Nice one Steve... Thanks (One for Backbox Wingbolts here!!)
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For Sale Bolt / Ball carrier
- Thread starter Wayne J
- Start date
The size and shape lends itself to a simple silicon mould and polyurethane resin at not a huge outlay. Rough estimate: £60 would get you going with a nice production line, another £50 on a vacuum/pressure pot setup that you could sell on.
great idea @Wayne J
you could almost drop in 4 pins into the outer corner holes and drop a second one over the bottom one and put a rubber band around it and then ok to pack away for those longer jobs.
I did a ball storer a while back just for when you need to lift the playfield up but love this one you did.
you could almost drop in 4 pins into the outer corner holes and drop a second one over the bottom one and put a rubber band around it and then ok to pack away for those longer jobs.
I did a ball storer a while back just for when you need to lift the playfield up but love this one you did.
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A bamboo lab p1p (£680) will cut at least half or more of your print times
Or maybe consider resin printing. about £400 will get you a 10" build volume and stack multiple pieces vertically. Messy / smelly process though, cant be ****d to even run one at home, keep it all at work.
Or maybe consider resin printing. about £400 will get you a 10" build volume and stack multiple pieces vertically. Messy / smelly process though, cant be ****d to even run one at home, keep it all at work.
Can't see wanting to pour this, horrible messy and a product prone to air bubbles.
YOu could if you wanted to add another 8 hours to the build...
Brittle considering the weight.
Amazing how many experts we have, I can't find the injection molding one. I really don't know why people feel the need to think they have the right to start redesigning a product. Do you do this with a telly you buy?
For the record, I design and manufacture Injection Molds for a living (well, for another 2 days, I quit). I have designed components for everything from excavators to Formula 1. I ran high end 3d printers for a decade. I know whereof I speak.
This a product that does a task. The ethos of Wonderful Pinball Things is to provide products at a non ridiculous price, no fancy overpriced boxes and no price gouges or tat you don't need.
I AM looking at a WPC equivalent and have a version housing 1 wing bolt (at the moment) but can't finalize until I have the physical hardware.
Sorry this turned out bit ranty! Back to your usual programming/ over to you Wayne.
All down to the volume you want to sell this product in, is it just gonna be a couple hundred or a few thousand to hundred thousand? If this is something you want to mass produce injection mould is the best option to keep the cost down and make it a nice cheap (none rip off off product) (if you design them you can get one built at a discount maybe and must have all the contacts already?)
unfortunately the place has gone bust and is finished in a month. Luckily I had already handed in my notice.
@steve brum kindly gave me a wing bolt AND a long backbox bolt last night, so we can have a look at those.
That's exactly it - something that's simple and does the job but doesn't cost a fortune. Off the top of my head I reckon I'd need to sell approx 4,000 of these (with a build time of 11 years at current rate) to fund a NIB from the profits. God only knows what the actual price of a NIB will be by then. I certainly won't be needing to fill any VAT returns in or register as a business.
There were the same design suggestions of 'improvements' for the light blades, and the flipper cooling units. Yet only TWO people who have bought ANY of these products has actually had a complaint about them. One that the the MAGNETIC light blades wouldn't stick to his non-ferrous side rails
(he was refunded in full immediately), and the other that the magnetic strip on the light blades came unstuck from the blades themselves. Although I didn't find this out until recently, many years after I sold them to him. (I intend adding extra adhesive in the future, rather than relying on the strips own adhesive).If just a quarter of the people who have said (including in this thread) that they would buy any of the products, actually did so, it may give a little more motivation to design/improve/invent other products.
Anyway - back on topic, I will have printed all of the cases ordered and paid for by tomorrow morning....
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I definitely will be, just working out the final details and costing. Obviously, all of the components have increased in price since I last made them, but with a few changes, I'm hopeful that I won't need to increase the cost much, if at all.You can take my money now for two sets of light blades if you're definitely starting production again
I think like you said, you need to approach all the big pinball parts resellers and see if there is any interest and if they will place large orders. If there is much interest then think about if the up front costs are worth it... If you can get Marco, Pinball Life, Pinball Heaven, Pin Parts etc... on board I think it would be in a good place@steve brum kindly gave me a wing bolt AND a long backbox bolt last night, so we can have a look at those.
That's exactly it - something that's simple and does the job but doesn't cost a fortune. Off the top of my head I reckon I'd need to sell approx 4,000 of these (with a build time of 11 years at current rate) to fund a NIB from the profits. God only knows what the actual price of a NIB will be by then.
There were the same design suggestions of 'improvements' for the light blades, and the flipper cooling units. Yet only TWO people who have bought ANY of these products has actually had a complaint about them. One that the the MAGNETIC light blades wouldn't stick to his non-ferrous side rails
If just a quarter of the people who have said (including in this thread) that they would buy any of the products, actually did so, it may give a little more motivation to design/improve/invent other products.
Anyway - back on topic, I will have printed all of the cases ordered and paid for by tomorrow morning....
Chill out mate, I was offering advice to Wayne on a topic I have career experience in.
My 4 black ones arrived - and they are AWESOME. Super impressed with them, especially the magna close. I was wondering how Wayne would handle that.
Big bolt fit test
Finally have a better spot to put the balls while working on GZ. The lockdown receiver was a crap solution.
Big bolt fit test
Finally have a better spot to put the balls while working on GZ. The lockdown receiver was a crap solution.
You can fit one in a standard case, which was always the design - but I never had one to hand to confirm with a photo. (Then I sent it to Stumblor by mistake without taking a pic anyway)I'll be keen for WPC versions
My Zacs have a backbox bolt similar to the Bally solid states but much longer. I imagine that won't fit
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That would be good for the early solid states
Most of the time I only use one bolt anyway
As much as I would love @Wayne J to make £1000s out of this idea the simple fact is he will not.
Unless he has a PAF (Patent applied for) - someone can just copy it - get them injection moulded and sell them.
It is a brilliant idea, but if it sells - it can be mass produced fairly easily but it would need a few £K to get it going.
Unless he has a PAF (Patent applied for) - someone can just copy it - get them injection moulded and sell them.
It is a brilliant idea, but if it sells - it can be mass produced fairly easily but it would need a few £K to get it going.
I don't think even a Patent would save you here, look at colorDMD and pin2DMD etc... ppl just copy what they want these days
First to market with decent size stock orders with all the big boy suppliers would get this thing moving. But would need some $$$ up front to get a mould built.
My thoughts exactly - there's nothing copywriteable (?) here, would only take minor changes and it wouldn't stand-up, if it was challenged in the first place.I don't think even a Patent would save you here, look at colorDMD and pin2DMD etc... ppl just copy what they want these days
First to market with decent size stock orders with all the big boy suppliers would get this thing moving. But would need some $$$ up front to get a mould built.
Am waiting for an injection mould company to get back to me with quotes, but likely to be too excessive to make it to mass market (by me anyway).
Any interest from the big parts distro's? depending on how keen they are to place large orders could make this upfront cost decision for you
I deffo think its gonna be 5k+ for the mould + getting a few thousand produced in various colors. It's the sorta product these companies could sell very easily as pretty much anyone with a pinball machine needs one! (even if they dont know it yet) These distros could easily push it via marketing etc.. It could also be used as gifts and sorta **** stern would brand and put in there 'life style store' (with a silly price tag lol) Could do so much with it. Just need some interest from these distros so its not such a big gamble.
100%
but would also need to crack the states market to do really well I think (Marco, PinballLife etc..)
Depends how good your patent lawyer is and how it is worded.
They cost a fortune.
I have a couple of pinball patents going thru at the moment that I have done on the cheap with a solicitor friend.
Basically ideas I had whilst I was at heighway (but designed in my own time) that I did not want to give to them.
They cost a fortune.
I have a couple of pinball patents going thru at the moment that I have done on the cheap with a solicitor friend.
Basically ideas I had whilst I was at heighway (but designed in my own time) that I did not want to give to them.
How much $$$ would it cost to protect them though? Ie could a big company come along and make something pretty close then bury you in lawyer fees?
I was always under the impression unless you got millions to defend them they are pretty worthless?
I think people are getting a little carried away with this. It's a neat, well designed little device offered up to the community for a reasonable price. I don't think it was created with the intent of making 1000's and retiring off the profits. Talk of global sales and patents was probably not part of the plan. Happy to be corrected by the OP.
Exactly this.
It was something that I thought would be a great idea for me, so decided to see if it was possible to make. Once a final product had been made I was happy with it and showed a few people, who liked it as well.
Did a rough costing while chatting with @Gonzo and came up with what I thought was a reasonable price.
There has certainly never been any intention to make serious money from this, or for it to be anything more than a couple of quid extra to be able to make and design some other stuff which I want to try, and hope others will like too.
I have contacted an injection moulding company who were meant to get back to me with a quote for the moulds and production but doubt it will go any further as quite simply I have got the set up costs, nor contacts in pinball merchandising, nor the time. I work an extremely busy/stressful job and everything else outside of work is to help relax - the last thing I need is having to try and run a marketing campaign or sidling up to manufacturers or sponsors.
I could see Stern making something similar, branding it with their logo, and selling an absolute boat load of these - BUT if i was to approach them with even the inkling of an idea they would steal it for their own purposes - as they have done in the past. (Remember how spotlight bulbs used to keep falling out and blocking the ball trough and putting a machine out of commission? Seems a very large coincidence that after I met with Gary Stern (Not the only one who can shamelessly name drop
)and showed him the design that Phil had come up with to solve the matter - that suddenly NIBs started shipping with something using the same design principle, but probably just far enough away that it couldn't be challenged as a copy.PinStadiums never had a magnetic version which fit on the OUTSIDE of a machine, until I produced mine - I was even told that a C&D would be on it's way at one point
.I'll continue to make and offer for sale bits that I find useful, and hope others do, not to make masses of money and retire; but simply to make a couple of quid here and there, relax while making and inventing/designing them and offer something of benefit to the community.
Saying all of that, if a parts distributor/retailer wants to get in touch with me to stock any of the Wonderful Pinball Things items, get in touch. Likewise, if anybody does see a serious business opportunity and wants to invest in either setup costs, or marketing etc., by all means I'd be happy to chat.
In other news,
There will be a wingnut version of the carrier to show in the VERY near future - so it will be interesting to see how many people who have requested them will actually order any.
There's also a new version of my PinBlades being sent out tomorrow, and there will likely be a new for sale thread related to them too.
We've been working hard to ensure more machines are covered with the carriers and different back box fastenings are covered.
We've also added a larger void under the leg-bolts to ensure that you can fit the keys and any additional washers in as well.
All of these £12.50 each with free P&P for orders over £50 (£5 P&P otherwise).
We've also added a larger void under the leg-bolts to ensure that you can fit the keys and any additional washers in as well.
All of these £12.50 each with free P&P for orders over £50 (£5 P&P otherwise).
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Took a little time to get one finalised and in production, but now availableI'll be keen for WPC versions
