My first build : Clint. Finished.

[yamatetsu]

Thanks ! I'll try to hunt down that stuff. Good to know that there is a solution for this. That does wonders for my blood pressure 

[dkersten]

Oh come on, you don't want to do your CP a third time? (or is it 4th?) 

[yamatetsu]

Yes, have fun yanking my chain 

As much as I love doing this (ha !), this will be a sink or swim. The face I have done 3 or 4 times, but this ... the tiny cuts on these suckers turn it from fun into not so fun. It took bloody ages, I was afraid that I couldn't do the cuts, then I was afraid that I would tear something off while removing the protective film from the stickers, THEN I was afraid that I wouldn't be able to put them on the CP. So if this turns out bad, I might have to do the face again.

[Rick]

Yep. Anything glossy that goes under plexiglas or glass gets hit with a light coat of that. Works wonders.

I just want to confirm, you spray matte clearcoat spray over your control panel overlay, let it dry, and then you can use an acrylic cover without worrying about the press-down effects mentioned above? (I had that on my first machine, wherever the buttons tightened down.)

If this is right, then this is an amazing tip! Thanks!

[yotsuya]

Yep. Anything glossy that goes under plexiglas or glass gets hit with a light coat of that. Works wonders.

I just want to confirm, you spray matte clearcoat spray over your control panel overlay, let it dry, and then you can use an acrylic cover without worrying about the press-down effects mentioned above? (I had that on my first machine, wherever the buttons tightened down.)

If this is right, then this is an amazing tip! Thanks!

Si, Ricardo. Works muy bueno.

[Rick]

Si, Ricardo. Works muy bueno.

Yots, my man!

[yotsuya]

Si, Ricardo. Works muy bueno.

Yots, my man!

You just need a light coat, BTW. Too heavy, and you'll get frosting. Just a light dusting so you know it's coated, let it dry, and you're golden.

[Vigo]

I need one of you clearcoat guru's to start a thread on your favorite clearcoating products. There are some awesome products, and I too often end up buying the lame ducks.

[yotsuya]

I need one of you clearcoat guru's to start a thread on your favorite clearcoating products. There are some awesome products, and I too often end up buying the lame ducks.

This is what I use:

http://www.krylon.com/products/low-odor-clear-finish/



I do try to find the low odor version so I can spray it inside. NOTE: The cans are the same for regular and matte. The plastic cover on top will say MATTE in black letters...

[Vigo]

Thanks for the tip, brother! 

[yamatetsu]

My sister had some transparent matte spray that is used to fix chalk paintings and such. It is alcohol based and contains shellac and synthetic resin. I gave the CP three light coats of this. It works.

When I put in the buttons for the mockup, I noticed that the top lexan layer warps in the trackball area  I'm starting to really get pissed off with this fricking thing. Now I have to put two screws into the lower black stripe, because one will not be enough to completely stop the warping.

[yamatetsu]

The neverending CP story continues. The wet effect is back. After having applied the spray I pressed the lexan down as hard as I could, no wet effect. I put the buttons in, wired everything, turned the CP around - hello wet effect 
I'll take everything apart again and give the art another coat, I hope that does it.

I made a bezel. After having read the $2 cardboard bezel thread somewhere in this forum, I wanted to do a version without all the measuring. My take on this :

- I need thick cardboard, thin black cardboard and doubletape

- Get the screen measurements, mark the rectangle on the thick blackboard and cut it out

- mark the rectangle on the black cardboard with a pencil

- make a second rectangle, each side 3 cm smaller

- cut the smaller rectangle out
 
- make diagonal lines from the corner points of the small rectangle to those of the larger rectangle

- Cut along the lines

- now I have four 'lips' that I can wrap around the thick cardboard

- put doubletape on both sides of the thick cardboard and the space between them

- if I put the black cardboard on the thick cardboard and wrap it around it, the corners will not be covered in black because of the diagonal cuts. To solve this, I simply cut out four small strips of black cardboard and place them on the corners. They will be held in place by the rest of the cardboard.

Some pics :

The thick cardboard + doubletape + four corner strips



The back side of the black cardboard, you can see one of lips sticking up on the left



The finished bezel



And the bezel under the glass

[yamatetsu]

I grabbed some cheap LED strips and made my marquee lights. The cables between them were too short, so I had to extend them. Doesn't look nice, but works.



Also, I glued & screwed some bits & pieces together. Here I hit my next problem : The hinges I used don't work for the door. I made a small mockup that worked well. The real size door doesn't. So, the former door will now be glued to the sides, access to the cab will be via the fully removable back panel.

This is a pic of the cab with the former door, the CP box and the marquee board and the speaker board glued on, the top, the glass and the back will be glued later.



A zoom of the lower part :



And one of the upper part :

[yamatetsu]

Not much progress. I managed to crack my tinted glass by screwing it too tight onto the frame. It had holes made for countersinking the screws, my screws were slightly too big, they couldn't be countersunk but worked fine.
Since the screws weren't going to be visible, this was just fine.
But no, I had to go and find smaller screws that could be countersunk, thereby fixing the glass into place so that it couldn't move.

Next time I lifted it up, it had a large crack in it. So even 1/4 inch thick glass is still as brittle as glass.
That one cost me about 130$. Now I have ordered bronze tinted lexan. Hope that works out.

I screwed and glued the second side panel and the top on.

A pic of the top :



I wonder why my camera manages to capture the ugliest part in glorious detail while the other pics are rather blurry. I think it's on purpose.

Here's a pic of the speakers :




The inside doesn't look quite so nice :



And finally a shot of the installed marquee LEDs :



Oh, and for all the fans of me redoing things, the CP art didn't work out. I just can't get rid of the wet effect, so it has to be redone, this time on cardboard without gloss.

I went to the store to purchase some stickers, only to discover that they are not available any more. The whole brand has been swapped with a cheaper one. I bought some of those stickers, they really are cheap. You almost can't distinguish the sticker and the back side. They can be cut like a dream, but painting them ...
So, all the work for nothing. Again.
I managed to hunt down a scrap piece of the good stickers which was barely big enough. So the Clints are cut out again and painted.
I even remembered to make the right Clint smaller so that he doesn't hit his head on the button.

Finally, I have a question : Can someone please tell me how to get CHDs working in MAME ?

I use MAMe 0.149, have the romset for it, also some CHDs for 0.149. Each CHD has it's own correctly named directory, which should be put into MAME's rom directory. This I did, but no dice.
MAME keeps telling me that something is missing. I also put the CHD directly into the rom directory and (just for fun) into the rom .zip, nothing helps.

[yotsuya]

That's too bad about the wet effect. I just sprayed a full marquee for my barstick project with no issue, no stickiness.

[yamatetsu]

The only stuff from Krylon I can get here would be "Krylon 11-Ounce Low Odor Clear Gloss Finish Aerosol Spray" which would cost me 34 Euros / 45 $. That's a bit steep for using it once. So, back to cardboard it is. 

[dkersten]

Not positive on when the mame version changes happened, but there are versions 4 and version 5 CHD's, and some can be converted and some can't using the CHDman program.  Most of what I found were older versions, and while some work, many don't.  Use clrmamepro to scan your CHD's (make sure you use the right dat for your version of mame) and you will find out what you have that is right and what isn't.  It is somewhat complicated, but once you dig into it a bit and read up, you will be able to clean up your existing roms and CHD files and get it all perfect. 

You can either have them in folders named after the ROM, or even just put all the CHD's in your root rom folder.  If it is named right and is the right version, it will work.

[yamatetsu]

Thanks ! I'll try that.

[Pinfritz]

  you made my day.... cutting and painting like a boss! 

[yamatetsu]

Thanks ! It's starting to come together now. I must say, it's really cool to see a design made months ago slowly becoming reality, and, thanks to you guys here, even better than planned.

[yamatetsu]

I finally got the CP art right. I went with white cardboard, painted black cardboard for the stripes and stickers for the Clints. Since the 'real' bullet holes I made do not pop that much, I wanted to give the clipart holes a chance. Here are the cutouts :



And the final version of the CP :



Thanks to Vigo for pushing me to do this. It came out pretty good, I think.

[Vigo]

Wow, dude. That is looking awesome!  I can't wait to see all these different pieces come together! 

[yamatetsu]

Me neither Although I have to admit that at times I'm strangely reluctant to finish this, because then ... it's over. I hope to put it all together next week, but since I've blown every deadline so far, this is not set in stone 

[Vigo]

Although I have to admit that at times I'm strangely reluctant to finish this, because then ... it's over.

When you realize just how much you like the endless toiling for perfection on your cab, it is proof positive that you are meant for this hobby. There is always build #2. Welcome to the club.





One of us! One of Us! Gooble Gobble Gooble Gobble!

[yamatetsu]

There is always build #2.

Must ... fight ... to ... resist ...

Build #2 is unlikely at the moment, as I don't even have the space for Clint, let alone for another one. Also, there is nothing more awesome than Clint 

[johnrt]

Must ... fight ... to ... resist ...

No point in resisting! So far I've built one fullsize cab and three bartops... it never ends!   

[pbj]

So what are your plans for the light guns and holsters?

[Slippyblade]

Although I have to admit that at times I'm strangely reluctant to finish this, because then ... it's over.

It's never over.  This becomes an addiction.  You will always be tweaking and adding to the existing cab.  Friends will want one of their own.  You'll suddenly decide you want a dedicated 4 way cab.  or a jukebox.  and then you find an old dedicated cab at a great price that you decide needs a restoration...

[yamatetsu]

So what are your plans for the light guns and holsters?

The light guns stay in their holsters. A 24" monitor IMHO is too small for that, especially when two people are milling about ... Me and a friend of mine used to play Point Blank and
Time Crisis II+III on a 35" TV, also House of the dead III on Dreamcast, sending zombies into bullet hell. Fun times.

Friends will want one of their own.  You'll suddenly decide you want a dedicated 4 way cab.  or a jukebox.  and then you find an old dedicated cab at a great price that you decide needs a restoration...

Nah, that is no great risk. Too few people for 4-way, my sound system is way too good for a jukebox and restoration is out because in Germany you don't find cabs to restore since there are next to no arcades. A friend wanting one though ... We'll see.

[Slippyblade]

Nah, that is no great risk. Too few people for 4-way, my sound system is way too good for a jukebox and restoration is out because in Germany you don't find cabs to restore since there are next to no arcades. A friend wanting one though ... We'll see.

You say that now.  I'll remember to have a nice long laugh at your expense when the next project thread rolls through. 

[yamatetsu]

Okay. But don't hold your breath ... You'll go all purple 
We'll see.

[talkgeek]

you guys are talking like he's finished this project ...  

I want to see pics of the completed cab before talk of cab #2  - though agree once the drug bug is present (and you sir do have it) you'll be looking for place's to house your new creations / restorations (I'm up to 9 and only started restoring my 1st in Dec 2009)

Have to say I'm really liking how the CP turned out

Your whole approach to this project has been quite courageous - I'm def in the category of little / no artistic skills (hence the purchase of a vinyl cutter) but your work here proves you can achieve great results with minimal tools - well done! 

[yamatetsu]

Thanks !

I don't have to look very far for space because there simply is none, unless I move. Which I planned to do in february / march, but life got in the way.

Glad to hear that the CP seems to be acceptable now 

I would call my approach to this more ignorant that courageous   
The old cliche really is true : You don't know what you are capable of until you actually do it.

Unfortunately, I also am in the category of little / no artistic skills, so I am really dreading having to come up with the MaLa theme. That one will most probably suck.

A little progress has been made. I have screwed the inner bezel and the tinted lexan onto the frame and screwed it into the cab.

I then made the marquee and got a lot of light bleed. I also discovered that a black sticker gets a bit transparent if you put a bright light behind it. So it is not a good idea to use non-transparent double tape to attach it to the plexi.

Basically - you guessed it - I will have to redo the whole thing. Luckily, this time I only have to cut out the 'CLINT' text, the rest will be printed. Still, my motivation for today is used up, so I will leave that for tomorrow.

Things left to do :

- the marquee
- install the monitor
- install the CP
- install the computer
- install the sound system
- a bit of wiring

and of course, almost everything software related.

[yamatetsu]

The marquee. I assembled the marquee, put it into the cab and fought the Evil Lightbleed.

I started with my trusty black cardboard and cut out the 'CLINT' text and the shape of the picture.



Then I printed the picture and a gradient that goes behind the 'CLINT' cutout on stickers, but left the protective film on because it diffuses light nicely.



Here is everything put together :



The light behind the marquee is pretty bright, so I thought about ways to dim it. Since I had leftovers of tinted lexan, I made a front layer out of it. As usual, the reflections make it look bad, in reality it looks really good, it adds a nice touch of understatement.



I put the marquee into the cab, only to find that it is not high enough by 2 millimeters or so, so I get a lot of light bleed. So the idea of it fitting perfectly and thus eliminating the need for marquee retainers went down the drain. I bought two angled pieces of plastic, painted them black and used those as retainers.

Here is the unlit marquee (again, bad lighting and reflections make it look much worse than it actually is) :



A pic of the lit marquee taken in darkness with flash :



And finally lit in darkness without flash.

[wildcat]

Awesome build!

[yamatetsu]

Thanks ! 

[yamatetsu]

Minor update : the monitor is installed. For a change, this went without a hitch.

[yamatetsu]

Spent the day fiddling around with the MaLa layout. Here is the I-told-you-it-will-suck result.

[Slippyblade]

Need to have a bullet to the right of the selected game with motion streaks toward the gun like it was just fired.  I know it's a little campy, but it would make the selected game stand out better.

[yamatetsu]

I don't think that this would work. The angle of the gun is wrong. This is what I came up with :



While it looks kinda cool, it misses the selected game nearly completely and makes the entries above actually worse to read.



But having looked at it a few times, it seems to grow on me. Perhaps I will keep it.