Sankyo reward tray, phase one

[browne92]

Cardwwi had asked me to take a shot at replicating a Sankyo reward tray:

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I think someone beat on it with a hammer, glued it back together, then beat on it again.

Anyway, after a great many interruptions and minor emergencies, I finally got the main body cut out and glued up:

DSC00875.jpg

As it turns out, this project was a bit more complicated than I had anticipated. One, because it has more parts than any other part I've made. Second, I'm not following the original tray design to the letter, but simplifying it a bit for ease of cutting and assembly. That's why I stopped at this point. I needed the assembly this far for measuring purposes. Good news is, this will be a good basis for many other ball trays.

The discerning eye will note that I didn't make the front and bottom quite as long as they should have been...by 11 millimeters, to be exact. Don't know how I did that, but I guess that's why we build prototypes.

So don't think I forgot about you Cardwwi. It's in work.

[CarlW]

The original has the 3/4" +/- offset at the pachinko ball exit area. I don't see the bump or the offset in the clear picture but it is sort of difficult to tell.

Do you have a test machine to check for operation? Would you like to buy one (or two)?

;-)

I need a few of these when you are ready...

[browne92]

You're correct, it's not there yet. That's one of things I wanted to measure for after the main body was assembled.

Thanks for your generous offer, but I have plenty of pachinko machines (most of which are in pieces) at the moment.

When this one is done, I'll send it to Cardwwi for testing. Then I'll start stampin em out. I'll let you know when they're ready.

[bundito]

Dude, that looks great!

Can you tell me what the material is, and possibly point me to some tips on working with it?

[browne92]

The material is acrylic. As far as tips to working with it, that could fill a book. But I can give you a few pointers.

I cut the pieces with a CNC router, but it can be cut with a hand router, a table saw, a jig saw, or even scored and snapped like glass, tho I find the snapping method leaves too rough an edge. There are special table saw and router bits for cutting plastic (search for Onsrud), but I use 90 degree drill point end mills in the router. I use the 90 degree tip to put a bevel on the front of my see-saw covers. A clean edge on acrylic can be sharp enough to cut you. Ask me how I know. There are various cements for assembly. Notice I said "cement" and not "glue". The cement works the same way PVC cement works on water pipe...it chemically melts the plastic and the two parts fuse together. The router gives me an extremely smooth edge, so I use Weld-on 4 which requires close fitting parts and gives a strong bond, but is thinner than water and can be a bear to work with. Weld-on 16 is thicker and is a bit more forgiving of pieces with less than perfect fit, but I find the joint is not as strong (IMHO).

That's the tip of the iceberg. To be honest, I'm still learning myself. HTH's.

[bundito]

It helps, yeah - in the sense of confirming that it involves tools I don't have access to.



Still looks great. I'm envious.

[mxfaiman]

I have tried molding trays myself. I used a Daiichi tray as it was simple to cast and was pretty universal for the off brand machines. Though it doesn't have that bump out on it. It came out pretty good but I need to repour one half of my mold. It has been a while since I poured a tray and I need to do a few shortly and repour the bottom as the stuff doesn't last forever. Only reason I can't repour the bottom is I no longer have a Daiichi tray.

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