Water Damage base repair - Generic BnB cabinet

[nostrebor]

I'm working on a real basic consignment project right now. It is a multiple-converted Joust cabinet, that had significant damage at the bottom featuring repairs by an OP that were less than stellar.

I'm not goint to spend a bunch of time featuring the actual cabinet build, as it is nothing that has not been done a thousand times before. I did take the time to document the bottom repairs, so I'll share the pics and info in this thread.

This is a significant process that is much less difficult to accomplish if you own a table saw and a dado blade set, but it could be done effectively with a sawboard, circular saw with a good blade, and a router with a 1/4" straight bit.

(sawboard link)

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=43568.0

On to the pics...

[nostrebor]

1st pic shows the damage. This thing was toast! I cleared the area to be sawn of metal bits and chose a point to saw across.

2nd pic shows the setup with my sawboard and the circular saw. This particular sawboard is an aftermarket setup with a guide angle and a roller-bearing guide plate that mounts to a circular saw. It was a Christmas gift and it's really nice, but a sawboard like the one detailed in the link above will do just as well.

[nostrebor]

3rd pic... Once the measuring for square is done and checked twice and the sawboard is secured, I make the cut. I carefully set my blade depth to not quite cut all the way through the face of the plywood. I'll clean up this edge after the fact.


4th pic... the cut is made! and the bad stuff is removed. The original cabinet had dados (slots) cut in it to align the parts. I'll be re-using the "tabs" on the bottom, front and back of the cabinet to strengthen the glue-up of the new piece.

5th pic... closeup showing the bit of fibers left after removing the bad parts. Also shows the factory tongue that will stick into the grooves that I will be putting in the back of the patch. On a williams cabinet you also have to dig out the spring steel "nails" that they used to hold stuff together. These are hell on a saw blade, so if you do this repair, you might want to have a spare blade on hand.

[nostrebor]

6th pic... all the old glue is scraped off, the fibers are cleaned up, the steel bits are removed, and measurements are taken for the new piece.

7th pic... the new patch is cut to fit. I'm using MDO plywood for this because I had some It is 7-ply with marine grade glues and a paper face that is water resistant. It's primary use is sign board in outdoor applications - great for the base of a cabinet!

[nostrebor]

8th pic... I used biscuits and a biscuit jointer to align the face of the factory plywood with my new patch. If you do not have a biscuit jointer you can use a thin strip of plywood on the inside face, or just butt up the faces and glue. (Note:If you do the butt joint method, it is more difficult to get everything to line up, but it can be done.)

9th pic... all mating surface are glued and the new patch is clamped in place. Harbor Freight runs sales on these "F-clamps" all the time for $3-$5 per clamp. They are cheap, work great, and you can never have too many

[nostrebor]

Final pic after paint. It's a bit dusty, but the patch is all good.

Edit: I forgot to mention... I used plastic filler (bondo) for the seam fill and a longboard for sanding the joint between the old and new to a flat uniform surface. A longboard is just a 16" long sandpaper holder used for automotive bodywork. Real cheap to pick up and great for getting flat uniform surfaces. You want to sand at an angle across the joint, longways to get to flat, and then sand with the grain to get rid of sanding scratches. I used a fairly heavy primer to help fill blemishes as well. A good friend sprayed the black for me with an airless It was the easiest paintjob I have done yet

[miles2912]

Great tutorial thread on how to repair a damaged cab.  You are right on about having the correct tools for the job.  Sure makes you life easier..

We have a board for Hall of Fame cabinets, we need one for Hall of Fame posts.  Almost a Board for nothing but FAQ's and then lock the thread.  This is one of the posts that belong in something like that.

Don

[ChadTower]

I hadn't noticed this until you mentioned it elsewhere... this is awesome.  Sticky worthy, IMO.  Thanks for doing it.

[SirPeale]

Sticky worthy, IMO. 

Done!

[nostrebor]

Thanks for the comments and sticky!

I may add some more pics and detail in the future to this one, and look for future write-ups on other fun aspects of conversion-to-mame builds.

Dave.

[markrvp]

Excellent tutorial.  I can't believe there isn't a visible line.  Pretty amazing.

[Tahnok]

Good tutorial, what what's with the sawboard? That clearly isn't the same one that you linked to. Did you modify it with a track and sled? I was looking at putting something like that together a while ago and would love to see what you have done.

[nostrebor]

Good tutorial, what what's with the sawboard? That clearly isn't the same one that you linked to. Did you modify it with a track and sled? I was looking at putting something like that together a while ago and would love to see what you have done.

It is mentioned in my second post:

2nd pic shows the setup with my sawboard and the circular saw. This particular sawboard is an aftermarket setup with a guide angle and a roller-bearing guide plate that mounts to a circular saw. It was a Christmas gift and it's really nice, but a sawboard like the one detailed in the link above will do just as well.

It came from Penn State Industries - on sale for $69 when I got it.

http://www.pennstateind.com/store/ps.html

[Tahnok]

I don't know how I missed that. $69 on sale? That's exactly why I'm building my own.

[nostrebor]

It was spendy, but there a 5 roller bearings on the saw mount. Once you have the plate engaged onto the track, it is as accurate as a table saw, with no effort to keep it aligned. You just close your eyes and push, and get perfect cuts.

It's one of my favorite tools!

[teetu]

the router "sled" for that system seems pretty nice too.  I made a sawboard for my router, but quickly realized the thickness of the sawboard complicated things.

[Hiub1]

Am I the first one to try? Thanks for the great tutorial, it really helped me out.

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=52803.0

We'll see if i can get it as good as yours!

[mmmPeanutButter]

I did pretty much the exact same thing on my centipede cab (made it a little taller while I was at it).  I used a dowling jig instead of biscuit joiner.

The one thing I screwed up was using plywood.  Plywood sucks.  I should have gone with mdf or particle board. 

Although when it was all done with the graphic on, it didn't really make a difference.  It just made the prep really tough.  Just thought I'd pass that little tid-bit along.

[theCoder]

Did you reinforce the joint in the top center?

[97thruhiker]

Great post.  Getting ready to go the next Super Auctions in Orlando on the 17th and this may actual help me to bid on a cabinet.  I built my current cabinet from scratch and enjoyed every minute of.  I have always been hesitant to buy an old cabinet because I was not sure how to go about fixing it (seemed like it would more of a hassel).  While I'm not saying what you did here was easy it just put it into a perspective that I know I could do that and I have the tools to get it done.  Thanks!

[Hippie459MN]

Thanks for the great little tutorial. Looks like I am gonna save my old cab I got for $5 after all. I origanlly bought if for a few parts but never ended up using them so I just might mame it after all.

Thanks a ton!

[Haunton]

great walk through....i recently got about 14 arcade cabinets (fully functional with board and monitor) that have pretty horrible water damage at the base. I was going to scrap them ....mabey with this info i can save a few.