Run of plastic parts

GF323

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I posted up an interest thread on the atari 720/hall effect/logo/assault upper and lower housing parts to see if I could offset my cost in having them made. Then I posted another thread about my scratch build 720 controller. I've received a few interesting responses based on those two posts. What caught my attention was the inquiries for making other parts available. I'm very interested in the atari sticks and the other odd atari controllers to a somewhat lesser degree. Since I've made each and every part needed for a 720, I am capable of running these parts pretty easily. I prefer to make the plastic parts, but I can work with metal too. It just takes a little longer. Was there any consensus on what parts for these atari type controllers might be sought after? I've done minimal rebuilds with universal, williams and bally type controllers, so I am somewhat familiar with them as well. I have some free time right now, so I'd like to fill it with something interesting to work on.

Ok, so we have interest in:

Logo stick plunger
Logo stick pivot ball
Logo stick upper housing
Logo stick lower housing
Battlezone centering grommet/bellows (picked this up off another thread)

Please feel free to add to the discussion. I work with plastics and I'm willing to dig into this a little, especially if it helps me with my own restorations.
 
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As far as logo sticks, I just purchased a few NOS, but it seems like the Plunger and Pivot Ball would be on a lot of peoples lists. Followed by the upper housing for me.
 
Care to expand your horizons a bit and try to duplicate the Mad Planets spinner? Many have talked about it and tried, but none available yet.
 
I like a solid challenge. The 720 stick took me awhile but I managed to do it. Ok, it was only a single controller, but I could pump out a few more if people wanted them.

Would you be able to show me a few pictures of the Mad Planets spinner? I'm sure I'm capable of doing it, but I have no idea how much the final cost might be. Are you talking about just the spinner "knob" or the whole assembly? Is there any demand for it? 20 units? 50? 100? I can't imagine there would be much.

Care to expand your horizons a bit and try to duplicate the Mad Planets spinner? Many have talked about it and tried, but none available yet.
 
I like a solid challenge.

Would you be able to show me a few pictures of the Mad Planets spinner? I'm sure I'm capable of doing it, but I have no idea how much the final cost might be. Are you talking about just the spinner "knob" or the whole assembly? Is there any demand for it? 20 units? 50? 100? I can't imagine there would be much.

http://forums.arcade-museum.com/showthread.php?t=336070&highlight=mad

(search 3darcadegames to find other plastics we're interested in ...)
:(
 
Ok, well that doesn't look too difficult from what I can see. But I'd like to see what's going on inside. It looks like there is/was some demand for it, too. Enough to maybe make it worthwhile. I happen to really like Mad Planets, btw. :)

I was just in another 3darcadegames thread asking about the LL thrust cover. So, 3darcadegames and phineas foo are the same guy, right? It looks like he started to make the ll covers and then flipped out? I take it that everything else he was working on went toe up about the same time? So sad.

http://forums.arcade-museum.com/showthread.php?t=336070&highlight=mad

(search 3darcadegames to find other plastics we're interested in ...)
:(
 
I have a life time supply of pivot balls but I dont on the plunger.. I am interested in getting a few dozen depending on price.. my lathe isnt centering enough and plunger I make are wonkey.

As for the spinner.I am waiting on someone to make adjustments
 

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I just found this older post:

http://forums.arcade-museum.com/showthread.php?t=275218

Am I to understand that you're going to be making the case for the spinner? If so, there's no need for me to look into it any further. :)

If I were to seriously look into this, I would need to sell at least 100 empty red shells @ approximately $70ea just to ensure I don't lose money on it. That's not including anything else at all. No shaft. No wheel. No bearings. No encoder wheel. No spinner knob. No encoder board. I work with plastics all the time, so I'm confident of my cost estimate. I'm not sure people would be willing to go into a spinner when the shell alone would run so much.

But I can say definitively the shell can be done. I wouldn't do it the way phineas was suggesting, either. It was sad reading his threads and seeing them unfold the way they did.

I have a life time supply of pivot balls but I dont on the plunger.. I am interested in getting a few dozen depending on price.. my lathe isnt centering enough and plunger I make are wonkey.

As for the spinner.I am waiting on someone to make adjustments
 
Didn't mean to step on anyone's toes but a collaborative effort for some of these repros like the infamous MP spinner might be just the key to getting there.
 
I'm happy to pitch in. I'm a team player. Not only do I have experience with plastics and machining metal parts to a lesser degree, I'm also willing to front $ into a project as long as it looks like I will at least break even. I'm great with PCB design as well, but I don't have access to a decent fab or wave solder.

Didn't mean to step on anyone's toes but a collaborative effort for some of these repros like the infamous MP spinner might be just the key to getting there.
 
I was looking at a bunch of repro threads today and I noticed a trend. The super long lead times. Again and again, I see these long lead times to get a product to market. I'm curious as to why it takes so long to make stuff when it's being put out there to sell? Time? Money? Lack thereof? What really struck me was all the stuff 3darcadegames was involved in and the long delays, excuses, etc.

I suppose I'm no better in that I took a year+ making my scratch build 720 controller, but it was for my own use. I'm running off a small batch of them to sell now. Even with the large number of parts, all of the wonky processes, anodizing, zinc plating and what not, I can almost guarantee it won't take me more than three weeks to have them done and ready to ship.

Like I said earlier, I'm a team player and the last thing I would want to do is step on any toes. But I start to wonder at what point a project is at a dead-end and open for someone else to take the lead. I'm thinking about it because I see the addition of the H-channel mentioned when it looks like Troy has it covered. But Troy seems to have a lot on his plate. Then I saw the thread for the Lunar Lander thrust controller and it seems dead. When is it safe to jump in and take over, if ever? Not having drawn a single part for that as of yet, I could knock it out in a month if I started on it.
 
Sorry off topic...

My frist experiment mad planets spinner was built to fit in a blue electrical box. A harbor freight wheel was machined to the same weight as the original wheel. I showed this off to a few collectors and the feed back I got was, while it functioned as well as a wico spinner, it didn't not look like one. The desire to have one closer to the original case increases the costs by quiet a bit. I shelved the project for a while..

So when the mad planets spinner project came to a halt once again. I decided to spend time and money to see if I could 3D print one closer to the orginal. I just dropped off my original to a professional 3d artist and I am currently waiting for the protoype to be done. There are issues with over hangs and wall thickness. I am thinking of getting it just close enough and just machining out the other issues. I don't know if this will be close enough. Once I get the prototype done, I will talk to the same collectors and see what there opinions are..

If this fails, I am going to cast the mad planets spinner and make a short run of 25 or less.
 
I get it. There's a lot of back and forth, trying to find the best way to get it done. That makes perfect sense to me. Do you have any pictures of your original prototype?

Sorry off topic...

My frist experiment mad planets spinner was built to fit in a blue electrical box. A harbor freight wheel was machined to the same weight as the original wheel. I showed this off to a few collectors and the feed back I got was, while it functioned as well as a wico spinner, it didn't not look like one. The desire to have one closer to the original case increases the costs by quiet a bit. I shelved the project for a while..

So when the mad planets spinner project came to a halt once again. I decided to spend time and money to see if I could 3D print one closer to the orginal. I just dropped off my original to a professional 3d artist and I am currently waiting for the protoype to be done. There are issues with over hangs and wall thickness. I am thinking of getting it just close enough and just machining out the other issues. I don't know if this will be close enough. Once I get the prototype done, I will talk to the same collectors and see what there opinions are..

If this fails, I am going to cast the mad planets spinner and make a short run of 25 or less.
 
I was looking at a bunch of repro threads today and I noticed a trend. The super long lead times. Again and again, I see these long lead times to get a product to market. I'm curious as to why it takes so long to make stuff when it's being put out there to sell? Time? Money? Lack thereof? What really struck me was all the stuff 3darcadegames was involved in and the long delays, excuses, etc.

I suppose I'm no better in that I took a year+ making my scratch build 720 controller, but it was for my own use. I'm running off a small batch of them to sell now. Even with the large number of parts, all of the wonky processes, anodizing, zinc plating and what not, I can almost guarantee it won't take me more than three weeks to have them done and ready to ship.

Like I said earlier, I'm a team player and the last thing I would want to do is step on any toes. But I start to wonder at what point a project is at a dead-end and open for someone else to take the lead. I'm thinking about it because I see the addition of the H-channel mentioned when it looks like Troy has it covered. But Troy seems to have a lot on his plate. Then I saw the thread for the Lunar Lander thrust controller and it seems dead. When is it safe to jump in and take over, if ever? Not having drawn a single part for that as of yet, I could knock it out in a month if I started on it.

I'm going to take an opposite point of view. This isn't about you necessarily so don't take it personally.

You are a new member, with a low post count, promising the world, how skilled you are, etc. A lot of people will shower you with cash hoping to buy a part from you they can flip, but you are also going to make a lot of people hesitate from buying from you. We've been down this road before and more often then not a scam is waiting at the end. So, why should we trust you?

Sometimes it is better to start slow, build trust, build a reputation of quality, etc and then ramp up products. It's easy to guesstimate a timeline and sometimes deliver, but if history repeats itself the first time you are a day late you'll likely be spending most of your time reading threats and insults via PMs and emails instead of getting anything done.
 
That makes complete sense to me. I was mostly wondering about the long lead times in general. Not necessarily from a "newbie" but I see your point. Believe it or not, I actually agree with you and don't find it to be an opposite POV. I'll run off a few parts and let my actions speak for themselves. You know what they say about words. :)

So, back on topic now. What are people looking to have made? I see a lot of requests for logo stick pivot balls and plungers. Oh, and about the H-channel. Troy IS making that one, right?

I'm going to take an opposite point of view. This isn't about you necessarily so don't take it personally.

You are a new member, with a low post count, promising the world, how skilled you are, etc. A lot of people will shower you with cash hoping to buy a part from you they can flip, but you are also going to make a lot of people hesitate from buying from you. We've been down this road before and more often then not a scam is waiting at the end. So, why should we trust you?

Sometimes it is better to start slow, build trust, build a reputation of quality, etc and then ramp up products. It's easy to guesstimate a timeline and sometimes deliver, but if history repeats itself the first time you are a day late you'll likely be spending most of your time reading threats and insults via PMs and emails instead of getting anything done.
 
OP - please put your location in your signature. Thanks. ;)

H-Channel (MH/FF/I,robot/ROTJ) - you should PM Troy. I thought he had to give the sample piece back to the KLOV member and was thinking of doing it in metal. I would prefer it done in plastic like the original. I'm sure he'd rather have someone else do it so he can concentrate on all the other "metal" projects.

Other - if it's plastic, there might be a need. There was some talk regarding I,Robot CPs and FireFox CPs. I'd be in for one of each. :cool: I'd also like to see Atari Hall-Effect joystick plastics made. LOL

Another member is also looking into making vert/horiz Taito black plastic bezels.

There's lots of examples ... you just need to find the need and that need likely requires a good amount of interested parties to make it a reality. :001_ssuprised:
 
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