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| Nintendo cabinet build - Wreck-It Ralph |
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| UnclearHermit:
Okay, here we go. I've been planning to build a Nintendo cabinet for a while now, having been considering building an arcade cabinet on and off for far more years than I care to remember. I'm going for a Nintendo cabinet simply because I like the look of them and not out of any particular nostalgia for Nintendo cabinets. I don't even think I ever saw an original one growing up in the UK. I'm doing this partly because of the hoped end result of some kind of working arcade cabinet, but just as much because I like the challenge of doing this. I've not built anything like it before and so there are lots of new skills to be picked up along the way. Theme-wise I'm not sure what this is yet. So I don't know if it'll be a DK or a Popeye or something custom, so even the colour choice is yet to be made. I've got to think through all of the questions around horizonal/vertical games, 4-way/8-way joysticks, repro joysticks or something else so I can switch 4 to 8-way etc. But I've already spent an absolute eternity reading and re-reading all the wonderful posts on here, and capturing notes and photos as I go of all of the little parts of the cabinet to help me as I go. My thanks to all of those people who have invested their time to provide such great posts for others like me to follow. I'll try to post as I go to try and give something back for others in the future, including all of the mistakes I'm likely to make along the way. I'm using the Gaetan plans and already have a 1-1 print and have started some panel cuts, but I'm finding inconsistencies between the 1:1 print, the measurements on the plans/dxf files etc. For instance, my printed 1:1 control panel is a couple of mm different in size to what the plans say it should be, and similarly the dimensions shown on the pdf seem to be a couple of mm different to what I find if I take measurements off the dxf files. So I'm having to be careful to make sure that I don't end up with panels in different widths across the cabinet. And so to my first question. The interior horizontal panel which forms the bottom panel for the marquee, and which support the vertical panel holding the marquee light, is shown on Gaetan's plans as 10mm deep. But I see photos (I think from Chance when he and Gaetan were taking measurements for those plans) that show it as 8mm deep. I'm build this thing out of 15mm MDF, and will live with the pros and cons of that decision, but either way I'm probably going to struggle to find some that's either 8mm or 10mm. The depth of the panel is presumably going to impact either the space for the bezel or the space for the marque, so I'll probably end up buying some 1/2" MDF and then routing off a few mm at the front. But is it supposed to be 8mm or is it supposed to be 10mm? Photos of some initial "work" to follow, once I figure out how to upload to the photos thread and link here... thanks Mike |
| UnclearHermit:
Let's try a couple of pictures. This has always seemed convoluted but I'm sure there's a good reason. Hopefully these will show up.. I ordered a 1:1 print of the Gaetan plans a little while ago from planprint-it.co.uk, which cost about £18 once delivery was factored in. They have a minimum order of £10 before VAT, so I added in the other non-1:1 diagrams just to bring the cost up to the minimum. I then went around the large print with a craft knife and a metal ruler and carefully cut it out. This wasn't actually too bad to do. It's just a question of taking the time rather than rushing the cuts. I don't have the confidence/experience with the wood to go straight onto the final MDF for these, but I didn't want to use a full-size template either just to keep costs down (some hope). So I used an old piece of smaller 1/4" MDF and transferred onto it the corners and angles from the full size cabinet side. I figured that I didn't really need a template for the straight lines! This was all a while ago now. I've found that I have not a lot of free time to progress this, and when I do progress it I seem to be very slow :) So I've got a bunch of pictures that I can post when time permits to bring things up to where I am now. At least it'll feel like progress in the thread, even if I'm not making much in reality! |
| UnclearHermit:
You can see here the small piece of 6mm MDF that I used the template the corners/curves. I traced the outlines from the 1:1 sheet onto the various sides/corners of this piece of wood and then cut using a jigsaw, followed by some routing off the straighter edges and sanding for the curves. For the internal curves I wrapped a bit of sandpaper around a spray can lid I had lying around, to make it easier the sand the curves without destroying them in the process. Apart from the bit on the right that I caught by going a little too far with the router this generally went okay. A bit of filler mostly fixed up the routing mistake. For the final cut onto the first side of 15mm MDF I traced around the 1:1 paper template and rough cut with the jigsaw. It's been a long time since I used a jigsaw and my memory was me being pretty terrible with them, so I was pretty pleased to find this bit going well. Once I had the rough cut I simply overlaid the MDF template onto the various curves/corners once at a time and used the router to clone the template. Whilst doing that I somehow managed to get the router to gouge a hole into my wood around the control panel area, and thought I must have accidentally tilted the router or something. You can see the rough repair in the image below. This kind of damage is irritating, not just because of the damage but because it then delays things while I have to wait/sand/fill/wait/sand etc. Anyway, once I'd repaired this latest setback I was able to get the completed side clamped onto the second MDF sheet ready to be traced, rough cut and then cloned. More to follow when the image thread doesn't think I'm violating some kind of security... |
| UnclearHermit:
No idea what the security violation was, but I've resized the next images and then they seem to upload fine. Patched up side section. I'm using a lightweight filler for this and I might need to change that if I have more problems. It's a bit TOO lightweight, so it's easily dented. With the damage repaired and the second size roughly cut out I set about clamping and cloning the first side. Things went fine for a while and then the router bit into the wood again. This time I knew I'd been holding it straight so I stopped to figure out what was going on. It turned out that the bearing on the router bit was able to move upwards, and so it was moving up above the piece I was cloning and so the bit could bite into my wood. This meant that it actually damaged both bit of wood in the process. This is obviously my inexperience with not having the router bit inserted high enough to prevent this. This is only my second project with a router; we live and learn... Fill/wait/sand etc. At this rate this thing will be more filler than MDF, although I suppose it'll be lighter. |
| Laythe:
Looking good! The setbacks are frustrating, but as long as you can fix it as many times as you mess it up, it'll all be fine in the end. |
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