Dig Dug Cabaret [aka good old #325] Restoration

[yotsuya]

You churn em out don't ya? Making me feel guilty for not working on any of my projects for months.

Don't feel too bad, this isn't my normal pace. I'm just pressing hard to get projects done and into the basement before the snow flies. After this it's a PacMan, a Robotron and then I'll hibernate for the winter.

That vinyl looks awesome mate - as does the rest of the cabinet.

I just put vinyl on mine and just got stuck straight in - figured the more I dithered the worse it would be and the stuff is cheap as chips anyway. Was way easier than laminate but you do have to take your time with it. End result is way worth it though. Cab looks stunning.

Thanks! This was my first time with the vinyl and it's a trick. I'll say one thing about the Vivid brand I used, at least you can repair it with heat which was really helpful. Check out their vid I linked to if you haven't already, they show it's response to a heat gun.

Looks good, I'm wondering if I should try that stuff on my Astro Blaster Woody.

[harveybirdman]

I think the stuff Mark used on Cube would look better

[opt2not]

Looks good, I'm wondering if I should try that stuff on my Astro Blaster Woody.

8BitMonk's work turned out pretty great, but I'm sure he had several moments of cursing it out.  I've worked with vinyl before as well and I can tell you it's not as easy as laminate. Cheaper in cost, yes, but laminate is incredibly easy to install and more durable to scratching unless you get a polylaminate coated vinyl.
Last time I did it I prepped the wood by rough sanding it, cleaning the sawdust as much as possible, apply contact cement to the wood and the inside of the laminate (brushed on) then letting it sit for 15 mins to get "tacky".  Then you paste the laminate on it, apply pressure and let it cure overnight. By letting the contact cement get tacky, it fuses really well together when you paste the pieces together.
After that you just trim the laminate with a router, and bob's your uncle.

But with that being said, what 8BM has here is looking really great and putting in the effort of rolling and heating can definitely turn out well as shown here.
Nice job dude, this is looking so fresh.

[8BitMonk]

I did the other side tonight and it was a lot quicker and easier having done it once. I skipped the Rapid Tac spray this time. I just peeled off about 6-8" of the backing off at a time and held the roll up with my right hand and smoothed with my left as I went. This brand vinyl is pretty forgiving with air pockets, even if you get a bubble or two you can smooth it out, none ever got trapped.



I considered Wilsonart laminate but then thought... it's expensive, the original didn't use laminate, it could add width the t-mold might not cover, harder to install. The durability wasn't really an issue for me since it'll be in my home and not get any abuse. That's the great thing about forums like this, you can see the finished product, work involved etc. and gauge what's best for you. 

[8BitMonk]

Light Fixture

This cab was missing it's light fixture when I got it. I had planned on scratch building a new one when I happened upon a Craigslist posting for the parts below for $20.



The light fixture looked like a good base to work from and since it had the starter, ballast and bulb holders was cheaper than buying the parts separately. The fixture was 18" with a thin bulb in it so I cut the board and moved one of the bulb holders over to accommodate a 15" bulb instead. Then I put little 1x1's on either side for mounting.



We have light. I plan to put a switch on the test panel in the coin door to turn it on and off, something the original didn't have but I think would be nice.

[8BitMonk]

Power Supply

I wanted to spruce up the power supply, I've seen others paint them and wanted to give it a try. You have to tape off a lot of the parts since you can't fully remove them all.





Also bought a new power cord and added a new molex connector to the end.

[8BitMonk]

Sound

Replaced the speaker.

[yotsuya]

Looking good,  my friend!

[vwalbridge]

The 'before' and 'after' on that power supply is incredible. 

[8BitMonk]

Looking good,  my friend!

The 'before' and 'after' on that power supply is incredible. 

Thanks, it's quite a bit of work but I think it's worth it. Here's a better side-by-side.

[8BitMonk]

Coin Box/Bucket

Managed to find an Atari coin box/bucket along with test panel. Waiting for them to be sandblasted, here are some before pics.



Decided to paint the test panel yellow, saw this on a restore on klov and thought it was cool.

[8BitMonk]

Ran into a delay at the sandblasters, they had the pieces for over a week and hadn't touched it yet so I decided to just strip and paint myself. Not as perfectly smooth but it still looks decent, cheaper too.



I managed to aquire a full set of controls and wiring harness for the test panel, I also added an on/off switch for the marquee. Just noticed in the photo I put that metal bracket on backwards, not even sure what it's for.

[opt2not]

Good call on painting the test panel.  More sealed metal parts, the better IMO. Plus it looks super slick! 
Keep up the good work.

[8BitMonk]

Good call on painting the test panel.  More sealed metal parts, the better IMO. Plus it looks super slick! 
Keep up the good work.

Thanks, yeah I like the way the gold control panel looks, stole the idea from Phetishboy on klov's Dig Dug cabaret restore.

[8BitMonk]

Coin Door

New rejects from Twisted Quarter and I created some Atari inserts.



New door screws.



The old coin door didn't have mech's or bezels, was just covered by a metal plate, so i had to steal some up from another door I had. They look decent but are plastic rather than metal, I'm going to try to scrounge up metal ones that are more original.

[vwalbridge]

Looking good. I get just as excited about the small details like coin inserts as I do anything else.

Did you print those coin inserts on just plain 'ol white paper?

[8BitMonk]

Looking good. I get just as excited about the small details like coin inserts as I do anything else.

Did you print those coin inserts on just plain 'ol white paper?

*Jeff Foxworthy voice* If you get excited about coin inserts... you may be an arcade geek. I'm the same way. I printed them on a laser printer with transparency film and then spray mounted that to sheet of inkjet paper.

[yotsuya]

I do love the test panel. 

[Malenko]

Im digging the yellow, it really pops. Great work so far.

[8BitMonk]

Some progress and a minor setback.

The good news... I was able to score a Dig Dug board and ARII. This is mainly just to have the restore as complete as possible, I'll be running some sort of jamma multi-board most of the time. I picked up a Dig Dug to Jamma converter from MikesArcade.com to be able to swap the Dig Dug pcb and a jamma multi-board.





The bad news... I managed to accidentally splash a little black paint on my side art. Then, like an idiot, I used some solvent to try to wipe it off and it made a huge blemish.  



I contacted This Old Game to see if they can help me out and re-print just one side.

Other than that I'm in the home stretch on this one, just need to wire it up and create a new cardboard bezel.

[n3wt0n]

This is a really nice restore. A good thread too. Thanks for taking the time to document your progress. The end result is going to be fantastic!

[8BitMonk]

This is a really nice restore. A good thread too. Thanks for taking the time to document your progress. The end result is going to be fantastic!

Thanks for the props! Knowing it's appreciated and how much I've learned from other restoration threads keeps me motivated to document it.

[8BitMonk]

Cardboard Monitor Bezel

The original cardboard monitor bezel was fairly thrashed, it was ripped in spots and had been re-stapled many times.



Joeycuda over on klov makes and sells cardboard bezels like these and does a good job but I decided to make this one myself.

Start with the right board

You don't want to use regular matt board with a white core, it doesn't hold up well to bending/scoring and will crack. below is a trial I did on normal matt board.



The original were black printing on a stiff cardboard, the closest I could find is a cold press board they sell at Michaels. It's a little bit thicker than the original cardboard. The two sides have a slightly different finish as you can see below.

 

Tools and materials

Large cutting board, Xacto with extra blades, metal rulers, packing tape, double sided tape, painters or white artists tape.



Examine for missing tabs

My bottom piece was missing one of the tabs used to attach to the side pieces and the other was close to falling off. I taped it the one with packing tape and cut a duplicate for the other side.



Rough cut

I placed my original bezel pieces on the coldpress board and made a rough cut around each piece. This makes each piece easier to work with when cutting them out.



Tape down the coldpress board and original

I tape down the coldpress board then the original over the top of it lining it the two flat sides (lower left) so I don't have to make those 2 cuts.



Cut around the original

Use a metal ruler for straight cuts and the original as guide for the curved cuts. The board is fairly thick so it's important to have a new blade and better to go over the cut twice.



Remove original and make scores

The board needs to be scored in areas where it will bend, make a very light cut with almost no pressure on the blade on both sides of the board. For this piece there is a straight fold across the bottom and both tabs.



Fold scores

Carefully folded along score lines. Most of the time it folds in just one direction, the bottom piece and it's tabs fold in opposite directions.



Using the metal ruler as a guide can be useful for longer folds.



Double sided tape



Change blade

Change the blade in between each of the pieces, it'll dull quickly.



Folding larger pieces

Use something fairly heavy (409 bottle below) to help keep pressure on the bigger pieces and keep them flat as you cut around them.



Assemble the pieces



Reinforce the back with packing tape.



Painting

I painted this one black semi-gloss but I think I think the flat black of the original finish is fine, I probably wouldn't paint future ones.



Finished bezel

[vwalbridge]

The only thing that frustrates me about your restore threads is deciding which one I'm going to nominate for the "BYOAC restore of the year". 

[8BitMonk]

The only thing that frustrates me about your restore threads is deciding which one I'm going to nominate for the "BYOAC restore of the year". 

Thanks for the kind words sir! Lots of work going into this one, I thought I was going to be done with it weeks ago.

[8BitMonk]

Coin door and P1 P2 lighting

The coin door was missing it's lamp holders, I replaced them and added 6.3v super bright LED's from Comet Pinball.

Initially I thought the power from the jamma harness to the coin door was 5v and hooked the 2 6.3v LED's up in parallel and fried them.



Luckily I had ordered a few extras. I hooked them up in a series and good to go.



The P1 and P2 lights were a little trickier. The LED's in the Atari coin buttons can't handle 5v, I used a 220ohm resistor so they wouldn't fry. Here's the thread I used for guidance.



They don't blink when coined up like they would in the original cab but stay lit all the time.

[8BitMonk]

Fixed my little sideart mishap. I was worried pulling it off would pull up the vinyl underneath but no issues. Big props to Rich at This Old Game for sending me a replacement at cost.

[8BitMonk]

Coin door test panel rocker switch

For the 60-1 board you can enter the service mode without changing the dip switches by holding down the Service or Test switch on power up. Then in service mode you navigate the menues forward and back with the Service/Test switch. The original test panel switch wasn't the best for this so I swapped it with a rocker switch that returns to center, this still also works with the original Dig Dug board.

I had to fashion a little bezel for it as it didn't fit quite right in the space.





One of the legs to connect the wires to the coin up button micro-switch on the test panel was broken and so the micro-switch needed to be replaced. Since the original is riveted to the button housing it had to be drilled out and the new micro-switch held in place with screws. I could've just replaced it witha different button but was trying to keep it as original as possible.

[Mike A]

Really nice work. This kind of stuff is where I fall down. I get something working. It looks good from the outside, but don't you dare open up one of my projects! It will give you nightmares.

[8BitMonk]

Really nice work. This kind of stuff is where I fall down. I get something working. It looks good from the outside, but don't you dare open up one of my projects! It will give you nightmares.

Thanks man! Yes, sometimes it's best to just leave well enough alone, otherwise you're tempting the arcade gods to smite you. 

[Ian]

Yeah... I mean top to bottom that is one nice looking cab! Great work!

[8BitMonk]

Yeah... I mean top to bottom that is one nice looking cab! Great work!

Thanks, I appreciate it! Looking forward to seeing that Galaxian all sparkly and restored!