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Battle Chasers Upright - Frankenpanel started!

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Boz:
Update: July 21, 2006

Just a heads-up: this is likely going to be a negative update with lots of complaining.

I've come to a few conclusions with this build, many of them culminating in a brown, moist, steaming, smelly lump sum just today. I'll get to those later, but first the progress (or "regression").

I was getting a little burned out on the whole heat thing and took Wednesday off completely. I did nothing but screw around indoors. Thursday, yesterday, I cut all the remaining plywood squares that I needed for the various planes of the cabinet: coin door front (lower front of cabinet), marquee top, bottom, and back; upper and lower access doors (rear of cabinet). Nightgod came to my rescue with the T-Nuts and I picked those up yesterday as well.

I mounted the T-Nuts as the last item of the day yesterday and noticed that one of them wasn't actually "staying put" where I pounded it in. Then it hit me that I mounted the dang thing on the wrong side of the 2x4. The T-Nut is supposed to be on the opposing side so that when you thread your screw into it and pull it tight, the prongs dig into the other side of the wood making a "wood sandwich", if you will. Since the screws I bought were definitely too short, I scheduled another trip to Lowe's where I picked up more screws. they only had hex head screws with about 15% of the bolt threaded and didn't have the length I wanted. Eventually I found fully threaded 5" jobs that are a bit long fully seated, but at least I didn't run out of thread. Of course I picked up what I thought were 5/16" bolts when one of the packages happened to be in the wrong bin (1/4 inch). It took a second to figure out why the bolt was sliding all the way through the T-Nut without catching anything. Arggghhh! Another trip for an exchange at some point later in the week.

Something occured to me... PAY ATTENTION!





The next bit I did today was put proper angles on two other pieces -- the marquee back and top. This is one of those moments where having a table saw would have save me a lot of time thinking about how I was gonna cut it (although, as you will learn later, I shouldn't exactly be cutting corners on "thought"). I cut the cabinet sides with a 45

johnperkins21:
Finish it. Even if it turns out like crap, you'll have the sense of accomplishment that you didn't let the wood or the heat beat you. I've been following your progress, and with the whole car problems, you continued to push through. Take a couple days off and work on the control panel and setting up the PC (things you can do indoors). Once that's done, attack the cabinet with renewed vigor.

At the very worst, all the mistakes you make in the future on this cab will only prepare you for your next cab. If you quit now, sure you won't make some of the mistakes again that you've already made, but what about mounting the monitor, bezel, marquee, etc.? Finish this one, learn from the mistakes, and make your next one using the lessons learned.

NightGod:

--- Quote from: In2ishun on July 22, 2006, 01:08:54 am ---
Believe me, I'm trying to reason this away as much as I can because I don't exactly relish the idea of starting from scratch. I'm thinking, ok so the wood is warped, bend the "emm-effers" back into shape when you mount them. All carpenters / woodworkers do this, right? If it doesn't fit after you cut it, beat it into submission, right? But what kind of carpentry is that I ask? Shouldn't I be able to cut something to a specific dimension (assuming I've "paid attention") and have that piece fit where it's supposed to?

I looked at other stuff with this wood. The birch veneer is just eaten alive every time I cut into it. It splinters and cracks and comes away from the plywood as if it were held on there with spit. Maybe it's crappy wood. Maybe I have the wrong saw blade for this stuff. It's possible I need more teeth -- a LOT more teeth -- to make my cuts more aesthetic and clean. I'm new to woodworking and when I bought the saw I asked some knowledgable friends "When do you know when to replace the blade?" The answer was, "When it starts making sh***y cuts." That's probably true and I can't expect to rely on that answer for every different type of wood that I cut. It seems there's just soooo much that carpenters have learned over their years to impart to a novice with a few Q&A's.
--- End quote ---
For the warped wood-find somewhere level to lay them, put some weight on top of them, as evenly distributed as possible, should help alot with that issue.

For the rough cuts, two things-first, you want a higher tooth count saw blade. We're talking 100ish-they're generally called "Finishing blades". Second, cut from the back side of the wood, you'll get a cleaner cut on the smooth side.

Third-I second the stick-with-it suggestion. Take a couple of days, get some rest and perspective (and let the wood reshape back to level) and then jump back in.

Kangum:
If you look at what you have learned so far it seems like its alot. Your not done yet so im sure there is other stuff you will learn on your way as you continue down this path.

I think everyone will disagree with me but i think you should stop because of your environment. The project will only become more and more expensive as you go on and if the effects of your climate are effecting your cab when its not even halfway done,that to me is a bad sign. I am also concerned how this warping will effect any expensive artwork you may use if it continues. If your environment will continue to hurt the cab then you should stop now and possibly change wood if you think it will increase your chances of not tossing it down the road. wasting all kinds of money.

if you think it will not get worse and it will hold fine then push on and continue to learn and finish.

Nobody here wants to see a project scrapped so if you do just make sure its for the right reasons and not because you are discouraged at the mistakes you have made.

johnperkins21:
Well, his environment sucks. It got up to 117 degrees out here in PHX today, and the monsoons are expected to continue. Which means, tons more heat, wind, dust, and (hopefully) some rain. But, it's a battle between him and the elements. There's no shame in holding out a couple of months until some of this inclimate weather subsides, but the satisfaction of actually finishing the thing through all the troubles will make it an even more glorious occasion to celebrate.

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