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My 1st Cocktail Finished! (100%... finally)
system01:
So I’ve finally finished my first cab, a cocktail machine. Its nothing unique or original, but I decided to post it all here for reference.
I’ve been a lurker here for a loooong time, but didn’t post much, at least until I got into the MaLa and software section.
I didn’t take good/many pictures during the build, but I have lots of 3D files that I used. Im going to break this into groups as I don’t have time to do it all at once. Ill add a section every few days or so.
Design:
- Kyle Lindstrom’s Pac Man Plans – modified to suit.
- Lots ot OEM-style Pac Man & Ms. Pac Man parts
Electronic/Electric::
- Asus A7V333 Mobo (resurrected with new caps)
- AMD XP 1800 chip
- 1 GB RAM
- nVidia 4400Ti Video, failing cos of bulged caps
- Klipsch Promedia 2.1 sound system (the old one)
- Some cheap-ass soundcard
- Samsung Syncmaster 204B, 20.1” LCD, 5ms Refresh, 160° viewing angle, 800:1 Contrast, 4:3 Aspect, Max res 1600 x 1200 @ 60 Hz (running 1280 x 960)
- Ultimarc U360 (2x)
- Ultimarc iPac2
- Happ Comp Buttons
- Play button switches swapped with micro-leafs from GGG
- Bits Ltd. SmartStrip SCG
OS & Software:
- Windows eXPerience R09 Tiny XP SP3
- FatFingers MaLa UltraStik Plugin
- MalaLauncher by TheShanMan, for…
- CPWizard by Headkaze
- MAMEComplier by Headkaze
- InstantSheller by Tom Spiers
- Asus MyLogo to change the BIOS logo
- Romlister
Unfinished:
- Top glass – bought but its too big
- Vinyl to cover the panel, around the buttons
- Vinyl to label the buttons
- Some decent stools to use this thing with
- Something to hold my beer
brontosyamaha:
Nice and clean build. Have fun! :o
system01:
Thanks.
Its already in full use now. In fact, my 5-year-old is learning games in 1 week quicker than I did in 10 years. I still kick his ass at Strider though.
system01:
The Base
I used Kyle Lindstrom’s Pac Man documentation for this build. I don’t like fancy branding or anything for a MAME cab (too many games), so I left it very generic. I had to compensate for board thickness and also alter it for the controls and devices I wanted.
The entire base piece is made of ¾” MDF. I drilled everything with giant holesaws (2”, 3 ½”) and then routed out the rest. I finished everything with a drum-sander kit on a drill press.
I did this cos of the radiuses and routing and hole-drilling involved. I didn’t want to have to go back and fill in a bunch of missing ply pieces later. If I were to do this again I think I would’ve used MDF for the actual base (big square piece) and used cabinet ply, or solid stock, for the “skirt” pieces. I ran into a problem with fastening the “skirts” to the base where the screws bulged out the MDF lengthwise. I ended up driving the screws in – separating the MDF a little – backing them out, filling the now-split MDF with glue, clamping around the screw holes, and driving the screws back in. Ply doesn’t behave this badly laterally.
Since I don’t have a radius jig for my router yet I drilled many holes for the big opening and sanded them down with the drums. Then I went back and radiused the all the edges with a ½” roundover bit. I didn’t want peoples (my wife’s) fingernails to chip away at square edges while pushing buttons. Confused about my buttons and holes? Youll see later…
I also added braces and t-nuts to the corners (http://www.rockler.com/product.cfm?page=1641). My thinking was that when I upgrade to hardwood floors I didn’t want any wobble or shimmying, so I beefed up the mounting. Necessary? Prolly not, But Id rather build it in now than tear it down later.
When I was done gluing/screwing these pieces I sanded and primered/painted with whatever random enamel spray was in my garage. I think Rustoleum Industrial Black.
Having Lindstrom's plans will assist in understanding how I fastened everything.
http://www.mikesarcade.com/arcade/cabplans/PacCT-instructions.zip
http://www.mikesarcade.com/arcade/cabplans/PacCT-details.zip
At the end I drilled through the corner braces and attached the t-nuts, I used some mega-duty pinball-style leg levelers with rubber feet (again, for wood floors).
system01:
The Sides (aka, How to Use Polyshades)
This was the most frustrating part for me. I had a hell of a time with the finish. Damn you, Minwax!
I used cabinet-grade ¾” oak veneer for everything on the sides. The main squares were just cut with a table saw. The CP cutouts were cut with a jigsaw, but since Mr. Crappy doesn’t like to cut straight, I shored everything up with a pattern bit in my router. The CP cutouts were also measured to fit my CP. They’re a bit wider than Lindstrom’s. The hole for the coin door was made with a 3” hole saw and the same pattern bit in my router. I had decided early on that I was going to use the Klipsch system, so I made another router template from the template in Project Arcade. The CP ends were made using another template built somewhat close to the Lindstrom plans. For now I left the top skinny parts sticking up over the cabinet sides. I sanded all of the outside surfaces down til I couldn’t feel the grain anymore. Nothing too fancy here…
…Until I got to the finish.
I planned on staining and finishing with a clear poly. I played around a bit and found a good mix of 3 different colors of stain. When I want to actually stain, the colors changed where they split the outer veneer. Not like a tint off, but like one half was reddish-brown (what I wanted) and the other half was a bluish-gray. I figured a couple more coats would hide it; Nope, just made it darker.
Not knowing what to do, other than re-cutting on proper parts of the sheet, I aimlessly wandered the paint aisle at Home Depot (like everybody else there). I came across the Minwax Polyshades Bombay Red. Looked sweet. So I took it home and tried it on a little piece of oak and it came out nice.
So I sanded the stain back down til most the color was gone and started applying the Polyshades just like I would with other polys. Came out like crap! It globbed up and thickened in an uneven manner, so I had these random opaque brown spots. Let dry, sand back down, try it again. Same result.
A smart person would’ve tried this on a test piece first. Not me. Since all my pieces were “damaged” from the stain step, I wanted all my pieces to have had the exact same processes so they would match. That’s right, I did this step four times to all of the pieces!
I also wasn’t impressed with the somewhat-matte finish of the Polyshades so I topped it with Minwax Semi-Gloss Clear Poly.
See the attached, I’m very pleased with how it came out in the end.
I also did the top at this time, but Ill put it in the next section.
How to Apply Minwax Polyshades.
This stuff thickens up before it even leaves the can. If you don’t keep your painting steps to a couple minutes youll start pulling this goo all over your work. Its kinda like smearing old pancake syrup with your finger.
I would load my 3” brush rather lightly and dab it in the center of my work, then rapidly “pulling” it to the edges. Thin, thin coats! In the case of Bombay Red, the first couple coats were very sissy pink. If I couldn’t pull it to some edges I would barely load my brush and work that area. I had a bubble problem with the open grain oak, so I would wait a couple minutes and tip it off.
I would wait 1 day then lightly sand it with the orbital and do the same process until I had a nice even color (4 – 5 coats). After ~2 coats, sanding gives a “flat-plastic” look to it. Putting anything over this will bring the color back – like getting a dry stone wet.
I don’t think Ill go this route again.
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