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You may have noticed that on the Main Flash page that the cabinet was in a fairly ordinary state, well I decided to do something about it and that was to re-build the entire cabinet from scratch. I had already had a great result doing this with Gorgar and I knew in my heart that this Flash cabinet was beyond saving so I really had no choice anyway. Once again, not everyone will have the means or want to do this, but if you want on old pin to be like brand new again, you must give it a go. Once again it is time consuming and you must be patient for this to work, you should also have some confidence with power tools such as circular and jigsaws, sanders and drills. It is not really that difficult as will have the old box to copy drill holes and measurements from, but it will cost you a few bucks. Have a look at the shots below of the Flash cabinet when I got the machine
SO- what did I do ?
First thing to do is to make a trip to your local plywood supplier and buy a 2400 x 1200 sheet of 19mm dressed (or finished) plywood, mine cost me about $150 Aussie dollars for the sheet. Take along the measurements for the sides, front and back of your cabinet and have them cut all 4 pieces to size and shape. I get the front two joints cut at 45 degree angle joins and the rear 2 joints cut as flat "butt" type joints so that the rear piece sits inside the 2 side panels at the back of the cabinet ( you will see what I mean by that on the next few cabinet rebuild pages ). After your supplier cuts the 4 main panels out of the main sheet of ply you will have enough left over to make up all of the internal cross braces and other parts of the cabinet. You might also buy a sheet of 6 or 9mm MDF to use as a new base panel in your new cabinet.
href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/43314476@N08/4046159782/" title="117-1723_IMG by brainsnap, on Flickr"> After obtaining the correct size plywood and having it cut to size, it is time to make sure it all fits together properly, the good thing is that you will have the old box around to get measurements and hole sizes and locations from. I normally start by getting someone to help me hold it all together just to make sure that the joins are going to sit properly when I glue it all together. When you are handling the front and sides, make sure that you are VERY careful with the fine edge on the angled cut edges at the front of the side panels and the sides of the front panel as you will find that these edges break off in slices very easily when the panels are not joined together. This problem does not exist after you have glued, screwed and assembled the cabinet as the thin edges should butt together nicely and that makes it harder to damage them. Below is a couple of photo's, the first shows you the new solid front panel with the 45 degree mitered cuts on the ends and in the second shot you can see how they will butt together with the corresponding side panels to eventually form a really snug fit.
I use a product called Construction Quality Liquid Nails to glue the cabinet joins together and then use 2 x L- Brackets in each corner joint to stop the joins coming apart and then I let it all sit for a week before adding other internal braces and strengthening parts. Before I started to join it all together, I decided to cut the holes in the front panel for the coin door and the plunger as well as the hole for the start button, the hole for the start button is actually only drilled half depth into the panel at the front and the a smaller hole goes all the way through the cabinet just large enough for the shaft diameter of the start button. I discovered this when I re-did a Gorgar cabinet, I had nowhere to screw the metal backing plate of the start button inside the cabinet as I had drilled the entire front hole size all the way through the cabinet, it was a pain to fix it and my Gorgar button is still a little sticky these days due to that error.
Above is a shot of the front panel after cutting the holes. I use a Jigsaw on high speed with a fine cutting blade to make these cuts and like everything with this project, measure twice and cut once AND cut slowly and carefully and it will all turn out fine, I always use a straight edge to run the jigsaw against while making a cut - I cut nothing "freehand". Obviously I mark it all out based on measurements from the original cabinet that I am copying from and that is the advantage in having the original box there as well. It's always a good idea to make sure that the door parts all fit and the door works before fitting the panels together, this door needs a bit of polishing work too, that'll come later.  The next thing that I do is run a good bead of the Liquid Nails down the joins and stick it all together, I normally do 1 join, then, 1 hour later come and install the L Brackets ( the joins will hold together perfectly on their own for an hour or so) and then repeat that process until I have the whole 4 sides joined together.
And below is a shot of the cabinet nearly all joined up with only the rear panel to be added in, remember the rear panel is a flat joint, not angled at 45 degree's like the front joints so it is really easy to fit into place. Also remember to get your plywood cut so that the rear panel fits INSIDE the side panels so that you do not see joins at the back of the side of your new pinball cabinet. You will see that I also run a level across the top at this point, this is because you should always make sure the tops of the sides are level so that the glass will sit in properly later. If you happen to get a bad job done by the supplier who cuts your plywood panels to shape, you can fix any errors at the bottom of the cabinet so that the top remains perfect. I actually had a 5mm difference in the side panels of this cabinet so I allowed the rear end to have an error that no-one will ever see once the legs are installed.
This is not a really fascinating section, but I wanted to show and explain how I add the strengthening cross braces and the base panel to the cabinet. Apart from doing woodwork classes at school all those years ago I have no formal education in cabinet making so I am sure there are better ways to do this such as using a router to cut grooves into the inside of the side panels and using a tongue and groove type joint, however I didn't have a router at the time I built this cabinet AND I found on Gorgar that these joins out extremely strong anyway and it is simple. All I do is use the leftover off cuts from the plywood sheeting and make 3 x braces the same as in the original pinball cabinet. I then use the Liquid Nails to glue them in place and let it set, the next day I glue lots of little angled pieces of ply or pine to the ends of the braces that make contact with the side of the pinball cabinet and the brace itself, then I simply use 25-30mm self drilling screws to hold it all together nicely. I aim one screw down into the brace and one screw towards the pinball cabinet side, CHECK that the length of screw that you use will NOT come through the side of the pinball cabinet and poke out on the outside! If that's a problem - USE SHORTER SCREWS. In the shots below you can see the braces and brace holders glued, but not screwed, into place.
Next is a shot showing the cabinet coming together, once it is all braced up with all the angled pieces glued and screwed into place.
The base panel also adds strength to the whole cabinet and is screwed into the braces from underneath as well.
You can see in the shot above that I have run a strip of angled corner pine upright in each corner - the metal backing plates for the leg bolts will be nailed to these corner strips , after you drill your leg bolt holes which I explain on the next page of this cabinet re-build. I will be installing a new stereo speaker in this machine so I have made that cut now as well.
I will show a few shots on this page of the playfield rests in place, how I cut and drill the holes for the leg bolts to go through , nothing really exciting but stuff you need to know if you take this on. The first important thing to do is to measure off the old cabinet the distance between the centers of the bolt holes, then simply mark them on your new cabinet, then using a Dremel Tool or similar with a tubular sanding piece attached, sand out a shape as shown in the shot below, remember that this area will be hidden by the legs so a mistake here will not be visible. This sanded out section will have to end up round enough to fit a 10-12mm drill bit inside it at a later step.
Once you feel that you have those done properly, get a small drill bit and drill a 'pilot' hole in the dead centre of each of these spots as in the shot shown below, this is safer than just wedging a dirty big drill bit in and going for it, this way you have a spot to aim your larger drill bit into, without having it slip out and hit the plywood and possibly tearing it. try your best to drill this at the correct angle and keep it straight. After this you should be able to grab a leg bolt and it will slide straight through these holes. Obviously now all you have left to do is to nail the backing plate .
The section that you sanded out earlier with the Dremel will have to end up round enough to fit a 10-12mm drill bit inside it.
For the 'rests' inside the cabinet that the playfield sits on just copy the sizes exactly as per the old machine, remember to angle down the far ends for the playfield to slide down into place easier and do NOT try and cheat by using straight strips if the old machine had cut outs in one side then copy it exactly ( the cutouts are to allow for target assemblies to fit in place when the playfield is sitting on the rests, I found this out the hard way on my Gorgar cabinet rebuild).
To see this new cabinet get repainted use the link below.
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