return to projects page

Product Design and Development, Rapid Prototyping
Introduction to Making (MIT 2.351)
Open-ended project for the course, so I decided to make a pinball machine from scratch.
Skills: Fusion 360, rapid prototyping, 3D printing, laser cutting
Pinball machine (without the board add-ons for the pinball to bounce off of).

1. Brief Overview

**Currently working on this to fully update the design process of this project, but will briefly outline what I did.**

This semester I worked on making a pinball machine from scratch. I cadded this on Fusion 360 with the base and side panels made from wood and laser cutted, and the side pushers and the game board flippers 3D printed. My final CAD is shown below.

Final CAD of pinball machine in Fusion 360.

One of the most challenging parts of this was getting the right angle on the board. Because the pinball is a bit heavy, having the board being too steep would barely give you any reaction time. So I did multiple iterations to get the board right. Additionally, getting the side pushers and paddles to move the way I wanted was a challenge. I ended using the screw from the paddle, put a rubber band through the side pusher and around the screw to then create that tension between the pusher and flipper. Thus, when I release the pusher, the flipper immediately sets back into place.




  return to projects page