this video is sponsored by LastPass oh
look at this wiring harness Mike this
isn't business more complex than a car
[Music]
today we're at the home pin Factory Mike
thank you for having us sorry welcome if
I understand correctly this is a really
unique factory for China is this the
only pinball machine factory in China we
are and in fact apart from a small place
in England that's made 10 machines
we're the only pinball machine factory
outside America well let's take a look I
want to I want to dive in and see what
you guys are doing
have a look underneath you sure we
released the lockdown bar okay we would
then normally slide the glass out yeah
we can then grab this and I'm on home
PIN machines gathers a mechanism
underneath here which we can show you
later
that traps the ball so that I fall out
well if you play field to about here and
they start to fall out and smash against
all the plastics and break beans and
that's not a good look no this is our
ball trough here which holds for this
particular game and it's got a flap here
and it's got a mechanism on the top that
tracks the ball so I can't get out
mostly what you can see under here our
lamp boards with LEDs on the other side
have illuminate various places on the
paper and all this control boards here
and here and flipper control boards on
the top yeah various other small boards
and you might notice something about
these boards they're all made with
through-hole parts it's done that way
because I'm firmly off the belief that
you should be able to repair your own
machine and on the subject of how many
lots of boards you said there lots of
boards that's in our our service manual
that comes with every machine is a list
of the printed circuit boards in in the
machine I know I haven't counted it but
it's it's 50 ish something like that you
can see exactly if we go to this one
here we know that switch 47 is the under
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sponsoring this video now back to the
pinball factory if we come over here
this is some new play field ready to be
assembled on the bench here if we turn
that wow that's a super cool jig Mike
you got it there and we can immediately
see the work you can see and they've got
their boxes of screws here all different
sizes and they can see which size screw
needs to go into which hole there's a
rivets there and there's also a printed
reference here which it's a little bit
easier to follow for some of them and
they can start the screw and then they
actually put a little bit of Loctite on
that and then fill it in and that's done
and so why China the cost of parts the
cost and availability of the skilled
labor to make guys to make plastic
tooling to to get all these bits and
pieces to bring it all together as yeah
it's cost-effective here it's not a
wages thing like some people seem to
think it's not it's not that it's not
it's not a building thing actually the
rental here is far more expensive that I
could rent an equivalent place in
Australia if you know we're talking
about how you're renting it's ridiculous
and this is this is the story that I
keep hearing from people doing
manufacturing in China it's not about
cheap labor anymore it's about access to
supply chain and access to skilled labor
and the laborer is skilled it's more
skilled and therefore it's more
expensive I don't know a ton about
pinball machines but I brought Stuart
with me who's behind the camera right
now you have a few machines back home
because I'm on my 30th birthday I
realized that I was old enough to go
ahead and buy long story short I bought
to the first time and then I filled a
light industrial unit it seems to me
like just the amount of different things
that go on in here it just makes it
super interesting so what's this machine
well that's a good question this is
actually a getaway that's a genuine
getaway Williams getaway it's a twenty
something year old machine so we had a
great deal of difficulty getting this
machine but we've got one and we built
the cabinet we just poured all the bits
and pieces the playfield and every
mechanism and all the boards and
everything for this machine this machine
serves as our test too
check these boards when we build them
that the boards actually work before we
ship them out its main purpose
originally was the Chinese staff have
never had any exposure to pinball
machine because pinball's never been big
in China the satisfying thing for me was
after I got it working and ironed out
most of the bugs the staff would stay
back after work playing this machine and
I was quite taken by that because they
got it you know people said Chinese
don't know what pinball is that's not
true they got it they understood it they
knew what was going on and they liked it
that's what's more important they liked
it because it was different but then
when we started to build Thunderbirds
they would come back and reference this
machine statement and I'd have to say
time and again no no no we are not
building this we're building our own
version of this and yes it is like this
but it is not exactly this so Mike where
is this where are we now don't run
dongwon and but what is that this is
your other factories the cabinet vector
and why do you have a separate factory
well the rules in Tianjin are changing
and we are no longer able to cut wood or
paint we've had to move all of that
activity mortar across the board exactly
three commas door-to-door that it smells
of wood and epoxy in here wood and
solvents
[Music]
yes oh these are beautiful you can see
they're made from 18 mil yeah why would
very high grade plywood and we glue and
screw the joints I've built this gantry
when we first moved in here for the
painting area and this will hold up to
nine cabinets basically what we do here
is and then we've been rolling into the
paint room yeah like so and paint away
in here we've got the standard water
curtain and vacuum that vacuums the air
out so that it draws all of the
overspray out I'm actually a little bit
surprised at how simple this site like
in terms of the machines that you have
you have like you know a standard table
saw sander belt sander I mean it's this
is a very very basic carpentry shop it's
just a botnet job it's just a box no it
can be a packing box it's just a simple
box it's a very accurately made thought
after within a millimeter or so we're
going into the electronics assembly room
now yeah this is where the girls put the
components into the boards mostly
through-hole as a few surface mount
pounds that we use and we've got Hong
here putting some resistors into
stuffing boards it's called late 20s
which are the Tracy Island control board
you're stuffing by hand obviously
because it's through-hole surely only
making very small quantities she's only
she's making like about 40 or 50 boards
there and then your hand sorry yes okay
which is super rare like you don't well
I think you guys are the only Chinese
factory that we team that's doing we
actually have sold about downstairs and
when we do a slightly bigger run if
we're going to make a hundred will use
the solar back but usually they do a
better job hand soldering at them sure
than this all about this is our Rd and
the general office area the bench in the
middle here's we've got a bit of
everything on it a jig here for checking
on power supplies as a power supply area
yeah so we've got a simple power supply
boards here yeah put onto this jig here
and we've checked them all and make sure
they're right here's a test bench here
where I'm working on an audio board here
at the same time as a main board
probably take your test switches here
laughs right
yeah well that works yeah and uh yeah
you can as mechanical here where
we if we have any problems mechanical
these have come up for for some minor
problem and they're here being adjusted
and we're working out if there's
something we need to change in the
mechanism or something maybe we've got
to address now further is tans bench
where he takes my drawings I generally
do the initial drawing and the concept
of things and he will use our laser
machines down and in the floor - to cut
some plastic parts on the laser machine
and build up the mechanism that I've
designed and he's drawn and we can then
see if it all is going to work if we
need to adjust something before we go to
the trouble of having laser cut metal
parts yeah
Tan does all the engineering drawings
and get some Rhydian and send some we
check for the laser factory and then
ready to go yeah sometimes even like
within a day or two we can we can go
from from this prototype here we can go
to having a metal finished one like like
like this one here yeah you know because
we can have a sample night so quickly
well it looks like you guys are having a
ton of fun here like I it just seems to
me as someone who loves to tinker like
oh man I wish I wish I had a place like
this yeah well we've got switch parts
here
yeah we've got top bumper parts here
low pop pamper yokes yeah there's all
sorts of metal part piece and turned
metal parts for flanges bottom of
plungers and making these now we have
these match these are CNC doubt so I was
a pinball machine technician for for
30-plus years in Australia and even with
that experience I still underestimated
just how much workers involved in making
each and every single part and and so
are you buying any parts off the shelf
from pinball parts maybe there is one
side and a machine only one part that we
bring in it seems like a lot of these
parts are custom made by us sort of
generic CNC yes sir whatever whatever
nice small Jenner most small or CNC
places just one man operations are
perfectly capable of making things like
this yeah this is a pin board this is
where we take the raw wire from our wire
rack here and turn it into a wiring
house or the start of a wiring harness
anyway this is engineered so that we
know exactly where each piece of yeah
where each plug has to end up and these
markers tell us which plug is what so
this all gets assembled on here you can
hang this on all the gift
it gets put onto here planet and it will
ya the labels are all shown and we're
doing this very roughly but they know
which plug has to go on the end of each
yell each one and by the way we spoke
about the one path that we buy in the
one one part that is an existing pinball
machine part yeah
can you spot it I think I'm gonna ask
Stuart that question time's up yeah time
is up
is it that's not that is it that kept
this kept why because we ran out of time
to make the mold ourselves basically and
they're available for about 80 cents
from a pinball seller we may make it in
the future but for 79 80 cents each it's
at the moment not worth our while we
just buy them a hundred at a time
there you go the one paper but
everything else is made here mate just
said that if we didn't play pinball we
wouldn't be allowed to leave I was
hoping we would get to play pinball
so Thunderbirds is a Mission Bay game
thunderbirds is actually International
Rescue they go about their business and
around the world risking the people so
basically we have six missions you have
to go on and one of those missions is FA
be around if a B is the car in
Thunderbirds but when we hit that target
if you feel the Machine you can feel the
sake of a pinion oh yeah oh yeah it's
kind of some good Rumble to it all of
these cartoons and things are all
related to Thunderbirds so people who
know Thunderbirds will appreciate the
effort that we've gone to to provide the
right work and the right d-md things
could it ever
okay in the mission and the FFA when
light comes on which shows we've
completed that that mission we've met
other missions as the Horde over here
the swinging target you can see anything
here
is the hot he's the bad guy in the
Thunderbirds and he's he's the guy
that's always ducking and weaving and
hiding and if you feel the Machine there
when we when we get this oh yeah okay so
you can like this won't show up on
camera but but you can sort of feel the
it's that's a deep Rumble it's a very
satisfying deep shake the next thing
that's unique to Thunderbird 2 with its
rim you hit point of a target underneath
and the ramp lowered slightly the same
as a thousand the Thunderbirds movie so
Mike we've been seeing how this is made
all afternoon I think it's finally time
for me to give it a shot and try and
play it here I can't believe you've held
off this look I've been it's it's been
taking a lot of a lot of motivation to
not just jump in and start playing how
do i how do i fire this up it's on free
play so press the flashing in the button
the ball shoots out all right no need to
be an expert it's for beginners as well
as seasoned players all right pretty
good at getting it up there getting up
the ramp that's pretty hot shot actually
oh okay this is pretty cool
Mike thank you so much for having us
today this is super cool you're welcome
I hope you had a good day absolutely
absolutely I enjoyed playing the machine
and I enjoyed getting to see all of the
nitty gritty about how it's made as well
as to hear your story of all of the
things that you've had to figure out in
order to do this and to do it here in
China it's really impressive I guess I
one of the things that I was really
amazed by is how many parts go into this
yes but not only how many parts but how
many of them you're making yourself so
where can people find out more about you
and your machines that's simple I can go
to home ping comm where there's plenty
of links to agents that will be in their
area regardless of where they are in the
world awesome go check it out we'll put
it in the description as well below if
you guys enjoyed this video and you want
to see more Factory videos like it hit
that subscribe button down below
but for now I'm Scotty from strange
parts stay tuned for more adventures
I'll see you guys next time
[Music]