This Week in Pinball· 5 min read
Pinball Adventures First Machine, Punny Factory, is Almost Ready
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“Covid-19 slowed down several of our contractors, but we are happy to report they are back to work in full swing and so are we.
Pinball Adventures has now finished the first, second and third phase of our research, development and build process.
When available the Punny Factory will be retailing for $5,500.00 USD and will be limited to 112 units. With 12 of those units with an engraved Punny Factory Logo complemented with a black wood stain finish on the cabinet and back box at an added extra cost of $500.00 USD.
All the playfields will be identical.
As an extra bonus we will be drawing one (owners) name for every 25 Punny Factory pinball machines sold for the entire run. The lucky winner will receive cash back prize of $2500.00 USD.
Just a way for Pinball Adventures to have fun and say thanks.
The draw will be recorded on our YouTube channel with a picture of the winner beside their machine.”
“Although there is only one model of the playfield for this title, a limited amount (12) of the cabinets and back boxes will be available in a different version. This will be an engraving of the game’s logo on both sides of the cabinet and back box.
The remaining 100 units will offer direct art printed that will be sealed onto a hard thick Russian Baltic Birch and then clear coated twice with sanding in-between and then sealed (think butter cabinet).”
“We wanted to go the extra mile once again… so we not only do a direct-to-wood printing of our graphics on the outside of the cabinet and back box using an initial white layer for added vibrancy, we have also designed the inner cabinet to feature full-height interior direct-to-wood graphics, adding to the full immersion of the theme blending into the playfield. This also includes the inside floor of the cabinet that will have each machines manufactured number printed directly into the graphics. Yes a new file is made for each machine’s cabinet floor, not one machine will be alike.
Again all clear coated twice with sanding in-between and then sealed.”
“Yes, some people like to get their custom side rails powder coated or painted by their local shop. At Pinball Adventures we do this for you!
For our first machine we have chosen a Vibrant Silver Vain powder coating color to accent the Punny Factory’s metal and gears. Add in the Pinball Adventures own newly designed Apron, Hinges, Side Rails, Lockdown Bar and Legs, and you get one color coordinated game. Let’s not forget the matching coin door, Shooter Rod and Bolts.”
“Living in Canada we are blessed with an abundance of natural resources. One resource is Canadian Hard Maple, also known as rock maple or sugar maple, (yes this is the same tree this is tapped to get our maple syrup).
A common measurement of wood hardness is the janka hardness test. The test measures the force required to embed a .444″ diameter steel ball halfway into the wood. The results for each of the maple species are shown in the chart.
The main instances where you would want to stick with hard maple would be in applications where hardness and strength are important, such as: butcher blocks, flooring, workbench tops, pinball playfields, etc. Hard maple (1,450 lbf janka) is roughly twice as hard as soft maple (700-950 lbf janka)—primarily because it grows about half as fast as most other soft maple species. Baltic Birch measures roughly 1,000 lbf janka.
Pinball Adventures has decided after months of testing that the best wood playfield we can manufacture would be from our very own Hard Canadian Maple known for its combination of strength and durability.
We tested many products, including several of the best clear coats with different thicknesses. The clear coating we found to dent easily unless one was to sand and clear repeatedly to build up strength. This does take time and can be costly. When adding to much clear coat, this built up a thick layer that could bubble or potentially crack on the corners when adding pressure or over time with all the shaking. We then tried to work with a finish used on bowling alley lanes still to this day. A superior water-based coating that can withstand the wear and tear suffered by a wooden bowling lane. This coating did help but bowling alleys also use an oil to help with damage and allowing the ball to slide down the lane. We will not oil up our playfields!
We went with the toughest fastest-curing finish on the market, which will be applied on top of our several layers of clear coat sanded in-between. The finish is used for high traffic commercial and sports areas, and the cost shows it. This clear as glass finish adds beauty and protection to our playfields, and its UV inhibitor minimizes sunlight-related color changes. With this new coating process we are sure our new pinball machine owners will be happy with our playfields durability. We will not be hammer testing our playfields!
Now that the all of our research and testing has been completed with the wood and metals of our Punny Factory Pinball machine we can move on to the final stages.”
“The final phases of our Pinball machine will consist of fine tuning the artwork, plastics and toys on the playfield, final testing of our code including our graphics, sound effects, music and one last over all game play testing. Most of this testing mentioned above are complete and in their final stages, but we would like to get it perfect the first time around.
I will add that each machine, are built by two of our staff. One for the playfield and one for the cabinet and trim. The finished machine then goes to another staff for a final once over that test the mechanical, electrical and game play. This helps maintain quality control and adds personal touch. We can comfortably build 10 to 20 machines a month.
Time wise we are still hoping to release in our first game in 2020, but unaccounted delays always seem to pop up.
We will be sharing our progress right from the beginning in several YouTube videos next month and will be streaming our machine in the next few weeks.
We have also started an Instagram account that will show our progress several times a week – https://www.instagram.com/pinballadventures/“
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