550-5038-01 (part 1)

 Well, I've started taking apart the playfield, and in the process, dealing with that broken part. Here, I'm going to detail what I've gotten up to trying to fix it.

Accurately Modeling The Part

In my pinball machine, there are two flippers at the bottom. Both of them have unique guides with unique part numbers:


It seems like the left and right side are mirrored images of each other. So, I took the mostly complete right side guide, and scanned it on my neighbor's scanner:


From here, I used the ruler scale the image in Fusion360 (cad software), and traced the outline of the part:


I was able to recreate a bunch of the dimensions in inches, and they are generally sensible numbers, like 1 1/12 inches, 1/4 inch, etc:


From here, I was able to extrude this object into a 3D shape, and get it ready for printing:


And I printed the part to test that it would work:


Everything lined up perfectly, and the part looks great!

Stay tuned for part 2 of this, when I try printing in clear plastic to allow light to pass through from the light bulbs.

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