The Playfield, Initial Attempts..

What we have here is playfield built wrong.  It is not because it lacks parts, or does not have all the features you want it to have.  It is wrong because it is too thick!  My research has led me astray.  I used your standard 3/4 inch plywood to build the cabinet including my prototype / test playfield.  After I put those pop bumpers on and they did not work consistently, I investigated.

Bad Playfield!  The playfield is too thick for pinball components.

The pop bumpers under the playfield.

The photo above shows the three pop bumpers under the playfield.  The pop bumper is triggered when the pinball hits the pop bumper skirt.  The skirt has a pendulum that sticks down below the playfield and can be moved from its centre resting point to a point on the circumfrence of a circle.  The circle's size depends on the angle that the pendulum is actuated to.  There is a leaf switch with a saucer.  Then the pendulum swings out, the switch is closed and the pop bumper is triggered.  My problem was that the hole for the pendulum was too small and could not be made larger.  The small diameter and long length of the bore restricted the movement of the pendulum.  This inturn caused the switch not to be closed.  

I researched the playfield again.  It turns out, all the playfield machinery is made for a half inch thick plywood playfield. Ah, more money out the door.

The new thinner playfield with paper to help design the shape of the playfield.

Now that I had my thinner wood, I cut out a new playfield.  This time, I used paper to draw out shapes I wanted to put on my playfield.  I thought about using sheet metal but that would have been a pain to cut and bend.  So I opted for using my jigsaw and my extra 3/4 plywood.  I then stenciled the shapes I wanted on paper placed on the playfield, then cut out those shapes with sissors.  I then outlined those shapes on the plywood I was going to cut them out from.  I attached a few playfield parts and.... I get a test playfield.

New and Improved Test Playfield

 This playfield is not bad.  The drop targets on the b ottom left are too far down the playfield so they are difficult to hit.  Other than that, it is not too bad.  It is enough to have something to hook up all the circuits to and be able to test them for functionality.