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USAF MAME Cabinet is now underway
johnmartin:
Well I basically finished the top of the CP last night. I will take a pic once I get back home. The mylar came out a lot better than the paper overlay but there is one spot that has a slight wrinkle near the spinner but I must have missed the adhesive in that spot. I'll spray a bit more under there tonight and I should be fine.
I also worked on the acrylic overlay yesterday and had an issue. I got everything lined up and started drilling. I was trying to work slowly to avoid cracking the sheet and got about 15 holes done and moved to the P2 button holes and got 3 of them completed. On the 3rd one the drill jumped and CRACK, right down the middle of the &*+^&*&*% sheet. Ruined a 25$ piece of acrylic. I was freaking MAD!!!! I started to go and get another sheet and though about it. If I just spray the overlay with several coats of poly it would seal it up nicely and then I would not really need any acrylic on top of the CP. So I bought a can of spray acrylic at Wal-Mart, sprayed 4 coats on the CP over the course of a few hours, and lo and behold it worked like a charm. After it was dry I even sprayed some water on it to make sure the overlay was all sealed up and everything was fine.
Well I am heading home from work in a couple minutes and I'll take a photo and post it shortly.
Stobe:
I look forward to seeing your cab come together. I like the idea of theme-ing the cab after your personal interests. No Military for myslef, but I was in the boy scouts for 8 years. But the idea of seeing a marquee with a scoutmaster bending over a scout just doesn't fit in my basement's decor. (Just kidding!!! Just kidding!!!, couldn't pass it up!)
Good idea to include the trackball. If nothing else, it will make administration within windows easier (although you did mention a KB drawer).
My front end of choice is Mala. Mostly because I have it working the way I want it, and I could pretty much child-proof the front end for my daughters.
Good luck!
johnmartin:
Well as promised earlier here is a pic of the nearly completed CP. I still need to add the edging to the panel and mount it to the base but I think it turned out pretty good. The middle joystick will be replaced with a trackball one day. There is a small wrinkle by the spinner but I will take care of that with a touch more adhesive under that area.
I got a surprise in the mail today when I got home. My I-Pac was waiting for me ;D Guess I can get it wired up now.
I also picked up 2 sheets of 3/4" MDF today. Damn that stuff is heavy. Never realized how heavy that stuff was.
And since I have not shown where it is going I am including a couple pics of my newly finished basement.
I plan on putting the cabinet on the right here but I need to remove the chandelier.
Or I may put it here
Folks can play when not watching movies in here. 10' wide 2.35:1 cinemascope screen. Theater should be finished within the next couple weeks. Work will continue on the MAME cab on Wednesday.
John
John
johnmartin:
More progress. Last night I got the new hard drive in a free computer I got from someone at work. Took me a while but I got it installed it and got XP put on it. It unfortunately does not have a DVD drive and really do not want to buy one so I guess I will be transferring games from DVD to my thumb drive and then to the new computer.
I spent some time today getting the cab framed up. I got more done than I thought. I got both sides cut out and all the furring strips inside. I got it stood up and the back panel attached, the front lower panel attached and the sloped panel on top attached. I unfortunately did not get any pics since the weather closed in on me and I had to get it back in the garage and my sons Jeep back in as well since his top is off right now. Since I can't do any more work tonight on the cabinet, I am going to mount the I-Pac and start wiring the CP. If all goes well I will have the CP wired tonight.
With any luck I will get the cab framed out completely tomorrow morning, get the screw holes filled in and sanded, the casters on and the whole thing wheeled into the basement where all the finish work will get done. I will also attempt to get the CP and computer installed and tested.
Pics to come tomorrow once the weather clears.
Jdurg:
A simple DVD reader would only run you about $10. I'd suggest looking around to find one as it can come in incredibly useful. If you splurge and get a writer, you can then also ghost your entire hard drive to DVDs once it's set up so you have a permanent copy of your installation.
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