iCade to iCard - man with no woodworking skills tries to save £50

[BazookaJo]

Okay - the missus bought me an "iCade Core" for my birthday - the full iCade was on offer but I reckon £50 for some balsa wood is a bit steep, whereas I reckon for £20 for a bluetooth arcade stick with both android and iPad compatibility ain't too bad....



So - without any woodworking skills, no tools or workshop,  can I make a passable cabinet out of a decent quality card?  Unlikely, but here we go

[BazookaJo]

Okay - congratulations - I've made a box   

[BazookaJo]

Must try harder....

Okay - hacked away a little to make it a bit more interesting......

[BazookaJo]

Added some formers in the base to support the iCade Core + bought some adhesive PVC 'Black wood' to disguise it's humble construction - applied on the inside first...

[BazookaJo]

Kiss my black Ash!!

Wow - it's like I'm right back in my local 80s chip shop....should I add cigarette burns to the case for authenticity I ask myself?

[BazookaJo]

Okay - still boring, some of the PVC is a little bubbly at the top* plus I have a white iPad, can some "white wood" PVC laminate save this?

Also some clear PVC in the garage was hacked from the box the kitchen blinds came in....

[BazookaJo]

The iCade looks best with the iPad in the vertical position, so what's my favourite vertical scroller?  Galaga 88...

Tried printing the marquee on transparency sheet, but it was like a bit 'too' transparent, so printed on some 80gsm paper as well and stuck the transparency over the top - the effect, not too bad TBH...

[BazookaJo]

Okay - on the Galaga 88 theme, the original cabinet seems a little bare, and my "iCard" cabinet needs all the help it can get... Hence my new side panels based on the artwork for the PC Engine game of the same....

[BazookaJo]

Finally - printer back on on line and job done.

Okay - card models are more my thing, so I no a pug when I see it, but when all said and done it would have only taken me a couple of nights working comfortably on the living room carpet had my printer not given up the ghost, plus it was fun while it lasted.

Amateur hour looks aside I fear it's a partial fail anyhow - one of the reasons I picked Galaga 88 is that I knew it was available on the app-store.  What I didn't know was that the app isn't iCade compatible?!? 

Anyhoo - I'll put the wireframe plans up on my website in the next few days should anyone fancy a bit of family fun, though I'm thinking some Balsa would have given a better result....still there's always next time

[Malenko]

I like it! 

[kahlid74]

Works well for the situation.  Good job!

[Drnick]

Impressive. And now you have a template get some thin MDF and make it from that 

[ark_ader]

Sorry, but I think you need to set fire to it and start again.. It looks like a couple hostess dingdong boxes stuck together. You can do better.

There is plenty of plans out there, just gut the innards and buy some MDF.

Do yourself a favour. 

[UFO]

Great little bartop... Nice one...

Sent from my GT-N7105 using Tapatalk 2

[BazookaJo]

Cheers for the comments

TBH I quite like the design (though I would tweak it here and there, especially increasing the height of the marquee), it fits the iCade Core like a glove, and doesn't dwarf the iPad too much, BUT I won't argue that MDF would have made a huge difference.

My only issue is that I can't cut a straight line with a jigsaw for sh*t, plus I'm guessing the art of cutting the angles of the edges (routing/chamfering?!) needs some serious kit.....

That said I think my next step is to head to the woodworking section.

Could be a really useful project to tease me into the world of real woodworking 

[CoryBee]

I know it isn't much, but my first bartops were made with only two tools.

A jigsaw

and

A power drill

You can do straight cuts if you make a little fence\saw board. But with that small you can just cut as straight as you can and sand any imperfections away by hand.

Cheers

[ark_ader]

Cheers for the comments

TBH I quite like the design (though I would tweak it here and there, especially increasing the height of the marquee), it fits the iCade Core like a glove, and doesn't dwarf the iPad too much, BUT I won't argue that MDF would have made a huge difference.

My only issue is that I can't cut a straight line with a jigsaw for sh*t, plus I'm guessing the art of cutting the angles of the edges (routing/chamfering?!) needs some serious kit.....

That said I think my next step is to head to the woodworking section.

Could be a really useful project to tease me into the world of real woodworking 

Buy yourself a kit for about £50.  It will look sweet and when you want something bigger, you can sell it for some decent money.

I know a guy who sells flat packs that are good quality in the UK.

Not Turnarcades but a guy that is easy to deal with.

Besides it will be a nice project to do the missus. 

[Malenko]

Buy yourself a kit for about £50.

Hard to save £50 by spending £50.

[BazookaJo]

Cheers CoryBee

I think I will do some soul searching and consider if it might worth investing in a circular saw - there's many a time a little bit of DIY has been tainted for the lack of a straight cut.....

Now should I delve further in the black arts of woodworking and I need a 45 degree chamfer edge (or any other degree for that matter)  can this be done without decent kit, or is it a case of a plane and a prayer?

Many thanks again

Paul

I know it isn't much, but my first bartops were made with only two tools.

A jigsaw

and

A power drill

You can do straight cuts if you make a little fence\saw board. But with that small you can just cut as straight as you can and sand any imperfections away by hand.

Cheers

[BazookaJo]

You tell him bro 

Plus the B in BYOAC stands for build not buy right ?

Just yanking your chain, but as for a kit, a standard bartop is not what I had in mind - I had an iPad, I had an arcade stick which works with said iPad, and wanted to see if I could contain them both in a case that looked reasonably okay...(I don't find the iCade cabinet particularly inspiring).

The main issue is that the iCade stick base dwarfs the iPad a little, so I wanted to reduce the case in the middle to minimise the dead space, and in this respect the case works, it's just the finish that's says "must try harder" IMO.

So what can I say - my next attempt will be better 

Oh and on the subject of saving money - remember that the creed of BYOAC is to spend £50 on parts and tools to find the £20 worth of materials that work, so then you can brag about how you built yours for a measly £10. 

All I can say is - I'm in! 

Hell - if there was a saluting smiley I'd be using it right now

Buy yourself a kit for about £50.

Hard to save £50 by spending £50.