Mastodawn

I've been thinking about the cabinet for #smallPinball project lately. If I build a 1:2-scale thing that tries to mimic a traditional pinball machine, it's bound to appear toy-like, which I'm trying to avoid.

The solution could be to "change the meaning" of the cabinet. What if I build it as a nice sofa table? It immediately escapes comparison to most pinball machines, and it's a convenient object in the home that also gives the game itself a reason to be small.

Tuomas Hämäläinen 🇺🇦Mar 7

First test print of the 6-ball trough for #smallPinball, and I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. It prints in one piece without supports. The purpose of this first test is to check how the balls behave in it and to see if the smallest coil I have is enough to push a ball out. If not, it can be easily redesigned for a beefier coil.

The holes on the side are for mounting a circuit board that will optically detect which positions have balls in them – standard stuff.

Tuomas Hämäläinen 🇺🇦Mar 2

Got my hands on the first parts for doing my #smallPinball / #miniaturePinball trials. I’m pretty set on the 15 mm balls – look at how cute they are! – but everything else is basically a first guess. I can already tell that these microswitches (the little thing at the bottom) are too stiff for what I need, but it was hard to know that beforehand as the actuation force was not specified. The coils I’m excited to try though – they should be good for at least some of the mechanisms.