My basic foldaway pincab

[benge]

First of all, I want to thank everyone who makes this hobby possible. You are all geniuses in my book. Thankyou.

I got into this hobby by accident back during the first lockdown. That is when I took on the challenge to build my own virtual pinball cab. I was not sure I would be able to understand all the software steps and hurdles I would come across. I built my cab in about 2 days with the basic of tools. The virtual pinball side of things took me about 3 months to get it the way I wanted. But thanx to the fantastic pinball community I got there. The first 2 pictures show my cab when I first built it. I have a small mancave with full size slate pool/dining table, darts, jukebox and 8ft wall mounted motorised projection screen for all the live sports. I mention these because I realised a while back that the pinball cab was taking up too much space. If I wanted to play pool then the cab had to be moved out of the mancave. Well a while back I decided to try and make a fold away cab. I cannibalised the original cab last week and ended up with what you see in the photos. I use a 40" 4k tv for playfield, 22" monitor for backglass and a 19" Marquee monitor for DMD. Because the playfield screen is 40" that dictates the height I had to attach it to the wall. I know you purists out there won`t like the angle of the playfield, but I can live with it as I play purely for fun. The legs fold underneath the cab when folded away. I did everything on the hoof, no plans, just made it up as I went along. Yeah, I know you can tell.😂

 

Thankyou again everyone contributes to this brilliant community.

benge.

[MauiPunter]

That's really cool!  Very smart.

[divetravis]

Hi Benge: Looks great to me👍👍 I built a similar machine that folds down and rolls away. I certainly understand the problem of getting the playfield height correct, I used a 32" display and due to my rolling cabinet it was tricky. I assume your pc is inside the bottom cabinet, that is how I did mine. Have you had any issues with heat dissipation? The temperature inside my cabinet was climbing enough for the fan to kick in so I ended up putting in a intake fan.  I will attach a picture of my build.

[benge]

Sorry for late reply. I`ve been away all week with the grandkids. Your build is a more superior build than mine. Very impressed. Yeah my pc is in the little box on the wall, it has a fan drawing in cold air and there is an open end on the left hand side. So no problems yet getting the warm air out. I need to find a way of "locking" the legs in place when I am playing the table. At the minute one kick of those legs and the table will drop like a wrecking ball. They fold under no problem as they are attached by hinges. I`ve seen lockable hinges but when the table is folded away the cabinet would stick out from the wall at a silly angle. I`ll keep googling for a solution.

[IneptHenchman]

I love the cabinet and this is exactly they type of cab  I was looking at making for my small man cave!
I was curious on how you’ve been liking the angle of the playfield monitor? I’m in the same situation where I could end up with a 10 inch height difference between the back and front end. I’m thinking it will be fine for myself (not a purist) but wanted to see how you’ve been liking it?

 

[divetravis]

Hi IneptHenchman: From the front of the cabinet to the back of the monitor is about 6 inches in difference so the angle is not very great. My challenge was getting the front of the machine to sit about the same height as a normal machine and still be able to swing the machine down into the cabinet so I could roll it away. I don't remember the height of a normal machine but mine is right at 37 Inches. The height has always been fine. I recessed the monitor down enough to allow me to cut channels for a glass but I have never installed one. If I had that to do over I would sit the monitor closer to the top of the cabinet giving me another inch inside the cabinet for stuff😁.

 

The machine is played almost every day by my wife. She loves to play in the WOVP weekly challenge. I play way less than her. I really enjoy the building process along with  the maintenance and configuration of the games. Her playing in the weekly challenge allows me to keep my installation skills up. Oh, by the way, these days we play almost exclusively in VR. Knowing what I know now I am not sure I would even build a three screen cabinet, I might just build a stubby cabinet for VR. VR is incredible, not simply a bit better, far better. However, for friends or family a cabinet would be the way to go. 

 

Best of luck to you on your build!!!

 

Larry

[barneyrfd]

Hello, don't know if the thread is still alive but...I was searching for a fold down option for a virtual pinball build that would fit in a small bedroom and came across your build which looks great and looks just like what I am looking for.   I pretty much have an idea how the build works and I know there is quite abit of geometry calculation and tongue twisting needed to get the playfield in just the right spot but can you tell me what you used for the playfield hinge/rotating element.  I looked at lazy susan swivel plate but that is problematic to attach so I'm thinking something similar to a round rod into a supporting cup...??

 

Thanks.

[divetravis]

Hi Barneyrfd: I also thought about a lazy susan type of attachment but ultimately used a round rod going into a U shaped wooden block that I built. Works really well but you do need to be a bit careful with the opening so that when the table rotates down the rod doesn't want to fall out. The other advantage to this is it makes lifting the monitor out really easy. I would send you pictures but I am on the road and will not have access to my cabinet for a few weeks.

[barneyrfd]

Thanks for the reply divetravis, your solution is the one I have used for lifting my monitor in my current cabinet build and what I concluded would be best for the foldaway build as well, it is fairly simple and does the trick well.  Just have to figure out that pesky geometry.  Again, you really did a nice job with your foldaway, it is an elegant solution for those that want a full setup in a small space thanks for sharing.  

Edited April 21 by barneyrfd