I managed to find a place that sold a 20° router bit locally - cost a small fortune, but it's going to make my job that much easier..
Got a little more done..
I have been working on the cleaning up the hoops and making them fit nicely over the seat backrest and cutting the slot for the cross brace - the latter doesn't seem like a big deal, but for some reason, it took me 10 times longer to do than I thought it would.. anyway, the end result came out pretty good and really stiffens up the whole assembly.
With this done, it allowed me to get on with cutting the upper and lower panels for the marquee. These were pretty challenging since both panels have angled cuts on both their edges (20° and 30° on the upper, 15° and 20° on the lower). One day I might invest in a table saw, but for now it was all circular saw and straight edge.. The end result actually surprised me with my freaky accuracy (read: assing it). The only thing that I am a bit concerned about is the upper marquee retainer seems to be a little too narrow :unsure Since it's an original off of a SWC cab, I don't quite get it.. maybe they were just like that? Either way, it'll do for the time being but I will probably remake this part for a more accurate fit.
You can see in this shot the repro marquee from Rich over at
ThisOldGame. Rich did a limited run of these on glass using the original films from Atari. Although I haven't peeled off my protective mask yet, all accounts from other owners say they are as good, if not better than the originals. I was so nervous about breaking the marquee, I made up a template out of 6mm MDF to check everything would fit..
I can't wait to see this puppy all lit up
I spent a good part of yesterday and most of today making the jig for routing the cut outs on the hoops. For me, these cut outs are one of the stand out features of this cabinet and something I really remember from when I was a kid..
Like most things on these scratch builds, they are complicated by the fact that you are reverse engineering the cabinet - it is very frustrating and bloody time consuming. These routed cut outs were no different and it took a fair amount of working out. To that end, I made up some clear templates taking into account the final openings of JohnsArcade and Dezbaz's tracings, the decals and my 10 million reference photos :blink:
After around 3 or 4 hours of mucking around, I had the inside edges of the openings transferred to the clear plastic sheet. I then used a scapel to carefully cut out these out - the reason for the clear sheet is that I could check the clearances around the decal versus the actual opening.
Here is the clear template sitting on the
original hoop I made waaay back at the start of the project:
I'm figured using the original hoop was a good idea since it was fairly close to the correct shape and the plan was to use it as a jig for the router - waste not, want not.. I clamped one of the new (accurate) hoops to the old hoop and ran the router along the bottom edge - this was so I could use this edge as a point of reference and align both sides..
Then I transferred the openings from the clear sheet to the jig. I then used the jigsaw to rough out the openings and the router and a straight edge to clean up the edges. For the curves, I made another router jig with the correct 17.5mm radius.. It took a HEAP of time but it would make the actual routing stage so much easier, accurate and repeatable..
Here is the finished jig - note that the openings are only referenced to the bottom edge.
I then transferred the openings over to the hoops and rough cut them out.. Our old outdoor table makes a great outdoor bench and it doesn't matter if I cut it
And then the jig was clamped down using the bottom edge to line everything up..
From this point on, it only took about 3 or 4 minutes to do the actual routing.. It was a strange feeling looking at these edges that I'd built in my head a 100 times before - I couldn't believe I'd actually pulled it off..
Just for shits and giggles, I jammed the decals between the outer and middle hoops to see what it looked like. The bevel doesn't really photograph that well (cause I am a crap photographer) but it looks really nice. You can also see that I've routed the t-molding slots on the bottom edge as well..
That's just about it for the hoops - the only thing left to do is route the slot for the wide t-molding on the top edge. I am waiting for a shipment from Ram Controls with the repro 1 1/2" wide t-molding before I do that - hopefully it doesn't take too long for that to arrive..
Next job, cut out and route the recess for the speakers and speaker grilles.. then I'll just about be finished making dust (for this cab)