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Cocktail Dream (First Build) [Done, basically]
saurian333:
--- Quote from: painterinfo on January 17, 2010, 11:15:27 pm ---
--- Quote --- I don't necessarily plan to have anything UV-reactive on the CP
--- End quote ---
What about your hands? Is the UV light strong enough to give you a tan?
--- End quote ---
:lol Hadn't thought about that; that would be amusing. Somehow, I doubt it.
saurian333:
Sorry I'm late. :)
Starting to come together now. All I need is a slot cutter and a hole saw, and I'll be able to finish the build; then it's computer and controls time.
OK, I was hoping for a reasonable temporary solution for my overlays. I think I'm just going to call this a "mockup." *cough*
That is black wrapping paper. Looks OK in the photo, actually (other than the logos, which are laser prints cut and pasted on), but close up, you can see the texture it has. Unfortunately, the only black wrapping paper I could find was made to be reversible, and it has a silver geometric pattern on the back that sort of gives an embossed look to the black side. Anyway, this is good enough for me until I can get something printed up professionally. I don't really want to spend the money on a vinyl print (not on this cab), and a 2x3 paper printout is not worth the $40+ I keep getting quoted. Anyone have another idea? I wish I was still in Madison; my school has a sweet color plotter/printer that would do a pretty good (especially for free) job. On the other hand, I couldn't have built the thing in my apartment. ;)
I will probably just get the CPO done on decent paper; it's only 22x10.5, so that shouldn't be as expensive...right?
The hinges will have to be mounted with bolts. Yeah, six 3/8" screws might have done it, but I feel more comfortable with something sturdier. So I picked up some acorn nuts for the top. If I decide I don't like them later on, I'll get some carriage bolts and paint the heads black.
The hinges in their new homes. Note the washers used as spacers (I wanted some actual shims, but couldn't find any that would work). By the way, that left one (top of the picture) was fixed with a little "persuading." ;D
I realized I haven't posted a pic of the whole works since I put the control box on, so here. I will post pics of the whole thing together when I get the top bolted on (after I cut the slot, which will hopefully be this weekend).
EDIT: I don't think I have the patience or ambition for such a project, but I keep looking at that top piece and thinking it would be an excellent candidate for the ELWire idea drventure mentioned on his build page the other day. Could you see those neons actually lighting up? How sweet would that be?
saurian333:
OK, it's been almost a month, so time for an update.
There will be pics soon. I finally ordered/received the rest of my controls (previously got a few on a trade; thanks again, HarumaN!) a couple of days ago, so I'll be doing the wiring this week. I got the T-molding last weekend (came from t-molding.com; great service there, BTW). Also ordered a MB/CPU (relatively low-end at 2.2GHz, but the price was right), which should be along in a couple of days.
The CP is all drilled out, has the sticks and a couple of the buttons installed. All of the T-molding (also ordered/received last week) slots are cut. The CP has got solid black molding and is all done. Artwork looks cheap and has a little sawdust caught between it and the plexi, but it's going to be replaced eventually, anyway.
The top piece is having its "bezel" painted, so waiting for that to totally dry before putting the plexi back on. The bezel looks awful. I made it out of foam core, and it's better than the cardboard, but still crap. I'm still not sure what to do for a final piece, but I wanted to paint it black so that it looks somewhat like the final product should. Still haven't gotten that artwork printed either, so that's going to be sub-par for a while, too.
Cutting the slots was a ---smurfette---. A 1/16" cutter makes too wide of a groove for the smaller (apparently standard) size T-molding. :banghead: Who knew there was that much difference in using the recommended 3/64"? Anyway, I don't have a 3/64", so I ended up running a strip of duct tape over the groove before tapping the molding in. Works perfectly.
The sides of the CP box were a different story. On the first cut I tried to make, the damned router slipped and took a big chunk out of the side. :angry: So I spent a good portion of time cutting a new piece. I don't have any of the latex paint left that I used on the rest of the cab, so I used the "matching" spray paint I bought for the bezel. It's probably not ever going to actually match. Grr. Also, at the very top where I have a curve right before the edge? That was a bad idea. Ended up using a framing nail to get the end of the molding to stay in. Yesterday was just not my day. :badmood:
On the plus side of things, I finally bought myself a new TV on Friday. I knew I'd bought the right one when we were just barely able to fit it in the back seat of my car! Turns out that 42" is plenty big enough for the distance we're sitting from it, too. So this week, I'll be doing my wiring on the couch while watching my Blu-rays as God intended them to be watched. :applaud:
saurian333:
Wow, it's been a long time since I updated this thing. I actually "finished" the cab a long time ago. I kind of lost ambition to put final touches on it when...well...
I decided I don't really like the cocktail configuration after all. :(
Here are some pics that I took, for the sake of posterity.
The first one shows my power button on the back right of the unit (pretty proud of that; it's wired inline with the existing power switch, completely non-destructive), and also gives an idea of the paint texture. Roughly what I was going for, but not quite there. Also shows some scratches (from cutting with a razorblade; that was dumb), but they're on the underside, so I wasn't too concerned.
The last one shows the Wahcade (for Linux) frontend, which I'm quite pleased with. The only thing that bugs me is that when I test-drove this thing on that old laptop (also running Ubuntu), I had everything working perfectly. All the key mappings worked, everything loaded at boot, 100% cool. Now that I have a dedicated machine in place, I can't get the button mappings to load automatically, the Wahcade shortcuts aren't working, and I can't properly exit a game (it starts right back up for some reason, like there's a button held down somewhere). I haven't had the ambition to figure out all the details.
I'm relatively happy with the way the build turned out, especially for what was really kind of a dry run that involved very little planning ahead (apart from overall measurements). I really could/should have done better on the paint job, but it looks all right for the most part. If I kept it, I'd definitely do something about the bezel, and probably paint the legs black (I bought some prefab, screw-on ones at the hardware store). But honestly, I either did something very wrong, or I remembered playing a cocktail cab wrong. I know I only played a PacMan cocktail once in my life, but I don't remember it feeling so unnatural. Maybe the distance from the monitor to the glass shouldn't be so much? Maybe my design is all wrong? Not sure, but I decided for certain yesterday (when I had to start seeing the chiropractor again, due to my job in front of a computer all day) that my neck couldn't handle playing a cocktail even if I wanted to fix it up right.
So I'm going to disassemble and completely rework the thing at some point. I think much of the material can be re-used in my next build attempt, so that's what's going to happen. I figure if I want a sit-down cab, the candy-cab/Vewlix style is more up my alley. I have a few ideas for a Vewlix-like design. One of them is sketched out on graph paper. I'm going to force myself to get better with Sketchup (or similar) and plan it out right this time. Still cooking up themes, and trying to go for a unique design. People here like Ond, DrVenture, and many others have inspired me to really do my own thing and go nuts, and that's exactly my plan.
In any case, that build will probably start in a month or so, before it gets too cold to cut/sand MDF outside. I don't mind doing some of it inside, but I made a big mess last year, and I hope to avoid that this time. My hope is to be ready to paint it by next spring, assuming I don't go with laminate this time around. Currently, I'm beginning work on a PC case modeled after the shuttle-style ones (just ordered a board/cpu and such today). I'll be posting updates to that on a blog outside here (I'll add a link to my sig when I get it started), since it doesn't particularly relate to arcade machines. It's going to be primarily a media server / renderer / secondary gaming machine.
It was fun to build, and I'll be just a little sad to take it apart. But, there's just no room in my life (or house) for a cabinet that I won't play. So, back to the drawing board!
jimmy2x2x:
Really sorry to hear that, it looks like a nice tidy build - couldn't you iron out the software issues and sell it on, rather than break it up for parts?
Seems such a shame to kill it!