Seven years ago (!) I did my original hammer mod for Metallica. Was limited to a set of 30, all hand made. I planned on making an unlimited cast version with a friend, and we just never made it happen. So that was it, just the 30, and I kept #1 for myself.

People still regularly ask me if I'll make more, and I've always said no, because I didn't want to re-do the process again, plus I'd need to change the design to keep the original limited.

The other night I got two more inquiries within hours of each other. Newer members saw my mod on a game for sale and wanted one, and I stopped to actually give it some thought.

It's been a while since I've done a mod, and I got the old itch to design something. Long story short I took a commission to design a new version, with the agreement that when it was done if I wanted to offer more I could, no exclusivity.

I challenged myself to up the quality of the original. My concept this time was instead of sculpting the 'wood' out of epoxy, could I build it using real wood?

Like the original there's a 3D printed core (this time in PETG to better withstand higher temperatures), still with hand-dyed leather and metal spikes, but now the outside body is built using laser-cut and etched hardwood (for this first one I used white oak), with a furniture-grade oil and wax protective finish.

The original top of the hammer has a skull with the edition number burned into it. I wanted to change that too, and after trying a bunch of designs settled on something that felt right. The coffin the balls appear in, with a lock and key set, each key with a 3 ring design to represent the 3 locked balls.

I made a few other engineering improvements with what I learned from the first design. For instance the spikes should be more secure now, I was able to use metal screws with a protective lip inside the hammer to protect the ball from contact, instead of the old plastic screws.

I'm really pleased with the outcome, I may need to make myself one and retire #1 of the original mod on my personal LE.

So here's the deal: I'm going to send the hammer to the man who commissioned it, he's paying $600 for it, and frankly got a deal because of how much work and time I sunk into it. Was a lot of fun though, no regrets if it stops here. That said ...

If anyone else want a ridiculous hand-built wooden hammer for their Metallica for $600 I will make you one. They'll be easier now that I've worked out the design, but still a custom, hand-built process.

Just shoot me a PM if you're interested. First come first served. I'll have to add extra to the price for international shipping, will cover it domestic.

I may try some more exotic hardwoods if I get the chance, was looking at Bolivian Rosewood, or Bubinga, probably just a matter of what I can source that looks cool. Might change the leather dye color some to make sure it matches the wood if I switch it up. Regardless, each one will be a unique piece, just due to the natural variations of wood, with the quality and attention to detail I'm known for. I have my own 3D printer and laser cutter, I'll do every step, nothing outsourced.

Regardless of if you want one or not hope you enjoy some pics. Thanks!

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The original #1 edition with the new version
Installed on my LE for context

Thanks man, it actually made me think about both you and Keith. Keith did the laser cutting on the leather on the original for me, said it smelled pretty bad. Now I've got my own laser and get to experience it in person.

tbh it's not as bad as I was expecting, heh.

The finished mod actually has a kind of lovely smell (it will fade over time) between the burnt oak and the oil and wax finish. I think I could probably bottle it as an International Man of Mystery cologne.

It's wild to think that it was 7 years ago.

Tell you the other legend who helped me with the original project, this guy named Scott Danesi (love you TheNoTrashCougar !) printed all the original shells for me. I was a real 3D printing noob then, the hammer armature was literally the first 3D model I ever designed from scratch. Scott had to explain some really basic stuff to me about, you know, not trying to print things out in empty air.

Now my 3D printer is humming along happily behind me as I type, starting two more shells for the first orders that came in.

Got a 50 watt OmTech CO2 laser in the garage with a 600x400mm cutting area, along with a CNC machine. I actually tried to CNC route out the slots in the wood slats that the leather sits inside of initially, but it was a real pain to setup and switch between machines, keep everything lined up, etc. Ended up just etching them out on the laser, was just easier.

This is what I always wanted though, immediate access to the tools to just be able to try things on my own, so I could fail and fix things without waiting on anyone else. I'll post some of the experiments I did later that didn't make the cut, so to speak. The 'hardest' part was actually the lid, I went through a lot of designs before I found something that felt like "the one".

Nah, you know me, always trying to keep busy with something, I'm happiest when I'm creating and problem solving. To be honest I was in a real creative funk a couple years ago, and now that I've clawed my way back from burnout I'm just grateful to follow any path that presents itself.

I haven't been as active in pinball lately, my arcade focus right now is on fighting games. Have more candy cabs than pins these days, and run a regular weekly gathering. A lot of Street Fighter.

But doing this hammer reminded me what a great playground pinball mods are. It's got me half tempted to try and get a new game just to find more things to build. I still have a half-finished Metallica mod from the pre-Alien days that I should dust off first if I'm in that kind of mood though!

Thanks Doug, hope you're well my friend. Miss seeing everyone.

Heh, understood. This isn't a time limited thing really. At some point I may put it on ice if I'm too busy with other projects to build any, but not setting any cutoffs or anything.

The best thing about 3D printing is the set-and-forget nature of things. Set these two to print before I went to bed last night, woke up to them ready. Got another one running behind me while I work, requires no babysitting.

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Opposite of the laser cutter, I never walk away from it while it's running. Too many horror stories. I've got an acquaintance who stepped out for just a minute while cutting acrylic cases for a project, the fire took out his whole machine and he was lucky not the rest of his shop with it.

Always good to respect the fact that you're cutting through solid material with a focused beam of light. It's a tiny bit hot.

Thanks to everyone who's put in orders so far, looking forward to being able to see several of these assembled next to each other before I send them out.

I'll post some more updates tomorrow for the people who've ordered to see the build progress, but today I cut the white oak for the next four builds, and now I'm getting all the pieces clean.

I mask everything with blue tape before I start cutting and etching, but this oak really kicks up a lot of resin when it burns, and some of it gets under the edges of the tape as the laser super heats things and the adhesive gets soft.

I like to give everything a pass with isopropyl alcohol and wipe off any sticky residue before it's time to put the oil and wax finish on.

I haven't cut the leather yet, you can see the slots etched into the wood so it sits nice and flush in the final build. That's the kind of thing that makes me really appreciate owning my own laser now. It took several rounds of test etches with various speeds and powers to find the right one to get the depth to match the leather. Would be really difficult to outsource that kind of thing.

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Someone messaged me last night to ask if I was going to number and limit these, like I did the first hammers.

The short answer is no. I honestly am pretty certain they're going to be much more limited than the first one, it's a pricey mod, only certain collectors are going to feel like paying for a crazy high end hammer.

But I don't want to cap it, because I'm tired of telling people "no" when they find out about something later and wish they could add it their game. That's what happened with the first one, and I don't want to repeat that. Just doesn't feel good.

That said, I get the desire for numbering, it's fun with a limited thing. So to compromise I'll be including a certificate with each one telling you the build number. Whipped some up last night, made a laser cut key to match the lid, because why not. There are 5 so far, if it doesn't go much higher then hey, cool. I'll track it, so you can always ask me what your number is out of X if you really care.

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All wood cleaned and finish applied, leather cut and dyed, starting assembly. Should have all four of these together by end of day and ready to ship. Which reminds me, need to order boxes and bubble wrap. Luckily Uline is local and gets things here next day.

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I'll post some more pics of finished hammers in a bit, been putting in spikes on and off all day. Advantage of working from home, can multitask at my desk. I'm putting off the last bit right now to type this lol.

So I had the advantage of starting from my existing design. I dug up my old CAD file from 7 years ago and while I ended up redrawing every aspect of it from scratch—and improving the design in several ways based on my experience with the last one and the fact that I'm not a 3D noob anymore—it saved a lot of time because I didn't have to measure anything. I knew what worked, how to attach the hammer to the game, what safely covers the ball etc.

I printed several versions as I worked out how the wood would function, about 3 hours per print on draft mode. The final designs are closer to 4 hours because I'm upping the quality for them. So it was tinker in CAD, print, figure out what was working, adjust, set another print and go to bed. Wake up to new model, try it.

Once I had something pretty final I started working up the wood forms, but first I started in chipboard. It's roughly the same thickness, but is really cheap, made from paper pulp. Great prototype material so you can just try stuff without literally burning through expensive wood. A sheet is a couple bucks, instead of $20-30 for a little piece of exotic hardwood. I happen to have a pic of the chipboard after being cut:

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You can see the 3D printed hammer in the background was still round then. Eventually it became a decagon to better support the wood.

After that I moved to plywood, again cheaper, but this time real wood. That's when I started experimenting with CNCing in the slot for the leather. I have a few pics of that too actually. First here's cutting the relief in with an ⅛" bit on the CNC:

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And then I moved it to the laser to cut the final shapes with more detail:

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Eh. It wasn't great. And it was a pain to set up the CNC, cut, move to the laser, try and align things, be off slightly and be annoyed, etc.

So I moved to using the laser to etch the relief in, and that point I had to move to the real wood, so I can accurately measure the depth of different speed/power combinations. I did around 6 tests, and I think if I'm remembering right it's 200mm/sec at 50% power to do them.

Anyways, you're starting to get the point I think, a lot of experimenting, trying things, retrying things. I basically spent most of a week working on it, sometimes in longer hours, sometimes here and there, or waiting for a new 3D print etc.

Oh, I'll make this as separate post, but I spent a long time trying to get the lid design right. That was just me being picky, and wanting something that felt right. I did plenty of designs that looked good, but just didn't click.

I did several variations of trying to make a Death Magnetic design, that's where the coffin shape for the final one came from. I tried making them 3D, with the smaller coffin inside, down a level. And it looked really cool, as a stand alone design. But kind of weird on top of the hammer itself.

The depth that made it neat just didn't feel right, you don't want something making your big beefy hammer feel hollow somehow I think?

So, in a last attempt to save the design I tried filling the lower coffin area with resin. Yeah. Uh, it didn't go well:

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But, one of the designs found the spider-web, which worked really well with the radiating spikes. And I still liked the coffin, because the hammer locks the balls in the coffin. I tried a spider on the web and rejected it, not on theme, the coffin was right.

After that it was just a matter of playing around with sketches until the keys and lock became the right look. It all felt right. Sort of a secret society deal (I realized later that I think I was subconsciously influenced by watching Doom Patrol, if you've seen it, the Department of Normalcy has a key badge in a similar feel, wasn't intentional though at the time).

You can see more lid designs, including the Death Magnetic ones before the resin failure in this photo:

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Anyways, that's the process. Gonna finish these spikes and post final hammer pics. And then, I just got a special request order I'm excited to work out, so I'll have some pics of a different looking design coming once I try it out.

Okay, first five finished. As I just told one of the buyers, but will repeat for the others here, I've got boxes and bubblewrap coming tomorrow, will probably get these shipped out on Thursday.

Going to work on the special request design tomorrow, so I'll post pics of that progress then, because it's fun to share.

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Had a request for a 'black' hammer build. The exact words were "More darker the better".

This is cut from wenge, which is African hardwood with a rep for being a bit difficult to work with. It blunts tool edges, and the splinters apparently get infected easily. Pretty metal wood.

Can't blunt the edge of a laser beam, but it was a little tricky to work with still. Had to recut one piece. Overall not too bad though.

Once finish is applied it darkens more, not quite an ebony, but about as black as I would go without losing all the detail. As it is the contrast for the etched lines is lower, but it's still a cool look. A little dark for my tastes, but I think it fills the request nicely!

As per the request I also dyed the leather darker. I think this look would also be interesting keeping the leather raw and light with more contrast.

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Since there was interest in the process for these I documented some of making this one, including shooting some video of the laser cutting. I'll try and find time to upload that later.

Thanks! I haven't had a chance to get the other process photos and video together, will post more later. Decided to spend time packing boxes instead.

All orders will go out tomorrow. Last one I had backed out for now, and that's fine, I only got as far as printing the 3D armature. Anyone wants one at any point I'll just keep making them to order if that happens.

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Thanks! I've got this Metallica mod I started in 2015 that I never finished. Some people know about it, a couple Pinsiders even saw prototypes back in the day, and then I started on Alien and kinda never finished it. Hit burnout in various ways after that, and it just got abandoned.

I'm feeling like maybe I need to finish it, and it's not LE or Prem specific this time, so we'll see how that goes. If nothing else, uh, I gotta make some things to use up this roll of bubble wrap, it was the smallest I could order for the hammers.

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You'll see how many layers I wrapped it in shortly, just got back from dropping them all off. If you're paying this much for a mod you'd hope the guy sending it would pack it well!

Thanks! I just got an order from someone who doesn't even own a Metallica, and wants my hammer just to have it. I won't out his name, but that's pretty serious support and appreciation, and I appreciate him back. Definitely don't expect anyone else to do that!

Also, I haven't forgotten about posting that other process stuff just haven't had time to deal with uploading the video, I'll get to it. Traveling this weekend to see family so maybe after that.

It's been both fun and funny to watch the mod game change over the years. When I first got started it was still sort of a random side thing people did for fun, make a little side cash you put back into games, but it wasn't really a big hustle.

I was talking to Chris from ColorDMD back when they only had a couple titles and were new, and I had just started selling my Shadow translite. No idea how long ago this was, 8 years?

I asked him how they gauged "success" for a color title. He told me the benchmark was Bill Ung's AFM saucer mod, one of the granddaddies of the truly original mods. I won't share the number sold, not really mine to say, but I did eventually pass it with The Shadow, and never expect to pass it again with anything I do, heh.

Now you get threads the day a game is announced with people talking about their mod plans, and writing about "their teams" that are working on stuff. More power to them, not judging. But it's definitely a hustle now. People planning mods based on reveal videos before they've even flipped the game. A lot of 3D printing, which is really neat to me honestly, but, sometimes more neat than others.

Again, no judgement, but you know how we talk how how Stern has to keep the line running? Some mods feel like that to me now, you make them because you gotta keep pumping product, not because your heart was really in it.

I just make things when I feel inspired by an idea and it seems fun. I know this is a stupidly expensive mod, and I won't sell many, but it was the way I wanted to make it, and it's too time consuming to even want to make a ton of them.

Doesn't have to be for a game I own, but that sure makes it easier to feel inspired, and more importantly be able to really make the quality be there.

I haven't bought a new game in a while, but I'll be honest, if I did it would at least partially be because I had some idea I wanted to try on it. Prices are insane, but I guess that's not a real barrier if I flip my Tron for something.

Please do, I would love to see people's install photos.

Toppers are interesting in that they're really open-ended, can do whatever you want, but I dunno. I've never been a huge topper person, so never really grabbed me. I thought about making my Metallica a topper using my extra Sparky once, but never did it.

I tend to like taking something that I don't feel represents the game as well as it could, or has some kind of issue, and upgrading it somehow. That's satisfying.

BTW - It's super unimportant, nobody but me even knows the order in which these are built and ordered, but I am tracking it. Every build is filed with its certificate, and I did my best to mail them out in the order they were bought. Making 7 and 8 now, and 7 will be set aside for the man who doesn't own a Metallica and still wants the hammer.

Just feels like the right way to do it.

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Hammers 7 & 8 shipped out this morning, I'm caught up.

I'm traveling this afternoon, flying up to The Bay for a visit with family, be back Monday. I'll keep an eye on things if anyone has questions or PMs, but might be slower to respond than usual, just a heads up.

Just my iPhone X, nothing fancy. I shot the beauty shots on my front porch with indirect sunlight over a piece of black mat board. Some minimal processing just using the phone controls.

Thanks for posting those photos though! I’m traveling this weekend and was trying to explain the project to my brother and sister in law and it was so helpful to have the comparison shots with the stock hammer.

Easy to install?

Have a couple more orders I’ll start on Monday. Should have a delivery of more white oak waiting for me when I get home.

The shaft is threaded, so technically the nut is just there for extra security I think? I know my shaft is threaded.

In theory there should be no problem deleting the nut. I ran my screw from the other side, with the nut on the right, I think it’s more hidden that way. So honestly I never think about it.

But I can look at the threading on that screw to see if there’s a way to replace it with a shorter one. I’ll put it on my list, still traveling so don’t have machine access right now.

Sweet! I always love seeing photos, but also feel relieved when my boxes all arrive safely lol.

Agreed, square block was one of those ideas that didn’t work like it was supposed to, normal newton ball is better.

If you look at this photo carefully you can see my tech:

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Best pic I have handy. But I ditched the block and went with a ceramic TZ ball for my captive ball. This prevents any nonsense with magnets, but also just looks cool.