Tabletop Pinball

Step 8 Various improvements

Since the original posting, I've modified the table and built some new elements for the upper portion.

First, I needed higher outside walls. The added side sections are made from 1/2" plywood, and the back is 3/4" particle board. (That's just what I had lying around.)

I wanted a better launch ramp with some sort of random ball-placing mechanism. I came up with a "Plinko"-style pegged board, which sends the ball a different direction each time. This was made from 3/4" MDF, with 1/4" dowels glued into holes I had drilled in the MDF.

I mounted the plinko board to the back wall with scrap pieces of wood, leaving enough clearance for the ball to still roll around underneath.

Then I added a nice big scenic ramp and a half-loop with a spinny-wheel thingy at the top. All of these things were made with cardboard, poster board, masking tape, and hot glue.

I'll probably add more stuff someday. (It's a work in progress.)

If you can think of any other non-electronic, waste-product-derived obstacles that would improve this, be sure to leave a comment.

Thanks!

Comments

[bwallen1]

I am working on a machine design myself. I have several scoring holes worked into the design that lead to a completely hidden underlevel. It is inclined and has an "onramp" at the bottom that randomly puts the ball back into play behind either flipper.

[Graffix10g]

oh hey! put some holes in the floor that the ball can fall into! :D

[seamster]

I considered that, but where do they go? Hmm... if I had some ramps up to a platform (or a "second floor" of sorts), the ball could fall through various holes in that and still be in play... I think we're on to something here!

[Kryptonite]

I'm thinking a kind of trap door up the very back that goes to a second floor with less of an incline, but still one. Then the ramp goes to another trap door, coming up.

\
  -
    \
      \
-------
         []


\      = ramp
-     = trapdoor / second ramp
[]     = bumpers and stuff down the bottom

[neo-sky]

you could possibly use glass to see in the bottom with extra bumpers on the bottom floor.

[Kryptonite]

When I say ramp I should actually be saying playing surface.

[Graffix10g]

yeah! make it so the button makes to flippers move! naa but really i was thinking of trap holes so when it goes in, you lose. like there is a floor underneath and it falls to the bottom.

[Foaly7]

I'd totally do that. Maybe a clear-plastic floor on each level, and dowels joining the many paddles together.

[DAV706]

can i do that improvement when the pinball machine is already old?

[seamster]

Sometimes.

[super scout]

Make holes where the ball can drop onto a ramp underneath the board and make it come up somewhere else

[chrispaintball]

you should make a funnel. like have a ramp lead up to it and the ball spirals down

[SniperWoLf007]

Maybe some old glass bottles to make different and spaced bumpers, would sound good too.

[voemaster]

You could make a place where you can go down to a bottom level and somehow come back out.

 

[060692qwerty]

hmm. I was thinking you could add a score counter to your machine by using a pedometer. Simply put shock switches inside all the bumpers you want to give points for hitting and wire the to them to the shock switch inside the pedometer. (a shock switch is simply a momentary contact switch made of a metal peg surrounded by a metal spring)

[DarkSlicer]

How about the launching ramp sends the ball through a hole in the back wall, and in the back wall there are 3~4 holes, and behind the back wall there's that "Plinko" ramp, wich sends the ball to one random hole? Oh, and you could put a ramp to send the ball to that "Plinko" behind the back wall without atcually launching it!
*storm of ideas*

[getthim]

how about cutting the top off of a coke or lemonade bottle you got a loop type thing