EDUCATIONAL PROGRAMS

• ELECTRONICS LAB
• Painting, Stenciling & Silk screening
• Woodworking & Construction
• Restoration

Classes are open to youth and adults (ages 15 and up). Students pay a nominal fee to help offset the cost of materials, tools and overhead. Grants, contributions and corporate sponsorships, combined with income from our Museum Shop and Pay-to-Play Area allow us to provide scholarships to low-income youth from the Greater Washington Area to participate in our educational programs.

Education Program participants will be able to use the training they receive at NPM as the foundation for careers as artists, electricians, technicians, carpenters or other skilled tradesmen, or as computer technicians, pinball repair technicians or restoration specialists. Our classes will give many of our students their first real opportunity to change their lives by preparing them for high-demand, high-paying careers.

Interested in registering for or receiving more information about a particular class? Click here.

ELECTRONICS LAB

We’ll be teaching it all, from the earliest, simplest wiring of vintage machines all the way to the most modern boasting circuit boards, EPROM chips, digitized sound, music, and dot matrix animations.

Our classes are all organized by both topic and average student age so the material will be appropriate and engaging.

Every class will include at least one hands-on session where students are able to apply their knowledge to practice by wiring circuits, programming displays, or performing some other electronics-related task.

And while we can’t call ourselves an electronics school, we intend to pass along enough information to assist you should you desire to seek work in a related field.

Painting, Stenciling & Silk screening

If mechanics are the backbone of a Pinball game, then color is its skin; lots of color; bright, interacting and overlapping colors that draw each player into the game-play arena by creating a space filled with the illusion of depth and action.

As far back as the early games of the 1920’s and 30’s, color has been a key ingredient in attracting the casual and committed alike. We’ll teach you all about the latest automated methods of creating art on cabinets, playfields, and back-glasses. But we’re also going to give you the knowledge and skills to tackle a the hands-on world of restoration…..of bringing an older machine back to its former glory.

WHAT YOU'LL LEARN:

• Color theory in ways that make sense and are easy to follow and apply.
• Techniques for direct painting.
• How to design, cut, and paint with stencils.
• The process of making and screening designs on glass.
• Preservation techniques for all types of media.

The techniques and theory taught in these classroom/workshops can expand a young mind to investigate many other art-based avenues of study and work in the professional world.

Woodworking & Construction

From the very beginning of Pinball to the present, the material of choice for every cabinet is still wood.

In this very hands-on course you’ll not only learn the techniques of construction, you’ll build a box yourself.

What you'll Learn

• Joinery techniques like dove-tailing and dado.
• Routing and gluing, laminating and drying, drilling, cutting, screwing, gluing, clamping, everything you need to know
• Which techniques work better that others, and why.
• The strengths and weaknesses of wood: how it moves, warps and twists.

Restoration

Bringing something back from the brink of destruction is a really rewarding endeavor.

A pinball machine is no exception. As with all our other classes, learning the process is part of the fun, excitement and education.

We teach restoration in logical stages, separating like projects in groups such as woodwork, metal work, electric, mechanical, etc.

What you'll Learn

• Cabinet restoration using such techniques as fillers, pegs, clamping and banding.
• Painting, lacquering, and sealing.
• Valuable instructions and insights into restoring silk-screened art, creating stencils and screens, and taping off and spraying cabinets.
• Electro-mechanical restoration, including cleaning, polishing, wiring and rewiring.
• How to diagnose and change solenoids, bells, flipper coils, pop-bumper bodies and all the rest.