Project: 'Troy's Pinball' - Arcade Sequel Build

[ARTbyTROY]

The pic of the video card messed with my head it is so sweet.

Thanks, it is really trippy to look at in person.

[ARTbyTROY]

Looks like you are mounting the 40" monitor right at the top surface? If I had space, I'd mount it inset like the playfield on a regular machine and put the whole thing under glass.

Awesome build though. Can't wait to see more. Totally drool-worthy piece of hardware.

I am mounting the 40" monitor up almost to the top edge, but there will also be a nice thick piece of glass over it. I already have two lengths of black plastic lock down for use on actual pinball machine glass... I just haven't gotten that far yet.

I almost forgot to show that the Sapphire window is a mirror when the backlighting is off...

I mounted the 16" monitor into the back box and laid down some 3M screw strong tape along the top and side edges to hold the 23" LCD in place.

The back box is installed but the side LED lighting still needs to be wired, here is the view from the back...

With the back box attached it looks like a pinball machine, better yet it feels really solid. The two wires dangling from the front are USB extension cables that will be tucked away inside when it's finished.

The back box SMD LED strips are wired.

Here is another LED video, this one shows all three of the Sapphire lighting effects, the back box lights and the sound activation module that controls the blue LED light strips in the mirror illusion as well as half of the back box LED lighting.

http://youtu.be/c-8FXe7-seI

Here is a shot of the whole thing all lit up...

[OvRiDe]

Its really coming together! Looks great Troy. Looking forward to seeing it all in action.

[AmEv]

Still looking even better every time I come here!


The main concern I had for putting the protective glass in was for the little ones from hitting the screen.

But you seem to have taken care of that.

[ARTbyTROY]

The main concern I had for putting the protective glass in was for the little ones from hitting the screen.

But you seem to have taken care of that.

I hadn't thought of little ones since mine are all grown, I had almost forgotten how kids can/will mess up nice things... my thinking was more to keep the cat footprints and hair off of the screen.

[msmrx57]

I hadn't thought of little ones since mine are all grown, I had almost forgotten how kids can/will mess up nice things... my thinking was more to keep the cat footprints and hair off of the screen.

Cats, kids both capable of causing problems but you love them anyway.

Looking absolutely incredible!!!

[ARTbyTROY]

The cables inside the pinball machine are out of control, a good part of the mess is from power cables. I ordered three one footers to cut down on some of it, now the 16" monitor, Antec PSU and the power brick for the LED lighting all have short power cables.

I attached two strips of 3M screw strong tape to the backs of the speakers, this stuff is great and it really helps move fabrication along.

Here is a shot of the back box with everything installed, I still need to make a back painted acrylic cover piece for the front of the back box.

Every pinball machine has a lockdown bar to hold the playfield glass down, below is what I came up with for the lockdown bar on my machine. I measured, cut and drilled a piece of acrylic including a button hole, I also cut to length a piece of black plastic lockdown channel and aluminum angle and then bolt everything together.

Assembled and installed for a test fit and it looks pretty snazzy, now it just needs some black vinyl paint.

I plan to attach the acrylic lockdown using auto panel fasteners, my reasoning is if I ever need to remove the playfield glass I can simply open the access door in the bottom of the machine and pop up the lockdown panel with no tools required.

Here is the finished lockdown panel painted and installed, the square blue button is wired for pausing the game, the camera flash/angle makes the square button look kind of washed out when it is actually the exact same color as the other two blue buttons.

[ARTbyTROY]

Time to make the back glass, below is a sheet of clear acrylic that I copied measurements onto and then double stick taped some aluminum angle onto it in preparation for scoring and snapping.

Here it is test fit, it was too tight so I had to sand down the edges a little to make it fit right.

I removed the paper backing and set it in place, using a black Sharpie I marked the corners of both screens with a dot and measured/marked an X through the centers the centers of both speakers.

I put the back glass front side down on the table and using clear contact paper, a ruler and a razor blade cut masks for both monitors, wide masking tape was placed on the backside of the speaker cut-outs in prep for some 2 1/2" hole saw action.

The back glass was then back painted with Plasti Kote vinyl paint and test fit again, I have a couple more things to do to the back glass before it can be final installed, but it's not far now.

[Fuganater]

Having that face panel on the top part looks way better.

[ARTbyTROY]

Having that face panel on the top part looks way better.

Thanks, but I did a couple more things to the back glass to make it better...

Below is a side edge view of the back glass panel, it is a friggin' dust magnet and the worst part is that no matter how much I dust it off it keeps coming back... I have been down this road before though and know exactly how to handle it.

Time to cut out for the LCD screen faces, in the next picture I taped thin lines to the exact edges of each screen in preparation for cutting.

I used my Dremel and a ripsaw blade to make the cut outs for both screens, then the edges were sanded and it was sprayed with black vinyl paint on both sides. I cut the top edge of the back glass panel a hair short by mistake, so I used a length of black automotive door edge trim to fix it.

My back glass is now more of a trim panel, but I don't mind because it will make cleaning the LCD monitor screens a lot easier, and with the acrylic removed the monitors won't have as much reflective glare.