Building a Pinball Cabinet

Step 3: Wiring

Quick Nav: Intro - Research - Cutting Wood - Assembling - Wiring - Done
 

Wiring up the Buttons
 

The first thing I did was wire up the button lights to the 5v power on the terminal blocks. I wired them up in parallel so that if the cabinet power is on, the lights will all be lit.
 

I placed one of these terminal blocks between my buttons and the controller:


 

I cut several wires and crimped these connectors to each end of the wire:

Button end ---><--- Terminal block end.
 

No soldering required! Just a wire stripper, crimping tool, and screwdriver.
 

This is how it looks with the power on:
 

Next, I wired up the actual buttons. I wish I had more different colored wires, but I had to make do with the spools of green and black that I had. I used black for common/ground and green for everything else.
 

Installing the Glass
 

I picked up my tempered glass from the glass shop--looks great! I also picked up my side rails from Home Depot on my way home from work today.
 

It was a perfect fit! I put the glass on my cabinet and attached the side rails to the cabinet. When you remove the lockbar, you can slip the glass off the table.
 

Just a couple of things to remember when mounting the side rails: (1) Locate the screws low on the side rail itself to give them more wood to grab onto. (2) Don't rest the rails on the glass when mounting them to the cabinet. You'll want to leave yourself a little space between the side rail and glass top. I used a piece of cardboard from a notepad as a spacer. This will allow the glass to move freely when you remove the lockdown bar. Otherwise, the glass will scratch against the side rail while you're trying to remove it--major pain!
 

 
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