Scratch-built Star Wars Cockpit Cab - UPDATE 15/9/13

[HoopstarsGarage]

btw I just happened to be surfing Ebay today, and someone is selling a Wells 6100 that he took out of his Star Wars machine. You may want to do a search.

Hmm.. would be nice but problem is:

Tube = USA

Me = Australia

Problem = big $$$ in shipping

But thanks for the tip


Hoops

[dfmaverick]

Hmm.. would be nice but problem is:

Tube = USA

haha. lol

Oops. Didn't notice that you were not it the U.S. I saw the one package with US Priority stickers on it and I guess it just made me assume you were in US.

My bad.

[Level42]

While working on my SW CP yesterday, I discovered that I was totaly WRONG about the T-molding.
The wide/ribbed T-molding is actually covering 2 panels, not 3 !!! So it is needing 1,5" wide T-molding.

This means that the T-molding suggested by Brent is fine for the application !!
Here's the link again:
http://www.outwatercatalogs.com/2006_master/lg_display.cfm?page_number=33&catalog=otm

I appoligize for informing you wrong.... The only place where there are 3 panels next to each other is on the inside of the cab, and there they all are simply covered with their own regular 3/4" t-mold.

The T-molding from outwater looks great, but it's not exactly the same. However, we won't find exactly the same stuff and the condition of my T-molding is so, that I would love to replace it with the Outwater stuff. However, they don't seem to be really used to international orders AND they have a $25 minimum order. I didn't measure it yet, but the lenghts on the cockpit are pretty short, so a single cab will not reach that $25 limit.

Maybe one of the builders/restorers of a cockpit could order for 2 (or more) cabs, and forward my "share" to me ?
That would be great.....

Or maybe a "group"buy, Hoops you are going to need some of this as well ?

[rovingmind]

any more updates hoops?

[tommy]

I'd like to see how this turned out aswell.

[HoopstarsGarage]

I'd like to see how this turned out aswell.

Sorry guys but "real life" has kinda got in the way...

The good news is that I am very happy to announce that my gorgeous wife and I are expecting our first child..
The bad news is that our house renovations have taken on a very real priority - even more so than my arcade obsession..   

Rest assured that the project is still very alive and your interest in it really helps keep me focused on finishing it.


Hoops

[Level42]

Congrats hoops !

[tommy]

We should have known. When the project stalls there must have been a really good reason why.

Just don't turn it into a Star Wars Cocktail baby crib. 

[rovingmind]

Just like a builder, get half way done with 1 project and start another. 

(mine is just turning a year old end of this month)

Congrats Hoopster,

wouldn't a Star Wars Cocktail end up being the changing table and the CockPIT be the crib?

That would be a pretty awesome changing table though.

[Stray_Catalyst]

Your attention to details is incredible - you're an inspiration to us all.  Congratulations on your baby, and good luck!

Stray Catalyst

[Steve]

Great project 

Just wondering where you got the artwork from and also if you have any plans for the cabinet ?

Steve

[AnthonyB]

updates?

[Timstuff]

Ditto. I want to see how this thing turns out-- and more importantly, I'd love to get my hands on the plans!

[HoopstarsGarage]

WOW.. you can not imagine the irony of this thread being dragged up again..!!

I actually started dusting off the cabinet just today after some pretty massive renovations around our house and the birth of my daughter..




Look forward in the coming weeks where we'll pick up from where we left off..


Hoops

[Kaytrim]

She's a keeper Hoopstar.

[HoopstarsGarage]

Most certainly..  it's been a tough 12 weeks since she was born, but we are starting to get a grip back on reality.

..and we all know that means more arcade builds..   

[javeryh]

Most certainly..  it's been a tough 12 weeks since she was born, but we are starting to get a grip back on reality.

Congrats!  She is beautiful.  It gets easier... sort of.   Last night my wife told me she wanted another kid "pretty soon" - my daughter turns 4 next month and my son just turned 1 last month! 

[Timstuff]

Congratulations on the baby, Hoopstars! She's adorable. ^_^

Also, I'm glad to see you haven't abandoned the project. The SW sit down cab is a holy grail of arcade cabs, so your project has been of great interest to a lot of people (including me) who would like to try their hand at building one some day.

BTW, if I ever do a Star Wars sit-down MAME cab (which would probably be the case, unless by some miracle I find a working Star Wars PCB and monitor yoke / chassy), I'd probably put racing pedals inside of it to make it work with driving games. I'd be a little different playing them with a yoke instead of a wheel, but it'd be close enough for me.

[GAtekwriter]

She is beautiful! 

My wife, too, is starting with the "let's talk" - our son turns 15 months next week and I'm only just now getting my weekends back.  ARGH!  Of course, I keep asking myself where did the last 15 months go???  He's gotten so big... time flies.

Jim

[tylervalo]

Anyone know where the pics went 

[Veeb0rg]

Anyone know where the pics went 

iunno, into the void that 2+ years since the last post before yours might have something to do with it.

[HoopstarsGarage]

Hmm.. pics disappeared  

Trust me folks.. this project isn't dead and I've just bought the repro marquee and silk screened yoke and control panel overlays for the project and about to order the wide t-molding from Ram Controls..

The truth of the matter is "life" has got in the way (ie. my new born is about to turn 2 soon).. but ThisOldGames repro's have resparked my priorities


Hoops

EDIT: Fixed up the pics in all my posts - my ISP has changed their URL for our personal webspace, hence the reason they dropped out..

[HoopstarsGarage]

Apart from life becoming very busy in the way of my wife and I starting a family, some pretty major home reno's and long work hours, one of the stumbling blocks to this project was the lack of detail for the canopy "hoops"..

JohnsArcade did a awesome job of copying the main outline but short of him pulling apart his cabinet, we were never going to get the all the outlines for each of the three elements that make up the hoops.

The project recently got a shot in the arm when I saw dezbaz's Starwars Cockpit Restoration thread over at Aussie Arcade where he'd removed the hoops from one cabinet to fit on his keeper.  I shot Dez a PM asking if he would be willing to make some tracings of the three panels while he had it all disassembled - which he kindly agreed to do.  A couple of weeks later the tracings arrived..  He did an amazing job and wouldn't take any payment for his time or even postage.  I can not thank him enough - Dez is a top guy..  :060:




Well this weekend, I took off some time from working on the house and set about making up the canopy hoops.  The first job was cut out the tracings to form a template..  Looking at them certainly shows how detailed they really are and how impossible it would of been to try to replicate them from just measurements alone.  Dez did an amazing job and put in lots of detailed information which made this whole process just that much easier.



Next up I transferred the templates onto 18mm MDF and cut out a "master" template - the master was used with my router and a laminate trimming bit to cut out the 4 outer pieces and the bottom edge of the 2 inner pieces.  One day and a ---steaming pile of meadow muffin--- load of MDF dust later and I had all the pieces made.




The next step was to test fit them to the cabinet - I was stoked to find that they matched up perfectly with the back rest and the rear edge of the main cabinet.. something that I really struggled with with version 1 of the canopy hoops.   I also need to do the cut outs in the outer panel for the decals for the hoops.  The issue here is finding a 30 degree router bit that will cope with the 18mm MDF - so far I've only found a 45 bit which will do a 12mm deep cut, leaving a 6mm edge on the inside.. probably not a massive deal, but I'd prefer to make this as accurate as possible.




The inner hoops support the acrylic canopy - the plan is to give these to the plastic supplier so they can bend the acrylic perfectly to suit the angles.  My little helper was also hard at work helping daddy..




Using the master template meant that all three hoops lined up with each other perfectly..  The edge looks a little wobbly in the photo, but trust me that it's just an optical illusion brought about when I compressed/resized the photos.




On a brighter note, I did manage to find screws that are a pretty good match to those used in the original SWC cabinet - not 100%, but probably as close as I'll get.  I'll hit them with some satin black paint prior to final assembly.



Next job is to cut out the inner hoop cut reliefs for the cross over bar as seen in this reference photo shamelessly stolen from Dez's restoration thread   Hopefully get into this after work this week.  Then I'll move onto building the mounts for the monitor.



This project is offically back on the burner..!


Hoops

[DaOld Man]

Sweet!

[BobA]

Great to see your project on the go again.   

[rovingmind]

I'm glad your project is not dead.  i've pretty much given up on ever getting to do this myself.  Keep up the posts so the rest of us can drool and dream.

[HoopstarsGarage]

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)

[jimmy2x2x]

Outstanding work, this is shaping up very nicely!

[EvilNuff]

Really incredible job so far...cannot wait to see more.  Thank you for sharing.

[HoopstarsGarage]

Another nice, solid day of work on the cab today.. 


Today was dedicated to the speaker grilles - something that I've been putting off because I knew it was going to be fiddly.

First step was to rough cut the openings for the 6x9's speakers used in the original.  I didn't get the measurement for finished cutout size so I used a combination of my reference photos and some faint marks on the original grilles to calculate that the cutout was 1/2" from the top and bottom edges of the grille and 3/4" from the side edges.




Then I clamped down the jig ready for routing.  The jig is actually the lower speaker panel that is located under the seat base.  I made this up first using the router and some MDF offcuts as a guide - this allowed me to get nice, clean, straight edges.  For the corners, I carefully made a nice 35mm diameter corner jig and used it for each of the 8 corners.  Like I said, it was pretty fiddly and the first panel (jig) took quite a few hours to get perfect, but it certainly made the second (backrest) panel so much easier..




Once that "jig" was clamped down, it was a simple matter of running the router around the rough cut opening to clean it up..




Here are the weapons of choice to pull all of this off..  My dad once said to me: "The right tool for the job" and it certainly rings true with this job.




Once the cutouts were finished I then centred the original Atari speaker grilles over them and marking the outine..




My laminate trimmer (just a tiny hand held router) has a 40mm x 40mm base on it, so it was just a matter of running fences 40mm away from this outline.  Using a 10mm router bit meant that the corner radius would be correct.. 




The factory used large pop rivets to secure the grilles but I think they look a bit industrial and rough, so I used 8mm button head bolts and nyloc nuts to secure everything - They will be treated to a couple of coats of satin black to finish them off later.  The laminate trimmer was set to a 2.1mm depth - 2mm for the actual grilles and .1mm for the vinyl overlay - that way the grilles would be perfectly flush with the surface. 




Once all four had been routed, I dropped them back in place for the money shot..




Next job is to make the monitor brackets..


Hoops

[Nicodumas]

*jaw hits floor*

WOW! Amazing job! The detail you are putting into this is stunning! Love that you are looking for parts that are original (or at least very close). Hope you can keep working on this soon to be master piece!

[Rick Dangerous]

Holly ---steaming pile of meadow muffin--- !!!! you are a pro man !!!! nice cab really kickass 

[Rick]

Meh, this project ain't so .... OMG WTH?!

 

I say it in many threads, but yeah.  Amazing work, here.  Amazing.

[Bones]

It's stuff like this that makes we want to get building again...

[HoopstarsGarage]

Mrs Hoopstar 'requested' that I start on our daughters "big girl room" so the weekend was pretty much dedicated to painting, getting bent over at various bedroom furniture shops and then putting all this crap together - the prices they charge for a simple kids bed, matteress and side table is nothing short of rude..

With that said, there wasn't a lot of time left for cabinet building so I've been playing catch up and been sneaking in a few hours here and there after work.
The latest part for project SWC cabinet called for the monitor mounts - again I used my reference photos to  try and replicated them as accurately as possible...  Here is what the originals looked like:



To get the measurements right, I firstly decased the monitor - in this case, an IBM (re-badged Sony) 21" unit..  These things were the ducks guts back in the CRT days..  I picked up a couple from a guy on another forum for nothing - he bought a pallet load of them from the auctions..  Picture quality is pretty awesome and even though it's not a real vector monitor, it's a good second when coupled with AAE..  The adjustable stand will be removed later (one screw) but I left it in place so I had something to sit it on..



My "replica" brackets are made from 50mm x 50mm x 3mm angle - the 21" Sony monitor weighs an absolute tonne, so I decided to up the thickness a little as the originals look like they're about 1.5mm - I also left a bit more meat on the side that attaches to the monitor itself, again for a bit more support.  After a heap of measuring (no mean feat as I was juggling the monitor and taking measurements all by my little lonesome) I marked and cut out the angle..

The mounting bolts (not shown) for the monitor will be welded in place from behind to make assembly a bit easier and then I'll shoot the lot in some gold paint to try and replicate the finish of the original..  or maybe I'll just paint it black cause I already have that



I laid John's original templates for the side of the cabinet over the side artwork and knowing the bolt hole centreline measurements (200mm centres - thanks Dez!) and with my reference photos, I was able to accurately calculate the location of the bolts on the side of the template - I then transferred the centre marks to the actual cabinet, drilled them with a 2mm pilot drill bit followed with a 6mm and finally a 10mm bit..

Being able to get the bolt hole locations accurately meant that the tube face would also be pretty close to the original cabinet.  I was pretty happy with the results..



The bolts are M10 x 75mm Zenith's from good old Bunnings - Pro's: cheap and easily available at 6:30pm on one's way home from work; Con's: The ugly 'Z' on the bolt head.



Simple solution was to wack them in the lathe and use a file to remove all traces of marking.  This is really just a test shot and I'll finish it up with some emery paper and oil to give it a nice smooth finish and then finally hit them all with a couple of coats of satin black as per the original cab



Due to the size difference of the 21" PC monitor Versus the 25" Vector monitor, I needed to add some packers to the bracket.  In another galaxy, far far away, I hope that Ram will repro the Vector setup and I can retro-fit it into my cabinet..



After all the cursing and swearing, the monitor just slotted into place like it was designed to go in there - to say I was happy was an understatement..!!



..and the reverse shot..



..and with the (very dusty) bezel in place..



Next job is to mount the computer, coin box, etc etc and start prepping the cabinet for paint..  It's getting close..


Hoops

[Rick]

So, you decased the monitor, and them put the stand back on it?  Is it an integral part of the monitor, or was there a reason?  (Not totally familiar with the Sonys, personally.)

[Roo]

if I had to bet, he put the stand back on so he'd have a way to set it down when he's done test fitting.  Am I right?   

Excellent build by the way!  Very nice work!

[HoopstarsGarage]

So, you decased the monitor, and them put the stand back on it?  Is it an integral part of the monitor, or was there a reason?  (Not totally familiar with the Sonys, personally.)

To quote myself

The adjustable stand will be removed later (one screw) but I left it in place so I had something to sit it on..

[Rick]

To quote myself

How do you expect me to read everything when you throw all these damn pictures in the way?

 

[Lewis Black]

Sweet cab.