BLACKOUT: January 27, 2006, 10:54:02 PM

 Arcade  No Responses »
Jan 272006
 

Well, I am happy. I actually got to work on the cab tonight. It is taking a lot of time but it is fun. I am working on the cabinet sides. I guess it is my own fault; I wanted everything to be curves on this thing. I wanted no sharp corners or totally straight lines. So it is a lot harder to figure out measurements. After a lot of shaping, I finally have it coming into to a nice form. The sander really does nice work with MDF.

I had one near casualty. I was cutting the scoop out for the monitor area. While I was cutting everything started to slow down. I applied more pressure and eventually it became easier again. When the piece cut free I realized the reason for the slow down. I had cut right through the saw horse (Note to self… don’t do this. ). Tomorrow, I will clamp the other side to this one and route it into shape.

BLACKOUT: January 16, 2006, 10:28:39 PM

 Arcade  No Responses »
Jan 162006
 

Wood

The Build Begins…

I started the actual build. It was a bit humbling. I had help getting the big pieces cut out, but have been going solo ever since. Today I learned how to rip a sheet of wood right down the center. I guess it is the nature of MDF to split so easily. Back to the saw and had to cut some more pieces. Part of me is thinking that I should be building the base out of ply.

I am taking a couple of ideas from my Taito QIX cabinet. I am going to run a channel down both side pieces of the cabinet. It will be 1/4 in deep. Then when it is joined with the base I should get extra strength due to the extra contact, and it should be square (assuming my channel is square). I will also be channeling the top piece. I will have L brackets in place as well for extra strength.

I have watched so many people on the BYOAC board build these cabinets and I keep wondering how it could take so long. Well, know I know. I thought I would breeze through a lot of this. But I am seeing that it will not be a quick process. I was hoping to have much more completed by the end of the weekend.

The idea here is that this thing will probably weight quite a lot (3 sheets of MDF). The base is ¾ in. thick. I am using swivel wheels on the front and straight locked wheels on the back. At the very back there is an angle cut out so that I can tip the cabinet back and push it around with the back 2 wheels if I need to without tearing up the MDF. Once I found out how much space the swivel wheels needed, I attached braces through out the base. The braces were glued, and then screwed down for extra support. The screws were countersunk, covered with wood putty, and then sanded smooth.

 

 

BLACKOUT :January 07, 2006, 05:06:46 PM

 Arcade  No Responses »
Jan 072006
 

Since the control panel is the center piece of the whole thing, I decided to start there. Here is my first draft of my CPO (Control Panel Overlay). The second image is a pseudo mock up of the button layout. My idea is that the right player will have a 7th button below the main buttons to the lower left. This can act as hyperspace / shield for a Gravitar, or Asteroids type layout. The left player will have a button above the main set to form a diamond for Vanguard. I always liked Vanguard but I really suck at it.

For the graphic design, I tried to capture the feeling of 80’s machines in general. It’s kind of like an abstract construct of a Space Invaders type thing. My intention is to also make a stencil for this and then do a spray version on the side of the cabinet, like the look of the old Williams games.
I made a desktop CP (Control Panel) a few years ago that I liked, but the spacing was a little too close together. I need to look at CP Sketcher and make the grid smaller so I can scoot them a little closer and still keep the alignment.

 Newer Entries