Hey Guys,
So with the excitement of the new router table, Nick and I thought up our first project for it, A Rolling Pinball Box. I’ve already drawn up one design, but it isn’t all that impressive. I think as a group we can do better than my one person effort.
Requirements:
The box with rollers installed needs to fit in an area of 17" W x 20" T x 42" D (the area under a pinball machine).
The box needs to be cut from no more than 1 sheet of 1/2 inch thick plywood.
Try to keep tool changes to a minimum, preferably no more than one tool change.
Keep assembly easy, I don’t want to have to build a jig to put together the box, unless it is awesome.
Here is my original design:
A special feature of my design is that a 2 by 4 could be put under the front and back edge of the box to make a better mounting point for rollers.
I would leave out the bows on the edges where the slots for the tabs are and just use 3 sided slots instead of 4 sided slots (think finger joints). The bowed edges would just stick out and wouldn’t be terribly strong.
I kind of like the bowing out on the front panel as an aesthetic decisions. But, removing it from the back and bottom, would be an improvement. If I removed the bowing completely I think I could gain an inch in the width of the box.
So, gain an inch and become even more simple of a look, or keep the kind of funky not square front? I’ll have to ponder this.
Any suggestions on how to make the box a bit cooler looking without getting rid of function?
I’m considering changing the side to slats instead of a solid piece, I think with the saving in material I might be able to get 2 boxes out of a single 4’ x 8’ sheet of ply. An alternative idea is to route out a cool pattern in the side to make the box look cooler, but not improve material use.
If you want to make it look more stylized or fancy, you could do some texturing with the router and enroute - like carve a wave pattern into the sides. Something like this:
