DIY-Not's Attempt to Build an Arcade Cabinet: October 2014

Saturday 25 October 2014

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.

Sunday 19 October 2014

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;

Don't forget to subscribe & comment!

Tuesday 14 October 2014

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.

Don't forget to subscribe & comment!


		.

Friday 10 October 2014

MDF on the way (finally!)

My order of MDF sheets has (finally) been dispatched from Savoy Timber, should be with me Monday, need to borrow a JigSaw now...

Sunday 5 October 2014

Joystick Testing

The goodies from Ultracabs arrived yesterday (Sat) so spent a bit of time playing around (testing, ahem) to make sure that everything works. Once I had the correct wires connect to the correct switches everything was good. Made use of an old box to experiment with layout, think I prefer joystick on the right, might build the can with one left, one right...the glass of red wine is for medicinal purposes of course.

The other bits and bobs like the keyboard, LED strip and wheels also turned up, just need the flippin' MDF to show up now!

Don't forget to subscribe & comment!

Friday 3 October 2014

Latest Parts Order

Last night placed yet more orders for bits and bobs;

LED's

Ordered a 3M strip of LED's, to be used for lighting up the Marquee (probably not going to bother using the VU meter to control these, just have them static).

I paid £5.89 for a 3M strip, these can be cut down to shorter lengths and then joined by wires when it comes to powering them.

Wires

Second purchase was some wires which will be used for the lighting, the power button to the PC and probably some cooling fans. This was £3.33 for 4 strand ribbon, 10M length.

Where's my MDF?

Emails have been back and forth this week between myself and SavoyTimber who are supposed to by supplying me with the MDF. I was told the MDF would be delivered today at quite short notice, when I got home there was no MDF and no calling card from a courier either. Perhaps it will turn up tomorrow :-S

Don't forget to subscribe & comment!

Thursday 2 October 2014

More Kit Ordered!

Joysticks, Buttons and USB Controller

Have been unsure what colour buttons and joysticks to get to go with my Bobble Bubble theme, had thought of blue for one player and green for the other but most suppliers I could find of the Happ style buttons couldn't colour match the Joysticks, and I'm fussy like that :-)

In the end decided upon white for everything. Next decision was whether to get normal buttons or illuminated LED ones. In the end thought that LED one's would look cool for about five minutes and then get distracting / annoying when playing games (which is the whole point of this project!).

Checked out a few suppliers and Arcade World UK came highly recommended but when it came down to it Ultra Cabs came in about £15 cheaper. May not be the same level of quality but hopefully will be good enough for my purposes.

For £43.99 they are supplying;

2 x White Ball Top Joystick

16 x White buttons

1 x Player 1 button in white

1 x Player 2 button in white

1 x USB adapter with cables