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The Complete Noob's First Project Thread - (No Theme/Name yet...)
walterg74:
Allright... weekend's here again, and time to do a little work...
Today I did the final tidbits I had pending, basically a hole in the back panel for the power supply connector, the four corner holes to fasten the control panel, reducing a little bit the 4 pieces of wood in the marquee area so that light goes through and I don't get the 4 dark spots (as it had been pointed out to me in a previous post, and the hole to raise the control a little... So I guess most of it was just basic stuff, except the routing for the control, so here are some pics.
Initial "carving", caveman style, with the dremel and a routing bit, pics show progressive butchering ::):
Then here is the finished part, where I managed to clean it up a bit (not a lot, definitely not perfect, but it'll do for my first go at this (and you can't see the bottom anyway):
Finally, here I'm trying out how the control fits into it:
That seems to be more than enough. The control sticks out far enough, and I can't carve out more anyway or there will be too little material left (already it's kinda thin...). I'm left with 6mm MDF, plus the 2mm of the control plate, for a total of 8mm. Now it's off to the hardware store to get some adequate screws that are just the right length for this... (maybe I'll add some washers, idk... :-\
So anyway, I guess as far as the building goes, I'm done... I will now move on to the priming/painting phase. Being that I haven't gotten any replies yet to my paint / cans question, I guess I'll give it till tomorrow morning since it's late here anyway, and if I don't get any replies I'll just ask at the store about which of those cans will suit my needs... :-\
I also cleaned up the cab with some rags, etc. to make sure there's no dust left on it. Here's the "finished" cab ready for priming:
Meanwhile, hoping to get an answer to the paint thing, I leave you with another question...
Since this cabinet will be used for vertical games, most of which are old anyway, and they shouldn't require a "powerhouse" of a machine to run, I will be probably be sticking a relatively old computer in here (if the components fit, which seems a bit complicated but *maybe* doable...), can you recommend a software setup for the computer? I have this 75MB "tiny xp" version, would that work? And what would you suggets for mame version + frontend?
Hope you enjoy my post, see you all later!
:cheers:
walterg74:
--- Quote from: Le Chuck on September 03, 2012, 10:04:21 pm ---No need to sand the MDF beforehand but since you've filled some screw holes you need to sand those areas with a 200 grit or so to even them out to the same texture as the bare MDF.
I like rattle can primer, just a preference. Nice even no-drip coat. Let dry, sand with 200 to knock the fuzz off, prime again, sand again. Pick a color. Rattle can is great, so is brush. Nice even no-drip coats, let dry and sand with 300, repeat paint, switch to wet sanding and use a higher grit paper. Lather rinse repeat until you're satisfied or polishing a quarter inch thick layer of paint that looks like glass. Then, if you really want to get froggy you can start clear coating but again, I never do this on MDF. I usually stop at 5 coats including 2 of primer.
--- End quote ---
Ok then, going with your "5 coat standard", and since I have the cab ready, does this sound good?:
1) Apply coat 1 of primer, let it dry
2) Sand with 200 "normal" (orange/red regular sand paper for wood). I assume it's a light sanding, and not a "furious" one, right?
3) Apply coat 2 of primer, let it dry
4) Sand again, once more with 200 in the same fashion
5) Apply coat 1 of paint, and let it dry
6) Sand the first paint coat with 300 "normal" sand paper (so same as the previous paper, just a bit higher grit)
7) Apply coat 2 of paint, let it dry
8) Sand again but this time wetsanding, with higer grit (I currently have 400 and 600 for wetsanding)
9) Apply coat 4 of paint
Done? Or something else...? (except the clear coating which you said you don't do on mdf anyway).
I guess I could either finish at the 3rd coat of paint, or wetsand coat 2 with 400, apply coat 3, wetsand with 600, and apply coat 4... (And still the question would be, after you apply the last coat, do you do something else to it, or that's it?)
Thanks LeChuck!!
Le Chuck:
If you're going to sand the final coat it'll be like 1200 grit wet sanding but I doubt it will be necessary since the last coat should be pretty light to just even everything out. That's my experience at least, your mileage may very. Also, light sanding throughout, you don't want to eat through the layer you just laid.
walterg74:
--- Quote from: Le Chuck on September 08, 2012, 06:40:47 pm ---If you're going to sand the final coat it'll be like 1200 grit wet sanding but I doubt it will be necessary since the last coat should be pretty light to just even everything out. That's my experience at least, your mileage may very. Also, light sanding throughout, you don't want to eat through the layer you just laid.
--- End quote ---
Ok, cool. Thanks for the quick reply!
I went to the store to get some screws & stuff, and picked up some more sandpaper, 300 & 400 which I was lacking.
Also since nobody commented on the primer I went ahead and bought the gray one shown in the 3d picture. The store guy said they were all pretty much the same, although he didn't seem very knowledgeable... ::)
Guess weather permitting I'll try to prime tomorrow ;D
Later! :cheers:
Steven kurylec:
Hi im new to the forum and am really enjoying your project so far! Do it for that noobs haha, i started my forst project a couple of weeks ago so all the questions your asking are really helping me out! (y)
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