First cocktail in planning.....i hate planning

[mahalos]

Wow! Love the design!!!

Looks really great. Well done.

Thanks for the feedback. Things have stalled for a bit....damn reccession.

[Uncle Monkey]

I love everything about this, the classy, unique design, the white with blue and chrome accents color-scheme. I agree with earlier posts about the lit Space invaders and iPod dock, if you could work them in, it'd be pretty sweet.

[Hornpipe2]

i just thought it strange that it took time to occur as opposed to being there constantly.

Monitors usually degauss every time they're turned on (as long as they've been off for a long enough period of time), so it's possible your monitor corrects itself with the first degauss and then slowly the correction wears off over time thanks to some magnetic field from the Earth or wherever.

[YoGaBaR]

Any progress on this cab lately?

[mahalos]

Well ...yes and no.

I've been doing a bit of R&D for the cab lately.....some of it has been cool, some a bit disappointing.

The cool part was the LED side-lit acrylic control panel overlay, which seems to be coming along despite a few bugs. I'm going for something like this to give the control a little bit of WOW factor seeing as there will be no artwork.

The disappointing part was the space-invader on the side.  I made a template which i used to route out the invader but the wood broke due to it ending up to small...

..oh and the pc i had running in it died    but the replacement arrived today

I'll post pics later to show the cpo and the invader

[cboy]

how did i miss this thread earlier....looking good man...

btw with your screenname.. are you from Hawaii?

[mahalos]

how did i miss this thread earlier....looking good man...

btw with your screenname.. are you from Hawaii?

Thanks man...and no, not from hawaii....New Zealand actually. I had a boss who used to call me "carlos mee-har-loss", it was one of those moments when signing up where every name you try is taken so somehow i ended up using it and spelling it mahalos.

[Franco B]

If you like I could possibly make you a copy of my templates that I'm using for my Space Invader stools:



They are approx 10" across with 1/16" radius internal corners which are ideal for use with a 1/4" guided bit.

[mahalos]

That's some fantastic work there Franco....and thanks for the offer i'll certainly keep it in mind

I'll have to take some pics to show you where it all fell apart for me.


So here's the thing i've been messing around with. I designed a test piece of acrylic at 100mm x 100mm x 4mm and had it laser etched for me to see how effectively it would light up.


It lights up pretty well, but i need to re-think how to diffuse the leds better,  either i'll try some led strips or i'm thinking about using a cold cathode along the long edge of the cpo as opposed to led's either side of the cpo




I still have a few things to try out on the cpo before committing to anything.

[Franco B]

Now that I like!  Where did you get it etched?

[severdhed]

that is stunning....this is turning out to be one of my favorite projects.  i had pretty much decided against a cocktail cabinet, until i saw your design...now i want one

[YoGaBaR]

That looks awesome! One of my buddies that works at a construction company does that etched plexi with lights onthe side. I will ask him what they use to do that. I know its a strip of tiny LEDs. He is on his honeymoon now so I will ask him when he gets back.

[mahalos]

Franco:  as luck would have it i found the place on my way home from work one day. It's just a little place that does laser etching, and cutting.

Severdhed:  thanks for your comments, i'd lost a bit of inspiration and drive for this build.....but the bug is coming back a bit now...so thanks for the motivation

YoGaBar:  Thanks man.I look forward to hearing what your buddy has to say.



Now here's where i lost my motivation for the build. I had planned on doing a recessed back-lit invader on the side of the machine just like in my sketchup model (although it wasn't recessed in the pic). I had a friend with a cnc make my template for me from acrylic. I grabbed a test piece of 18mm MDF and routed out about 13mm, then I used double sided tape to stick the template to the front of the remaining 5mm. Using a flush-trim router bit i started work on the smaller holes...which worked sweet. It turned crap when i got to the larger holes. Due to the fact there's only 4mm of MDF in between holes and the longest hole is 260mm long, there was not enough strength and it started to vibrate badly and finally it broke.....so i chucked it in disgust and haven't revisited it since. So now i need to either redesign the invader and go with the one i did on the etching, or re-think my approach to routing the current design. Although i think even if i successfully manage to route it out it'll be too flimsy and break further down the track.....probably the day after i finish the machine!

So here's the pics

[Yvan256]

Now here's where i lost my motivation for the build. I had planned on doing a recessed back-lit invader on the side of the machine just like in my sketchup model (although it wasn't recessed in the pic). I had a friend with a cnc make my template for me from acrylic.

Okay, since you have a friend who can cut acrylic pieces for you, here's an idea: route the recessed area for the invader (say, half the thickness or something), then route the invader in the panel (full thickness of the MDF) and then route 2mm edges in the invader holes as deep as the thickness of the acrylic.

Then simply have your friend cut acrylic pices to rest in these new slots and backlight the whole thing from behind.

[YoGaBaR]

I talked to my buddy and he uses a strip of little square LEDs. I have seen them for sale somewhere but can not remember where. What they do at the company is set the LEDs away from the side of the plexi a little and it makes the plexi glow and not show those streaks.
Hope that helped.

[mahalos]

I talked to my buddy and he uses a strip of little square LEDs. I have seen them for sale somewhere but can not remember where. What they do at the company is set the LEDs away from the side of the plexi a little and it makes the plexi glow and not show those streaks.
Hope that helped.

That's awesome man....thanks a bunch.
 I know the LED's he's talking about as I was looking at getting some the other day, and I look forward to trying out his tip on moving them away from the edge a bit.

[jeef]

Hey mano, can't believe I didn't have this on my notify!
Gutted about the routing not working so well. Perhaps just redesign the guy with a bit more space inbetween? He looks pretty cool Or, why not make it thicker?

[mahalos]

Hey mano, can't believe I didn't have this on my notify!
Gutted about the routing not working so well. Perhaps just redesign the guy with a bit more space inbetween? He looks pretty cool Or, why not make it thicker?

Hey dude,  I'm a little undecided on which way to go with this one. Unfortunately I think making it thicker won't solve the prob as it's still a pretty long unsupported length, but it would certainly help a bit. I'm stuck deciding weather work with this design or move to the invader design i used on the etched acrylic just to give the project a consistent feel.I have a pretty good idea for what to do with him at the moment but i'm unsure if it would end up costing too much....i'll have to go home and fire up sketch-up to show you what i mean.

cheers
Carl

PS. great work on your cab man, it's really coming along nicely. I've been following it closely.

[Yvan256]

Since you have someone who routed the plexi template, how about routing the MDF and inserting "plexiglass pixels" into the holes? If you can get plexiglass as thick as the MDF, that would work great I think. Just put a square of thin plexiglass at the back of the pixels (inside wall) so that they can't be pushed inside the case (if they even move at all).

[mahalos]

Since you have someone who routed the plexi template, how about routing the MDF and inserting "plexiglass pixels" into the holes? If you can get plexiglass as thick as the MDF, that would work great I think. Just put a square of thin plexiglass at the back of the pixels (inside wall) so that they can't be pushed inside the case (if they even move at all).

Sorry i never replied to your earlier suggestion man,  any help is always appreciated.

I originally thought of doing some like this...but my only concern was the accuracy needed for it to come out looking good. I'd have to see how well my mate would be able to route the mdf out as the bed of his CNC isn't that big. I guess i'd also need to allow for painting as well. Nothing worse than having a tight fit before painting, taking the acrylic out, painting then not being able to fit them back in 

Great suggestion though....i may have to do a few more tests

[Yvan256]

Another solution would be to route the pixels as you did but the full thickness of the MDF, route the thickness of the plexiglass on the outside,  fit plexiglass into that routed exterior and light everything from behind/the inside.

Another easier solution would be to make a hole as big as needed for the alien, route the exterior to the thickness of the plexiglass (doing an edge to put the plexiglass on) and cover the plexiglass with a vinyl (or something) with cutouts for the pixels.

Or even better, to go around the paint/thickness/doesn't-fit-anymore-when-I'm-done-painting-damnit problem, simple route the plexiglass pixels and also route the plexiglass like your template but in opaque plexi, same color as the side panels. Or heck, finish the whole sides with that opaque plexi if you can!