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2 Player control panel project (now with pics)
LeedsFan:
Well all my parts have now arrived! :applaud:
I can actually start doing something. Earlier I did change my mind from the two player panel to a "solitaire" solo panel. (I edited all my earlier posts out about this solo panel). But now that my parts have arrived I realised I made a couple of errors in my calculations.
Firstly the TB plate is 6" square and not 7" as I was originally working with. And also the U360s can be mounted in either landscape or portrait manner by just remounting the sticks 90 degrees in the plate. This has saved a bit of space and after making a temporary mock up of installing sticks and trackball into piece of wood I feel the two player panel will be playable for Robotron and Smash TV type games. So I'm definitely sticking to my first 2-player design with just minor tweaks to button placement.
LeedsFan:
Well it's time this thread had some pics.... so here goes:
Total cost of arcade parts (including shipping): £428.39
All my parts have arrived. I ordered from four vendors: Suzo UK (Happs), Ultimarc, TherealBobRoberts and Arcade-shop.de. All four delivered the goods with no fuss and were a pleasure to deal with. Just waiting on my artwork and plexi top now to really get moving. So it was time to get started on something at last.
This is as far as I've got so far. My woodworking skills are very limited so please don't expect Kneivel type results here. :notworthy: I basically just went to B&Q and got all the stuff from there.
I strengthened the corners with 90 degree angle brackets as you can see here.
I even mortised a hinge! Never done that before. I was gonna use 38mm flush mount hinges but to be honest I didn't think they would be strong enough. They would only attach to the underside of the control panel lid with with four screws and each pair is very close together. So I went with the 300mm continuous "piano" style hinge. Fits perfectly into the 15mm wood and should be much stronger than the flush mounted type for this job.
The corner flanges were just perfect for this unit. Allowing a corner area to lower the base panel onto they also had holes in the bottom through which I could mount these rubber feet. The base itself is 6mm MDF. I could have used a piece from the 12mm MDF I'm using for the panel top, but I wouldn't have got the spinner to fit inside the base. (The spinner will just clear the base by about 2mm when installed)
I'm gonna fill the corners in with these 16mm diameter rounded trims I cut to size. I've yet to glue these in place though. Sorry guys... no fancy dovetail joints on this piece. But it feels very strong and I've been at pains to make sure the interior gap from top/bottom and left/right is exactly the same all the way round.
Total cost of stuff from B&Q up to this point: £41.78
This means total cost of project so far is £470.17. This aint cheap! I've still got other stuff to come and a few more small parts yet to buy. Hoping to keep below £550 but it's doubtful. :cry:
waveryder:
£550 on a control panel :o Holy :censored:. My whole candy cab hasn't cost anywhere near that!
LeedsFan:
--- Quote from: waveryder on January 07, 2008, 04:15:13 pm ---£550 on a control panel :o Holy :censored:. My whole candy cab hasn't cost anywhere near that!
--- End quote ---
Well... look at the cost of the arcade parts only. I can't get them any cheaper. :dunno
Surely we are all in the same boat with that? The Hi-Lip Happs 3" trackball cost me £33 only. I have 2x U360s. I did buy a $15 replacement ball for the trackball but what's that in sterling? I also bought 9x leaf converters for microswitch buttons which I may not use. They cost me £25.
But in general the main bulk of the cost is in the arcade parts. I cannot see how it could be a lot cheaper. Unless I searched for second hand parts on e-bay or compromised on what I wanted and settled for 8-ways instead of U360s etc.
Even that wouldn't drop the cost by all that much. :/
EDIT: I just read your project thread. That is one awesome looking cab! Kudos to you. :cheers:
I gotta say though that getting that cabinet for £65.00 was an absolute steal. What a bargain!
LeedsFan:
The project has been on hold for a couple of week because I needed to wait for the artwork to arrive before I could really get going again. It arrived yesterday and this morning I got on with the next stage. (Excellent artwork product as usual from Scott at Mamemarquees)
I'd already bought a sheet of 0.5mm aluminium from my local B&Q and also ordered a sheet of ready cut plexi from a UK company on eBay. I trimmed the ali sheet to size together with my top panel of 12mm MDF to exactly match my plexi (660 x 340mm). So now I had all three layers matched exactly just awaiting my artwork application:
Yeah... it's not the most original artwork but I really like this piece. Really makes the trackball the centrepiece of the panel. Now for the two parts I had been apprehensive about for a while. Firstly sticking the artwork to the panel. I knew I had two perfectly straight edges on my sheet of aluminium as I cut if from one corner of a larger piece. So I worked from that corner and made sure the artwork went on squarely. Working slowly and carefully, and using a clean rag, I peeled the backing a couple of inches at a time and smoothed the artwork on. I was really pleased with the result. Not one single air bubble! :D
Then I placed all three of my top layers together and clamped them square. Having marked the exact centre where the trackball would be I made a pilot hole through all layers. Then I used a piece of scrap wood on top and drilled the 3" hole needed. This was the second scary bit for me. I was worried that the artwork might tear at the edges or that the plexi might crack. I needn't have worried. The holes cut out cleanly! I just need to rub the inside edge of the plexi hole with some emery to polish it up a little. :D
The aluminium sheet (1000 x 500mm) cost me £21.14 from B&Q which I thought was quite expensive. But having checked on eBay for similar sheets it seems I would have saved maybe three or four quid at most. The artwork cost me £26.37 after calculation of the exchange rate (including shipping), and the plexi cost me £14.20. They kindly sent me the left over offcuts from my pre-cut sheet and I used those to practice drill with first.
So total price of project so far is £531.88, but the only things to buy now are small things like fixing screws and paint etc.
Next step is to get the trackball "rugby ball" hole cut out and work on getting the button holes and joystick mounting holes cut out.
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