Acrylic Sheets Arrive

Got home yesterday to find a mystery package with a ton of bubble wrap left in our porch.

After unwrapping literally ten layers of wrapping I found my acrylic sheets.

Amazingly my measurements were correct and everything fits snuggly

Slow progress...!

Okay, so finished the other half of the control panel...

I also got the speakers wired up to a cheapo Amplifier from ebay and an old  PC subwoofer secured in the base  of the cabinet.

The marquee lights are now all wired up, although I need to fit a switch to flick between full lights and UV meter controlled lights, or I may just do away with the UV meter - I have a feeling it will be annoying :-)

I applied more filler to the counter sunk screw holes which were still visible.  To kill time while the filler dried I played a couple of games  of Sonic the Hedgehog, although this was obviously just a scientific exercise to test the joysticks etc :-) .  Have to say I'm please with the kit from UltraCabs.

I've also completed the bit I was fearing the most - cutting the T-Molding slot - with the cab on it's side I was very conscious of there the blade might end up if it dropped out of the Router!  Thankfully the job is complete and the family jewels are still in one piece!

Have ordered all acrylic sheets from sheetplastics.co.uk (funded by ebaying a Commodore 64), once they have arrived I can finalise the positions of the monitor, then speakers and start painting!

I've also listed more Commodore 64 stuff on ebay since I found out how much the vinyl art is going to cost :-(

Have been "umming and arring" as to the colour scheme for the cab so have come up with a couple of mock-ups - so far I'l thinking white drawer and kickplate?

Haven't done anything constructive in over a week as I've been ill with "Man-Flu", mostly just felt sorry for myself instead...

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Half a Control Panel

Having a taken a look around the different common control panel layouts (http://www.slagcoin.com/joystick/layout.html) and feeling confused and overwhelmed, here's what I have decided upon for layout;

Although I might be going against convention I've decided on a left hand and a right hand control since although I'm right handed I prefer joystick control either left or right depending on the game - For most commodore games I'm used to right hand control, whereas Sega and Nintendo joyspads had directional control on the left, so it's a kind of best of both worlds.

I measured out the positions on the MDF by re-creating the lines shown in the diagram with a ruler and pencil.  I pre-drilled the holes with  a small wood drill bit.  Using a 28mm spade bit and a borrowed drill I have so far cut six button holes and one joystick hole.  It's kind of pain in backside job which takes more time than you expect.  I called it a day for tonight as the battery on the drill was low anyhow.  Due to the thickness of the wood the joysticks are shortened by quite  a bit but it's easier to mount them neatly under the control than it is above the control panel.  If it becomes an issue I'll simply add joystick shaft extenders.



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Sanded and Primed (1st coat)

Sanded the cab this morning applied the first layer of primer
The lazy part of me is wondering how many sanding / priming sessions there are going to be...many of the filled in screw holes are still visible so more filler also required :-(

 

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More build pics

Progress has been slow lately due to decorating and the nights drawing in, meaning it's dark when I get home from work.

Having cut the speaker holes in the incorrect positions (spot it in pic), I had to re-cut again.  After the "fun" I had with the round saw piece I used the jigsaw.  They haven't turned out perfect but the plan is to hide the speakers with speaker cloth anyway.  I also decided on the re-cut to swap the speakers (bigger ones) and tweeters (smaller ones) around.

I've decided to use the botched speaker piece to hold fans at the back of the cab. 

An MDF sheet with a hole cut out of it holds the LCD in place. 

Screw in hooks are used for cable management.

Originally I was going to have a flip down hatch rather than a  drawer but it didn't work out so have gone back to the original plans.

Have used filler to fill the counter sunk screw holes, once dried will need to sand.


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T-Molding Ordered

T-Molding is a plastic strip which is used along the sides of the arcade cab for decoration (and to hide rough edges :-) )

I wasn't sure what colour to go for so ordered some samples from Arcade Word UK and a US site that I can't remember the name of (their samples were smaller, but free!)

In the end I decided blue would probably go with the Bubble Bobble theme the best.

The T-molding strips are backed with a jagged edge which fits into a slot in your wood, so in  order to prepare the MDF I need a slot cutter.  In a classic case of so called rip off Britain it was cheaper to order both the T-Molding and slot cutting router piece from the USA and pay shipping than it was to order from the UK.

Groovy Game Gear .com had the best price and seem highly recommended by cab builders so I've place my order with them.

Construction Begins!

When I originally cut the cab sides I had the intention of priming each piece of MDF before even thinking of piecing the cab together, however I changed my mind on this because;

• I'm impatient
• The plan's don't fit exactly (floor!)
• It will be easier/quicker to prime it all in one go

I bought 4 x 3 meters lengths of 4x4 pine to use as batons and have made a start now piecing things together.  The MDF screws from eBay turned out to be junk so have now gone with drywall screws from B&Q.  For each screw on an outside surface I pre-drilled and then used a counter sink tool to ensure that the head of screw will sit below the surface.  The idea is then to fill these holes and sand over them.

The surface of the mdf has several imperfections after being moved around, drilled and cut, I've decided to complete the actual build and then smooth these out.

I cut the speaker board using a rotary saw piece and found two things out;

• Make sure to drill in the hole you premarked if you want the holes to align (see pic :-( )
• Second hand drills people gift you can be dangerous

I have a few ideas to sort the misaligned speaker holes but will leave that for now.

I've also started to think about how I've go to mount the monitor.

Marquee Lighting / VU Meter

Decided to use the VU meter within the Marquee lighting after all and include a switch which reverts to plain old lighting when not playing music or whatever.

I cut up the cheaply made in china LED strips and hot-glued them onto an off cut of MDF from cutting the sides (the included adhesive backing was s**t).  After several cockups I'd snipped off the shipped LED's and using a soldering iron to wire the VU meter to the LED strips.  By dumb luck I had a 12V DC adapter sitting in the garage from an old USB scanner I've since binned, this was perfect for the job!  

Rather than paint the MDF beforehand (doh!) I had the idea of masking off the LED strips and then using some black spray paint from Poundland, anyway here is the result;

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MDF Arrives & Cutting Cab Sides

So the MDF finally arrived...the instructions for the courier said "knock loudly" which is not something I requested.  Hopefully Savoy timber request the same for all their customers and not just the ones who make a pain of themselves by constantly phoning to ask where their order is :-)

Seemed well packaged but the edges of the cut were a bit poor and needed sanding :-(

I began by drawing the outline of the cab on the sides and found out the measurements on the plan don't allow enough for the control panel front plus the drawer, so added a bit extra there.

Having drawn out the outline I used a borrowed jigsaw to begin cutting.  The straight cuts were pretty much a piece of cake but I struggled with the curves, the jigsaw wanted to carry on going...

Goggles and a mask were worn at all times!

Rather than cut one side and use that to "trace" the second I'd secured both side sheets together with clamps to make it one run of cuts.  Whether this then made it more difficult to cut the round edges due to the increased thickness I'm not sure.

Once cut, a palm sander was used to smooth the edges and the sides, wood primer suitable for MDF was then applied.

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