Project: 'Troy's Pinball' - Arcade Sequel Build

[ARTbyTROY]

The foam board illusion section mock up worked well, now it's time to lay out measurements onto the two-way and first-surface mirrors and prep them for cutting.

I scored and snapped the mirrors and then couldn't resist setting it up around the motherboard to see how cool it looked, and also to get an idea of what to do next.

I used the back piece of motherboard tray and the motherboard back plate as a template and then cut the sections of mirror out using a ripsaw blade.

I had to modify the mounting bracket for both video cards to make them fit right against the mirror panel, a Dremel and a metal file made short work of it.

The next picture shows the illusion section test fit inside the pinball table, everything looks good from this angle.

And it looks good from this side too, it's almost ready for final assembly and installation.

Below shows the finished modified motherboard tray, I rivet a couple pieces of aluminum-angle onto the top of the tray to hold the back mirror panel in place and I rivet a few more pieces of alum-angle around the side edges as mounting points.

Next up are the mirror panels and pieces of aluminum-angle that make up the illusion section, I'm waiting to make two more cutouts into the mirror panel on the right before they can be final installed onto the motherboard tray.

Another great company has officially come onboard as a project sponsor, thanks go out to Performance-PCs for supplying my pinball project with a kick-ass Scythe Samurai-ZZ CPU cooler.

[ARTbyTROY]

I removed the TV speakers from their plastic mounting assemblies and then devised a fairly simple way to mount them into the front of the pinball machine.

Below shows the aluminum angle and pop rivet solution to mounting the speakers.

Here's a look from inside the table at the back of both speakers being test fit.

The bottom edge of the speaker has an angled piece of plastic that should help to direct the sound upward toward the player. The black plastic mesh covers I made will be fit over the speakers during final assembly.

[ARTbyTROY]

I rewired to lengthen and then sleeved the wiring to the speakers to give them a more finished look, even though it will never really be seen.

I removed the lower back panel and drilled three holes into it to accommodate the rocker switches that will control most of the lighting, while it was off I spray painted it black.

Below is a close up of the rocker switches...

I put the back box face down and cleaned the back pieces of aluminum angle with alcohol and a paper towel, then I cut, positioned and stuck down some heavy duty Velcro.

I painted the back panel to the back box black, I also installed two 120mm fans and then lined up and stuck the panel down onto the Velcro.

Here is a view from the inside of both 120mm fans and fan controllers.

Close up shot of the freshly installed fans...

[TheGreatSatan]

^Pretty

[ARTbyTROY]

Originally Posted by TheGreatSatan

^Pretty

Thanks man.

The Performance-PCs sponsored Scythe Samurai-ZZ CPU cooler arrived and I waste no time installing it.

Here is a shot of the CPU cooler in its new home inside the illusion... the mirrors work great, CPU coolers appear to go on as far as you can see.

Another shot, this time looking over the CPU cooler and into the illusion.

The only way the two-way mirror illusion will work is if the lighting inside is brighter than the ambient light outside, that said I cut some channel aluminum-angle the same length as the LED strips to make a lighting array.

I attached the six pieces of channel aluminum-angle to a length of corner angle with rivets and installed the light strips into the channels, four white and two blue super bright LED strips.

Below is the finished lighting array, the wiring will receive the sleeve treatment when they are final installed.

Here is how it looks on the illusion section, I will be cutting the side rail to allow more light onto the motherboard. Small problem though, the lighting makes the illusion section just a bit too much taller and it sits directly below where one of the circuit boards from the TV is located.

I would almost swear that this Sceptre TV was made to be modified because moving stuff around on it is super easy. Below shows the new power inlet and black power circuit board placement, well out of the way now.

Since everything else is basically done it's time to move on to masking for paint, well not really paint, it's actually automotive vinyl color. I masked off a 3/8" and a 1/4" strip over the SMD LEDs that run up sides of the back box.

Here is the front of the machine also prepped for paint...

This next picture shows the installation of the side vinyl masks, the two SMD LED strip locations were also masked off with 3/8" tape.

Here's a look at the installed vinyl mask and the SMD location masking, vinyl color comes next and that means it's not far now.

[Fuganater]

I gotta see all those LEDs lit up!

[ARTbyTROY]

Originally Posted by Fuganater

I gotta see all those LEDs lit up!

Soon, real soon.

[ARTbyTROY]

Here is the entire thing completely disassembled, the panels were cleaned up and all the masked edges were tamped, so it's ready to spray.

Below shows what the acrylic panels look like after the first coat of black vinyl color.

Three cans later and the front side of each panel was sufficiently black. The backs of each panel were masked and then sprayed with blue vinyl color behind the vinyl decals.

Here it is with the all the masking removed, the shiny smooth blue letters look killer against the finely textured black surface.

Sapphire rocks and so does their window outline, vinyl sign material makes a great mask when used with automotive vinyl color, I didn't have color seep under the mask anywhere.

Time to install the Sapphire decal I had made, I lined it up and taped it along the top edge, then removed the backing paper and used the blue card to smooth it down.

It looks good, but I still have a little more to do on the back sides of the panels before they can be installed.

I cut the roll of light diffusing film into strips and black electrical taped them onto the inside panels over the SMD LED strips location, then I brushed all of the taped edges with liquid electrical tape to make sure they stay put. A piece of light diffusing film was also cut to fit over the Sapphire "S", it will also be getting some glow treatment.

Both side panels are finished and ready for installation... I still can't believe how nice they turned out.

It took a lot of patience and cans of vinyl color to get all the panels looking right, but at $9 a can I wasn't so worried about the back, if it looks a little splotchy it's because it is. I vinyl colored the duct to the PSU black and screwed it onto the now ready for install back panel.

Front panel unmasked and ready to install.

I am putting the back box together first, get those pieces together and out of the way so I can focus on the table part of the build... not far now.

[Fuganater]

The paint came out nice!

[msmrx57]

This thing is friggin AWESOME!!!! The paint looks killer!
What product did you use for the black out of curiosity?