Little Ms. Pac-Man, A Portable Cocktail Cab

[Unstupid]

looks really good!  are you going to cover it with plexi?  how do you plan on holding it down?

[griffindodd]

looks really good!  are you going to cover it with plexi?  how do you plan on holding it down?

Yeah plexi over the top, I'll brace the monitor from underneath using the VESA screwholes into a bracket that will attach to the side blocking.

[Unstupid]

I mean how do you plan on holding the plexi down?

[griffindodd]

Ahh that has been an ongoing source of wonder for me too.
I'm trying to avoid any visible screws or brackets of any kind anywhere on the build. For now I still think I am going to be slotting the side panels about 1/8" and then having the plexi sit in the slots, unless I think of something better this is probably how I will do it.

[mcseforsale]

Aluminum J-channel around the perimeter with 45 degree cuts and use the CP back to capture it when it slides in? 

AJ

[griffindodd]

Aluminum J-channel around the perimeter with 45 degree cuts and use the CP back to capture it when it slides in? 

AJ

That would work, but I do want the plexi to cover the tops of the CPs too as the bezel will fill the entire of that top horizontal area.

[PL1]

That would work, but I do want the plexi to cover the tops of the CPs too as the bezel will fill the entire of that top horizontal area.

Crazy spitball idea -- one piece of acrylic/plexi, bent by heat gun, that covers both CPs and the screen/bezel.

The buttons hold it in place.

Side view:

            -------------
          /                    \
-------                       -------


Scott

[griffindodd]

Yeah I definitely entertained this idea but I fear it's way beyond my fabrication skills

[griffindodd]

Damn you Scott, you just made me spend more money  !!!

Adding one of these to my tooll collection...
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0095ZGN8Y/ref=oh_details_o00_s00_i00

Going to go for it and try and do a full single acrylic piece to wrap over the cp's and screen, go big or go home right? 

[Nephasth]

Damn you Scott, you just made me spend more money  !!!

Adding one of these to my tooll collection...
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0095ZGN8Y/ref=oh_details_o00_s00_i00

Going to go for it and try and do a full single acrylic piece to wrap over the cp's and screen, go big or go home right? 

Should have just made one out of an old toaster oven...

[griffindodd]

Thought about going down that road, but this is a super controlled way of applying the heat to a specific area, no sense in messing up a $40 sheet of acrylic trying to save a few dollars making a strip heater. Also this will do a bend up to 4' long.

[Nephasth]

Throwing money at it works too. But you just turned a $40 sheet of plastic into an $85 sheet of plastic.

Always practice on scrap. This applies to most things.

[griffindodd]

Always practice on scrap. This applies to most things.

Yep there's a lot of life lessons in that advice lol. Making the acrylic pattern is going to be quite the adventure too before I even start thinking about bending it, looks like a fair bit of flush-trim work is in my future.

[griffindodd]

Actually, scratch that idea, I just realized the acrylic sheet I have is not long enough to do that job, the piece I bought is only long enough to cover the top surface, I'm not dropping another $50 on top of that bender cost to do that, so back to square one.

[PL1]

Figured that you could make two wooden bending forms.

The first form is the size of the screen and angled panels to be covered. (Desired inside dimensions)

Set this form on a narrower stand to allow the control panel cover portion to extend past the lower corners when bent.
                X        X
               ---------
             /_______\

               |         |
               |stand |
               |_____|

Start by cutting the screen/angled part of the plexi to the proper width.

Clamp boards (X's) next to the upper corners of the form to hold the plexi in place.

Add supports for the plexi that is free-hanging.

Use heat gun with a narrow nozzle and sweeping motion to soften the plexi until it is pliable.

The board limits the area that softens.

Remove the support and allow the plexi to bend.

Repeat for the other side.

If not sure about the exact length for the screen/angled portion, trim out the last little bit once the first two bends are done.

The second form is shaped like this:

-------------------------------
|         /                    \         |
-------                       -------

Sandwich the plexi between the two forms, clamp them together, and flip them over.

Clamp some 1x2's over the CP "fingers" to keep them from bending.

Support the free-hanging ends and use the heatgun to bend it flat, same as before.

Once that is done, trace and drill the CPs.

Damn you Scott, you just made me spend more money  !!!

Sorry I couldn't type faster on this one.

I write more like LOTR than twitter. 

Can you cancel that order?


Scott

[griffindodd]

Lol yeah I did when I realized the sheet I have isn't big enough for that job.

[CoryBee]

What about rare-earth magnets? Glue a few on the underside of plexi, then some place on some wood supports......

Should allow it to snap into place and be removed without too much force.

[griffindodd]

What about rare-earth magnets? Glue a few on the underside of plexi, then some place on some wood supports......

Should allow it to snap into place and be removed without too much force.

Not a bad idea, but you would see the magnets glued to the plexi. I still wish i had a good way of sticking my bezel to the back of the plexi then I could put the magnets under that. back when I used to work in a sign making company years ago, we would print in reverse on clear vinyl and then stick that to the back of clear acrylic or glass, it would look great. I haven't been able to find aplace that prints like that anywhere (yet). I asked Scott at GoG if they do it but they can't

[CoryBee]

What about rare-earth magnets? Glue a few on the underside of plexi, then some place on some wood supports......

Should allow it to snap into place and be removed without too much force.

Not a bad idea, but you would see the magnets glued to the plexi. I still wish i had a good way of sticking my bezel to the back of the plexi then I could put the magnets under that. back when I used to work in a sign making company years ago, we would print in reverse on clear vinyl and then stick that to the back of clear acrylic or glass, it would look great. I haven't been able to find aplace that prints like that anywhere (yet). I asked Scott at GoG if they do it but they can't

You aren't going to paint the underside of the plexi? Shouldn't be able to see it through the black...

[griffindodd]

I use a paper Bezel, take a look at the OP you'll see it there

[CoryBee]

Ah I see, well then....if only it were a reverse sticker eh

[PL1]

I still wish i had a good way of sticking my bezel to the back of the plexi then I could put the magnets under that. back when I used to work in a sign making company years ago, we would print in reverse on clear vinyl and then stick that to the back of clear acrylic or glass, it would look great. I haven't been able to find aplace that prints like that anywhere (yet).

Time for me to make you spend money again.   

Check out Emdkay's site.

He can do reverse digital imaging (not inkjet/laserjet) on Duratrans and can mount it to custom size acrylite, if desired.


Scott

[mcseforsale]

Black painted J-channel (did I mention this already?) with 90 degree notches cut in it will bend into 90 degrees.  Cheap, too!

http://www.lowes.com/pd_197443-13437-5042_0__?productId=3019540&Ntt=mirror+channel&pl=1&currentURL=%2Fpl__0__s%3FNtt%3Dmirror%2Bchannel&facetInfo=

AJ

[griffindodd]

I decided to stick to plan A and go with the slotted sides approach to securing the acrylic, I just want something super clean with no visible fastners, joints, channels etc.

Time to crack out mini-me for this job (Thanks Scott for the tip on this sweet little Dremel router mount)


Using a flat guide clamp and the little 1/4" straight bit I slotted both sides with a 1/8" deep channel. The combination of the laminate and the particle board pretty much fried the cheap little bit despite taking 4 light passes at the cut working down to 1/8" inch depth. It got the job done but just shows that cheap tools are a waste of money, also this will be the last time I use particle board in a build, it may be cheap but it's awful to work with compared to MDF and I feel like it takes a heavy toll on my blades and bits.


Acrylic in place, fit's beautifully nice and tight!! I'll put a bevel on the edges across the control panel and polish them a little, although they look pretty good already due to using a router to do all my straight cuts rather than a blade. I'm really starting to use my router for more and more of these type of cuts, I just like the precision and finish it gives me as long as I take time to set up the cut properly first.

[griffindodd]

Had a few hours to myself tonight so I decided to take on the task of drilling out the patterns in the end caps.

Paper template glued to some 1/8 plywood sandwiching both laminated layers of the 5/8 particle board. All held together nice and tight with duct tape to stop the laminate splintering or chipping when drilled.


Using the Dremel for this as I don't have a full size drill press, but once again the little conversion brackets that are available for the Dremel turn it into a mini press which should be good enough for this job. I'm using a 3/32 drill bit and keeping the speed down as low as I can on the Dremel without losing torque to get all the way through this wood, It will probably burn it's way through most of it, but the heat may keep the laminate from chipping so it might be a good thing, I guess we'll find out.


An hour and a half in and I'm making progress but damn I wished I owned a little CNC machine for these kind of things


Three hours and a bitching headache later, the last hole is drilled.


I was pretty nervous when taking apart the sandwiched pieces as I didn't know if the laminate had split or not. Happily I found this. Two perfectly matching pieces with zero splits or cracks!!!!  It was a hell of a job making these, but I couldn't be happier with the result, it was definitely worth the time.


Held one up against the kitchen light to get an idea of the effect. The final setup will have various colored LEDs behind the holes, so hopefully it will look even better than this when it's all finished.

[CoryBee]

HOLY TITS! 

I love it

[griffindodd]

HOLY TITS! 
I love it

Thanks!!!

I'm going to route out a lot of the wood behind so that the light can easily find it's way out of the holes, that will also give me an area to house the led's in front of the speaker and fan on each panel.

[Unstupid]

Looks great... Couldn't have done better even with a CNC machine!

[floriske.nl]

Holy crap!  Thanks what I call "monk's work" 

Looks amazing!

[griffindodd]

Holy crap!  Thanks what I call "monk's work" 

Looks amazing!

Lol yeah it was quite a Zen experience

[boomerbrian]

Great idea. I love it.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[BobA]

Wow, those speaker panels look great.  Very nice work drilling out those patterns. 

[griffindodd]

Back to it this afternoon, I set myself the goal of at least seeing what these things would look like lit up by the end of the weekend, so I set to it.

Used the 1/8" ply that I had left over from the drilling to make a template for routing out the back of the shapes.


Cut it out with a jigsaw and a dremel, nothing too fancy or accurate but it doesn't need to be for this part of the job


This is my first time using bushings, I didn't even know they existed until a forum member here mentioned them to me. These ones are great as they are designed to twist lock into the base I have on my router so they are easy to change in and out.


The bushing is as deep as the template, then I have the straight bit protruding for the depth I want to route out.


The first character routed out. For the tight areas around the bow I tided them up using the Dremel with a hand router attachment. I kept the bow area on Ms. Pacman's head seperate for reasons you'll see in the last picture of this post.


All done, both sides routed out giving me enough depth to place the small led's on the sides of the routed area without getting in the way of the fan or speaker.


The LEDs are nice as they have little self adhesive backs and ultra flat ribbon cabling so they don't get in the way at all


and the result.... 


I'm thrilled with the way these came out, it's things like this that make this hobby such a great pastime.

[yotsuya]

Looks great, my friend!

[mcseforsale]

Yeah!  That's bitchin!!

AJ

[rablack97]

 

[griffindodd]

But Wait!!!!!

There's more......

[Nestafari]

Great

[CoryBee]

[kuchta]

But Wait!!!!!

There's more......

Awesome! Can't wait to see how the finished product looks.