Tony The Pinball Wizard 3D Prints Full Sized Pinball Machine

[Tony] has designed and 3D printed a full-sized pinball machine and it’s absolutely incredible. And by 3D-printed, we mean 3D-printed! Even the spring for the plunger printed plastic.

The bumper design is particularly interesting. The magic happens with two rings of conductive filament. the bottom one is stationary while the top one is a multi material print with a flexible filament. When the ball runs into the bumper the top filament flexes and the lower rings contact. Awesome. Who wants to copy this over to a joystick or bump sensor for a robot first? Send us a tip!

The whole document can be read as a primer on pinball design. [Tony] starts by describing the history of pinball from the French courts to the modern day. He then works up from the play styles, rules, and common elements to the rationale for his design. It’s fascinating.

Then his guide gets to the technical details. The whole machine was designed in OpenSCAD. It took over 8.5 km of eighty different filaments fed through 1200+ hours of 3D printing time (not including failed prints) to complete. The electronics were hand laid out in a notebook, based around custom boards, parts, and two Arduinos that handle all the solenoids, scoring, and actuators. The theme is based around a favorite bowling alley and other landmarks.

It’s a labor of love for sure, and an inspiring build. You can catch a video of it in operation after the break.

11 thoughts on “Tony The Pinball Wizard 3D Prints Full Sized Pinball Machine

    1. If by “thinly-veiled ad” you mean it’s one of 16 brands of filaments used….

      Yes, it was produced for the “3D FilaPrint stand at TCT 2016 at the NEC” but it itself is not an ad for them, any more than the RedBull sponsored X-Games are ads for RedBull. In both cases the sponsor is hoping that the association with something interesting will allow the interest to rub off on their product, however it does not make the interesting thing itself an ad.

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