Moving along….
Took Yotsuya’s recommendation on another build log and bought some Elmers wood filler for the pocket joint holes:
Worked well as far as I could tell. Trick I learned was to NOT try and make it perfectly smooth and flush with the surface. You actually want to leave a little padding and then sand down.
Next was my plan to wrap laminate around the box. I bought Wilson Art Matte Black Vertical grade laminate (1595-60). One of the hardest parts was figuring how to get one sheet out of the box:
Had come across Szabo’s arcades tutorial on installing:
very good walkthrough. I took his advice and bought this guy at Lowe’s:
With a straight edge and a few passes you get nice clean cuts:
Had read numerous places that laminate does not like to bend, and is prone to cracking or snapping as its quite brittle, but had to give it a go. Spoke with the manufacturer, and the maximum radius that it can do WHEN HEATED is 3/8”. I was attempting to do 1/2” so I knew it was going to be tough.
Put some aluminum foil on the outside to prevent the heat gun (Home Depot) from melting the plastic exterior, but could still transfer the heat well. I was actually surprised with how it faired:
Couldn’t quite pull it off and gave up after 3 attempts. Two problems are overheating which separates the plastic from the paper backing like this (bubbles in the corner):
And cracking the exterior if the plastic isn’t heated up enough. You could probably pull it off if you had A LOT of patience…..which I obviously did not. Still managed to get a good bend going, and was surprised at how far the material will bend even without heating. I’d venture to say that if you are in the 1.5” radius neighborhood you should be fine even without heating. I would recommend NOT putting the contact cement down until you know you can make the curve first!
So moved on to painting instead. Was lucky enough to have OND post his tutorial (
http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,158178.0.html), which I followed as close as possible (thanks OND!). As his advice stated, I went to a local automotive paint store (Finish Masters), and showed them the pics of the cans he uses, and they knew exactly what I was looking for. As usual though I can’t get the “real good stuff” being a California Bay Area resident with all of the crazy health laws. Anyway here’s what I bought:
Wasn’t looking for a high gloss shine, so skipped any finishing spray.
Primed:
Tried to put some Bondo to fill gaps and smooth out grain lines. First go went ok I think, but on the second go I didn’t put as much of the hardening agent as I thought it would help with preventing it from drying too fast.
Not enough hardening agent=sticky Bondo that never gets that hardness that you are looking for. I tried to sand it off but it mostly just gobs up on the sand paper. This was mistake number three, along with buying cheap plywood, and not sanding the exterior as much as I should have.
Anyway, turned out pretty good in the end:
Couldn’t help but drill out the USB slot (forstner):
Made the mistake of not checking to make sure that drill bits could be swapped out without touching the clamps holding the piece down, and had to adjust to swap out bits. So not a perfectly snug fit like it could have been but good enough:
Next is waiting for some parts to come in to tackle power, slot cutting, and the lighting system before putting the graphics on….should be interesting.