The Canucks Cocktail Cabinet

[opt2not]

Begin renovation:
I ended getting my grimy hands on a cocktail table today! I was scouring craigslist for a while, looking for a decent priced cocktail unit that I can restore and update, and was lucky to come across one that was marked at $300. Though it was posted from a city across the border...From the pictures the seller posted, I countered his price with $150, then we settled on $175.



I'm posting this in Project Announcements instead of Restorations because I'm planning on making this a renovation project. I was thinking about stripping the wood-look and going with a more brighter modern finish. Really, I'm not found of the antique wood finish, I'm into a more colourful and fun looking cabinets. I'm thinking about updating it to my favourite hockey team's theme, the Canucks, with a nice deep blue look and white trimming. My reasoning behind this is that I want to have Hat Trick playing on this thing primarily, so I would be creating a Hat Trick - The Vancouver Canucks Edition. But seeing that I cannot find a working Hat Trick and Sente PCB, nor do I want to fiddle with a non-Jamma board, I'm most likely going to put a PC in this thing with a small list of emulated games.

This cabinet was 182km away (113 miles) from me, and required me to journey into the land of the fast-food haven, the US of A.
I didn't really have a lot of time this weekend, because it's Canadian Thanksgiving so I had to somehow "ninja buy" this machine in the morning and come back before the family woke up for the day.  So, at 6am I headed down south, embarking on a 2hr drive to check this thing out and ultimately purchase it. Of course, hitting a fast-food fav along the way --- mmmm, Jack 'n the Box tacos!

Here it is, purchased and fitted into the back of the coupe! Snug!

Coming back into Canada the border crossing was fairly empty, and when the Customs Officer learned about my purpose for being in the states, we ended up talking for 10 mins about games. He was the nicest customs guy I've ever talked to!

Ok, on to the slew of photos!

The cabinet is in rough physical shape, nothing that can't be fixed with a little filler action. Like I said I want to repaint this thing with a nice finish anyways.


...but the real kicker for me was that it held 2 spinners and a newly restored monitor. As well as looking like it being an original midway cabinet.




The Monitor is bright and doesn't have a lot of burn-in. Pretty good IMO!


Currently it has Arkanoid in it, and the seller included 2 extra PCB's of the same game thrown into the deal. He said one was working, and the other wasn't, but didn't remember which was which...so I'll have to test them both when I get a chance. I think it was a good buy, and with a little love I can restore and update this thing to a great cabinet state.


Here's a shot of the glass w/ my flash on, you can see the small scratches more here. It's not as bad as the camera makes it look.


Original Coin door...yes! Just need to clean and restore it a bit.  Speaker grills and a red button. The button is hooked up to the coin slot, so that the original owner could just hit this button for credits. I will be removing this one for sure.


Looks like a Midway Kit, but I don't really know, I'm not very familiar with these cabinets. I was expecting this to say Galaga, or Pacman...but it's #326!


Here's a few shots of the innards. It has an RCA tube, with Electrohome chassis it seems. Desperately needs a good cleanin'!  Notice the new flyback.


I'm pretty happy with grabbing this machine. I've always wanted a cocktail table, but I didn't want to buy a newer one because I'm sort of hooked on the idea of going through a full restoration process (it's Level's and Spyridon's fault, their resto-posts got me hooked!) and this is a good small sized machine that I handle. This is going to probably be my last cabinet project for a while, so I wanted to get something that is smaller than a stand-up to really theme out. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with the current setup in there, all I know is that so far I'm thinking the CP's will have a joystick, a spinner and probably 2 buttons max.  I'm not planning on making this an "every game" cabinet, just a handful of the classics that would work will on a cocktail. Arkanoid will stay on the list, but just from a different source than a PCB. It's definitely going to have Hat Trick, Tempest and a few more spinner classics.

Comments and suggestions are welcome!

*edit: adding to-do list to keep track of tasks*

Tasks 2-Do!
- disassemble and clean cabinet
- strip laminate off main cab
        - wood fill & sand
   - prime and paint main cabinet blue
- purchase 25 cent coin inserts
- purchase CF to IDE PC card
- remove cabinet t-molding
- disassemble and clean coin door and speaker grills
   - scrap rust off coin door and speaker grills
   - paint coin door and speaker grills
- paint CP sides blue
- paint coin door parts
- make Canuck logo stencils
- paint green and white stripes on main cab
- paint main canucks logo onto main cab
- purchase t-molding
- paint johnny canuck logo onto main cab
- add thicker white outline to main logo
- clear-coat main cabinet
- restore cabinet legs
   - apply felt pads to legs
- remove monitor from cab-top mount
   - strip laminate off monitor side piece
        - remove t-molding
   - sand cab-top
   - paint monitor side piece blue
- clear-coat top piece of cabinet
- strip paint from glass-top
   - paint glass-top (leave areas for artwork prints)
        - paint green outline
- purchase PC interfaces
- apply t-molding
- drill additional button holes in metal CP
   - cut plexi for CP
- print tabletop artwork
- paint metal CP
- reassemble monitor & power, reinstall into cab
- mount PC parts inside cabinet
- build switch box interface
- wire up controls to switch box
      - wire up minipac to switch box
      - wire up spinner to optipac
- setup PC software
- print CP artwork
- buy replacement LED lights for coin doors, CP lights, wire up
- purchase KVM\VGA switch (integrate into switchbox?)
- install speakers - short term solution for now
- install one more case fan for heat distribution
- Change Advmenu colours to better reflect cabinet
- wire up replacement LED lights for coin doors, CP lights
- polish off scratches from glass surface
- Re-compile Advmame to optimize for AMD and omit warning messages on game start-up NOT NEEDED see here.
- Game list update
- DC: apply 15kHZ hack to VGA Box
- purchase new optic boards
- Get spinners working!
- Reconnect service button in switchbox
- Purchase new midway face-plate
- Re-wire for Jamma
- cap-kit monitor


- New art for CP's and Glass.

[saleem]

you lot from over the sea are soo lucky.here in uk expect to pay (well its hard to find these cab types) but,i would say £300+ easy.convert that to dollars!

on side note,nice find and hope to see lots of pics of your project,unlike mine cos i am lazy bugger.

[Epyx]

Love the local border run

How far down did you go? Im thinking between Bellingham and Everret?

[opt2not]

on side note,nice find and hope to see lots of pics of your project,unlike mine cos i am lazy bugger.

Thanks saleem, no problem I will definitely document the process as best I can.

Love the local border run

How far down did you go? Im thinking between Bellingham and Everret?

Yeah it was in Everett. It's not a terribly long drive, but it feels that way when you do it solo. At that early in the morning, I didn't want to rope anyone into losing sleep over this hobby/obsession. 


After doing some more investigation inside the cabinet, I found a tag inside the coin box:


...and KLOV's Wizard of Wor page states:

http://www.klov.com/W/Wizard_Of_Wor.html
The cocktail is a standard Bally Midway cocktail from the era. However, Bally Midway did a very strange thing for this game: the monitor is rotated 90 degrees from how it is normal viewed on the upright (a person playing the upright sees the monitor horizontally oriented; a player sitting at the cocktail sees the monitor vertically oriented). So basically, on the cocktail, you have to play the game sideways!

So there we have it, this was an original Midway cocktail with Wizard of Wor originally installed, then converted over to Arkanoid.

Here's a photoshop'd starting point of what I was thinking of how the look of the cabinet will be. The colour scheme goes with the Canuck's home jerseys. I wanted to incorporate all 3 canucks logos on the cabinet in a way that's not too intrusive.  Keeping them small is the key, since I don't have a lot of space to use.
I can really see this being in my living room, and I'm sure I'll be playing it during hockey game period intermissions! (or during the game if the Canucks are losing badly )
Comments welcome!


As for controls, like I said earlier I'd like to stick a joystick and 2 push-buttons on there, though it may be a bit cramped. I'll have to measure them out with proper dimensions to see how much space I have to play with here. I will also need to figure out what games are going to be on this thing, whether they merit the need of 2 push-buttons. The CP artwork hasn't crossed my mind yet, but it'll be more detailed than just a flat colour, most likely going to use the white and green more here not to mention labels for the inputs.  But here's a rough concept regardless:


I was also thinking if there was enough space internally to put the spinner on the front of the CP. Not sure how comfortable it would play though, but it *could* be an option...here's a concept (this time with green!)



More to come...

[Hewskie]

Wow, that concept art looks great. I'm from surrey so you know I'm going to love this cab! For your cp art, have you seen what this guy's done? http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=97074.0

A nice picture of the inside of GM Place would look really cool there. Just an idea.

Keep us posted

Hewskie

[Billy_Goatfeet]

  Nice buy!  I was going to make a comment about your team but considering I am a Leafs fan, I don't have a leg to stand on!!  Damn those Sedins!! 

[opt2not]

Wow, that concept art looks great. I'm from surrey so you know I'm going to love this cab! For your cp art, have you seen what this guy's done? http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=97074.0

A nice picture of the inside of GM Place would look really cool there. Just an idea.

Keep us posted

Hewskie

Yeah, I was thinking about that. It's a good idea, I might have to rip it off!

  Nice buy!  I was going to make a comment about your team but considering I am a Leafs fan, I don't have a leg to stand on!!  Damn those Sedins!! 

Yeah, but at least the Leafs have seen a Stanley Cup! I'm hoping the Canucks will eventually, in my lifetime... 

[dkssprs]

I love the colours you choosed for the artwork!! 

I will be watching your progress 

[Nogginboink]

This is brilliant!  "Canucks Edition" gave me the best idea yet:  A "Stars Edition" game just *might* have the WAF to be allowed into the house! I'll have to try that...

[opt2not]

Today I took apart the control panels to give them a good cleaning and figure out how to fix the noisy arkanoid spinner.


Got to remove the adhesive from the CP laminate that was on there. While cleaning the metal CP, I just ran it under hot water and peeled the laminate off. 


After disassembling the spinner, cleaning it then putting it back together, I noticed that noise is being caused by the gear shafts vibrating in their slots. Nothin' a little grease can't fix! After greasing their holes, not only has the spinner quieted up, it also has made the turning friction a lot more loose! It feels really great, I'm glad that this was a small and cheap fix.

Cleaned & quiet spinner


An assessment of the space in the CP has me to believe that I might not be able to fit the spinner on the front side of the CP, which  I wasn't too sure of in the first place. As well, I'm skeptical of fitting all the controls on the top of CP, so I might need to re-think my layout. Tomorrow I'll continue the disassembling and and cleaning of the cabinet, not to mention start up on stripping the laminate from the wood.

Do you guys feel like I do when you find old dried gum stuck to the bottom of a CP?  It's so disrespectful!  Gah! I hate cleaning up gum.

Stay tuned for more!

[Billy_Goatfeet]

  Nice buy!  I was going to make a comment about your team but considering I am a Leafs fan, I don't have a leg to stand on!!  Damn those Sedins!! 

Yeah, but at least the Leafs have seen a Stanley Cup! I'm hoping the Canucks will eventually, in my lifetime... 
[/quote]

  I think you guys will get there before we will.  You've got the right goalie.  I'd be happy just to see my team in the finals in my lifetime, haven't had that.  Are you sure you don't want to go with the old 80's 'reese's pieces' colour scheme for your machine.  Those were beauts!

 

[opt2not]

 I think you guys will get there before we will.  You've got the right goalie.  I'd be happy just to see my team in the finals in my lifetime, haven't had that.  Are you sure you don't want to go with the old 80's 'reese's pieces' colour scheme for your machine.  Those were beauts!

eww, don't remind me of those jerseys
Actually the colours might look really nice on furniture, and would go well with my living room walls (burgundy), I may have to photoshop it up and see how it looks. Though it's not the current Canucks scheme, which is what I wanted to go with. Also, if I decide to sell this down the line, it would be easier to do so with the current colours/logo.

This is brilliant!  "Canucks Edition" gave me the best idea yet:  A "Stars Edition" game just *might* have the WAF to be allowed into the house! I'll have to try that...

That was the only way I could convince the wife to allow it in the living room!

[Benevolance]

Jack in the box is my favorite part of visiting the states.

I really like your design mock-up. It is a superb choice of teams, and I like how you've applied the colour/logos. I'd vote against putting the spinner on the front, though. I don't think that would be very comfortable to use.

There seem to be a lot of us in the surrey/langley region. We should form a union. Or at least meet up for beers somewhere.

[opt2not]

Today I did a little work with the dremel, cleaned up the CPs and spinner rust:



Also worked on getting the laminate off the wood, I used the old hot iron and putty knife technique.


It's all turning out well!
Next up: the coin door!

[opt2not]

Alright, daily updates continue!

Today I removed and disassembled the Coin door, removed the speakers and speaker grills, and disconnected the power supply.

For the Coin door, I cleaned up the parts and took my trusty dremel and wire-wheel to it's rusted dirty carcass, preparing it for priming & painting.


I use little baggies to separate all the parts into their relative areas (coin door gets it's own bag of nuts and bolts, cp mounting as well, etc..), as you can see by the picture I'll need to clean up the rest of the parts from the coindoor and the speaker assembly.


Inside the coin door there was a tag that said vibration switch:

Does anyone know what this is? There was a leaf-switch in there as well that I believe was attached to the coin lock screw...

I used my drill and a thin-bit to get the rivets off the coin door to remove the Midway plate. The plate itself will need to be replaced with a new one, I kept the rivets and am going to see what I can use to replace them, because I don't think I will be able to find official replacements. I'm also missing one 25¢ coin door insert, as well as the brace that holds it in place. Since thisoldgame.com only ships a pair, I will be replacing the single 25¢ insert with the 25 Cent one because I like the retro look of the word spelled out.  As for the brace that holds it, I might have to come up with a make-shift solution that'll keep that insert in place.

Tomorrow I'll continue cleaning the rest of the coin door parts with my dremel, as well as tidying up the speaker stuff. Then I'm going to remove the glass top and see what kinda restoration I'll need to do to it. I might be able to polish out the minor scratches in it, but I'll assess that then.

 

[Trebeck]

Another Vancouver-ite raising his hand 

Nice grab btw

[opt2not]

There seem to be a lot of us in the surrey/langley region. We should form a union. Or at least meet up for beers somewhere.

Another Vancouver-ite raising his hand 

I'd be down for beers, and talk all that is retro arcade glory.  Though it'll have to be somewhere more neutral than Surrey

[Chicken McNobody]

Inside the coin door there was a tag that said vibration switch:

Does anyone know what this is? There was a leaf-switch in there as well that I believe was attached to the coin lock screw...

I think that is a tamper kill switch.  If you were to shove the machine, or perhaps kick it when you are mad for loosing a life, it will reset the game and remove any credits.  My Space Invaders cocktail has that as well.  Also, some uprights have a kill switch also, but it totally cuts the power, and needs to have the back panel removed to reset for powering back on.  but the upright one may be so you can work back there with less risk of shock.

Maybe an expert will chime in here. . .

Oh, and good work on your progress so far, I loves me a good cocktail table.  I love my Space Invaders table, but hopefully will eventually have a MAME one as well.

[opt2not]

I think that is a tamper kill switch.  If you were to shove the machine, or perhaps kick it when you are mad for loosing a life, it will reset the game and remove any credits.  My Space Invaders cocktail has that as well.  Also, some uprights have a kill switch also, but it totally cuts the power, and needs to have the back panel removed to reset for powering back on.  but the upright one may be so you can work back there with less risk of shock.

Maybe an expert will chime in here. . .

Oh, and good work on your progress so far, I loves me a good cocktail table.  I love my Space Invaders table, but hopefully will eventually have a MAME one as well.

Very cool! I won't be installing it, but that's good to know.  Thanks for the praise as well!

Today's update:

I spent today frivolously grinding off all the rust on the coin mech parts, as well as the speaker grills. Man, what a pain in the butt those speaker grills are. The worst is having to get in-between the little grill areas and remove all the rust that has formed there.  Anyways, I got it cleaned off and ready to be re-painted.


Here's how the coin mechs look now:


The speaker grills before:


and after:


I also removed the glass top to see what was underneath and needed restoring:

Looks pretty good, though the wood top could use a repainting. Now you can see the burn-in on the monitor a bit more, it's under smoked plexi.

Here's the glass:

As you can see, the paint on the bottom of the glass will need to be re-applied. I'll have to get paint thinner for this, but I'm glad the inserts were only taped there, which is awesome for removing!

All in all, I'm pretty happy with today's progress, I got a lot of the hard stuff out of the way.
Next up: removing the rest of the innards within the cabinet!

Stay tuned, same bat-time, same bat-channel. 

[opt2not]

Hang-over days are always unproductive, so I figured I'd get as much as I can done while waiting for my body to return to normal. 

Today I pulled the rest of the innards out of the cabinet, and cleaned the dust and dirt inside with soapy water. After that, I pulled off the crummy old t-molding, and did an assessment of where to wood needs filler.


I then proceeded to remove the laminate by taking my iron, heating up the laminate and peeling it underneath with a scraper.  Works well, but it's tedious work.

One side done, 3 more to go...

I'll finish up the other sides, then work on cleaning off the remaining adhesive left by the laminate (using goo-gone and some patience). After that I'll start applying the wood filler, before I hit this thing with the sander.  Though, the way I'm feeling now I'll probably do this tomorrow. At least I got something done today!

Cont...

[opt2not]

Monday's update:


Got the rest of the laminate off this weekend, which seemed like forever to finish, but I just kept at it till it was done. After it was removed I went around the cabinet and applied wood-filler to all the gashes, cracks, and chips this cabinet had.

The bottom corners were in pretty rough shape, so I had to use a bunch of filler to reshape them. I nailed some scrap hardboard I had sitting around here to keep the corner filler straight.  This filler will take about 8 hrs to dry solid through, so I'm going to let it be for today and carry on tomorrow.




Some of the edges were a bit chipped off, not terribly, but enough to merit applying filler.


Tomorrow's tasks (the fun stuff):
- Sand off the remaining adhesive left from the Laminate
- Sand the dried wood filler smooth
- Clean and Prime the surface for painting!

[opt2not]

Did a little work sanding down the cabinet today.


Man I love wood filler.
I cleaned up the wood filler and sanded it down evenly, it's looking really good, but I knew from my last project that I would need to do a second application of the filler. As i was sanding the press-board, the dried up edges tended to chip away, so I ended up going around the entire cabinet and (very anally) filling up the parts that chipped away. Not a big deal really, and the outcome will be rewarding with nice solid edges!

The corners turned out pretty well. Instead of keeping them 90 degrees, I ended up using my palm sander and curving them round. I like the way they look, and I think it'll look pretty classy when all's said and done.

I'm going to let the filler dry for the rest of the day, and move onto something else this afternoon. Most likely prepping my control panels.

[opt2not]

I did the ol' cardboard control panel mock-up test, and have hit a wall. My goal is to reuse the existing metal CP (for budgeting reasons) and try to fit in the controls while using the holes that are there.
My features plan includes:
1 joystick (old mag-stik+'s i have sitting around)
1 spinner
2 play buttons (pulled from a madcatz arcade stick)
1 start button
1 "exit game" button

I've got all the parts already, mostly stuff I had laying around, but I'm having a heck of a time figuring out a layout that is comfortable.

See here:

Here's how cramped it looks from the back:


The joystick is using the hole the spinner originally occupied, and button 1 is also an existing hole. I'd have to make new holes for the spinner, button 2, start and exit buttons.  The buttons are fine, and feel ok that close to the spinner, but the joystick doesn't. When you're playing on the spinner, you keep hitting your hand on the joystick!  


So I think I'll have to space them out a bit, and try not to care about the holes being mangled.

I might not move the joystick over that much, because I'm worried about fitting your hand on the stick comfortably without hitting the wall on the left-side of the CP...but you can get the idea.

here's an animated gif of it as well, to give you the contrast:


To even further the investigation, I could also angle my buttons a bit more to save space, then shift the spinner over more. This way I can save 25% of the distance a single button would take up if in-lined with the other.
Like so:

Spacing of the buttons is going to be more trial & error with this above example, so I think I might have to do a bit more investigation on what feels best.  
But I would love any comments or suggestions from you fine folks.  

[Epyx]

Opt2not,

Take a look at the CP for my 1st cab in signature. I personally like having the spinner to the outside and the joystick to the inside. The joystick grip is a grip that tends to stay on the shaft whereas the spinner one involves a lot more wrist action and might therefore be better served on the outside for less knuckle obstruction.  Just a thought!

[emphatic]

You haven't considered having an easily swappable panel setup and have one panel for joystick, and one for spinner? The hardest part would be figuring out the panel lock mechanism.

[opt2not]

Opt2not,

Take a look at the CP for my 1st cab in signature. I personally like having the spinner to the outside and the joystick to the inside. The joystick grip is a grip that tends to stay on the shaft whereas the spinner one involves a lot more wrist action and might therefore be better served on the outside for less knuckle obstruction.  Just a thought!

Thanks Epyx!
I tried that option as well, but my problem with that is that the joystick is a bit too close to the buttons to be comfortable. But, I think I've found a good layout that is acceptable:

In this picture I'm using the original holes that were in the CP, and will only need to punch holes for the buttons!  The joystick and spinner do have enough space between them now, and as you can see I've duct taped the sides to the CP to see if the buttons feel ok that close to the corner. I think it does!
I also put the EXIT button in the middle of the spinner and joystick, because I felt that it is in a awkward enough spot that it wouldn't get accidentally hit. Also the start button in the top right felt more natural for me as well.

You haven't considered having an easily swappable panel setup and have one panel for joystick, and one for spinner? The hardest part would be figuring out the panel lock mechanism.

I really haven't considered going with a swappable method, mostly because I wanted this cabinet to be a fuss-free machine. I want it to be simple and easy to step up to and be able to play any game on it right away. Having to swap out CP's is just too much hassle for me.

[opt2not]

Priming begins! I had half a liter of acrylic Primer from my El Diablo Mechanico cabinet that I figured I'd use up, no need to buy more!
Not posting pictures of it yet because it's just a boring primer application to the cabinet.
I went and picked up my paint materials today, here's what I got:

- 1 spray can of Rustoleum Satin Black (for coin door, CP and glass clamps)
- 1 spray can of Rustoleum Satin White (primary Canucks logo white)
- 1 spray can of Rustoleum Metallic Titanium Silver (coin door parts, silver parts in the Canucks logo)
- 1 liter can of ICI/Glidden eggshell Pure Blue Latex
- 1 liter can of ICI/Glidden eggshell Royal Garden (green) Latex
- Foam rollers
- Paint pans
- 220 grit sandpaper
- 320 grit sandpaper

After cleaning out my closet (wow I'm a packrat), I was able to put together a machine of old PC parts I had just laying around.
I've got an old AMD 1500+, 512MB RAM, an old Geforce4 Ti, and a Sound Blaster Live which will be donated to this cabinet. No hard-drive unfortunetly, but that's not needed. My plan is to buy an IDE to CF card and run this machine off a 1gig Compact Flash card. It's going to be DOS-based, and will only be playing classic games. No need for a faster computer for that. The reason I'm going with DOS off a CF card as my hard-drive is because I want to be able to power up the machine quickly, and without worry about my hard-drive deteriorating over time. Also, less heat and noise generation.
As for interfacing, I'll be picking up an Opti-PAC, and a J-PAC from Ultimarc. Both those cards combined, I should have enough button inputs for my needs. The Opti-Pac has 2 buttons per player (labeled mouse buttons) and the J-PAC supples 3 buttons per player.  

I haven't thought about software too much, but I've done a few searches on this forum and found that there are others who have setup a DOS-based cabinet that I'll take my queues from.

For now, I'll worry about the construction side of things, and put the hardware/software stuff off till later.

[saleem]

is your cab jamma based then?

i can only assume it is if you are getting a japc as that is for hooking jamma setup to a pc.

[opt2not]

is your cab jamma based then?

i can only assume it is if you are getting a japc as that is for hooking jamma setup to a pc.

Yup!

[opt2not]

I've sanded down the primer, then applied my second primer coat, then sanded it down again using 100 grit sandpaper.
Then I meticulously wiped down any dust that may have settled onto the cabinet, and applied my first coat of paint!



Just from the first coat, the blue is lookin' really nice. Obviously it's a bit light right now because of the white primer under it, but as soon as I throw on my second, third and possibly forth coat, it'll come out darker and closer to the colour I'm looking for. After this coat dries (6hrs), I'll sand it down with 220 grit sandpaper and hit it up with the second coat.

[opt2not]

Sanded down the first coat with 220 grit sandpaper and applied the second coat. I really like how it's turning out, the blue is really nice looking, and a couple more coats and sanding will really smooth it out.

Here's a couple pictures, the flash makes it look brighter than it is, and without flash makes it dull looking. In real life it looks much different...hmmm, perhaps it's my crappy camera.

[push2reject]

I'm seriously impressed with the spinners.  I don't think you could buy a nicer one new.  I would have replaced them if it were me, but after seeing this that would have been a mistake.

I'll be watching this one.  Nice job!

[opt2not]

Sanded down the second coat with the same 220 grit sandpaper to get it more even, since I felt it needed a bit more attention to the layer thickness in some areas. Third coat has been applied and is drying now!  After it dries, I'm going to hit it up with a 320 grit dry sanding, then apply my last coat and wet-sand it with 1000 grit.  But so far, the surface is starting to look really even and smooth!  Yay!  

With flash:


Without flash:

I'm seriously impressed with the spinners.  I don't think you could buy a nicer one new.  I would have replaced them if it were me, but after seeing this that would have been a mistake.

I'll be watching this one.  Nice job!

Thanks push2reject! 
I figured $175 for a cocktail unit with a good condition monitor and 2 spinners was worth the cost! When I picked it up, the spinners made a "wrrrrrrrrrrr" sound when spun, especially when trying to crank it faster than normal usage would ensue. But when I took it apart, cleaned up the dirt, and re-greased the gears and gear shafts, the spinner stays nice and quiet and has a good smooth rotation to it.  It's hard to explain through text dialog, but it has a real smooth feel of friction and feels really nice to play with.

[opt2not]

Third coat sanded with 320 grit sandpaper. Applied the forth and final coat!!
This baby is looking so good that I don't think I need to wet sand it after this. I'll wait to see how the drying turns out, but from what I see after putting on the last coat, it's pretty smooth and even in colour and texture. I'm really happy with how it turned out!

Here are some pictures, again, the blue isn't as bright in RL.








I'm going to let it dry overnight, then I'll move it to a safe-keeping spot so that it can cure for 4-5 days before I start with the stenciling of the logo and the green and white trim. Next up is the coin door, coin door parts, and CP flap painting! Stay tuned!

[tomdotcom]

You still have a chance to change it to an Edmonton Oilers Cocktail instead. Do the right thing hehe...Big oilers fan here, although we live in BC now (Kamloops) The GF loves Vancouver..

[opt2not]

You still have a chance to change it to an Edmonton Oilers Cocktail instead. Do the right thing hehe...Big oilers fan here, although we live in BC now (Kamloops) The GF loves Vancouver..

Nooooooooooo!  Though, my brother lives in Deadmonton and he wouldn't mind it being an Oilers cab...but damned if I would allow it in my house! Nothing against the Oilers though, I liked them, better than the Flames at least (who really likes the Flames anyways?). But I gotta stay true to my Canuckleheads, even though they're crap. Eventually something will spark them to go all the way, maybe this cabinet will be their lucky charm!

[tomdotcom]

Pretty damn hard to cheer for the Oilers lately as well. No superstars ever want to stay in Deadmonton And yes the flames are the suck!

[dafelandry]

SIIICK cocktail..... Comming from Regina, Sask..... Lots of love for the Canucks... (AND RIDERS HELL YEAH TIED FOR 1st).... Looks sweet definatly going to watch this!!! Good luck and again SICK!

[opt2not]

Small progress lately, I'm trying to get over a cold, so I haven't had much energy to work on the cabinet this weekend. But I did get to order a few things online while laying around.

- 20' of White 3/4" t-molding (t-molding.com)
- 11' of White 1" t-molding (t-molding.com)
- 25 cents coin door inserts (thisoldgame)
- CF -> IDE Adapter card (ncix)

I'm going to leave the PC cards for now, till I can see if I can get a cheaper deal on an JPAC and OPTIPAC off ebay or elsewhere.
I was also able to spray paint the coin door and speaker grill, which I'll post pictures of later.

[Billy_Goatfeet]

  All you guys complaining about your teams!  It's not so bad...my team just picked up their first win of the season.  That says it all.  In fact, every team in my city is TERRIBLE!!      CFL/MLB/MLS/NHL/NBA...tough times.   Anyhow, it's coming along nicely opt2not!  Keeping my eye on this one!