Long time no update!
Well, it's 5:00 am in the morning here and I just returned from a friend's birthday party at one of the cheapest, sleeziest hook-up disco/ club whatever which was as far away from being fun as Will Smith is away from being cool.
So if you ever come to visit Germany and happen to come to the city of Cologne, make sure to visit the "Klappsmühle", if you are looking for a quick, easy to get and inexpensive holiday "flirt". It just made me sick - I realize that I am getting too old for this "isht" - sad there are so many of my generation still loving this lifestyle but - whatever.
Okay, enough of my society criticism! Time for some news.
In the meantime between my last update I didn't get to do alot since I was ill and not too over motivated. I started painting the cab about a week ago. I have never been too keen at painting and my other topic in the woodworking section indicates, that I was a bit concerned about getting a nice smooth finish. After several coats I somehow got very frustrated. This was when I started the topic in the woodworking section. After the first set of answers I started to sand it a little more but ended up with messing up the surface in a way. While sanding, some paint chunks got heated up by the powersander and literally melted into the paint (acrylic paint wasn't the best decission). At this point (friday) I got veeeeeeeeery enraged, frustrated and was building up alot of HATE! So I drove to my DIY store and looked for options. I remembered of what I used for my prototype desktop arcadecontrols - I used some sort of vinyl - cheap laminate, in a matter of speaking. I was more than a bit sceptical if I could apply it to a large area like the sides and ended up buying only one of the biggest sheets which is enough for one side. At home I cooled down a bit of my anger and applied it. And without having believed in it - IT WORKED OUT GREAT! The parts of the side which got messed up can only be guessed and there are no air bubbles which I didn't got flat. A really nice surprise! I decidet to sleep a night and see how it will look the next day. To keep it short - it still looked great so I went on to get more of this stuff: Alkor standard adhesive and decoration foils in plain colour.
The company has a website in english too:
http://www.alkor-deco.de/englisch/index_e.htmlI applied it on the other side today and in the front on the control panel - I was even able to cut and place it so close that you have to look verrrrry verrry close and hard to tell where the foil is connected to the sides.
I then drilled all the cable holes and cleaned the cab from all the dust. Pre wired the controls and waited. I waited for a friend to arrive to pick me up for this awsome party. But before we left, he assisted me in putting this heavy 29" CRT into the cab. I then was able to set up the system for play. And what should I say? IT'S AWSOME! Just could play a little bit before we had to leave but I will sure be return to play now until my eyes fall down (which isn't gonna take long though). Veeeeery cool! At least I can play now and finish it bit by bit in this final stage.
Today I also ordered the badass Logitech Z-2300. Hard hittin' bad boys : ))
What is left to do:
- have the CPO printed
- finish the detachable speaker/ marquee topbox, in detail this means putting the foil on it, placeing the speakers in it, making a mount for the cathode light and the marquee, cutting the marquee's plexi aswell as design a marquee at all, add a hinged backside
- apply T-Molding (have to decide colour first and order it)
- build the monitor's bezel including a hinged frame which also holds the tinted glass
- add the coindoor with the lower access door, have to wire the coindoor a bit and get the 2,- Euro coin mech to stop from internal jamming
- add the keyboard drawer
- add the self-named I/O panel which will contain admin buttons and console / USB adapters
- wire the controls correctly the way I planned (interchangeable)
- later: hack some console stuff like joypads and video outputs to make it useable with the monitor (since it also supports 15 kHz)
- add the side arts, want to keep them simple and colourfull like they are found on japanese candy cabs
- add a metal kick palte at the front bottom
did I forget anything? : )
Okay, enough for now. Just the pictures and a sidenote. Since I did the assembly indoors in my living room, I just realised that being single has it's good sides ; ) Okay, now some pics!
CHEERS! And goodnight!