Boogie, damn you!

So I've been promising the kids that someday I'd make a mod for our pinball machine that would allow little monsters to dance and move when the ball strikes the slinghot above the flippers.  Our pin, Scared Stiff, originally was designed to include this function, but the dancing boogiemen was cut during production to save money.  With Kalten leaving for college in a few mere weeks, the pressure to start following through on a few promises was pressing, so off I went.

What I wanted to do was create an extension to the slingshot crank arm that would allow me to add a little monster finger puppet that would move with the slingshot.  To do so, I took some scrap 6061 aluminum and got to work.

First I turned it down in the lathe...

Then I bored it out to reduce it's weight and create a little suction to keep the puppet from flying off

Then I took a 1.00" end mill and relieved both sides and the back to provide for clearance on the slingshot plastic and playfield...

After some additional machining, I had the extension done and then drilled and tapped it to attach it to the slingshot crank arm...

The plastic slingshot covers were broken and looking bad, so I created custom internal metal supports and used epoxy to attach them, cured in the bake box, and then painted to match...

The finished product...

One promise down, countless more to go...  :)