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Moe's Arcade - My First MAME Cabinet FINISHED!
BradC:
Did some work on the conrol panel last night.
I drilled out all the holes with the spade bits I bought. It took me a bit to get used to the handling, between setting the torque high enough to dig through the wood and trying not to break my wrist, but I got it figured out and I think it came out OK. Here's the first joystick hole I drilled, the 4-way in the center (that screw is holding the CP in place on the cabinet for the moment).
Then I did the other two joysticks and finally the button holes.
I didn't think about putting a scrap piece of wood underneath the panel until it was too late. So I got some splintering under the right side button holes.
So I guess these piece turns out to be my practice piece rather than the final CP. I guess it's fine, I was planning on buying another piece of wood to use anyhow. Something a little better than plywood. I will check the cabinet building section at OSH for some suggestions.
DaOld Man:
May I suggest you use MDF instead of plywood?
I think it works real good.
I used 3/4", but they also have 1/2" at lowes.
Check out my mis-adventures at
http://skennys-arcade.blogspot.com
BradC:
I'll look into MDF, thanks for the tip.
Here is some preliminary artwork I've laid out in Illustrator (the images are scaled here so they look jagged. Click for a clearer image). I still haven't decided if I want to use a CP Overlay, or just make a nice, wood stained piece to go with the wood grain on the sides.
CPO
SideArt
lanman31337:
that art looks fantastic, i vote go for it!
BradC:
I picked up some new wood this weekend. I went to Lowe's and was looking around, and I found a nice piece of oak that was 1x8x2. Since I had foolishly forgotten to bring my tape measure with me, I just assumed that it meant 1" by 8" by 2'. I should have noticed that wasn't the case when I realized it was actually 3/4" thick, and not 1". But since that is what I was going for, I just went home with it. It turns out that it wasn't 8" wide, it was only about 7 1/4" wide. So Now I have a gap that I will have to fill in at some point, but that's a back-burner issue for now. (I still have not received the joysticks/buttons that I ordered two weeks ago!)
A couple weeks ago I had picked out a sample packet of wood stain that I figured would match the wood grain on the side and front of the cabinet. I applied the sample packet to the underside of the CP, and it is almost a dead-on match. I'm very pleased with how it looks, so I may just decide to go with the wood stain, and not do the CP overlay.
If I go with the stain, how should I prepare it? I've never worked with wood, but I thought I would sand it (coarse grit first, then a fine frit) stain it and then seal it? If that's correct, what do I seal it with?
I'm going to drill the holes tonight (clamping a piece of scrap to the back first so I don't splinter the underside again) and install the latches I bought to keep the CP closed.
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