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Build an OND designed cab 'Metropolis'
Palen:
Hey all,
Almost a month since I started building my Half-Metropolis Plants vs. Zombies cabinet . Time for an update and share some of my experiences (good and bad).
- I found out i'm really a big construction newbie :D Things that seemed really easy in theory have a tendency to work out differently in practice, especially the first time you try them. Like glueing and screwing the timber. For some reason I often don't get the positioning 100% right. Although the positioning was 100% correct when I pre-drilled the holes when everything was clamped down. Things like this I just miss the experience I guess.
- Also making straight cuts in wood. It takes a lot of effort to get things exactly straight 90deg. edges. and even then it's sometimes off by half a mm. While at the construction market where I shopped for MDF, there is a free sawing service for the straight cuts. It takes them like 2 seconds to make a cut more precise than I can ever make at home. This is something I will keep in mind for any future project.
- I didn't have a router. So I did most things by being precise with the sabresaw and using a block and sandpaper afterwards. I did use a Dremel to make rebates for the joysticks and small edge for the Plexiglas to stand on (CP Backing). This went OK, except for the fact that the MDF started smoking about a second after i started routing. Tried different height settings, going slower/faster, more/less pressure, more/less rmp. Going faster, seemed to give less smoke, but still my edges were somewhat blackened.
All in all, it's going quite well, check out my photobucket album (Click the picture below). Don't want to hijack this topic by posting 10 pictures at once :P There's some more info about the build in the descriptions of each photo.
Also after some emails I got hold of someone from Plants vs. Zombies who is willing to help me out on some artwork from the game, so i'm really excited about that! :)
@ stigzler: Wow you put a lot of effort and detail in the design. Looking good, i'm no expert though. Just looking at those fans I'd say it's going to be noisy, but that shouldn't have to be a problem as long as you turn the cab off when you're not using it. Only thing I don't like are the 90 degree angles you made on the panels holding the marquee.
@ chapel: Keeps those pics comming, clean looking work. Nice to see different people to work on something based on the same design.
@ OND: Used some of that inspiration to start building yet? :D
Chapel:
Very Nice Work so far Palen!
its motivating me to get back in the garage and continue working.
I just wish I had an A/C unit in there, damn this Florida Humidity!
Chapel
Ond:
Those edges look pretty good to me Palen, thanks for sharing your experiences good and bad. I know what you mean about smokin up the place with burning MDF and a Dremel. Dremel's are great for some things but unfortunately they lack the raw power that enables a router to cut through timber cleanly. I have used a router with a blunt bit though, with similar smokey results. Even the fairly cheap router I have does the job, but one day I'll upgrade to the superb Bosch.
I am indeed absorbing all of your enthusiasm like a Dragonborn absorbs dragon's souls (anyone here play Skyrim :P) and using said inspiration to finish my existing projects off. One of them is getting a bit long in the tooth and has gone over a couple of pages now :-\
Are you guys telling your mates about your hobby? You are all going the extra mile you know, beyond mame'ing some half rotting old gutted cab shell and plunking an x arcade CP on it and calling it done. (that's a no no around here in case you were wondering).
Combine a cabinet you've made yourself with high quality controls, nice paint and artwork ( a good CP layout) and Mame configured with the latest HLSL features (LCD Monitor) and you are going to be the envy of your mates.
My long Lonnnng term goal would be to have my Xenolix bartop, my Astro cab, this cab (yeah I wanna build it too) and just one really nice restored cab in my collection. And a driving setup, although not a driving cab. At some stage in the future I want to design a radical driving game chassis, but that's just pipe dreams at the moment. What about a VPin? Not me, I'd rather a real table.
Ond
Ond's useful tip for the week: Do a search in the forum for tutorials by either Lumberjackass or Epyx or even me! Tons of 'how to' in there.
Palen:
Yeah i think it's the dremel's lack of power combined with the type of bit. The bit I used was brandnew however.
A couple of days ago I went to a local furniture maker to ask for help on the rounded edges on the control panel. He ended up doing it for free. But yeah it took him like 10 seconds to round a 74cm edge (30 inches). He did have a very old but very solid Mitsubishi router and a widia steel bit. He mentioned MDF is like the worst material for your tools though.
--- Quote from: Ond on June 05, 2013, 09:08:16 pm ---beyond mame'ing some half rotting old gutted cab shell and plunking an x arcade CP on it and calling it done. (that's a no no around here in case you were wondering).
--- End quote ---
That sounds like my original idea, before stumbling upon your topic OND :D
I will have a look a some tutorials, allthough i'm almost done with the construction part.
- I'll just have to fit MQ bottom and the MQ retainers. I'm getting the 5" carspeakers for that this week. And I'll wait with the retainers until I get the marquee.
- Vesamount after that, but I actually want to have the monitor in my hands before I start doing that. Once I get the monitor I can paint the bezel on the back of the plexi (Just gonna roll it on, after sanding with scotch brite)
- Control Panel is also done, so all that's left is a lot of sanding and painting.
Palen:
Oh and I found out I totally screwed up my door design. Since I wanted to use the kitchen hinges I had to go for a 18mm (3/4 inch) MDF and not 12 mm (1/2 inch) door. This combined with the fact that the door is full width and about 80cm (30 inch) high makes the door a really massive weight pulling on one side of the cabinet. This weight is kinda skewing the cabinet which makes it a bit instable (like the floor is uneven). And at first I actually thought the floor was uneven, but when I remove the door it's very stable again.. so might have to think of a workaround for that.