[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.
Simply beautiful
Impressive build! Pretty amazing, all things considered. I wouldn’t mind dropping a few quarters in that and giving it a go.
Thinly-veiled ad for 3Dfilaprint?
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.
Shouldn’t that be “Tommy” the pinball wizard? Never mind I am showing my age.
You have that Who song stuck in your head too?
There has to be a twist
See, honey? I really really need a 3D printer.
You are more than welcome to drop by at our unit and give it a go. Oo and don’t worry about quarters we got 3d printed coins for it. ;)
The whole story is rather interesting an impressive amount of work has gone into it.
Certainly some inspiration for a future project for me
VERY VERY VERY COOL. Do you have any videos of it being played with the lights off? Are you going to release your openscad designs? I would love to make one of those pop bumpers