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For Sale Bolt / Ball carrier

Wayne J

Wayne J

Site Supporter
Joined
Jul 22, 2011
Messages
2,842
Location
Walsall
Alias
WWJ
I've taken a lot of machines to a lot of shows over the years, not always my own.
I've also seen plenty of people when it comes to setting up a machine having lost at least one leg bolt.

Usually the bolts and balls get thrown in the coin box, if one exists, or a sandwich bag or tupperware box. The problem being that the balls rattle around and get scratched meaning they need replacing quicker.

Having seen @Gonzo 's vid about the cost of balls £25 for a set of 5! I decided to come up with a little carrier that held them all securely so they didn't get lost or damaged, and came up with this.

20221205_173546.jpg
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Credit needs to go to @Sven Normansson for the final design as the 3D printer I have only has a maximum print size of 150mm. These are 148mm long.

There's room in there for all 8 leg bolts, 6 balls and 2 Stern backbox locking bolts (or a single long bolt used for Bally/Williams games). There's also room for all 10 washers.
They are held together quite securely by 12 magnets (not pictured) and can come in almost any colour you can imagine.

If anybody would like one let me know,

They'll be £12.50 plus whatever postage will be - obviously free if you collect them at a meet.

Here's a short vid..
 

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Cool mod Wayne il take 2 at pinfest when im over so you have beer money
 
Well done Wayne, great idea and looks very well executed 👍 these will fly out the door.
 
Wayne J said:
I've taken a lot of machines to a lot of shows over the years, not always my own.
I've also seen plenty of people when it comes to setting up a machine having lost at least one leg bolt.

Usually the bolts and balls get thrown in the coin box, if one exists, or a sandwich bag or tupperware box. The problem being that the balls rattle around and get scratched meaning they need replacing quicker.

Having seen @Gonzo 's vid about the cost of balls £25 for a set of 5! I decided to come up with a little carrier that held them all securely so they didn't get lost or damaged, and came up with this.

View attachment 192727View attachment 192730

Credit needs to go to @Sven Normansson for the final design as the 3D printer I have only has a maximum print size of 150mm. These are 148mm long.

There's room in there for all 8 leg bolts, 6 balls and 2 Stern backbox locking bolts (or a single long bolt used for Bally/Williams games). There's also room for all 10 washers.
They are held together quite securely by 12 magnets (not pictured) and can come in almost any colour you can imagine.

If anybody would like one let me know,

They'll be £12.50 plus whatever postage will be - obviously free if you collect them at a meet.

Here's a short vid..
Click to expand...
Lovely little innovation Wayne - are you happy to share your model so I can print my own? I know these take a lot of time and effort to sort - so no pressure if you'd rather not. I should add - happy to pay you for the model.
 
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Wayne J said:
I've taken a lot of machines to a lot of shows over the years, not always my own.
I've also seen plenty of people when it comes to setting up a machine having lost at least one leg bolt.

Usually the bolts and balls get thrown in the coin box, if one exists, or a sandwich bag or tupperware box. The problem being that the balls rattle around and get scratched meaning they need replacing quicker.

Having seen @Gonzo 's vid about the cost of balls £25 for a set of 5! I decided to come up with a little carrier that held them all securely so they didn't get lost or damaged, and came up with this.

View attachment 192727View attachment 192730

Credit needs to go to @Sven Normansson for the final design as the 3D printer I have only has a maximum print size of 150mm. These are 148mm long.

There's room in there for all 8 leg bolts, 6 balls and 2 Stern backbox locking bolts (or a single long bolt used for Bally/Williams games). There's also room for all 10 washers.
They are held together quite securely by 12 magnets (not pictured) and can come in almost any colour you can imagine.

If anybody would like one let me know,

They'll be £12.50 plus whatever postage will be - obviously free if you collect them at a meet.

Here's a short vid..
Click to expand...
I'll take one for collecstion at pinfest please.

Cheers

kev
 
Awesome idea!
I bet Martin will be a huge fan too once they start changing hands with pin sales, saves his van being full of perishing supermarket plazzy bags.
 
You doing a version for WPC wing nuts and maybe only 4 balls. Obviously those wing nuts are larger than the stern backbox bolts used now....

Good idea.

Now if someone made them in flexable plastic almost like a rubber ball then they would sell LOADS.
Get your patent applied for sticker on them.
 
Pick Holder said:
You doing a version for WPC wing nuts and maybe only 4 balls. Obviously those wing nuts are larger than the stern backbox bolts used now....

Good idea.

Now if someone made them in flexable plastic almost like a rubber ball then they would sell LOADS.
Get your patent applied for sticker on them.
Click to expand...
I could take a look. You've no idea how hard it was to shoehorn it all into that footprint!
 
It’s hard enough convincing folk that pinheads are normal . If Mrs GrizZ sees me putting balls and bolts in a little custom case that could be the deal breaker 😂
It’s a good idea but can we agree it never gets mentioned outside this forum … right ? Nobody says a word and we’ll all be fine.

 
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Can these be some how personalised eg 007 on the case so you know that box belongs to bond or DP on the case for deadpool just something so if you had a good few tombstoned you’d know what came out of which ?
 
In the past when selling games or when I used to take them to shows I have used plastic tubs - takeaway ones work well … thanks @Matt Adams for that tip😁 Balls in a small baggie to protect them , bolts keys etc chucked in . Scrawl game name , or a suitable sticker on top to personalise it 🤠
 
Wayne J said:
I've taken a lot of machines to a lot of shows over the years, not always my own.
I've also seen plenty of people when it comes to setting up a machine having lost at least one leg bolt.

Usually the bolts and balls get thrown in the coin box, if one exists, or a sandwich bag or tupperware box. The problem being that the balls rattle around and get scratched meaning they need replacing quicker.

Having seen @Gonzo 's vid about the cost of balls £25 for a set of 5! I decided to come up with a little carrier that held them all securely so they didn't get lost or damaged, and came up with this.

View attachment 192727View attachment 192730

Credit needs to go to @Sven Normansson for the final design as the 3D printer I have only has a maximum print size of 150mm. These are 148mm long.

There's room in there for all 8 leg bolts, 6 balls and 2 Stern backbox locking bolts (or a single long bolt used for Bally/Williams games). There's also room for all 10 washers.
They are held together quite securely by 12 magnets (not pictured) and can come in almost any colour you can imagine.

If anybody would like one let me know,

They'll be £12.50 plus whatever postage will be - obviously free if you collect them at a meet.

Here's a short vid..
Click to expand...
Great idea/design, but I think we're all waiting for the juicy details of Keith @new forest pinball "servicing" Dolly Parton 😉.
 
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🤔
 
Sorry for the delay in responding, but for some reason my phone (Samsung S220 doesn't like this website and when typing it often puts random spacing in and jumps all over the screen - it doesn't happen with any other website I'm on? But managed to get on my laptop now.

Thank you for all of the positive comments. I was certain that people would like them, but am surprised at the love.🥰

To answer some of the questions/comments:

It would be nice to have bespoke typing/logos on them, but due to the way it prints - top/bottom flat on the print bed - it will be difficult to print. It already takes 8hrs to print each half, so let's hope electricity prices come down soon! So I'm glad that plenty of people want to collect them at Pinfest - it'll give me time to catch up on the backlog. I'll also be at Electric Circus and other competitions around the country over the coming months (I'll also have some flipper cooling units with me ;)).

Nor is there enough clearance to allow for cut-outs in the top or bottom, also it wouldn't be a trivial issue to put bespoke names on each one and would add a fair cost as well as delay production.

As for different variants to allow for less balls and longer back box bolts, or wing-nut bolts - who knows what may come in the future, but for now it will just be the variant pictured - which will cover most eventualities.

Those people who have said they want one/some - PM me your address and what colours you'd like and I'll give you my Paypal details and when I anticipate being able to get them in the post to you. I anticipate post will be £5 for up to 3, or multiples thereof, if that changes anybody's order quantities? (Anyone who orders 3 or more I'll include a little something extra FOC).
I'll look at other post options ,and costs next time a make a trip to the post office.

I have plenty of colours available now including, red, yellow, green, blue, black, white, grey, silver and gold - but can get almost anything else without delay.
 
Was going to ask for three, however i think the Wingnuts idea is brilliant, so will hold out to see if there is a V2 before caving in ;) :)

Awesome idea and design - Definately very unique!

Sell a "posh" version on the run-up to Xmas complete with balls and bolts... Deffo Winner!!
 
Haha that’s very cool. Wonder how much demand is out there, is it worth getting a injection mould made so you can **** thousands out? Sorta product you can market to most pinball stores etc… deffo get different colours then branding etc.. could be massive hit. So simple yet every pinhead needs it :D deffo take this to the next level with mass production.
 
russdx1 said:
Haha that’s very cool. Wonder how much demand is out there, is it worth getting a injection mould made so you can **** thousands out? Sorta product you can market to most pinball stores etc… deffo get different colours then branding etc.. could be massive hit. So simple yet every pinhead needs it :D deffo take this to the next level with mass production.
Click to expand...
I did have a look at Shapeways, and other 3D printing firms, to see how much it would cost for them to print if I uploaded the file as currently my printer is running 24/7 (including me setting an alarm at 3am this morning to start another print) and the CHEAPEST was £27 - PER HALF - to print!

Anyone with a spare injection mould machine who wants to invest? :D
 
Wayne J said:
I did have a look at Shapeways, and other 3D printing firms, to see how much it would cost for them to print if I uploaded the file as currently my printer is running 24/7 (including me setting an alarm at 3am this morning to start another print) and the CHEAPEST was £27 - PER HALF - to print!

Anyone with a spare injection mould machine who wants to invest? :D
Click to expand...
hehe, yeah i find 3D print fantastic for prototypes / low volume production but if you ever want to play with the big boys in quality / price and demand you have to swap to injection moulding. Good thing about this design is its perfect for a 2 part mould no fancy 3/4 part mould is needed. Only problem is the mould will set you back 4/5k but then then price per piece will very cheap (ie like £1 each, even cheaper in really large volumes). Just comes down to how many you think you can sell?

iv used https://swiftmould.com/ in the past with great results.
I really do love this thing and am half tempted to invest if you did want to grow this product :)
 
You could even add a flexy hinge in the middle (just thin bit of material) and maybe a latch the other? all built into the mould as well?
 
russdx1 said:
You could even add a flexy hinge in the middle (just thin bit of material) and maybe a latch the other? all built into the mould as well?
Click to expand...
We looked at that, got rejected for 2 reasons.

Durability and print bed size.
 
You guys don't half like your bits of bling . Poly bag with your ball/bolts and anything else. Box and a can of expanding foam, Quick squirt Job done. ;)
 
If anybody would like other versions - to incorporate Zac bolts, Wingnut Bolts, extra large EM washers, etc. you're going to have to send me the additional hardware you want including to see if there's any chance of incorporating them., as I only have Sterns.

No guarantees a printable solution/layout can be found - but it definitely won't if I don't have the components.
 
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