BLACKOUT: April 01, 2006, 10:27:04 AM

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Apr 012006
 

A few weeks ago I got a call that my grandfather passed away.
I gave up the build progress for a couple of weeks (for good reason).
Death puts a weird spin on everything. Actually I had no real interest in working on this thing at all when I got back. It has taken me about a week to force myself to get back into the swing of things (I have a tendency to let a project go cold if I do not keep up the momentum).

I started my CP. It is going to be 32 in wide and 12 in deep. I decided that I wanted to put t-molding on the rails, so I put the sides on the sides rather than on the centered inside of the front and rear boards. I wanted a slight slope towards the player. There is a 1 in drop from the back to the front. It is a comfortable angle.

I wanted my CP top to only be 5/8 in. thick sp that when I put the plexi glass on top, the t-molding would cover the seem between the board and the plexi. I can not find any anywhere around here, and believe me I have checked a lot of places. So, seeing that I have been doing quite well with the router, I decided to take a go at routing my CP top down to 5/8.

I think that this picture shows my true realization that routing the 3/4 down to 5/8 is a bad idea. Well perhaps not a bad idea, but it’s not a good idea. So the next idea was to glue a 1/8 in piece of hard board to a 1/2 in piece of MDF. This also is a bad (not a good) idea as the hard board has too much flex and will not lay down flat. I put a half a ton of glue down on the hardboard as it had a texture and I wanted to fill in all the little divots. I brushed it so the glue would be even. I put the MDF board down on the hard board. I noticed very quickly that the edges of the hard board would not lay down. I grabbed every heavy object I could find in the garage. This made the problem worse as now it warped all over the place. Oh well.

Reluctantly I gave in a decided to build my CP top out of 3/4 in MDF. This really hoses my idea of using plexi on top of my CP. I am going to use GGG Electric blue t molding. It would look dumb to have the CP top in black as that seems to be the only color you can get 13/16 t-molding.

I had another thought (yes it hurt). I could sand a slight bevel from the edge all the way around and still use 3/4 in t-molding. Being that it is under the CP, you would not see it. The picture is not all that great as I had to use my phone camera – Palm 700p. (My wife has the good one and she is in Peru right now.) The top tapers in by 1 inch on each side.

I have been playing around with how I want to paint on this thing. I want the sides to be consistent with the CP top. Just for grins I took the CP top design and threw it on the sides in a rough mock up in Photoshop just to see if I like it. I LOVE it. I think that I will need to scale a few things differently. I will leave out the side bracket and squish the circle thing so it is horizontally longer and vertically thinner. I think that this thing will rock if I can pull off that paint job. I will need to make a stencil but it is not very difficult as far as shapes n such.

BLACKOUT: March 11, 2006, 04:22:11 PM

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Mar 112006
 

I took a break from the auction games and decided to work on my cab. It is a beautiful day. Perfect temperature, lotsa sun, and more so…dry. I got a coin door at a somewhat local arcade / pinball shop. I saw that he was using a half of an old Dynamo cabinet as a TV stand. I asked about the coin door. The guy said that if I pulled myself it, I could have it for $15. It was a pain in the butt to get it out as there was no way to open the back and I could not see what I was doing at all. After a lot of trying, I finally got it out. $15 for a over under. That is an awesome deal.

Today I installed the key lock for the back door of the cab. I drilled out the initial hole, then routed the rest. Routing at a 90 degree angle is no fun. Looking back, I should have taken the door off and then routed out the lock hole. But it went fine. The hardest part was figuring out the little gizmo on the lock that determines which direction it turns. Then I routed out the hold for the coin door. This was pretty darn easy.

 

BLACKOUT: February 23, 2006 10:38pm

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Feb 232006
 

I went to the arcade auction. It was a lot of fun. There was so much to see and play. I came home with a few games. Plus Neal, who went with me, needed to store his games at my place for a little while. Oh darn. So, in my garage I have…
Centipede x 2
Multicade 39 game
ThunderBlade
RoadBlasters
Leathal Enforcers
Air Hockey (Big Sucker, too!!!)

BLACKOUT: February 23, 2006, 08:19:59 AM

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Feb 232006
 

After some sleep, some deep thought, and a tasty sandwich, I decided that I really don’t want to saw off the monitor brace. I will only if I have to. It would kill any resale value if I ever decided to upgrade to a larger size monitor and go horizontal. I am going to halt progress for a couple of days to really re-think the set up. I am also going to an arcade auction this weekend, so I am going to look at a bunch of machines and get more ideas.

BLACKOUT: February 22, 2006, 10:43:22 PM

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Feb 222006
 

I put the monitor in to test the placement and angle. It looks great. So far the brace is quite firm and seems very secure. I am still a little nervous as that is a $180 monitor on a $17 brace. Two steps forward and one step back. I was running around measuring the bottom and top to make sure it was all centered. Then I went to shut the door and… um… the door wont shut!

I took into account for the depth of the monitor all the way back to the end of the stem. I did not take into consideration… The dang monitor bracket!!! The darn thing sticks 3/4 in. outside the back of the cab. I am totally befuddled!

So it looks like I will be looking at a steeper angle. CRAP! I really wanted a laid back monitor. I can not really lift it up any more at the top because I need room for the speaker shelf. So if I lower the bottom, I am worried that it will be hard to look at as the monitor will be a very low vert monitor. I was too frustrated to really give it a look any more tonight. I will look at it again tomorrow.

BLACKOUT: February 21, 2006, 10:09:17 AM

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Feb 212006
 

Ok, well it turned out to be 5 holes, but again, wood putty is your friend. I initially did not take the control panel into consideration. Last night, when I was just on the edge of sleep, I shot wide awake with the realization that I was just looking at the frame through the place the CP would eventually be. I thought I had plenty of space when in fact I was eating into the space where the CP would be. Trying to be too safe, I had only made one pilot hole just to get an idea of height and look, so I did not see this coming.

So, this morning I used a clamp attached to the back of the cabinet to adjust the height for the top of the brace. This way I could adjust and go and look in front, from a little distance, without hands on the frame. Once I found what I liked then I marked it, drilled it, and bolted it together. I took out the top bolts and laid the brace down horizontal and measured it level. I then took 2 wood blocks (the same type as I have been using for my corner braces) and glued them for this just below the side rails (Another idea I stole this idea from my Taito cab). This way I can unbolt the top and bottom rails, attach the monitor to them, and then lay the monitor in the cab in a horizontal position. I can then bolt the top and bottom rails back on and raise it into position. This is a safety feature for the monitor really.

 

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