Pinball fan uses 3D printed parts to customize pinball machines

3Ders.org recently featured Mezel Mods in an article about 3D printing. Here is an excerpt from the original which can be found here.

Just two decades ago, you could not go anywhere without being confronted by a pinball machine. Though they have been partly pushed out of sight by digital technology, the world of pinball is still very much alive among a small group of dedicated fans and collectors. And as Tim Mezel shows, they do not spurn modern technologies, but embrace them. In late 2013, Mezel founded Mezel Mods together with his wife Kristin, and they have become a huge hit selling custom-made 3D printed modifications for pinball machines that are no longer being manufactured.

Mezel Mods is a fantastic business that shows exactly what can be achieved if you combine your passions with modern making technologies. After being infected with a love for pinball while working for Intel, Mezel began collecting pinball machines and was confronted with the same problems as the rest of the community. Right now there’s only one pinball manufacturer left in the world, a company called Stern, while many existing machines from a few decades ago are no longer supported by anyone. So if a machine is incomplete, or part of the playing field breaks down, you have a problem.