The Modern Firepower Pinball Project - Playfield Support Rails

Progress on the cabinet is coming along nicely.  Time to make sure everything fits correctly and install the playfield support rails inside the cabinet.

Test fit of all cabinet hardware.Time to install the playfield support rails.

My garage isn't level, so using the leg levelers, I adjusted the cabinet bottom to the correct 3.5 degree slope.

I installed the test playfield, and first checked side to side levelness.  0.1 degrees is pretty close to perfect. 

6.5 degrees on the playfield is the perfect slope.

The test playfield made the ultimate sacrifice.  With a gaping hole in the middle, I'm able to draw pencil lines inside the cabinet along the bottom edge of the playfield.  My support rails will be installed against the pencil lines. .

Note, in the pictures above the test playfield is being supported by the metal brackets at the bottom (not shown) and the strip of wood you see running across the hole in the playfield.  That strip of wood is just slightly bigger than the inside width of the cabinet, so I can wedge it in place to support the playfield.  I used a hammer to tap it up and down to get the desired 6.5 degrees

The support rails are installed with glue, clamps, and another piece of wood wedged between them as a clamp. 

In the picture above, the rail on the left has two partial cuts through it.  After the glue has set, I will finish the cuts, which will let that piece fall out creating a gap for one of the eject holes on the playfield.  By leaving the pieces connected during installation, I was ensured accurate alignment.  I had to remember not to put any glue on that section.