, leg brackets, lockbar and... a real pinball err ball. Is a ball used in a pinball a "pinball" or a "pinball ball"?



Anyway, I wanted a ball. Don't judge.



Received the diodes for the contactors and some 22 AWG cable. I hope I have enough cable to hook up everything with the same color scheme.

Hey Zax! Thanks for the answer!

I don't understand though, there's a metal plate inside the lockbar so I can't fit it any other way. Or I have to route out a slot for that plate to fit in the top of the front panel.

I saw someone on this forum that did that but he did it to not have to use a lockbar locking mechanism.

Or does that metal plate need to rest on top of the front panel? That would maybe work too when it's pulled down by the locking mechanism.

Strange stuff.

ok, next up, the wooden triangles behind the leg brackets! I know I don't really need them with the newer generation leg brackets but still, I use them as extra reinforcement as I don't screw from the outside of the cabinet to the inside. I don't like filling the holes. You still tend to see sometimes where you covered up the holes in the right (or is it the wrong) light.
I had to saw these at a 45 degree angle. For this I created a basic jig as I didn't want to mess up my fence on my table saw.



Seemed to have worked!



Preparation for cutting out a power plug insert.



Ok, I've postponed this for quite some time but glueing everything togehter. Don't know if I'm ready for this as I will need to route out some holes in the bottom and the hole for the coin door, but I can't wait anymore to proceed. So screw it. Added beer for weigth.



Mounted the triangle wood braces. Perfect.



Now for the tricky part: a great little tool. No I don't have any stock in Wolfcraft. But they have these handy little tools. Going to use it to drill the holes for the legs as you can use this tool as a guide to drill through corners.



Wish I did a testdrive on these first, so I could have worked out the best way to line up the legs with eachother, but hey, it worked.



Leg braces mounted, routed out a part on the wooden triangle for the plunger.



It's standing on its own legs!

have you the lockdown with the lockbar? maybe it is your wood panel that is to small? what is your lockbar gotlieb, stern, williams? mine is gotlieb and i don't know the other.

Hey Zax, my lockbar is a Williams widebody lockbar. I also have the lockbar mechanism but I haven't installed that one yet. It's a widely used lockbar and the wood is 18 mm thick mdf, which is the default. So it's pretty strange. I'll ask around on a vpin Facebook group.

filled the cabinet with cardboard boxes for a test fitting to the playfield TV. Amazon boxes are so versatile!
`



Temporarily connected the flipper buttons + plunger + threw the tv on the boxes. Stuff works!



Pro tip: use a squared piece of cardboard to put on the back of the tv, measure out where the holes are, use a pencil to punch through the cardboard and use the carboard as a template to transfer the holes to a piece of wood. Perfect vesa mount.




Made a mechanism to mount the playfield TV. Cut up broom + MDF + some mounting brackets for pipes (not yet attached).




Mounted MDF boards to the sides to hold the broom-supported TV. Used the jigsaw + router to make a clean rounded surface to create one of them, used a copy router bit to create the second one so that they are identical.




Also added some boards for the front support.



Et voilà.




Needed to create a playfield top but with a large hole because I will be using a third screen for the DMD. Yes I want a real DMD but I don't want to spend the 160+ euro for one right now . 
First time that I used my aluminium template that I bought half a year ago. Awesome stuff! No more creating templates with spare wood.




Marked the hole (make sure to mark the entire template with a pencil on the wood, removed the template, cut it out roughly with my jigsaw, put the template back (thank you pencil!), clamped it down and routed out the remainder of the hole. 



Ooo baby!

Next up: backbox.




My 30 inch Dell monitor fits like a glove.





Transferred measurements of the playfield top to the backbox bottom. Apparently it's normal that it sticks out for when you lower the backbox to avoid metal on metal.



Backbox top + back.



Added some wood for support.



Starts to look like a pinball cabinet. Haven't mounted it yet though, just used clamps.




Test fitting of the DMD monitor.



Added support beams to the backbox. The small wooden pieces are only there to secure the beams together so I could pull them out and screw them together properly. This ways I can perfectly fit them back in the backbox and screw the backbox banels to the beams.
I want the beams because the 30 inch alone weighs 16 kg.
Still haven't glued the backbox. I won't do it yet as I might still need to route out channels for the plexi in the end. If it's glued, I can't pull it apart anymore to route out the channels.




Vesa mount for the 30 inch backglass.




Mounted to the beams.




Mounted the backbox with two M10 bolts.




Added some hardware to test out the cabinet.




Dear God it's a pinball machine!
Still need to add the DMD monitor enough mounting stuff today. Need to play some Addams family first!




Under the hood. LOVE my Hades Canyon! It's a beast! Might need to get a second one as this is the one that 's originally in my arcade cabinet.

Hi,

Great building skill and nice place to build your cab

Very nice job ! you're a boss with wood !

That's a nice WIP. Clean work, nice cabinet building technique.
"MDF isn't make to screw and unscrew multiple times in the same holes."

That is true - because my brother in law, who is a carpenter by trade ("menuisier"), told so :-)

 For more robustness and lasting of the cabinet I trust the mounting with the Wolfkraft kit (i.e. "tourillons") makes a lot of sense.

About the lockbar I can send pics but on Williams cabinet it is normal the lockbar falls like you show. I am not sure about the mechanical reason but that's normal. Maybe to premature wear and tear of the decals (so the lockbar does not land on the decal).

About the DMD and speaker panel you may check my WIP and like what I made. I am documenting it. I have been inspired by DMD / Speaker panels.

Hi @Paladin,
Really good and clean work

i haven't a real lockbar but a self made one on my mini pincab, but i had the same problem of space betwin the bar and the front panel.
What i did is cuttin a bit the higher front corners of the side panels for letting engage totally the front angles of the lockbar wich aren't square but "cutted" too.
I don't know if it is a similar thing, but in case of ...

GUILLAUME49 a écrit:

About the lockbar I can send pics but on Williams cabinet it is normal the lockbar falls like you show. I am not sure about the mechanical reason but that's normal. Maybe to premature wear and tear of the decals (so the lockbar does not land on the decal).

About the DMD and speaker panel you may check my WIP and like what I made. I am documenting it. I have been inspired by DMD / Speaker panels.

Sebcemoi a écrit:

Hi @Paladin,
Really good and clean work

i haven't a real lockbar but a self made one on my mini pincab, but i had the same problem of space betwin the bar and the front panel.
What i did is cuttin a bit the higher front corners of the side panels for letting engage totally the front angles of the lockbar wich aren't square but "cutted" too.
I don't know if it is a similar thing, but in case of ...

Thanks for the answers guys!

About the lockbar, well I'm a bit further in my build now and I tried out the lockbar together with the plastic rails for the glass, the metal siderails and the lockbar locking mechanism and now the lockbar ends up with the lip on top of the wood and it looks and feels ok now. So I hope it will work out in the end when everything is put back together. I'm in the process of painting now. I still need to document my progress. I'll add pictures of the lockbar.

About the DMD and speaker panel, thanks for the tip! I've diverted a bit from my original plan now as I read that a lot of people are going for a full dmd nowadays, which is more versatile. I think I'm going for that one. But I'll check out your WIP GUILLAUME49, thanks!

A lot of progress but I didn't get around to updating the WIP, so here goes!

Received the siderails, but they were bent. I should be able to bend them back when I lock them down when the cabinet is finished.



Coin door also arrived. Bought a clone as I didn't want to spent the cash on an original one. Which means different dimensions = be very carefull when creating the hole as I have already glued my front panel to the side panels .
Created a template out of cardboard by dismantling the coin door.



Mounted the plastic + metal side rails (with tape) + lockbar so I could get a good feel for where the locking mechanism should be mounted together with the coin door. The coin door and locking mechanism share one bolt. Very tricky because if you mess up there, you're either screwed with the coin door or with the lockbar... 
But something cool I found out by test mounting everything : When everything is in place, my issue with the lockbar and the metal plate/lip seems to be solved now, as it's resting on top of the front panel and the large gap is gone.



The only problem is, whenever I mount everything to test, the pinball cabinet is quickly claimed to play...
BTW I love the Stranger things table. It's so much fun! I was planning on doing a Guardians of the galaxy cab, but maybe I should make a Stranger things cabinet...




Mounted the template together with the lockbar locking mechanism. I was very carefull with this as it's a double operation : you have to make sure that the locking mechanism is at the exact position to pull down the lockbar, which is on top of the siderails and that the bolt matches exactly the coin door position.



In the end, I wanted to make sure that I cut the hole right, so I created a MDF template with the cardboard template so I could use a copy router bit to transfer the hole .



Work done.



Et voilà! Locking mechanism and coin door attached to the same bolt. The small things make my happy .



Test fit the third monitor + fixed my backglass monitor with an expensive dual dvi convertor so I could use the full resolution (2560x1600) + fixed some software issues.
The third monitor is not mounted yet, I have to figure something out there because it's half in the bottom part ot the cabinet.



Created a bezel for the tv monitor. Still have to finish the inner edges with a chamfer bit.



Created a VESA mount plate out of some thin mdf to mount the third monitor. Love my table saw!



Fits like a glove!
Ended up mounting two of them on top of each other as the MDF is very thin.



Found a rail on Amazon.de that I can use to mount the speaker panel and backglass plexi. Not sure if I can use it yet as I'm not 100% sure yet how I will finish the backbox, but still, I like it! Sawed it to the width of my backbox.



Created a test speaker panel / bezel for the third monitor. Used thin MDF.



Chamfered the edge. Chamfering makes everything look a lot more finished, especially when sanded/painted.



Test fitted. Looks ok. Also installed Pinup Popper + set it up. Awesome software!

``


Bought and assembled an Ender 3 v2 because I want to print pinball goodies myself instead of bothering other people . Ok I wanted a 3D printer for a while now, this is the perfect excuse to get one (and I got an awesome deal!).



After a benchy, my first real print is... a button holder for my launcher . Thanks to the creator for the stl. If I'm not mistaken, it's someone from this forum.



Love it! Now I just need to find me a button somewhere that fits.



Bought and test fitted a polycarbonate panel. Very dissapointed in the reflection. It's almost a mirror... Now I have to decide if I'm going to ditch the poly panel and make a full bezel in MDF for the backbox. I've been thinking I don't need to put a protection over the backbox monitors.
But not sure yet. Have to think about it.
Nevermind the white stickers, I left them on in those parts because I still need to route out speaker holes and I don't want to scratch the panel. Panels like this scratch already when you look at them funny.



Found some old iron brackets that I can use for the contactor mounts. No clamp as good as your foot to drill some extra holes!



I have 3 of them ready for painting. I will mount them with the contactors when my cabinet is painted.



Soldering the flyback diodes for my contactors.



10 done with heath shrink! For the close observer : I added a small black heat shrink ring so I know which side of the diode the marking is .

That's quite an impressive WIP we've got here, you take your time and the result is supa clean. Congrats!

Thanks for the compliments guys!

Time to prep the cabinet for painting. One of the reasons that I used dowels and glue when assembling the cabinet was that I wouldn't have to drill /screw through the external panels. You can fill up the holes and sand and prime and paint and even apply vinyl, but if you're unlucky and the light reflects in a certain way, you can still see some marking where the hole used to be. So I wanted to avoid that as much as possible. But I still wanted some more security as the cab will rock when I play it (motion sensor) or when I move it, I don't want it to come apart . 
So I searched for places to screw in screws that will be hidden. Great places for that are behind the lockbar, behind the legs, underneath the cabin, at the back of the cabin, ... . Also on the sidepanels underneath the backbox is a pretty good choice as well if you're going to use the backbox hinges.
I've only got a few screw holes that aren't hidden. I patched them up with mdf filler and sanded, and patched again and sanded again and patched with a very fine filler and sanded again. 



You also have to watch out when screwing in the sides where T-molding will be placed. As the T-molding channel is routed out, you can cause the channel to collapse and the wood/mdf to crack when you draw in the screw. A good tricky to avoid this is to put a spare piece of T-channel molding in the channel before you pull the screw tight. This will keep the channel from collapsing. Pull the T-molding out when the screw has been countersunk.
You can avoid this entirely by only routing out a channel that is exactly the depth of the T-molding but my T-molding router bit is a bit larger.
I haven't mentioned this but you need to pre-drill the hole and a larger hole for the screw head of course.




Started on fixing my oopsie error from near the beginning, when I routed out the plastic rail slots for the glass. On one side I slipped with my router and the channel was way too wide. Fixed a few parts of it by glueing in small wooden inserts.



Created a homemade paint spraying cabine (ok a dusty one, but I have to work with the tools I have  ). Cleaned out my garden shed and stapled some tarps against the walls and over my garden tools. I don't want a painted lawn mower.



Ok that kind of looks like a scene from Dexter. Not a serial killer, seriously!



Filled, sanded, wiped down with a wet rag and ready for painting! Going to use a Wagner paint gun as I want to avoid imperfections from the paint roller and it goes a lot faster that painting it manually. A disadvantage is that it takes a lot more paint. I use Levis paint and the primer is pretty expensive. Good stuff though!



In the meanwhile, my playfield glass is ready! Ordered 5mm thick tempered glass. I actually wanted the 33.2 laminated glass as was mentioned in the great guide post on this forum but that would be too thick for the plastic rails.
I ordered glass for a table top, as this is tempered glass without the tempered glass seal.



Sanding between coats!



Decided that I needed some ventilation holes for my backbox. Drilled them + chamfered them + routed out a hole for a "handle" so I can easily remove the backbox backboard.
Did I mention already that I love my router? It's such a great tool! Also very dangerous so watch out!



Perfect fit for the handle!

Sweet. Ah ah... Same story here for the 3D printer. Been there, done that.

Nice hints for the T Molding. I am struggling a bit with the T Molding I bought on Ali. First it is apiece of crap, second it does not fit well with the 2mm-7.5mm guide.

GUILLAUME49 a écrit:

Nice hints for the T Molding. I am struggling a bit with the T Molding I bought on Ali. First it is apiece of crap, second it does not fit well with the 2mm-7.5mm guide.

Ah that sucks. The T-molding I used for my arcade cabinet (didn't buy any yet for my pincab) I'm very happy with and I bought it at https://arcadewinkel.nl/.