Pinball Parts - Can Shopbot do this?

[flyguy]

I have recently been part of a project to rebuild a pinball machine playfield. This is the large plywood part the ball rolls on. The plywood is 1/2" 6 or 7 layer maple or birch. There are about 65 1/2" and 3/4" holes that are step cut so that a small colored plastic lens sits on the ledge to form a top level with the surface. There are also approximately 50 other all the way through cut outs ranging from 2" squares to 6 x 1/2 channels. Also there are some 140 drill size holes in each playfield.

Speed is not really a consideration as these have been done completely by hand till now and have been unhappy with the amount of effort and variations I get from drifting templates etc...

Also will the errr... digitizer for the shop bot be able to duplicate this? I hope to be able lay a
used playfield down with the plastic lenses removed and have the digitizer make an exact copy. But it has to be very exact. Will it be able to do the double routered holes with any accuracy?

Thanks
Mike

[Brady Watson]

Mike,
THe shopbot would be perfect for this type of project. The probe may not be the best way of inputting the data, however, unless it is a 3D landscape or something similar OR a 2D inside or outside cut. It would be better if you took a photo of the board and some measurements and input it into CAD to ensure precise locations for the holes.

Once you have the data laid out in CAD...toolpath it and you'll be ready to go. If you need help with this or need them cut until you get a machine, let me know.

-Brady

[ron brown]

Mike,

I'll disagree with Brady and agree also. The probe could accuratly find the edges of the holes and map them. One could then take the map of points and convert them to center locations in a "Circle from three points" command in a CAD program. It might be faster if one has the drawings to simply draw it in CAD.

"Speed is not really a consideration as these have been done completely by hand till now.....Will it be able to do the double routered holes with any accuracy?"

I'd bet far more accurate than you are doing now....

Ron

[flyguy]

Thanks Guys;

Seems like the shopbot will definately be able to do this then and all I have to worry about is which model and software. Any ideas? Also I have heard there are more than one digitizer out there is the shopbot one the best to use?

Unfortunely the old playfields I am planning to redo were done like my last one with router templates so CAD files do not exist. I of course can do then but there are alot of holes etc so if the digitizer could do it, would I even bother with CAD?

So which model? I was thinking of a used 48x96 PRT and of course a digitizer and maybe a vaccumm table.

Again any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

[fleinbach]

If I where going to copy one of these boards this is the method I have used many times in the past. I would simply tape or paste a grid pattern over the board, and then you would be able to accurately plot every hole. You can purchase drafting paper from any office supply store. Or if you have access to a large scale printer as I do you can make your own. This is a little easier with a 36" wide printer loaded with roll stock. You can make the grid 36" wide by as long as you need. Hand copying all whole locations into cad would be very simple then. I believe the whole process might take about 4 to 6 hours. This is a very small amount of time considering you will only have to do this once. In fact it will take less time then it takes to actually cut one out by hand.

As for whether the Shopbot is the right tool I doubt you will find a better one for the price anywhere.

[henrik_o]

This might be terribly ignorant, as I'm unfortunately not very familiar with pinballs (being, alas, of such tender age as to have wasted most of it staring at a monitor rather than shaking and pinching a huge arcade machine) nor with the ShopBot (well, yet, I hope to remedy that).

Anyway, assuming the original was reasonably flat and not too large, I'd take it to my local printing services and have them scan it on one of their huge flatbeds, then e-mail me a low-res image file of it. Tracing that in a CAD package should be a matter of minutes for the holes, some more for the channels (if they're not straight).

[mrpinball]

Mike we use a shopbot for prototyping only
it is not accurate enough for the .25" lip and the inserts fitting, as some fit and some do not even cutting the same hole size.

We take our final dxf file to an outside source with multi tool change to do the playfields and vacum hold they are more accurate.

Sorry guys but we do exactly what Mike wants to do with the shopbot using cad files.