Construction of a four person Control Panel, Starting with Kinkos.............

[mccoy178]

I used the thirty day trial of Adobe Illustrator to make a four person layout.

[unix4hire]

Cool, very nice!

What are its dimenions?

Also, would you mind PM'ing me the illustrator file you used here?  I'd be most thankful.
--Erich

[Mario]

You could have printed it across multiple sheets and taped them together. I found these instructions. NOTE: I haven't tried this myself as I don't have the program.

I use a program called QuarkXpress. This also allows printing across multiple pages. I used this to design the large template for my CP.

Mario

[mccoy178]

Since I'm having artwork done somewhere else, I had to be 100% sure they would be identical.  Since it was only a few bucks, it was worth it.

[quarterback]

Yeah, I've done the multi-page-tape-together like three times and while it works, it's not always perfect   The lines don't always line up from one piece of paper to the next and it's just generally a PITA.

Looks cool, mccoy178

[mccoy178]

Reporting in:

This was a great idea because after having this made, I decided that the trackball needed just a smidge more room.

[Crowley]

....Wow. Ya, kinko's rules at these type of things.

[RickDIII]

So, is it considered bad form for a newbie building his first project to come in and ask for a copy of the file you used for the template.

[AtomSmasher]

I had kinkos print both that and my overlay, the overlay was perfect but the layout was printed slightly too small which made it useless.  I ended up just printing them out on multiple sheets from my home computer, it worked well enough.  And if your wondering what program I used to print it, microsoft paint, the free one that comes with windows, if you print a large picture from it it automatically prints it on multiple pages.

[mccoy178]

AtomSmasher,
I was very particular about the sizes.  I want to avoid exactly what you are mentioning.  I just measured at kinko's, and it was perfect.  Now I hope Mame Marquess does the same!  I trust they will, or I wouldn't of done this.

BTW, Anyone is welcome to this.  I designed this with the Golden Tee players of the world in mind.  By the way, if you choose to do this, you should look into the Johnny5 viewer of Howard Casto and using Method 5 mentioned by Tiger Heli's tutorial. 

[RickDIII]

So, is it considered bad form for a newbie building his first project to come in and ask for a copy of the file you used for the template.

[jopenner]

I did the same thing with mine and cut my CP out and waited for my CP printout from Mame Marquees.
Once the printout arrived, I placed a flourescent light light under the CP so that the light would shine through my cut outs.  I then carefully dry-layed my marquee and then clamped it down into position.  I then cut the backing on the printout at the half way point and very slowly began applying the graphi to my CP.  I slowly peeled the backing in one direction as I applied the graphic.  I used a wallpaper roller to ensure that there was no bubbling at all.
Once the entire graphic was applied, I then took a modelling knife (very sharp and began cutting out my holes.
It looks great and Scott at mame Marquees did an awesome job.
His work is highly recommended.

John

[mccoy178]

Thanks for the input.  I like these type of threads to help people in their first attempts!

[daywane]

So, is it considered bad form for a newbie building his first project to come in and ask for a copy of the file you used for the template.

[mccoy178]

Here is a preview of the artwork.

[Havok]

Looks awesome. Although, with the size of the cp and the space around the trackball, I would go with a 4 1/2"...

[mccoy178]

Thanks for the compliment.  The reason for the 3" trackball is because of Golden Tee.

[Negativecreep0]

where did you get the speaker grills on the bottom of that control panel stand?

[mccoy178]

That's the grills that came with it.  It's an old Dynamo that I routed out to add my own cp.  That stand is a buddies.  The ones that I'm currently working on are all fullsize arcades.

[mccoy178]

Well, great news and terrible news today.  I have the control panel put together.  I wired up the led wiz completely backwards, so I can't finish the wiring yet.  Here are some early pics of the Boston control panel.







Big thanks and shout out to SNAAAKE and Scott from MameMarquees.  Both did an outstanding job on this.  Thanks fellas!!!

[SNAAKE]

hey hey looking good congrats !!

[mccoy178]

Had to bring this one back from the dead.  Trying to build mental strength for next project.......