No longer Cursed - 1st Bartop Build 95% complete.

[Drnick]

]A while back I picked up a pair of kiosks from work. 1 of them became my home jukebox. http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=118409.0
The other a friend of mine wanted converting into a jukebox. Which then became a Jukebox/Arcade machine. Well here is the Kiosk and some of the plans I created.

Touchscreen kiosk with monitor removed.

Sketchup plan for Jukebox topper and control panel.
Ultimately I purchased a set of cheap Joysticks/Buttons and decoder and started by building a cardboard mockup (Ignore the buttons at the bottom I messed up)

[Drnick]

As I was mostly happy with the button positioning etc and I had got a new Forstner bit I decided to knock up a quick panel to test for height etc.

I used a couple of pieces of 6mm MDF that I had laying around, This enabled me to end up with a template I could use which would enable top or bottom mounting of the joysticks.

Stuck on top of Kiosk (As for the white bits underneath, they were part of the template for the topper)

To cut a long story short the guy who wanted to do the Jukebox arcade never seemed to find any time to come round and do anything with it. Eventually I got bored of waiting for him to sort himself out and had a look around to see what I could do.

I found a quite nice Dell GX620 with a 19" 4.3 monitor going for a song.  I grabbed it and tested the control panel on it.

It worked and I had a couple of games of Pacman.  

Looking at the shape of the pc stand I figured it wouldn't be any kind of work to turn it into a bartop.  I took some measurements and headed to B&Q for an 8x4 3/4" sheet of MDF.  I got them to cut it into 2 sheets of 4x4 as I knew 8ft would not fit in my wifes car.  Unfortunately nor did 4Ft, even though it should have according to the tape measure   I sent the missus back in and she came back with 2 x 4ft x 3ft and 2 x 4ft x 1ft pieces

 I get them home and I look around online for something I like the shape of, I like Lucids machine and it looks very simple (Which is good as I want this thing to actually be square and true, not wibbly and wobbly like most things I build). I get my trusty straight edge out and make a quick saw board. I then cut out the 2 sides. They are fairly close but a little rough cut, so I run my router round things to tidy it up. I then order the correct sized router bit to make the replica.  (1/2" blades no good for 3/4" wood without 2 passes  ). And here they are, a pair of sides.




Yes it looks like a brothel with all that red light, but that's what 2pm on a sunday afternoon looks like in my living room, its either that or you leave the blinds up, and then you go blind  

[Drnick]

Once I was happy with the sizing of the unit I decided I had better do some artwork,  Well me and the wife like all the old classics, so I figured I would break out Gimp/Inkscape and whatever else I needed and do some work.  I found some artwork that was A) Old school and B) Easy to modify and got to work.  I ended up with this.  (100 px per inch) which made the math really easy for me.



And here it is having printed it out and stuck it together to check the size was indeed correct.  I remembered to use A3 after this



Well after some more editing I know have my final design.




Onto the marquee Area, I would have liked it to be a larger area but hey, I had cut it so what could I do
I started with a plain maze background.

I then got a pacman font and named the machine.

Finally I overlay them and get this, (To be honest I am not happy with the shadowing, but I can live with it)

[Drnick]

And so back to the build,  I use some more of the 6mm mdf I have for the base of the machine, I will replace with 1/2" later but for now It enables me to get things square I cut the piece for the angled top first, I over cut this so that it sits proud at the top. I then use a bevel to find the angle where the flat piece will meet up with it.  I run the circular saw across and place that in the correct location. (Unfortunately I did not take any pictures of this as I was too busy doing to stop and take photo's.  
Ultimately I end up with this.

I did some more work on it yesterday so it now has the bottom of the marquee area and the back panel for power/usb/switches etc to go into.

(Amazingly this is completely true and square, I don't think I could do it again).

I still have some routing to do on various panels, but now that I have the correct bits that will be nice and easy. I will then use the original panel I made as a template for the joysticks and buttons.  I am currently awaiting my slot cutter and the brass inserts/bolts for undermounting the joysticks.

As for control panel artwork, I am at a loss with this one, I quite like the following.


I have tried doing some transparencies etc within gimp/inkscape, but to be honest I am fairly useless at that kind of thing.  I did want to overlay the above control panel onto the one below,  But I can't get it to look decent. I suppose I could get my bro to do it,  Hey Gizmo, grab these png's and fix that *Cough Cough* for me.


So that's where I am at.  I need to sort out some T molding for the unit, I think I will either go with Red, Black or Yellow.  My choice has not yet been made as it will be one of the last things to do.  

[ccmathome]

really digging the side art

[Drnick]

Thanks,  Artistically Speaking my talent got scraped from the bottom of the barrel,  I just took a file from arcadeartlibrary (Thanks Froggerman or whoever originally created the work). Then I got busy with the zoom and the cut and the paste and the grid to align the dots again.  I am quite happy with it as I had never used Gimp or inkscape before working on this.  I think I like the learning something new more then the doing.  But this time I must hurry up and finish the project so it doesn't end up like most of my others. (Half done and no willingness to do anything about it for years on end).  Currently my wife is bugging me to get on and complete it, partly because she wants to play some Pacman and Space Invaders and partly because it's currently sitting on top of the Ice cream Freezer

[popsicle]

Aren't you missing an 'r' in the marquee?

It says Docto Nicade

[PL1]

I did want to overlay the above control panel onto the one below

Inkscape vector file uploaded to your Artwork thread.


Scott

[Drnick]

Thanks PL1 

As for the missing r, nope not missing, I go via the following names DrNick, Doctonic or Doctonica So tagging the ade on the end was a no brainer and I didn't have to force it

[GIZMOGAMES]

hi bro
so what "cough"would you like me to sort for you bud hahaha
the marquee is offcenter and the backshadow needs less transparency in truth easy to do once you get the font decided then just use gimp to trace the outline split the image and fill the back image with black setting transparency to 25% then reapply the original font at maybe a 5 mill ofset right and down
mes wishing i still had my adobe illustrator m8 :S cant find the f in disks :S
oh well pm or text me what ya want done its the least i can do for ya heck family lol
 

[Drnick]

This is now my 3rd attempt at an update.  I don't know if it's a site issue or the poxy PC I have.  Anyway there isn't much in the way of progress,  I am awaiting the slot cutter to arrive still.   So In the meantime I cleaned up and made flush the edges of the unit.

I still need to fill/sand the small gaps.
I then fitted a back door to the unit using gate hinges, these I will need to inlay slightly so that when the carbon fibre wrap goes on the back/top they are mostly hidden.

I then went back to the Artwork as the Wife was not overly happy with it.  I did some modifying of the font I used on the Marquee so that it now has the transparency that I was trying to get previously, I also increased the border around the edges so that its nice and easy to fit.


As for the Control panel I grabbed some templates from slagcoin and imported these into my artwork, this allowed me to ensure that my Button Halo's are in the correct location. (At the same time I grabbed a piece of perspex I had laying around and cut a piece the size of the control panel, (Shame it broke in one corner)

(I was amazed to see just how misaligned they were in my original artwork).
I also increased the size of the control panel graphics to wrap down over the front of the unit.


As for the side art, the wife didn't like all the dead space in the middle of the pacmaze on the sides. Because of this  I went looking for something to fill this area with, My wife originally wanted the multiarcade artwork (Dirk, Pac, Qbert, Mario etc etc etc) in there, but I couldn't really get that to look decent, So I went hunting down some vector Pac's.   I found the 25th anniversary Pacman graphic, imported that into Inkscape and got on with editing.  Now the wife's happy as she has some Pacman with boots on action and the dead space has been taken up.




As another question, Do you think I should remove the Pacman words from the middle and move them up to where I originally had the Namco image?
I will be honest after all the faffing about with the artwork I am inclined to just go with what I have currently

Anyway, still left to do on the cabinet, (Hopefully we get a good weekend, unlikely but you never know)

1) Fill and sand gap where Back and Top meet
2) Inlay Door Hinges, Wrap in Carbon Fibre
3) Cut slot and install Tmolding  (Still not decided on colour) Should I go Yellow, Red or Black?
4) Get graphics printed and installed.
5) Create Monitor Bezel and install.

There I was thinking that I had got more then 1/2 way through the build process  

[Drnick]

Well having been too lazy to do much recently I was persuaded by the wife to get a ---danged--- move on with this bartop. So over the weekend I put in some Hours

I cut/routed out the bottom panel at the back to take a fused power inlet and a Neutrik USB port.
I did a fairly good job of the power area, but the USB Socket area sucked.  I wrapped the USB Port in plastic popped it into the hole and got a filling.  I ended up with the following.


I then marked out the area for my fan to go and routed away,  This ended up being a bit more awkward then I would have liked,  Had I been sensible I would have either routed out in a square all the way or got a hole cutter.  Instead I routed out a square to half the depth of the wood. (This was done on the inside piece) I then inserted fan and drilled holes for mounting. I put the cover on and marked the outer edge in pencil.  I then used my largest spade bit and made 8 Holes getting as close to the pencil line as possible.  Finally I got my file and sandpaper to round it off.  I messed up 1 edge a bit, but hey its the back of the machine, your never gonna see it

I got hold of some 3M carbon fibre vinyl for covering the back panels etc (Too lazy to paint).  So I got that installed to the unit. I ended up with the following.





I then used the same method on the door to install a fan, Once again I messed up 1 edge and once again I don't care Here's what it looked like from the inside of the machine.



A quick word of advice, do not use a belt sander to try and take a tiny bit off a piece of wood, my door ended up about 2mm short all the way round when I was done    (Once again, Its the back of the machine, I don't care).

I then realised I had totally cocked up with my coin up buttons on the front of the unit, I had put 1 down dead centre and one to the left of that, so drilled new hole to the right.  I took an old picture frame I had which was made of angled aluminium, and some 2mm perspex, I decided to use this to make the marquee holder etc.  This didn't take too long although once again I was too lazy to paint it

[Drnick]

I then added the artwork to the control panel, I had it printed in matt (I wish I had gone with gloss).  But it only cost £10 for 2 CP's and 2 Marquees so I shouldn't complain.  Although once again a mess up means it has errors,  Because I hadn't glued down my test print when I drilled the CP the joystick holes are slightly left of where they should be,  Arghhh  Oh well I shall get the artwork reprinted later on.

I cut some more of the perspex and drilled the holes, that at least all went well



I then test fit my artboard bezel Here is an early picture showing the badly stuck together artwork I used as a template on CP        (This is why you should take your time with these things)



I then removed the 6mm base (To be used for new bezel) and replaced that with 3/4".  I took this opportunity to drop the height of the control panel, Unfortunately my wife snapped the perspex for the front whilst cleaning it.  (I may cut a new piece in the future but for now have just carbon fibred it



I then turned my attention to lighting and sound.  I recently upgraded my pc speakers to a pair of powered bookshelf speakers so decided to use the old ones (Dell speakers labeled as Harmon/Kardons (I don't believe that for a moment as I have also got the same speakers at work with Altec Lansing on them).  Anyway they are just 3w speakers but they do the job.  I routed them out and then refit the covers, (Once again I messed up and put them both the same way).  A bit of routing out for the circuit board to go into and voila, speakers.



For the marquee Light I took a piece of 6 inch coving which I had laying around from redecorating my living room, I got 3 USB lights from poundland and stripped them down.  I ran all 3 of them to a single usb plug.  To be honest I think I need at least 5 of these lights, I may just pull apart an old Solar led string that no longer works and make some sort of breadboard with about 60 LED's installed rather then the 15 I currently have.  Unfortunately I didn't take any pictures of this, will add them when I fix a backboard to the marquee to stop the light bleed I am experiencing.



I realised after all of this that other then opening up the back door I had no way of turning on and off the PC, so I headed to Maplins and got a vandal switch (I thought I could get away with 22mm spade Bit but it needed 23mm, You guessed It I messed up again



I soldered this back to the 2 tiny pins on the pc board (Which was a real PITA, what with my shaky hands and everything). Tested and working.

So I now have a machine in a working state. here are some images.

Complete Sans Machine



From the back.



Internals (Fans run from 12V Wallwart, Lights from USB, Speakers from 12V output on monitor). Its all connected to a 3 socket smartplug which turns it all off nicely.



Gotta get my Puckman on



Parodius



So left to do is Order some T-Molding, get side art printed, Reprint CP with adjustments, More Lights, Backboard. 
I very much doubt I will do any of that until after I get back from the US in October.  Only because I may buy some goodies whilst I am there.

As for the original kiosk.  I stripped the keyboard/trackball out of it and threw it to the kerb.  Needless to say the local scrapman had it within 3 minutes as it turned out it was all metal, not some crazy composite.  I am going to hack a mouse to connect the trackball to and at the same time hack a broken spinner I have to a mouse,  I will put these into a separate panel with a 4 way joystick for all the old classics.

[Drnick]

Basically in building this I have learned a few things.

1) I do not have enough patience
2) I need more/Better/The right tools
3) I should not rush things, I should think them through first and then decide what the best method would be.  Unfortunately normally when  I do this I end up procrastinating and things sit around for months before I do anything with them.

Overall the machine is good enough for me as a first machine.  I think for my next one (And there will be a next one) I may look at making an Ond designed machine, I have learnt enough from this one to be confident in building a full sized unit with lamination and the works.
It's not like I don't have enough friends willing to take this one off my hands for cost.

Next up will be a simple Jukebox Build, I have some spare 3/4" and the touchscreen from the kiosk to use.  I have a small shuttle PC and a set of logitech x530's along with a nice set of sound activated Decking lights and various EL patches, I am hoping I can just make a simple box, wrap it in carbon fibre and hang it on the wall, this would free up my Kiosk jukebox that a friend of mine really really really wants. (I have already turned down an offer of £300 from him).  But if I have a replacement I won't miss it taking room up in the corner, I may miss the games that I have as the shuttle isn't powerful enough, but hey its $450 spending money for the holiday 

 

[teeuwen]

You should go with the chrome, match the carbon fiber and the grill you have on the back fan.

I know what you mean about the patience thing 

[jmike]

Not bad for your first attempt. Yes patience is a big, big part in building these things. As for making an OND designed machine.... well you're really shooting for the stars at that one.

One thing I've learned is that if you're not sure of the direction you're headed with your project, you shouldn't just rush it to get it done. Many of us, especially OND step away for a while and think things through. I always end up working on something else, and come back to my original project with fresh new ideas. (like my cocktail arcade).

Good luck and enjoy the bartop.
 

[Drnick]

Ah when I say Ond designed I don't mean something like his masterpiece in the making.  That is so far out of my skill set that its scary. 

I mean Metropolis. Its a nice and relatively simple design, see the following thread.

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,118612.0.html

[Louis Tully]

.

[GIZMOGAMES]

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/390403740608?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1423.l2649

go with that bud unless yr sides are 3/4 als when u say yr going to sell the kiosk accept the 350 but no speakers lol i want first dibs on those babies if yr shifting those big boys hahaha

[Drnick]

3/4" Sides,  I think I am gonna order 10Mtrs of this stuff.  Pretty good price of £1.60 per Mtr.

http://www.pinballcenter.eu/catalog/tmolding-18mm-chrome-p-2179.html?language=en

Gizmo do me a favour, Bring your slot cutter down with you when you come down next month :-) As for the speakers, I have another set of them sitting on the side, I stocked up on them a while back.  x530's are only £30 a set now anyway. And if you are thinking of using them in your jukebox think again, The wiring on them means that you cant easily remove the control board to mount the volume control elsewhere. You want to lay your hands on some z906's but expect to pay about 200 Squidlets.  But you do get a lot of sound for your money. mine are about 70W and rock the place, 906's are 500W  I have a 906 sub at work but no speakers/control box We don't know where they went A set of speakers with no sub will set you back about 120

[GIZMOGAMES]

yeah will do i got 2 of them 3/32 size tho so slightly wider than the 1/16 well have to get one when we go stateside so SO much cheeper than here
and oh thats ok with the speakers i thought you meant the ones you got from the bootsale a while ago
i got all speakers and such covered for the other projects

[Drnick]

No way on earth are the Kef's going anywhere but with me    Which means they are yours for £40 but you would have to carry the heavy assed things.

[Drnick]

Well I haven't done much with this for a while, but yesterday/today I put in some orders to finally get this thing finished. First things first, having got some samples in I have decided to go with red T-Molding.
 
I am also going to change out the controls,  It's not that the controls are bad just not quite what I am looking for.  So I am swapping out the zippys for some Mag stick Plus and I am also changing out the buttons from the cheap existing ones to some IL pushbuttons.

I have my artwork on order from some cheap printing company, I am not sure what the quality will be like but at £50 for 2 x side art and 1 x marquee it can't be too bad.  As I am going to have to redo my control panel for the new controls I am currently reworking the art. I shall be going with bat handles (Player 1 will have red handle and red buttons, Player 2 will be all black)

All items are due in within 5 days so with any luck I should have a proper update and some completed photos shortly. 

[Drnick]

Well still no completed Pics.  Slot Cutter and T-Molding are currently MIA. Last seen leaving New York area 24th Jan. In the meantime I have got the Side Art and Marquee back from the printers.  I am waiting on the reprinted control panel as their Printer has died on them.




I also received my Magstick Plus Joysticks and new buttons. Unfortunately the mounting plate on the Magstick does not align up with the
zippy mounts so I will redo my Control panel to fit the new joysticks.  I have ordered in 2 copies of the Control Panel artwork so If I mess up the 1st one when drilling through it I can just rip it off and replace. Here's the new joystick/buttons.  I have a 2nd Joystick with Black handle.



As soon as the Slot cutter Arrives I can get the slot cut, Slap on the side art, Install T-molding. Then build a new control panel with the new sticks and call it as done as it will ever be.

[EssexMame]

Looks great! I'm most impressed with the artwork, and how quickly/easily you seem to have done it. I'm most worried about my artwork which is saying something as my woodworking skills are non-existent...

Perhaps the artwork will be easier than I think, once I get use to inkscape/gimp though if my sketchup is anything to go by that's probably wishful thinking.

Of your artwork, I love the control panel the most - a simple clean design with some unique touches (the 1 & 2 pacman's by the start buttons particularly).

What emulators/games are you having in it - Pacman only or a mixture?

[EssexMame]

<double post>

[PL1]

Looks great! I'm most impressed with the artwork, and how quickly/easily you seem to have done it. I'm most worried about my artwork which is saying something as my woodworking skills are non-existent...

Perhaps the artwork will be easier than I think, once I get use to inkscape/gimp though if my sketchup is anything to go by that's probably wishful thinking.

You'll probably be able to get through easier than you think.

There are plenty of sources where you can find the files you need -- pretty sure these are the thumbnails of the ones Drnick started with:







Un-group and strip away a few layers on the 25th anniversary vector file and type in the desired text on the marquee -- you've got a great start.

The remaining 10% will take 98% of the effort, but that's always the case.   


Scott

[EssexMame]

I hope so because all of the examples I've seen here look amazing and if I can have my own arcade cabinet that looks even part-way as good I'll be chuffed!

[kahlid74]

Looks good man.  I like the side art and the more boxy feel compared to some of the super slim bartops now days.

[Drnick]

@ Kahlid Cheers
@ EssexMame,  Don't worry you can get there, it all starts off so daunting but once you get to grips with it the sky is the limit. The woodworking experience gained is useful too.  Now I have a router and understand how it works I can redo those kitchen doors.
As for the artwork, The program itself has a bit of a learning curve, but once you get the hang of it something like I did is quite simple, Cut, copy, Paste, Rinse and repeat for many hours until you are happy with the results. 
@ PL1.   Indeed those were the artworks I started with.   As you pointed out a great place to start, The hardest bit is getting a template of the machine sized correctly for the artwork.  But if you have a ruler and an angle finder its straight forward enough.


Well something went terribly wrong with the Control panel artwork.  I couldn't see the option to export to pdf in Gimp. (Doh) so exported as a png and imported into Inkscape.  I then exported it out to pdf.  Dumbly I didn't check the size of file that was created.  For some reason my 60 x 25 image became a 199 x 81 image. Lets just say that with the size that I requested for print it didn't scale back very well.

Oh well I have resent art to the printers and will get another copy in a day or so.  The incorrectly printed vinyl will not go to waste though,  It can be used as a sacrificial lamb for test drilling purposes. 

Still waiting on the Cutter and T-Molding.  Anyone else in the UK ordered from T-molding.com? How long did it take.  I think mines gone missing at customs

[Drnick]

Well the T-Molding finally arrived along with the slot cutter.


This means I can get back to work on this machine.  Well the weather was fairly good this weekend, at the very least it was dry. (well outside it was, inside not so much, More to come on that momentarily) So I bust out the trusty workmate bench and got on with things.

Firstly I cut a new control panel and applied the artwork.  (I really wish I had left the centre points in the artwork for drill centre). I messed up the Player 2 start button, but once again I am going to live with it.

Having marked out holes for all buttons. Only cut on 1 side and waited for drill to cool down a touch

Both sides drilled

Buttons tested for location and angle.

On the Control panel artwork,  I much prefer the printed vinyl overlay to the original cardstock printed version I had,  I say this because whereas the other art looked like printed art the vinyl looks much more like it was painted/stenciled on.  (even down to some scratches I managed to get on the vinyl). I do have a spare artwork but will keep that to hand for now as I may yet make a spinner/ trackball panel and use it there.

I then routed the bottom of the panel to insert the Joysticks a bit and offer a bit more handle length.

First one completed with no issues. Onto the 2nd one and my stop slips, I end up taking about 5mm more depth then I want to in a nice round groove.  So I took the entire piece down to the same depth as the groove and cut 2 Pieces of Hardboard I had laying around to size, I Inserted these into the inset to bring it back up to the correct height.  A whole bunch of woodglue and some clamps, It should be fine, If not I guess I am going to have bolts showing from the top. 


I then tidied up some rough edges on the cabinet itself and ran the slot cutter round both sides. I made sure that the slot cutter was on the corect way before starting and spent about 5 minutes getting the height adjusted until correct.  the actual cutting of the slot was very simple and it cut through the carbon fibre covering like a hot knife through butter.


 I am now currently filling in any holes/grooves etc on the
side panels before installing artwork.


As for the water in the house,   Well I had just taken the workmate bench out front and was just carting a piece of MDF out the front door when there was a massive crash.  I immediately assume my missus has fallen over or the TV has come off the wall. I head back in to find that the new radiator that was installed in my kitchen last week had just ripped itself off the wall and crashed to the floor 

Rather then using decent wallboard plugs IE the ones with springs that expand and grip the back of the plasterboard he used the metal self screwing wallplugs

These just pulled straight out with the weight.

Luckily none of my cats were sleeping under it at the time.   I am not a happy bunny and they will be fixing that S**T. 
 

[Drnick]

I have found a new hell for myself, Many of you will be aware of this particular Hell and have found ways to avoid dealing with it.  IE Laminate/Vinyl. 

The hell I am talking about is of course The Paintjob.

So having got the tmolding and made all my cuts and then got down to the filling  in the grooves etc on the side of the machine, sanded down to 240 and lay down a couple of coats of Spray Primer.  I then went over the still showing marks with some ISO P38/Bondo.  I then sanded back down to 240, spray another coat of primer, sand down to 400 and one last coat of Primer. For the most part it looks good, Unfortunately the rough cut edges even though filled still show, some parts are worse then others of course    Now I could sand this all back do a heap load more filling and sanding and then start the process again. But to be honest whilst I can see the marks through the paint I cannot feel them. If I cannot feel them then hopefully they will not show when I apply the artwork.

Anyway, Priming completed I hit the machine with a couple of coats of Enamel Gloss Black.  I let this sit for a few days then wetsanded down with 600 and cleaned up.  I have since sprayed another 2 coats on and have a very even finish with very little no orange peel.   By no means it is perfect and even once I have let it cure for a while and then clearcoated, sanded Clearcoated and compound finished It will not be a true mirror finish, but it will be a good one.

So not much to see here for at least a few more days.  I can't get a good picture of the Black paint at the moment as not enough light

[Drnick]

The hell that was the paintjob finally ended after something like 12 Coats    Well at least I called it quits,  It felt like a very smooth finish although my seams at top and bottom even after Bondo and 12 layers still showed through even though I couldn't feel them. (Obviously losing feeling in my fingertips). 

Here is a shot after about 2 or 3 coats of Black.



The finished Paint Job 



I then installed some Leather texture finish vinyl to the inside of the machine.




Please ignore the rats nest of wiring, this is due a tidy up when I get some more Cable ties/Tie posts.

I then went back to work and installed a lock and the T-Molding.

[Drnick]

I next went back to the control panel and installed the new joysticks & Buttons (I decided to use the 2nd Overlay as well due to scratching on the first one).  The scratches you can see are on the very thin plexi I used. I really need to replace it with something a bit more scratch resistant.  Any Ideas for UK Based?



Wired it up 



I then found an issue with one of the sticks, It was grinding when you rotated the shaft.  I opened it up and this is what I saw



Needless to say Andy being the stand up guy that he is agreed to send a replacement base so that issue should soon be resolved.
I can't stipulate enough just how good Ultimarcs Customer Services is.

I got some new Led Lights which I have installed behind the marquee, Instead of about 15 LED's I now have 96.  These are what I purchased http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/12V-Flexible-Car-LED-Strip-24-48-120-Bulbs-PVC-WHITE-RED-BULE-Pink-waterproof-UK-/270924633092?pt=UK_Home_Garden_Night_Lights_Fairy_Lights&var=&hash=item3f145dd404

This is what it looks like



And finally with the side art applied,  Needless to say I made a mess of this too, I forgot to fill in all the rest of the area in the original artwork with Black (Although I did add an Inch Bleed at bottom and black edge).  This meant I had a couple of white parts that showed up. (If you look further up the thread you can see the bit where I changed the design of the side but never sorted the artwork out).  To minimise the issue I had to realign the artwork further down.  In doing so it left the top inch or so  uncovered.  I couldn't have that so used the incorrectly sized control panel overlays as patches.  If you look closely you will see a thin line where the 2 parts meet.   It's not a perfect fix but it will have to do.  As expected due to not getting the vinyl laminated it will very easily scratch,  I may try doing a clear coat or something to try and protect it. Guess its back to the control panel offcuts to see how that works out.

<NOOBIE ALERT!!>  DO NOT DO WHAT I DID WITH THE OVERHANGING MARQUEE BRACKET THINK BEFORE YOU ACT!!"


The other side

Full Frontal with no light. (Notice I changed out the Silver marquee holder for some smaller black plastic).


So I really am nearly done now.  Just gotta get some glass, swap out the faulty joystick base. Install 2 small additional buttons on the front panel to exit/pause (I am installing these to avoid explaining that you need to hold down P1 & Coin1 at the same time). I got them from maplins and they should easily install with a 13mm spade bit.
http://www.maplin.co.uk/push-to-make-switch-34858

I got a quote from the glass company and it will be about £35 for a piece of tempered glass with bevelled edges, I shall pop in on Monday to decide which will work better Bronzed or Solar-grey.

As a side note I got some T-shirts in that I had ordered for our Holiday later on in the year



So there she is.  My First build I feel like a proud parent 

[Drnick]

I now feel like a Proud Parent with a stroppy 2 Yr old 

Swapped out the faulty Joystick base, test in 8 way all works good, pull handle up and try to swap to 4 way.  Nope not happening, Pull panel back out again, test manually and it works, Try with handle again and no joy, It just slips and has now chewed up the plastic that the restraining tabs are meant to go into.  Whilst doing this I snapped the plexi that was covering the buttons.

I Just feel like it's 1 step forward and 4 back with this damned thing.  This project was fun when I started but is rapidly beginning to become a test of how much will it take before I turn it into a pile of Firewood? 

I have contacted Andy to see about getting a replacement but in all honesty I am beginning to lose faith and I really don't want to have to change out the Joysticks a 3rd time.  Anyone know if the servostick uses the same mounting holes as a magstick?

I successfully installed the 2 Buttons for Exit/Pause though.  Ended up using a size 16 Spade bit and then the forstener from the back as they are only designed for about 12mm depth when mounting.

[EssexMame]

Stick with it Nick! It looks fantastic and they will all be small problems. Stroppy 2 year old's are easy to deal with once the tantrum ends :-)

[Dawgz Rule]

Drnick, build looks good so keep it up.  I had a similar issue with my magstick slipping when moving from 8 way to 4 way.  I was able to resolve it by ensuring the lock nut on the bottom was a wee bit tighter than I originally had it after assembling it back together.

[Drnick]

Yeah, I'm doing my best to stick with it.  Andy is sending me some replacement switching blocks (Or whatever the technical name for them is). I find at the moment that when the sticks are in 4 way mode they work lovely, return to centre is perfect, nice light touch.  But when I put them into 8 way mode they turn to Poo. Push up on the stick and release and it will 40% of the time bounce the bottom switch and it seems to like getting stuck when going left/right.  Which really ruins a good game of TMNT or Double Dragon

Anyway ordered my glass, ended up ordering Solar Grey, Tempered, Bevelled edges and corners taken off.  size is 529mm X 480mm and cost totalled £35.65.  It's going to take a few days as they have to order in the tempered. They have plain in stock and is about 15% cheaper. But I figured safety first for this one.

I will take some better Pictures once I have received and installed the Glass. 

[EssexMame]

Anyway ordered my glass, ended up ordering Solar Grey, Tempered, Bevelled edges and corners taken off.  size is 529mm X 480mm and cost totalled £35.65.  It's going to take a few days as they have to order in the tempered. They have plain in stock and is about 15% cheaper. But I figured safety first for this one.

What made you choose the Solar Gray, and where did you get it from - I expect its local so may be a decent supplier for mine when/if I ever get to that stage!

[Drnick]

I went to the shop and had a look at the bronzed and the solar grey and just prefered the grey. To be honest neither of the pieces are massively dark but it will take a touch of glare from the equation and it should look good.   The place itself is Basildon Glassworks,  They are just over the road from "The Sporting Village"    Here is their website address.  I basically bunged them an email asking for a quote and giving them the size.

www.basildonglassworks.co.uk