The vector bug has some potent venom.
Since I can't help but have too many things going on at once (or more like get an idea and can't help but water the seed) and I had already started on the monitor for this almost accidentally during the Cosmic Chasm thing, I figured I needed to get going on the absolutely necessary horizontal vector machine.
I know this is kind of stupid, in that the deflection board for an XY monitor does not care which way the screen is rotated, but for playing Star Wars, Major Havoc, Zektor, Asteroids, Gravitar, et al it just seems wrong to be playing them on a vertically turned 19" tube.
And this I know because I ran all of them on the CC cabinet just to see.
And it is wrong- very wrong.
So here we are.
And because I can't make up my mind about what cabinet I will build for this one (I'm at least down to either the one Atari crammed a bunch of these games into- Gravitar for example- or one I have designed myself that I haven't used for anything else yet) I figured it was prudent to begin on a control panel and go from there.
At least I know that I want the control panel(s) for this to be interchangeable with the Missile Command
MAME cabinet and thereby extend usefulness for all of these things, so that is a start.
Because the panel's primary function is to be able to play the non-button horizontal vector games I thought I would see if getting a Star Wars yoke and a Major Havoc roller and buttons onto the same thing was workable.
First issue is that a standard CP angle is somewhere under 10 degrees of tilt from horizontal (I prefer closer to 5 degrees actually) and the mounting angle that makes a flight yoke useable is on the order of 65 degrees- or even more.
So on top of the regular old panel for a MH roller and buttons there needs to be a wart set at a comfortable angle.
After playing around a bit I found that although not normal of course, but this panel will be 28" wide and it is pretty reasonable to widen the standard MH control spacing and stick a yoke in between and you get a functional unit.
Fired up the table saw and compound mitre saw to play with some angles.
A square block for the yoke was out of the question, and something more of an Aztec pyramid started to emerge.
I liked the idea of a wider base for stability anyway but the look seems to be pretty cool too.
After I kept at it with the protractor and flipping the panels all around to get the angles right I had a solid kind of aerodynamic looking block that looked like it would work.
I had measured the yoke mounting plate and depth of the gear assembly a good number of times to make sure this would fit but be as small as possible.
Final wart block came out thusly.
Important to note that the mounting plate for a Star Wars yoke has welded studs, which are intended to be bolted to a metal control panel that is closer to 1/8" thick, not the 3/4" plywood I am using.
I could either add female threaded bitss and add on to the existing studs, or figure out something with metal- and I had some aluminum stock at hand already.
After I measured the port for the gear assembly to (barely) fit through I cut a hole in the wart face plate to allow me to mount aluminum flat stock to actually bolt the yoke to.
I built a router table out of an old cabinet a little while back and although I have only used a few times it is invaluable when needed.
This was a great use.
Set depth to thickness of aluminum to go in, set up fence for runs and voila.
After I had them fit it was easy to drill and countersink to get the things on there.
Since I was getting to the point where I wouldn't have a flat panel to play with soon I figured I should cut and route the main body for buttons, the yoke assembly, and my groovy MH roller.
After I cut the square for the roller to fit in it was just measure depth and route the back side.
Again, this control is built to be installed on a metal panel, but it is going in plywood and I don't want to look at carriage bolts on this thing and with what I am glassing it with strength of even 1/8" of ply will not be an issue here.
I still don't know if I can flip the axis for this roller so I may need to physically flip it or try to swap wires to keep the assembly as I have it but we'll see later on.
At least it fits well- for now.
Now that I had the layout entirely sorted and the holes popped in it I could finally see how this was going to come together.
I'm pleased thus far and it will be absolutely solid.
Next was clean up/flatten out the thing since I knew that this was going to be accepting some not very tolerant fabric.
I had some body filler left over from repairing some cabinets at the Samurai House and this was a perfect place to use some up.
This ---steaming pile of meadow muffin--- goes off FAST.
Generally speaking around here, if the humidity isn't 80%+ you can get about 7 minutes of working time with polyester resins.
I don't think you even get 4 minutes with this goo- but it works.
Kicks fast, sands easily afterward. MUCH nicer to deal with than straight Bondo, but it is more $$ of course.
With that done it was time to start getting to sexy but potentially frustrating part.
I still have some carbon fiber left that is either to small, too dirty, or has pulls in the weave that don't allow for fancy surfboard use- but it is good for this!
Sharp scissors are a must and the only way to work with it and not have it unravel and fight you is to run a line of masking tape on it and cut through it to get a piece that you can handle without drama.
This trick works for regular old fiberglass cloth too, but is a bit excessive in most cases since that stuff is just easier to work with.
Resin mix is the same.
Good practice to use straight laminating resin (no surfacing agent-wax- added) for first lay of fabric.
Because I want some depth to this and not cut into the fabric at all while sanding I used two fill coats of laminating resin afterwards also.
As soon as you add surfacing agent (to make it so that you can sand the resin without it gumming your paper up immediately) you actually HAVE to sand the piece or nothing else will bond to it properly.
Always save the wax for the last coat.
I glassed the wart as a seperate piece because it was less drama using something as stiff as 6 oz. carbon fiber to begin with and I liked the idea of the weave running a different direction too.
Also allowed for me to do the sides first and front last which made for better trim and edge composition.
Once I had both pieces glassed up and trimmed I started playing with ideas for resin detail to break up all the carbon fiber and to add a little flavor.
Still trying to figure out some fun lines.
I am not an artist or illustrator so this will take some time.
And then I figured I should drill the thing out and make sure the yoke still fit!
Yes...
I think I need to see about having some stickers die cut to act as stencils for 'FIRE" "SHIELD" and "MOVE" so I can have at least some proper graphics on this thing.
Would be fun to do those in blue resin over the carbon.
Soon I need to decide which cabinet to build for this pile.