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Galacade (Galaga Insipred Slim MAME Cabinet) - painting advice needed
Roo:
--- Quote from: GalagaFan74 on July 31, 2010, 10:39:24 pm ---Hey Roo,
Cab is looking good, in fact this is exactly what I envisioned for my cab. If you're willing I wouldn't mind the plans to your cab when you've completed it. I see you're using a flat screen LCD monitor, 19"? Unfortunately I don't have a spare flat screen, is there enough space to accommodate a 19" CRT? I may have to look into extending the back a bit and adding a monitor shelf. Can't wait to see the finished product.
--- End quote ---
Thanks! :cheers:
I will post the plans once they are finalized, no problem. Right now they are in a state of flux as I finalize little details. Unfortunately, those little details (like the height of the CP) cause big changes to the overall project. Luckily SketchUp is pretty easy to use, I had never touched it before this project.
I am using a 24" Dell wide flat LCD. It's a 2408WFP to be exact. It's my "old" desktop monitor and I picked up a newer Dell U2410 to replace it. I don't really get any benefit from the wide screen, except that a 24" wide screen is generally cheaper than a 20" 4x3 aspect ratio LCD and slightly bigger when displaying a 4x3 aspect ratio image. This site was very helpful when I was trying to figure out which monitor to use:
http://tvcalculator.com/index.html?27d982493e27f0160a8c8e4c3dbaaf9a
It would be pretty easy to modify the plans to use any size screen, even a CRT. You should be able to fit any size LCD in there up to a 27" wide screen with just a modification to the bezel. You would probably have to make the cabinet deeper for a CRT though.
For what it's worth, I played around with it for a while and my feeling was that 24" wide screen was just right. Looking at a 27" that close felt too big and anything smaller looked out of place in the space allotted in my plan.
Roo:
And I've managed to make a little more progress! Somebody please tell me the cabinet will go faster than this CP! :hissy:
I primed and painted the inside of the CP.
Then I laminated all the outside surfaces. I used two coats of contact cement on the bare wood and one coat on the laminate. A neat trick I learned from a friend for holding the laminate away from the surface of the wood when you're positioning it is to use old blind slats.
Slide the slats out as you roll the laminate down.
A quick pass with the trim router and it looks great!
I couldn't use a trim router on the front edges of the sides, since they're not a 90 degree angle...
In the end, the easiest method I found to trim off the excess laminate here was to use a cut-off wheel on the Dremel to get as close as possible, then use a sanding block with some 80 grit paper to sand it down flush.
I decided the wacky wood was a little too "splintery" to make a good substrate for laminating the front. I also had some small voids along the bottom edge where I hadn't gotten the front completely square with the bottom, so I picked up some Bondo and applied a thin coat to the whole front face.
Lots of pink dust later I'm ready to laminate the front...
I'll have to do a touch up coat or two on the inside, but I'm OK with that. The last coat I did didn't turn out as nice as I had hoped, so maybe this time I can get better results.
XNIF:
very nice design. I like these slim cabinets, they look stylish. I might make one as well after i have finished my low boy.
Roo:
--- Quote from: XNIF on August 15, 2010, 05:38:48 am ---very nice design. I like these slim cabinets, they look stylish. I might make one as well after i have finished my low boy.
--- End quote ---
Thanks! :cheers:
So I learned some things this weekend...
One of the most important lessons I learned was that painting is the very last step! I got ahead of myself and thought I'd get it painted up and then finish the laminate and some other minor details. I'm sure someone with more skill and experience might have pulled it off, but for me applying the laminate first would have made a lot more sense, since the laminate is much more durable.
Since I am about to re-embark on an adventure of weeks of priming, painting and wet sanding, I thought I'd mock up the work I have so far. Something to keep me motivated to the finished product. :cry: The top looks all scuffed up, but that is really just primer is showing through where I sanded everything back down smooth. I love the GGG coin buttons and the Galaxian green t-molding is sweet.
Kidding aside, I'm actually really happy with this so far. Sure, it's slow going but I've never really done anything like this - the list of "this is my first time trying to do _____" is pretty much the list of every step of work done so far. My design is coming to life and I'm digging it! ;D
PS the other thing I learned is that lacquer thinner is really nice to have if you want to get rid of excess contact cement on your laminate!
Jefferson:
beautiful work man, and clearly illustrated... plus you reminded me to order some pongo stickers. Cant wait to see how this develops. I love curved CP's (I was lucky enough to start with a found curved piece about CP size)
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