powerflash franken pachi

[mudfud]

OK. so this one has such a messed up face it was going to take a complete tear down... so, I decided to do make a special powerflash out of it.

took the whole thing down and I am planning out a clear acrylic cell/backboard, so you can see the balls in the back layer AND the cool solenoids moving.

took several hours to pull all the nails and get the plastic pieces off without breaking too much.

will use the current cell as a template, but dad's taking the piece to the giant copy machine so we can lay the sheet right on top of the acrylic paper.

I also plan to replace the side and top pieces of wood with acrylic, and to add some extra lights.

my inspiration was the see-through pinball machine at the expo that I couldn't stop watching... can't wait to get this one done!

[luckydog]

A real undertaking, best of luck to you on this one

knowing you it should be awesome

[takethecastle57]

This will be interesting to see the progress

[MrGneiss]

Wow, can't wait to see more!!

[emmadog]

Don't know how feasible the following would be or if you want to go thru the trouble but a clear upper rear ball tray as well as the chutes would be cool so the balls' movement on the back of the machine could be seen ad well. Actually you could just cut away the side of the chutes/ tray that is up against the frame which would have to be clear acrylic or plexi as well of course but that would be very cool.

[alstonj1]

Whoa Hold on here !!! You cant just go calling this Machine a Franken Pachi at will...
We have standards that must be upheld .

#1 : You have to have modded the machine in some way that is beneficial to your own liking .

#2 : it must be a mod that CAN NOT easily be reversed To the original state .

#3 : ( Most Important of all ) it must be modded in such a way as to totally repulse Tulsa

Once all three of these conditions have been met you must submit pictures to the governing body of pachitalk for consideration .
If approved Only then can you Title your Machine a True Franken Pachi ...

Good luck

[FREKKEN TEKKEN]

Congratulations! A really amazing project idea and I'm totally jazzed to see step by step photos. What a great recourse to such a nasty cell condition. We may need to consider setting up some kind of annual awards show to honor truly unique Mods versus other restoration efforts. Good Luck

[mudfud]

thanks for the support, guys. this will help me keep the momentum going.

say emmadog, I was thinking the same thing about see-through chutes. I'm going to wait and see how it looks with the solenoids showing, then I had thought about going layer by layer to make more things show through.

if the solenoid layer is already too busy, I may make a second "visible pachi" out of one with a rolling stone feature... was looking for one that had more stuff going on in the back. this was going to be the first see-through until the powerflash idea came along.

hmmm... those are stiff criteria for a franken pachi...don't know if I'll make #3...

here's the pic of the acrylic pinball.

[Lt Teddy]

Well at least you are safe on number two. I know what it looked like in the original and nothing is going to help if you try to reverse it. Good luck on your remodel. Looking forward to seeing the finished product.

[emmadog]

At first when I read the post I thought the best thing for a PF would be to restore it close to original! Redoing the cell is fairly straightforward with the vinyl and Mylar combo. However after thinking about it I realized the PF would be the perfect one to do out of acrylic due to all the tulips and xtra mechanics. So good luck with it and post pics!

[emmadog]

Something else to consider (depending once again on how involved you want to get) would be to cast clear parts from silicone molds made from the existing parts. These kits are easy to find and work quite well (factory quality)plus you can dye the resin any color. Some tinted clears would be cool. Videos of the process are all over YouTube.

[mudfud]

say, that's a cool idea for making replacement parts, trays, etc.

do you have a link to a good silicone mold/casting kit?

I can't wait to do some acrylic milling, but I have to go work in salinas again... oh well, no work, no pachi's, eh?

[Sid]

This sounds like an amazing project

[emmadog]

Lemme find the links and get back to ya...

[alstonj1]

it would be cool if you could do the front part in clear and the back in a light blue tint .

[emmadog]

Crystal Clear® Series - Optically Clear Liquid Plastic | Smooth-On, Inc.
That is a link for optically clear liquid plastic. The whole casting resin process looks like alot of fun and the possibilities are endless. It's what the folks over at vintage pachinko use to make their parts or something very similar. Plus the molds can be reused many,many times. Do a "casting resin" search on youtube and check out all the instructional vids. It's the route I would go for fabbing clear parts. Particularly more intricate ones such as the "U-turn" Nishijin B piece that goes from the upper ball tray chute and leads into the jackpot ball chute for example. I'm going to end up buying one of these kits to replicate a part on a cool old single shot I just got and when I first got into the hobby I had a similar idea as far as making a clear machine after looking at an old 80's telephone that is completely clear with brightly colored internals that lives in my pachinko room. Then of course that was pushed by the wayside as more and more machines started arriving.

[pinball wizard]

sounds like a cool project.some led lighting would also be cool.maybe some sound effects too.i can't wait to see progress on this.

[mudfud]

yeah. I'm thinking LEDs will be nice to light things up.

in fact, one idea I have is to have an LED at each switch and solenoid, so as it gets closed, you can see what triggered the action for the tulips.

I bought a set of 4 strips of LED lighting from IKEA months ago, and I might incorporate these around the edges. they go from static to racing to different colors.

cool thing about acrylic is that you can light from the edge, too, and get colored window effects.

can't wait until tuesday when i drive back up to sac'to where the milling machine is.

[emmadog]

I was doing more thinking on this project and here's what I came up with/how I'd do it. I would make clear replicas of pretty much all plastic parts. The playfield plastics to include the tulips and jackpot as well. Yes lots if work involved but it would be a blast to do plus quite extraordinary. I'd also do things like go over the non graphic areas of the large playfield plastics with fine sand paper to "frost" it but leave other areas clear. Same for tulips- maybe frost the petals but leave body clear or vice versa. Also cast front trays clear as well.

[takethecastle57]

Hi Folks , Not to do gloom and doom to the project but with what I've seen in the last 36 years working off and on pachinko's I've notice the origonal plastic get worn down with the the steel balls and dust that gets picked up by them

I have seen on my Cutie Honey some wear on the clear plastic playfield . the balls and all the tracks on a clear machine would have to be really maintained or just as a work of art .

The clear Pinball is made out of a durable plastic but the guys who built it said that they have to keep the playfield and the steel ball really clean to prevent wear .