Author Topic: LeapinLew - Showcase Cabinet: Testing and Finishing Touches. (Read 36764 times)

leapinlew · « **Reply #40 on:** July 17, 2006, 08:06:13 am »

Quote from: In2ishun on July 17, 2006, 03:30:05 am

Head over and check out Bones' cab. He has a couple of pictures of the trackball mount and some of the routing he did with it. May or may not be what you are looking for. I think what you are looking for is on page 3, 4, or 5.

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=35285.0

Yes! Your right - I looked through there. It appears to get this cut:

He used something called a curvy bit, but I don't see that at www.mlcswoodworking.com. I see the chamfer bits, and I'm wondering if I should go 22.5 or 45 degree angle?

http://www.mlcswoodworking.com/shopsite_sc/store/html/smarthtml/pages/bt_chamf.html

leapinlew · « **Reply #41 on:** July 17, 2006, 08:53:58 pm »

Ok. So I've cut the hole for my trackball on some oversized plexi. I test fit the trackball inside the hole and clamped the plexi to my CP.

Look at that. It fits!

So, the next step is to route the excess plexi off. I did this in several stages that involved a little bit of routing, stopping the router, moving the clamps out of my way, and doing more router work. When finished my CP looked like this:

The next step was to trim up my button holes. I accomplished this by using a 5/8ths forstner bit to cut holes in the plexi. (the reason for 5/8ths is because the flushtrim bit is 1/2" and I needed a bigger hole to put the bit through). I drilled approximately in the center of each hole. It's important to note that before I started drilling on the plexiglass - I practiced on a few pieces of scrap plexi. I was able to determine that drilling through the top wasn't going to work (the plexi broke) I had to drill through the button holes while the plexi was on the table (use scrap underneath - I drilled into the base).

Preparing to drill:

Drilling all done:

You can see the router bit off to the side. It's ready to trim up the holes.

The next step is to drop the router in each hole and trim up the plexi with your flushtrim bit. Here is a shot of the plexi all routered out:

Trackball still fits!

leapinlew · « **Reply #42 on:** July 17, 2006, 08:58:40 pm »

Ok... so heres the scoop. I ordered from ClassicArcadeGrafix.com and the artwork they sent me was in bad shape - they are sending a replacement. I decided it would be a good time to practice cutting artwork. I wondered how the flushtrim bit would work on this textured vinyl.

I lined it up and gave it a cut:

Overall... it's not that smooth. I'm trying to decide how I'll cut the final product. Any suggestions?

Timoe · « **Reply #43 on:** July 17, 2006, 09:06:33 pm »

A hobby knife works well.

leapinlew · « **Reply #44 on:** July 17, 2006, 09:19:08 pm »

Quote from: Timoe on July 17, 2006, 09:06:33 pm

A hobby knife works well.

Is that an exact-o knife?

n3rrd · « **Reply #45 on:** July 17, 2006, 09:47:57 pm »

Quote from: leapinlew on July 17, 2006, 09:19:08 pm

Quote from: Timoe on July 17, 2006, 09:06:33 pm
A hobby knife works well.

Is that an exact-o knife?

Yeah, it's the same thing. X-Acto is just a name brand for them. Just make sure the blade is new, and sharp... or old, and sharp. Sharp is the important part, not the age, I suppose.

gamecreature · « **Reply #46 on:** July 17, 2006, 10:39:37 pm »

What he said. Takes a bit of patience, but a sharp blade works very well. I've found a #16 blade works well for artwork - you can cut with more of the blade than just the tip.

http://www.dickblick.com/zz574/13/

leapinlew · « **Reply #47 on:** July 17, 2006, 10:51:13 pm »

ok! Majority wins - I'll pickup a good hobby knife and be patient.

leapinlew · « **Reply #48 on:** July 26, 2006, 11:24:21 pm »

Ok! So, the t-molding took a while to get here.... but it finally got here! Here is a pic of the pedestal portion with the t-molding installed. I still need to order the smoked plexi. I'll do that friday.

I'm going to try and finish the base this weekend. Hopefully I'll have more pics to post then.

theCoder · « **Reply #49 on:** July 27, 2006, 11:09:52 am »

Nice job on the stand !

Your player 1 & 2 button clusters are pretty far back. What is the rational?

Crafty · « **Reply #50 on:** July 27, 2006, 11:54:13 pm »

Looking Good

leapinlew · « **Reply #51 on:** July 30, 2006, 03:21:10 am »

Ok... so I hee'd and haw'd around trying to decide what I was going to do about the Control Panel. I had a couple dilemas. First off - I was waiting on a few parts to show up. The T-molding, artwork from ClassicArcadeGraffix.com and a blue trackball - and my work came to a standstill waiting on them (Divemaster shipped the trackball out quickly - I was really waiting on the t-molding and art).

The second dilema was the fact that I decided to use plexiglass instead of polycarbonite. I had already created a control panel that was 3/4" and the added plexiglass would bring the total thickness 7/8". My t-molding is 3/4" and wouldn't cover the total thickness. I spent my free time looking for a 2' x 4' sheet of 5/8ths plywood (5/8" plywood + 1/8"plexi = 3/4"). I must've spent $20 in gas looking for this at all the various lumber stores. Wanna know what I ended up doing?

Yeah, I bought a full sheet of plywood to cut out a new CP... great. I'll figure out what to do with the rest of the wood later. I screwed my 3/4" CP directly to my 5/8" material and I used the flush trim router bit and created a duplicate of my 3/4" CP.

That turned out ok. I finally brought everything inside to start working in the house.

Now for the part I've been dreading. I got the new art and I bought a brand new x-acto knife. I laid out my artwork and did a practice cut of the trackball hole. I used my template I created earlier to cut the circle. I changed blades just to make sure I had a sharp one and I cut the real thing.

Notice the extra hole in the bottom of the CP. That was my test cut. One thing to be careful of if you decide you want to flush mount your trackball. Cut the trackball hole first and then cut your CP out. Then, you can center everything up and trace around your CP with the x-acto knife.

Next step was to cut out the button holes and joystick holes. I countersunk all the carriage bolts in an attempt to clean up the CP. In fact, the artwork is self adhesive, but because I have so many carriage bolts I didn't peel the backing off.

Here is where I stand right now:

The plexiglass isn't holding down on the edges (probably because I don't have any buttons or anything to hold it down). I'm going to add 4 carriage bolts to resolve that. I didn't want to have exposed carriage bolts but I don't see another way to do it.

I need to:

Wire up CP
Install Coin door (spray paint it)
Install Smoked Plexi

I'm leaving out of town next week, so it looks like I should be able to put the finishing touches on it when I return.

For a while I wasn't real happy how it was turning out, but I'm starting to dig it now. It sort of kept it's original Xenophobe look.

leapinlew · « **Reply #52 on:** July 30, 2006, 03:29:33 am »

Quote from: theCoder on July 27, 2006, 11:09:52 am

Nice job on the stand !

Your player 1 & 2 button clusters are pretty far back. What is the rational?

Sup Coder? The reason being the trackball takes up so much room. I like my controls to be straight on to the screen. I could've angled them to bring them down, but overall I decided to move them up the CP and have them straight on.

Looking at the previous pics, the space between the edge and where the buttons were looks more expansive than it really is. The updated pics with the buttons in place show it more accurately.

Timoe · « **Reply #53 on:** July 30, 2006, 10:00:09 am »

I like that youve left so much room for the trackball. It will be nice to be able to go crazy on that thing and not have to worry about hitting some other control.

Uh, you need to add to your "to-do" list though

-put t-molding on front of Control Panel.

gamecreature · « **Reply #54 on:** July 30, 2006, 11:11:50 am »

Looks awesome. How'd working with the xacto knife go? Do you feel pretty comfortable with it?

leapinlew · « **Reply #55 on:** July 30, 2006, 11:17:42 am »

Yeah, actually. It was $7 well spent. I had to psyche myself up to do it. You know how it is... you only get one shot at it and you don't want to ruin your 1 peice of expensive artwork.

bleemus · « **Reply #56 on:** July 30, 2006, 12:26:17 pm »

Looking better now that it has that CP on it and is a bit more blue, still wish that t-molding was darker... a little too pastel looking IMO.

Looks like it will play good though, that matters more than anything!

Timoe · « **Reply #57 on:** July 30, 2006, 04:21:02 pm »

Quote from: bleemus on July 30, 2006, 12:26:17 pm

Looking better now that it has that CP on it and is a bit more blue, still wish that t-molding was darker... a little too pastel looking IMO.

Looks like it will play good though, that matters more than anything!

I have the same tmolding. I'm not sure but he may have used the flash on some of those photos which is why it looks a little lighter.

leapinlew · « **Reply #58 on:** July 30, 2006, 11:44:14 pm »

I snuck some time in today to wire up my control panel. I used the quick connects and I ran the ground wire first in a daisy chain. I used 20 gauge wiring and I used the blue, 16-18gauge, connectors so I could put 2 twenty gauge wires in the quick connect and crimp it down.

Next I ran the player 2 side with the red 20-22 gauge quick connects:

I ran the ground wires up high and the other wires were lower so I could bundle them together.

And here it is complete:

How long does this take you guys to wire up your CP? Mine took right at 3 hours. My back hurt, hands hurt, lol.

Anyhow, you can see I took an alternate method to mount my trackball. The mounting plate I have is bigger than the mounting plate template I used. So.. I can't use it. Turned out to be a blessing in disguise as I hadn't originally planned on flush mounting the trackball - but I was forced to and I'm happy how it turned out.

Oh, and Timoe - you'll notice I put some t-molding around the CP!

I'll finish this next weekend I hope!

theCoder · « **Reply #59 on:** July 31, 2006, 02:33:23 am »

Looking sweet. I love seeing the CP wire pictures. On the PartyBox project, it took me about 3 hours as well. I had fewer connections, but also had to deal with LED soldering. I hard soldered all connections however because I really don't want to have a connector come off. I'm not planning on re-using anything and don't expect any failures (wishful thinking I guess).

You'll be playing it in no time. Great progress.

Crafty · « **Reply #60 on:** July 31, 2006, 03:32:58 am »

Nice neat tidy wiring. i like the concept of one set higher than the others it's these little hints that make sense to the uninitiated when visualised...

javeryh · « **Reply #61 on:** July 31, 2006, 10:12:14 am »

Looking really really nice so far. Super clean wiring job too - I should take some notes for my next project... This thing is going to be sweet when it is finished and will be the center of attention anytime you throw a party... which is the way it should be!

Knievel · « **Reply #62 on:** August 01, 2006, 10:01:51 am »

Lookin REAL sharp. Your wiring time sounds about right, those connects are quite fiddly to work with.

I think you be swapping out those black buttons for some translucent blues at some point.

leapinlew · « **Reply #63 on:** August 09, 2006, 11:37:11 pm »

There have been a lot of things done lately, but as you guys know... it's not the kind of thing worthy of reporting. Here are some pics of where I was when I got back from my trip:

The machine is up and running!

Heres where I'm at now.

The coin door has been painted and installed.
I mounted the AT power supply real snug on the sidewall. Not 10 minutes after I did that did it die on me. I had another one so I installed that.
I guess no one noticed that all my controls were hooked up backwards into the ipac? lol. I wired all of player 2's controls to player 1 and vice versa. I remapped everything in Mala and Mame.
I tidied up the wiring inside the cabinet
I installed neon tubes on the back of the cabinet (not sure what I think about them)
Secured the CP

Here are some pics:

Something funky with the left side Neon. I'm going to take a look at it tomorrow. I have some superbright LED's coming that I plan on lighting the coin door and 25c buttons I got from Mike Deuce.

I have some Steel Diamond Plate sticker I'm going to apply as a kickplate.

I'm going to make a marquee holder for it.

That should do it... I been playing this one a lot and tweaking the supers to get them to feel right. The 32" television is great to play on and the sound is really good.

Crafty · « **Reply #64 on:** August 09, 2006, 11:48:10 pm »

Simply Beautifuuuulll

DigDreams · « **Reply #65 on:** August 10, 2006, 04:58:22 am »

A simple, clean, and elegant design. Niceley done.

- DigDreams

psychotech · « **Reply #66 on:** August 10, 2006, 06:47:42 am »

That's ..er, BIG. And yes, it looks mighty fine too!

MYX · « **Reply #67 on:** August 10, 2006, 08:40:44 am »

Verinice...verinice indeed. It seems like there is more neon coming from the left than the right. Is it mounted in the center? I think if it were equal lighting it'll be slick. I am doing a similar thing with LEDs on the back of mine.

gamecreature · « **Reply #68 on:** August 10, 2006, 10:06:34 am »

Here's what I say:

theCoder · « **Reply #69 on:** August 10, 2006, 10:59:17 am »

Very nice. Another one down. I know its been done many times, but I really like the bold color trim on black.

What are those two lit "pockets" just above the buttons?

Very nice

javeryh · « **Reply #70 on:** August 10, 2006, 11:01:08 am »

Amazing job!! This thing looks like a lot of fun!!

leapinlew · « **Reply #71 on:** August 10, 2006, 11:00:51 pm »

My original plan was to purchase some diamond plate and install it as the kickplate and a portion under the CP. I have these bolts that have LED's in them that I picked at Advanced Auto Parts to hold down the diamond plate under the CP.

New plan! Don't spend the money on diamond plate and use a diamond plate sticker wrapped around some padded foam board. I already had it... so I thought I'd see how it looks. It turned out pretty good and feels pretty sturdy.

I am going to do the kickplate in it tomorrow night.

And here it is with the bolts turned on...

As you can tell I fixed the neon on the other side. And by fix I mean I stuck another one in it's place. If the light looks uneven now, it's just because I'm taking the picture from an angle... it better be. I'll look at it again tomorrow.

leapinlew · « **Reply #72 on:** August 10, 2006, 11:10:51 pm »

Quote from: theCoder on August 10, 2006, 10:59:17 am

Very nice. Another one down. I know its been done many times, but I really like the bold color trim on black.

What are those two lit "pockets" just above the buttons?

Very nice

Thanks for the kind words.

The pockets are the original speaker holes for Xenophobe. I used cloth to hide the holes underneath the mesh grill and I mounted computer speakers behind it.

Knievel · « **Reply #73 on:** August 11, 2006, 09:47:11 am »

Beautiful job! the big monitor must be a blast.
Those pics are just pulling me in for a game...something about that warming blue glow.

I gotta get my showcase idea back on track ASAP.

jbullfrog · « **Reply #74 on:** August 11, 2006, 12:44:39 pm »

Quote from: leapinlew on August 10, 2006, 11:10:51 pm

The pockets are the original speaker holes for Xenophobe. I used cloth to hide the holes underneath the mesh grill and I mounted computer speakers behind it.

looks simply amazing man

I really like what you did with those speaker holes and the neon in back... now I need to find some way to work that in to *my* cab

BlinKY1337 · « **Reply #75 on:** August 11, 2006, 09:01:49 pm »

Amazing job I love how you mounted the speakers

nullb0y · « **Reply #76 on:** October 05, 2006, 09:12:38 pm »

that podium is MASSIVE i see why ppl critisized my thin stand....

leapinlew · « **Reply #77 on:** October 06, 2006, 11:58:05 am »

Holy Bump!

Awesome. I been meaning to put more pictures in this, but I didn't want to do it and bump my project to the top of all the current projects. I'll post some pics on this when I get home.

@PinballJim: Thanks! Yeah... you better get that dedicated combatribes machine working. I'm sure people are lining up waiting to play that.

@ Nullboy: I been watching your showcase come together. I like it. My podium is actually the bottom half of another game, so that explains it's size. It's nice having all the room, but if I were to build one - I'd probably build one similar to yours.

_) (V) (-) · « **Reply #78 on:** October 06, 2006, 12:57:05 pm »

Dude this is way cool!

Can you tell us more about these bolts with the lights in them?

leapinlew · « **Reply #79 on:** October 06, 2006, 01:42:01 pm »

The bolts I got from Advanced Auto. They are expensive though. $9.99 for 2. They look like this:

http://www.globalintersection.com/auto-parts/store/ShowProd.asp?idProduct=36304&idRef=Froogle

The brand I used was OPTX:


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