Mission Control Project: 5 years on, what to do with the leftovers?

[RetroACTIVE]

Truly a work of art/scupture/fine furniture... certainly beyond an arcade cabinet. 

...and here I am complaining about how many steps my puny particle board cabinet took.

[ChadTower]

Pipe clamps are cool.

[nostrebor]

Unless you are going to use a transparent stain finish why use real wood for the sides?

He is staining the wood a deep rich color.

markrvp's quote immediately brings Ricardo Montalban to mind

[Pixelhugger]

markrvp's quote immediately brings Ricardo Montalban to mind

Deet I meintion dee corinthian leather I'll be using?

[Zakk]

oooh oooh!  Will it be RICH Corinthian leather!??!? 

[billf]

oooh oooh!

[markrvp]

* markrvp makes note to never use marketing descriptions in BYOAC threads again

[ChadTower]

Be more broad.  If you use words in BYOAC threads, it will come back to haunt you.

[DrewKaree]

Certainly a different approach with the thickness of the wood and assembly. A question I don't know the answer to, with this much material is temperature expansion going to be an issue?

expansion and contraction are always an issue with wooden objects.  It's why a window might stick (although with vinyl windows dominating, not so much of a problem anymore).  Usually it's not a pressing concern, like nos mentioned, but to not account for it at all is to invite trouble.

One more reason why MDF is such a nice material for the projects we undertake.  Movement in MDF/Plywood/OSB is pretty much nil due to the way the products are created.

If you have any wood doors in your house, check a few of the joints to see what I'm talking about, and what nos is explaining.  It DOES happen, but with the right planning, its effect is minimized.

And the Chrysler Corrrrrrrrrr-do-ba wasn't this nicely appointed!

[Pixelhugger]

Fear of twisting and cupping in the panel was actually one of the big reasons for going with 2" over 1"

The extra beefy thick sides are just icing on the design cake.

I thought that Ricardo Montalban comment was so funny I put together a third mock ad.

[billf]

Now that's damn impressive.   

[Pixelhugger]

Especially when you consider that's really a picture of me standing next to my white 94 Mustang. 

[nostrebor]

That picture would be much more accurate if you Photoshopped a pic of PaigeOliver over Ricardo.

I have it on good authority that Paige has hauled full size cabinets in a Lebaron vert.

Oh, and LOL at this pic.

[Flinkly]

i guess if you include that ad, we'll consider the side panels 70 percent done.

by the way, awesome photoshop.  only 37 more pages of BS to fill your coffee table book.  and heck, if it's got ads like that, i'll buy one.  then again, you'd have to finish your arcade cabinet first. 

[AmericanDemon]

He better put in favorite quotes from this thread throughout it in margins.  He should also print off a full reproduction of this thread.

Whoo Hoo 1200 posts!

[nostrebor]

Has anyone else noticed the Terminator arm coming out of the tailpipe of the car in the shadow to the right of Rico?

Weird.

Edit: added some smileys so Flinky won't think I'm serious

[Flinkly]

i did, i just figured he was supposedly standing in front of a futuristic auto assembly plant, and that was a shadow from a car being assembled by a robotic arm....like it was welding on it or something.

i don't think it's supposed to be some obscure reference to the terminator.  was that movie even out yet?  i only ask since i'm not familiar with the lebaron's heritage.

[Pixelhugger]

Just got my latest box of goodies from Happ.

This one contained the trackball mounting plate and the industrial strength kiosk keyboard assembly. I'll be making a custom overlay (with labels beneath the function keys) and insetting the assembly in a cherry frame which will pull out from beneath the bow front of the CP. So the keyboard will be built in to its own custom panel, to keep the whole thing feeling like a production game. I wanted to avoid the.. "oooh it's a PC" remark when the keyboard tray slides out. This way it feels more like a kiosk or "game with a keyboard built in" 

I imagine the keyboard will see a ton of use since I plan on making a browser available within the FE for a seemless game/internet transition. So it'll be our "always on" easy access to the internet. It'll also stream XM radio and serve as a juke. Anything I can do to make it more relevant for my wife increases the chance it will find a permanent home in the family room.

[RetroACTIVE]

NICE!... I love the integrated approach....

[Pixelhugger]

Thanks Retro - sometimes I think I'm talking crazy talk and no one will care.

This is the space for the labels. I'll cut two holes in the plexi overlay - one for the function keys and one for the rest. The edges of the plexi will get the bullnosed trackball hole treatment. The overlay will be themed to the rest of the art and be sandwiched beneath the plexi. The labels will run under the plexi between the two sets of keys.

[RetroACTIVE]

have you considered, frosted/opaque letters for the overlay so you could feed it light from the side?

[Pixelhugger]

Like that CAF panel! Man that'd be sweet. If not for the letters then maybe at least a design around the keyboard... hmmm

[RetroACTIVE]

sometimes I think I'm talking crazy talk and no one will care

Not crazy...

[Santoro]

Speaking of streamimg XM, have you checked out Xamp Desktop?

[Pixelhugger]

Cool.. thanks Dave!

[DrewKaree]

Just musing aloud here.

Dunno who makes it, but it was used in Dream Machine '05....they make a keyboard with blank keys.  No letters, numbers, NOTHING.  What about picking up one of those, removing the casing from it, and setting the whole thing into a piece of cherry.  Dunno if you need actual keyboard usage, or if you simply want to customize a few keys here and there, but you could make it so the top of the cherry slab is even with the keys, as if you're pushing IN each button, rather than having it like a keyboard.  The blank keys would allow you to set up each button for whatever you need it for, and you could label them whatever you wanted, say a one-button macro for XM would have the button labeled (duh!) "XM". 

Just seeing what sticks.

[Pixelhugger]

What is this... how you say... Dream Machine??? Link?

There's also a keyboard in development that uses tiny lcds (oleds?) on the surface of each key. They can change to be application specific for games, graphic apps, video editing, etc.... That'd rock too.

[DrewKaree]

What is this... how you say... Dream Machine??? Link?

Couldn't give a link for it, but it's MaximumPC's Dream Machine they do each year.  Here's a link for the keyboard, so you can see what I'm talking aboot.  OLED's were what I first thought of, but I figured when they finally get to a decent price range, THEN you can swap it out, but for now....

Linky:

http://www.xoxide.com/das-keyboard.html

[Flinkly]

cool keyboard...maybe i'll get one of those for a future project.  how do the keys feel?  is it loud and do the keys have a large actuating force?  also, what is the distance from the top of the keys to your mounting hole plate?  will you have enough room to put cherry and plexiglass above the plate?  you could always do the cherry below and the overlay and plexiglass above, but then you'd have to router for it.

[Pixelhugger]

Thats cool... kinda reminds me of the Twilight Zone movie with the girl with no face. 

Flink- The keyboard will get recessed into the cherry as will about 1/4 of the plexi to give the whole thing an inlaid feel.

Not sure if you were asking about the feel of my Happs keyboard or the DasKeyboard, but as for mine the keys are super clicky. Like an old IBM PC - almost exactly the same feel. Not a lot of force required.

Next update will be trackball moutning.

Between dropping the kids off at day care and leaving for work I marked out the location of the tball mounting plate, cut the hole for the trackball, drilled the holes for the bolts and then ran out of time right before routing the recession for the plate.

[Pixelhugger]

Continuing the integrated input/output theme...

I just ordered these from Markertek. For peripheral connections... Firewire and USB panel mounts. These'd make great additions to a stand alone CP.. wish I'd known about them on my previous control panels.

[Santoro]

Whoa! I have been looking for someting jsut like those.  Nice find.

[Pixelhugger]

I don't think I can link directly to the item but go to markertek.com They're about $5 each and shipping for two (priority) is about $3.

The firewire mount is item NA1394-6-B (for the black one - no pic available)
The USB mount is item NAUSB-B (again for black)

For the natural metal finish leave off the -B from the item number.

[versapak]

I love the design you are going for. I can't stand wood finishes, but then it aint my cab.

One thing I don't understand though, and skimming through all 15 pages here, maybe I missed the answer, but...


Are you building this thing to be played on the front lines of World War III?

Do Mac trucks regularly drive through your gaming area?

Will it be part of an airplane crash test?


In case the question isn't obvious...

Why in the world are you making THAT dang surdy?

Seems like it could have been finished ages ago had you just gone with some good quality plywood.

[Pixelhugger]

Why in the world are you making THAT dang surdy?

Well the thickness of the sides isn't really intended to add sturdiness. (Other than minimizing twisting and warping). It's more about the look/design. From the front plywood would have looked like plywood. In order to look like solid wood the edges had to be solid wood. That look was very important to me in this design.

Seems like it could have been finished ages ago had you just gone with some good quality plywood.

From the start I have wanted the cabinet to be an artistic, almost caricaturistic take on the arcade cabinets that awed me as a kid. My brother constantly criticizes me for not using MDF and laminate to make it authentic. My response to him is always that it's not about authenticity... it's about design... and recapturing the way I felt as a kid standing in front of something bigger than life... only this time it's something I've created.

When I was a kid my parents used to drag us kids down to my dad's professional meetings during the summer in Carmel. While it's since become a high brow yuppified art walk, back then it was a small town full of unusual craftsmen and artists. I'd tag along as my parents went into stained glass and hand made furntiture studios and I remember being impressed with the skill of the woodworkers. They'd often build unusual takes on common things... a lamp shaped like an oak tree or a coffee table carved from an old redwood burl. The kind of stuff you'd never see mass produced. Everything was a "one off" expression of how the artist saw the piece. These people could easily have gone to the local hardware store to buy 3" dowels or 2x4's but that would have completely defeated the purpose of why they were building to begin with.

It's not to invalidate other kinds of projects, it's just that my goals and interest in doing this are different. My next cabinet will likely be black laminate with chrome t-moulding as my interest in that project is different as well.

Here are a few pictures of the types of projects I saw as a kid that left an impression on me. These are pulled from Fine Woodworking magazine. Unfortunately I couldn't find the most appropriate one, a chest of drawers shaped like the lamp below.

Spend some time in the readers gallery in Fine Woodworking and I think the plywood question will answer itself. An archive of the magazine's readers gallery is at: http://www.taunton.com/finewoodworking/pages/fw_readshow_home.asp

[Pixelhugger]

Oh, and yes... I do take the project too seriously. I'll be the first to admit it.

[Bones]

Oh, and yes... I do take the project too seriously. I'll be the first to admit it.

Nothing wrong with having a passion.

Although I previously gave you some slacker-flack regarding the plethora of time to actually get started, I am very excited to see this thing start to take its shape.

Keep the pics coming man, it's obvious this community is watching closely and we are all pretty damn excited.

[Pixelhugger]

I appreciate that BB.

Before my daughter was born my dad spent months making a cradle for her. He used the rosewood I had hoped to find for this project, and trimmed it in ebony. The rails are all mortise and tenon. The base of the bed, hidden beneath the cushion, is a joined up panel of rosewood. The knobs used to stop the cradle from swinging are hand carved from solid ebony.

He could have made it from plywood... he could have butt jointed the rails and he could have bought the knobs. But he didn't.

[versapak]

And there is the explanation I failed to find in the 15 page skim.

I am very excited to see this project reach completion, as I am sure the time and care you are putting into it will no doubt show through greatly.

Until you posted those pictures of the artistically designed other items, I had failed to envision anything beyond just a wood grained arcade cab. I can now see more of the look you are going for, and wish you well on your way.

Of course I am now even more curious about the outcome, and wish I had decided not to enter this thread until it said 100% COMPLETE.

[markrvp]

Show us the trackball!










Please