An Original Fix It Felix Build --- 100% Complete!

[jdbailey1206]

By the weekend I found some time to get a couple more things done.  I cut two short pieces and two more longer pieces to retain the bezel.  Some glue and screws and everything fell into place. 


Pushing forward, a little too fast, I accidentally cut my marquee too short.


Luckily the sheet I had was just big enough so I could cut it again to the correct size. 


After correcting my marquee I installed the marquee light.  It was just a simple 14" under cabinet light.  It can be found at Home Depot.


By the end of the day I spent a little time fixing a couple knicks I had out of the cab.  The major problem I had to fix was the fact that when I had cut the slots for my t-molding I tilted the router slightly towards myself and made the gaps too wide.  A little bit of DAP plastic wood and all I had to do was re cut the slots the next day.


By the end of the day I dry fit the bezel and marquee holders.  No major problems I just have to either expand the marquee artwork or create a black border around my marquee artwork like I have seen on some of the other FFJr cabs so it fits correctly in between the retainers and no light shines through.


Next comes my favorite aspect, paint.  Pbbhhhh.

[meyer980]

Looking pretty sweet. Pepsi seems to be a reoccurring theme in your pictures...must be what jdbailey is powered by. I've always been a Mt. Dew guy myself...higher octane

[jmike]

jdbailey this looks great. Been following your thread, it'll be my guideline for when I build my own Fix It Felix arcade. You and PixelPaul have done an amazing job in recreating these Nintendo Style cabs.

Keep up the good work and keep taking pics, I'll need them.

 

[jdbailey1206]

Looking pretty sweet. Pepsi seems to be a reoccurring theme in your pictures...must be what jdbailey is powered by. I've always been a Mt. Dew guy myself...higher octane

I was on a Mt Dew kick for a while but started to get bad headaches when I went without it.  I really need to cut out my soda though.  I'm starting to get a dickydo.

jdbailey this looks great. Been following your thread, it'll be my guideline for when I build my own Fix It Felix arcade. You and PixelPaul have done an amazing job in recreating these Nintendo Style cabs.

Keep up the good work and keep taking pics, I'll need them.

 

Good to hear I'm helping out.  This build has been fun so far.  I'm kinda regretting the fact that it is going into my old man's man cave.  He keeps pushing me to put Pac Man on to it so I might have to keep this one and build him an actual Pac Man cocktail cabinet.  First I would have to convince my accountant (wife) to let me build it.  She'll probably tell me I can do it as long as I cure cancer first.   

[jdbailey1206]

Nothing too major happened over the following weekend.  I proceeded onto paint.  If I could avoid paint I would.  But it's one of those necessary evils.  If I do a cocktail for my next cab I plan on buying the pre finished shelving.  It's like buying particle board with the laminate already pre applied.  Should save me some time. 

I just used regular painters tape to mask off the different areas. 




On both sides of the inside of the cabinet I used a flat black.


In between letting the layers of paint dry I was able to install the hardware for the control panel.  This included the CP latches, strike plates, and retainer.  These, as of now, are all in stock at Mikes Arcade.




After my flat black had dried I taped the areas for the next coat.  I thought I could get away with a semi gloss but it just didn't give that pop that the gloss had. I also apologize if some of my pictures are a little blurred.  I forgot to use the anti shake feature on my camera so some of them are a little blurred but you get the idea.



I painted the outer sides and bezel retainer with the gloss black.  I thought about going with vinyl on the bezel retainer but I liked how this paint soaks into the wood I got.  It goes in enough just to show the actual wood grain.  I'll try to get a good picture of the results if I can.  I also painted the top of the cab in flat black.  Nobody will ever really see up there so I didn't waste the gloss paint. 

[jdbailey1206]

Over the weekend I was able to get to Sherwin Williams to do a paint match for the Donkey Kong blue color.  I was able to get an exact match thanks to chopperthedog who pulled a small paint chip off of his Donkey Kong restoration.  I unfortunately asked for a oil based enamel.  This will come back to bite me in the ass later in the build.  The paint code can still be found below. 


Like everyone says there is no good way to catch the exact likeness of this blue on camera.  Once I had it applied it was an exact match.


I also received my Nintendo Joystick from Twisted Quarter (not pictured)  and my Classx Leaf Buttons from Groovy Game Gear. 


At the time Randy was back ordered on the yellow buttons.  This didn't pose too much of a problem since he had white and Rit Dye is easy to come by.  I just ordered white buttons and dyed them yellow.  The tutorial can be seen in the following post. 

[jdbailey1206]

Like I had stated previously Groovy Game Gear had the blue buttons I needed in stock but the yellow buttons were out of stock.  I purchased the white ones knowing that the white plastic would easily take the yellow Rit Dye. 

Once I had the buttons I took them apart and gave them a quick wash in warm water.  I took out the leaf switches because for some reason I didn't think the switches would work well after a dip in boiling water and being dyed.   



The Rit Dye package instructions read that I could accomplish my dying job with only hot tap water.  My only problem with this was the package also instructed that I keep the water at this temperature.  To maintain the constant temperature I needed I used an old pot I had gotten from the thrift store and got the temp up to 140 degrees.  It was easy to find the sweet spot for the water with a candy thermometer. 
Again sorry for the blurry photos.


I went with a Golden Yellow color.  I thought this color was going to be over the top but it in the end it was a great choice.


Once I found the sweet spot for the water on the stove I dumped in the whole package just to be safe.  The directions called for a certain ratio but once I measured everything out I only had a teaspoon of dye left so in the mix it went.  The directions called for me to let everything set for only 10 minutes but I pulled out one of the buttons the saturation wasn't what I wanted.  I ended up letting everything cook for close to 30 minutes.


I pulled the buttons out with chopsticks and went to the sink to run them through a quick wash of warm water and dish soap.  Like I said I was afraid the color was going to be too vibrant but it they really came out nice.


Before:


After:


Niiiiice.   

Up next:  Control Panel.

[yotsuya]

Niiiiiiiiiiice is right! Color me impressed! 

[wp34]

Wow.  Nice job on that yellow button.  I would have never thought of doing that.   

Over the weekend I was able to get to Sherwin Williams to do a paint match for the Donkey Kong blue color.  I was able to get an exact match thanks to chopperthedog who pulled a small paint chip off of his Donkey Kong restoration.  I unfortunately asked for a oil based enamel.  This will come back to bite me in the ass later in the build.

I'm curious about your concern for oil-based enamel?

[jdbailey1206]

Niiiiiiiiiiice is right! Color me impressed! 

Wow.  Nice job on that yellow button.  I would have never thought of doing that.   

Over the weekend I was able to get to Sherwin Williams to do a paint match for the Donkey Kong blue color.  I was able to get an exact match thanks to chopperthedog who pulled a small paint chip off of his Donkey Kong restoration.  I unfortunately asked for a oil based enamel.  This will come back to bite me in the ass later in the build.

I'm curious about your concern for oil-based enamel?

Thanks guys.  It was actually an experiment.  I was pretty sure it would work and I didn't want to wait around two months waiting for something to come in.  I knew spray paint wouldn't work because that just coats what you are working on.  So I went to look at Rit Dye's website and they actually have a tutorial on dying buttons and I thought that the material isn't that far off from the buttons we use. 

WP - My main concern about oil based paints is the drying time.  My basement is at about 60 degrees and I didn't take that into consideration when I bought the paint.  The colder the environment the longer it takes for paint to set.  I also didn't get a latex base which has a quicker setting time.  When I went into Sherwin Williams it slipped my mind to tell them to give me a latex and I didn't realize it until I got home.  Not wanting to waste it I used it and it just went downhill from there. 

Being impatient, and because the fact my brother in law is moving into the basement (my work area for the winter) with my wife and I while he's house hunting, I needed to get everything done.  That being said I put a space heater in the basement to hurry along the process but the heater must have been too close to the cab because the oil began to leak out of the paint causing small beads to form on the newly painted surface.

Being in a rush I, like a moron, tried to sand the beads away.  And they were still tacky.  It gave me quite the mess.  As you can see below.


I waited until the next day sand down the one layer of oil enamel and ran to Home Depot first thing in the morning and got a latex based paint.  Luckily for me the oil based layer sanded down enough and I applied three coats of the latex within hours.


Hence the biting me in the ass.   
 

[Malenko]

do you happen to have the bezel art?

[jdbailey1206]

do you happen to have the bezel art?

PM sent sir.

[jmike]

Glad you where able to reapply the paint. (lesson learned for next time)
Patience in this hobby is crucial at times, believe me, I've been there. 

Looks great!!!!!


 

[wp34]

That looks fantastic!

[talkgeek]

That looks fantastic!

I second that!  - definitely watching this build, showing great skills, and thanks for covering all the steps, this cab is on my to do list.

[Malenko]

The finish looks fantastic!  Any reason you didnt paint the front at the same time?

[SORHP]

I see that you are thinking of using a smaller monitor later, I believe the 19" is the best way to go, I have a 19" in my fifjr cab, and I think it is perfect

[jdbailey1206]

Thanks for the support guys.  I know it sounds cliche but it really motivates me.  To anyone who has asked for the artwork I'll try accommodate you asap.  The year has really ramped up quickly.  A lot of family ordeals on both sides (All good!) have kept me busy.  I thought if I did this project during the winter months I wouldn't have to juggle it with anything.  Boy was I wrong.   

Malenko.  Two things.  First, thank you for sharing the artwork with Haruman.  I haven't gotten a chance to do much besides work and find a couple minutes during break at work to post updates.  Second, I didn't paint the front panel because I knew the coin door opening was too small and I didn't want to have to repaint if I made a mistake making the hole bigger.  So I waited until I got my coin door back from the sand blaster to remeasure and recut the hole before I painted.  Plus I wanted to drill the bolt holes before I painted. 

SORHP.  The 19" is working out well.  When I first installed it I thought it would be too big but I got a good angle on the monitor by creating a mockup of the bezel and once I played a few games with it on it felt fine.  The thing that was aggravating me the most was the actual monitor bezel was only 1/4" away from the glass bezel but once I removed the bezel from the monitor I gained 1/8" of space between the monitor and the bezel and it looks fine.

[Malenko]

I was asking on behalf of Haruman    I'm gonna host the files somewhere so ppl will bug you less.  I didnt know your coin door hole was too small for the coin door, but thats a great idea.  I look forward to more progress pix

[jdbailey1206]

Before I started on the painting debacle, which I have already given you a preview of, I worked on my control panel.  It didn't take long for me to find proper measurements for the CP.  The measurements, along with detailed pictures, can be found over at KLOV. 

Like I said before I used a pine board that I picked up at Home Depot.  As of right now I can't find the sku but I make enough trips to Home Depot during the week that I can get it for anyone that needs it.  I was a little concerned because the board itself is glued together pieces of what looks to be 2" wide boards but it has really held up. 

Front:


Back:


I had a couple hiccups when I created the CP.  I first drilled my 1 1/8" hole for the joystick to gauge where my joystick needed to be.  But the problem began when I started to route out the first hole for the upper plate of the joystick.  I made a guide that my bushing could follow but my feeble brain forgot to place 1/8" mdf in between the guide and CP.  It took me a couple minutes of my router only plunging half the distance before I realized you can't cut the wood if your router it isn't touching what it needs to cut.   

After that debacle everything went a little smoother.  I measured and drilled my holes for the joystick bolts and routed out the bottom for my joystick.  Everything was a really snug fit.  This wasn't a problem.  I would rather get things in with a little elbow grease than have the joystick be loose right from the beginning.

The last and minor problem I had was I initially mounted my strike plates for my control panel with wood screws.  They, unfortunately, were loose right from the get go.  I would latch my cp down and it would wiggle a little too much during game play.


Going through my stash of screws I found small tapered head bolts that I could wrench down and it gave a tighter hold.



Once I got the joystick and buttons mounted I mounted my Kade Encoder and got it all wired up.


Sorry for the shadow on this last picture.  My fat head got in the way of the light.   

[jdbailey1206]

Today's lesson:  Haste makes waste.

After I got my control panel all wired up I ended up breaking the usb head off of my encoder.     There isn't much distance between encoder and the front exterior wall of the cabinet.  Instead of inserting the usb extension onto the encoder after I put the cp in I tried to put the cp onto the cabinet with the extension on.  Oh well.  Luckily I did this on a Monday.  I ordered a new encoder and I received it by Thursday.  404 recommended I keep everything and try to solder it together.  I will most likely do this when I get better at soldering.  But that's not today.

[jbenesh]

You might want to swap out that pine panel with some plywood or mdf before you go much farther.  Real wood is unstable and will expand and contract with varying levels of humidity.  Plywood is more stable due to the grain running different directions each layer.   I would hate to see your CP expand and damage your cab. 

[jdbailey1206]

You might want to swap out that pine panel with some plywood or mdf before you go much farther.  Real wood is unstable and will expand and contract with varying levels of humidity.  Plywood is more stable due to the grain running different directions each layer.   I would hate to see your CP expand and damage your cab.

Benesh - It should be fine.  The CP has spent more than 3 months in my basement.  A pretty humid place.  If it really goes south I'll just create a new one.  Wasn't that hard to create in the first place. 

[jdbailey1206]

I've already told everyone of my whole paint mishap.  Below I've listed a picture of the Behr Latex paint I used.  It yielded nice even coats. 


The paint code is shown below.


If anyone can't decipher the label it reads:
Behr Ultra
Base: 7754
PP Ultra Int Satin\Satin
Custom Color Match
CLRNT     DL     EL     TL
384th      50     303   19
Quart

If you need this color and can't access the internet in the paint store I found that Behr's Liquid Blue was almost an exact match for the Donkey Kong blue.  It's not perfect but damn close.

[404]

Today's lesson:  Haste makes waste.

After I got my control panel all wired up I ended up breaking the usb head off of my encoder.     There isn't much distance between encoder and the front exterior wall of the cabinet.  Instead of inserting the usb extension onto the encoder after I put the cp in I tried to put the cp onto the cabinet with the extension on.  Oh well.  Luckily I did this on a Monday.  I ordered a new encoder and I received it by Thursday.  404 recommended I keep everything and try to solder it together.  I will most likely do this when I get better at soldering.  But that's not today.

If you want, you can send it to me and I'll solder it back for you. Or, I can give you one of my minimus units and we can just swap out. I might even have a locking male usb connector somewhere around here. My soldering skills are WAAAAYYYYY better than my wood working skills. 

[PL1]

If you exchnge AVRs, you'll need two of these from the KADE associated parts list:

  Pin socket, 12 position, .1"/2.54mm terminal spacing
M20-7821242
2 ea
Harwin Inc
http://www.digikey.com/product-search/en?keywords=M20-7821242


Scott

[404]

If you exchnge AVRs, you'll need two of these from the KADE associated parts list:

  Pin socket, 12 position, .1"/2.54mm terminal spacing
M20-7821242
2 ea
Harwin Inc
http://www.digikey.com/product-search/en?keywords=M20-7821242


Scott

yep, i know. Buddy of mine has quite a box load of minimus units as we were both mutual friends of someone at team XCE.  He ended up with a sizeable batch of 16 and 32 units.

Degeneatrons was gracious enough to send me two KADE addon boards when the project was completed but he forgot to send me the terminal posts. I ended up buying a few of them. I'll use them to replace the board as a worst case scenario.

the pics of the AVR aren't detailed enough for me to see clearly but it almost looks like the solder pads are still intact. Perhaps during production that corner of the board simply didn't heat up well enough.

[jdbailey1206]

Scott, 404 - Wouldn't it be easier just to replace the USB Type A Connector?  Since it only has 4 connectors I need to solder instead of purchasing 2x 12 way sockets and having to solder 24 times.  And if I'm not mistaken isn't each 32 minimus coded to each individual PCB?  The two of you would know better than I would. 

[jdbailey1206]

Got my coin door today from one of the members over at KLOV.  $30 was a pretty good deal in my opinion for what condition it was in.  I didn't need all the bells and whistles on it because I knew I was going to modify it for my needs.



Malenko - I also didn't paint the front of the cab is because I still had to sand the underside of the speaker panel and paint the inside of the speaker holes.  If I did the black first then I could easily sand and paint over with blue any black areas that bled on me.  You can see from the picture below how close the coin door was to fitting when I first got it.

[meyer980]

Looking really good. Thanks for posting paint codes, that's always appreciated. Looking forward to seeing what you do with the coin door.

[404]

Scott, 404 - Wouldn't it be easier just to replace the USB Type A Connector?  Since it only has 4 connectors I need to solder instead of purchasing 2x 12 way sockets and having to solder 24 times.  And if I'm not mistaken isn't each 32 minimus coded to each individual PCB?  The two of you would know better than I would.

That's what i was offering to do for you. Re-solder the connector or replace it. If all else fails, i can probably get you a replacement.

[jdbailey1206]

Welp I must be on a mission to sabotage my cp.  I went to install the wires for the speaker I got yesterday and almost bent the usb head off of my second encoder.  I caught myself before I did it but maaaaaaaan.  Nothing too exciting for the speaker and mini amp.  I'll get pictures up as soon as I get my speaker grill in and I have everything installed.  Until that time - We're sending you back to the future!....Uh, sorry.  I mean...Back to the build!

Here, as Malenko has requested, is a fully painted front.  At this stage I still had a little clean up to do around the edges and my primer was still showing around the speaker holes.  Easy enough fix with a small hobby brush.


I didn't get much accomplished this day.  I was able to finish my back door.  I had some trouble finding out how the bottom hole was covered.  When I did some research on the internet I stumbled across a youtube video of a Popeye restoration.  I came to find the hole was just slightly covered with some angled pieces of wood as seen below.


After that was completed I just flipped it over for a one quick coat of paint and set it aside to dry.


The final project I took care of that day was creating a custom serial plate.  Member CoryBee started making them over a year ago.  The post can be found here.  You can make them yourselves from either my directions or Cory's.  From my understandiing CoryBee is willing to sell them for One Schrute Buck.     Pretty good deal if you ask me.

To create the serial plate you need Avery Easy Peel Clear Inkjet Labels,Rustoleum Triple Thick Glaze, and an Aluminum Sheet or like CoryBee be smart enough to just use a pop can.  I used the aluminum sheet because it was a little more sturdier. 
Now you can either get a media file from CoryBee or if you are artistically inclined you can create one yourself in your favorite media editing program.  When you have it your specifications just print it out.  NOTE:  Don't be like me and accidentally touch the ink after it is printed.     After you have your serial plate printed immediately spray on your Triple glaze. 


I did three very light coats.  When doing this don't go heavy.  Just hold the can about three inches above your paper and lightly spray back and forth covering the whole paper.

Once it was dry I cut about an inch border around the serial plate and affixed it to my aluminum sheet.  Cutting it out of the aluminum sheet was a little bit of a bear.  This is where I think the aluminum can would come in handy.  But a small file fixed my problem. 




Outside of painting my coin door there are no real major projects in site.  I can see the light at the end of the tunnel.  Hope it's not a train.   

[jdbailey1206]

During the week I got my coin mechs from Twisted Quarter.  They can be found here.  I didn't want this machine to have to rely on coins.  So I took a page from chopperthedog's build and modified the coin acceptors I got from Twisted Quarter.
To modify the coin acceptors I used Nintendo Coin Button holders that I found on ebay.  I just removed the actual button holder with tin snips and bent the remaining metal so that it sat my switch close to the coin button return. 



Then when the coin return button is pushed in turn it will trigger the switch to activate and tell the computer that a coin or credit has been applied.



Now I have to decide whether I want to keep the original coin catch which is on the right or use the one from Mikes Arcade on the left.  The one from Mikes Arcade is bulky and I may just keep with the original.

[Malenko]

lookin good!

[jdbailey1206]

lookin good!

Thanks Malenko!  But how does the cab look?

[Malenko]

lookin good!

Thanks Malenko!  But how does the cab look?

*almost* as good :*

[Generic Eric]

I didn't get much accomplished this day.  I was able to finish my back door.  I had some trouble finding out how the bottom hole was covered.  When I did some research on the internet I stumbled across a youtube video of a Popeye restoration.  I came to find the hole was just slightly covered with some angled pieces of wood as seen below.

I don't understand what I am looking at.  Do you have a link to the video?  Or a picture of this back door in use?

[jdbailey1206]

A picture of the back door in use is a whole other website.     But I have attached photos to hopefully make it more clear. 

This is the front of the back door.  It's hard to make out but there is an opening at the bottom.  In all pictures I have seen it has been covered up somehow. 


This is the back with the wood installed.


I couldn't quite figure it out until I saw the following youtube video.    At about 1:03 you can see the Popeye back door in the background.  It is essentially just wood covering up the hole for ventilation purposes I assume.

Disclaimer:  I in no way condone what that bearded gentlemen did to the Popeye cab.  If you have a weak stomach please DO NOT watch the preceding video.  Please keep all small children, women, and animals way from the screen if you decide to watch.  View at your own risk.   

[Malenko]

pole position did the same thing

[jdbailey1206]

Back door?  Pole Position?  Perverts.