Donkey Kong bartop (FINISHED! Final pics uploaded)

[LeedsFan]

I've decided to build a Donkey Kong bartop based on the original cabinet design. LeapingLews bartop Galaga really inspired me to have a go at this.

I'm at the scratch stage of just tossing ideas around in my head. I have a fixed idea of how the project will finish up. Basically the machine will boot up and autoload DK. But from there the player can escape to MaLa menu and select alternative classic vertical games. But I need some advice from the more knowledgeable/experienced people here. 

It will be as close to a replica as can be of the original machine (scaled down of course). I plan to include 1 extra button alongside the "Jump" button so that the machine can also play other classic vertical games such as 1943, Scramble etc. etc. That will be the only deviation from the original panel.

I need to decide on the size of my monitor. I belive the original used a standard 19" screen yes? From my final monitor dimensions I can scale down everything from the plans on Jakobuds website. The plans on Jakobud's website are great. But I can't see anything on there for the angle of the monitor position inside. 

I'm inclined to go with a small LCD screen. Dunno how easy a small CRT will be to find. I'm looking for nothing larger than 14/15". Smaller if possible. Any ideas/suggestion on the monitor as this is the starting point of the whole project.

I've looked at pics of the original DK cabinet (the blue one not red one). MameMarquees do all the artwork except one small graphic seems to be missing. I'm sure I can see an instruction card just below the bezel but above the CP. Is this available anywhere?

Did the original machine use leaf switches or microswitches? Looking at the pics seems the player select buttons were dark blue and the jump button orange. But I'm sure I saw a thread (maybe not on here) where a guy was trying to get the correct brown/orange hue buttons for his cabinet. Was ages ago though and I can't relocate the info. Maybe I'm being too picky but I just want to be as authentic as possible with the original look. If I can source the correct buttons then I will buy them.

I've done quite a bit of searching on various sites. Some of the projects on here are really awesome and inspire me to make more stuffs. 

[Jigenjuke]

Sounds like a great project.  I had a lot of fun with the three replica nintendo bartops I made.  I went with a 15 inch tft monitor.  I didn't find anything about the angle of the monitor but I put it at about 60 degrees and the bezel art was silkscreened onto 1/4 inch smoked plexi (enentually it was heh heh).  I originally had the bezel art sandwhiched between one piece of smoked plexi and one piece of clear.  Both looked good but I really like the silkscreened bezel much better.  You might want to check out a couple of links here...

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=81555.0  Really good project by DonkeyKong!!!

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=85596.0  My three projects

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=80178.80  LepinLew's awsome tempest project!!!

These are just ideas for construction.   If you need a good place to print artwork, also if you need the artwork let me know.  I have the illustrator files somewhere.  Goodluck and drop me a line if you have questions.

[severdhed]

i've often thought about doing this, but i dont really have a good place to put it once it is done.  i can't wait to see how this turns out though

[LeedsFan]

Bought one of these today:
http://www.cclonline.com/product-info.asp?product_id=34366&category_id=37&manufacturer_id=58

Quite cheap for a new monitor. The angle of view is fine with the monitor in portrait mode. I'm quite pleased with it (even though it came with a non-UK power lead and I had to buy an adaptor) 

I could have got a 14" for even less but the specs on those looked really poor.

Now I just need to get the calculator fired up and decide on what scale the cabinet with be.

[IG-88]

They're selling those in the UK and they dont come with the right power lead? That sucks. 

[retrofuture]

I'd give CCL a ring and ask for an adapter. They're usually pretty good on the customer service front. There's no indication on the website that the monitor comes with a euro plug, so I think they owe you!

[leapinlew]

Good luck dude.

I ordered side artwork to build a small Donkey Kong as well, but have decided since to pass on that project. I'll probably build a full size Donkey Kong again.

[MameMaster!]

Here's mine from 2006--- I have this in my office. I built a duplicate for my brother as well.

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=61384.0

[LeedsFan]

The scale is gonna be half size. (Well it's 51.4% to be exact but that sounds anal  ) I used Jakobud's plans and calculated every measurement and curve. I had both pieces of plywood clamped together so I only had to make one cut to ensure both came out exactly the same.




I discovered one problem after I cut out the sides. This plywood is supposed to be 12mm thick. On close inspection I noticed it was actually 11mm. Now that may not sound much at all, but it becomes a problem as far as T-molding is concerned. I'm gonna be using 1/2" white molding which is of course 12.7mm wide exactly. That meant I would have a lip all around the cab. What to do?

I hit up the idea of using vinyl floor tiles on the insides of the walls. These were cheap (less than £3 a pack from B&Q) and were the perfect 2mm thickness to bring the sides to 13mm overall. It also means I don't have to paint the insides black now. The only downside is you can see the joins. (It looks more pronounced on the right one due to the sunlight coming into the house). It's not as bad as that right one looks in all honesty, and you will only see about 1" of the join on each side when the cab is done.

I tried to source vinyl roll or laminate of the correct thickness, but it's very difficult to get hold of here in the UK for some reason. 




Here's the base attached with piano hinge for CP. I figured I'd need a flip down CP as I would never be able to reach the controls if I ever needed to otherwise. (Well not without removing the guts etc.)




Here's the top panel and back door fitted. One question to DK offianados.... is the very top panel (roof if you like) painted blue like the sides/front or left black like the back/inside panels?




Back door is hinged same as the CP. I plan to cut a hole for PC fan later on.




Next step is to get the monitor support sections installed. My woodworking skills are very limited and it took me ages to get this far. Two steps forward one step back every time. I had to keep removing and reinstalling brackets etc. to get the panels to line up just right. I'm pleased with it so far. It stands upright on a flat surface without wobbling now. 

[extendedplayarcade]

Here's mine from 2006--- I have this in my office. I built a duplicate for my brother as well.

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=61384.0

I love it dude.  Great stuff even though it isn't a replication of it.  It looks damn awesome.  I been meaning to build a barcade but just can't get my act together.

[javeryh]

Nice job.  The roof of a DK is black.

[LeedsFan]

Nice job.  The roof of a DK is black.

Thanks for that. I was kinda hoping the answer would be blue though. You don't get to see the top of a full size cabinet, but you will of course see the top of mine. I was thinking blue might look better overall to match the sides. I may go for the blue... something to think about. I'm way off the painting stage yet though.

[LeedsFan]

OK update time. I cut out the pieces for the CP. The angle of the slope was calculated to scale, and then the angle brackets were bent carefully to give the desired height at the the top. Took a while to get right.




Here's the CP attached to the cab. It's actually hinged at the bottom and is fixed by two double roller catches at each side. It fits really nice and doesn't wobble at all when closed even when I rub my hands on it to simulate gameplay. I did try magnetic catches before the roller catches, but they didn't work out so well. The magnets have a little bit of play in their housing which caused very slight wobble of the CP when "playing".




I did intend to use old PC parts I had lying around, but the be fair the parts I had were overkill for a vertical only Mame setup. (XP3200 processor, Radeon 9800 Pro). I figured I might use these for a future project (possibly Nebula for a Sega Model 2 setup to play Daytona USA etc.).

So instead I got this little baby for this project:




And here it is party assembled:



It's a Mini ITX Intel Atom 1.6GHz, 2GB Ram, 40Gb HD. The motherboard is the 330 dual core version, but without the ION graphics chipset (D945GCLF2).
Here's a link of discussion that discusses this board. The title of the thread is about the ION chipset version but they do discuss the one I bought as well:
http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=93033.0

The HD was recycled from an old IBM Thinkpad, so I saved a bit of money there. I just had to get a 3.5" to 2.5" IDE cable adaptor to use it. Then I cable tied the HD to a piece of cardboard and velcroed the cardboard to the base of the chassis (no mounting points in the chassis for a 2.5" drive so I had to improvise). You can see the HD in the bottom left corner in the above pic. Sorry that pic sucks, flash ruined it.

At the moment I only have a fresh install of Windows XP on there. Gonna work on a slimmed down Mame install today. I did some research on here about Atom processors and I'm really hoping that all the vertical classics will play just fine. I'm 99% sure they will, but we shall see. 

[saleem]

that itx desktop must have cost you a fair bit.

you could have got half decent dual core bundle from cclonline for slightly over £100,its not far from you if your from leeds (i am in bradford myself) i know dual core mobo might have been a tad bit bigger for you like but,when you think about what you spend it might have been a good compromise.

for vertical games i would say mount your monitor verticaly.downside to this is the horizontal scrollers have bars on the top and bottom.if you mount the monitor horizontaly,you get bars on the left and right of the screen but,your horizontal scrollers are right size.

[javeryh]

Looking good.  Are you going to cut out the speaker holes?  That would make it really look like a DK.  Also, I think you should install the monitor vertically.  There are a ton of games you can play on a vertical monitor with a 4-way joy and one button plus it would be true to the original.   

[LeedsFan]

that itx desktop must have cost you a fair bit.

you could have got half decent dual core bundle from cclonline for slightly over £100,its not far from you if your from leeds (i am in bradford myself)

I got this from CCL!    It was £145 total. The case cost me £40. I was thinking about not bothering with the case and just mounting the MB directly to the base. But then I'd have needed a PSU anyway, which ofc comes with the case. I was only gonna get 1GB RAM and the sales buy was pushing me to get 2GB for the system. When I saw the extra Gig was only 2 quid more I thought I'd be a fool not to.

The monitor will be mounted vertically. It has to be now... I based the cab dimensions from the full width of the monitor. The internal width of the cab is the exact width of the monitor (295mm). This cab will play joystick vertical games only with two buttons or less. To play other games I have another system here.

Yes Jayveryh... I will be cutting out the speaker vents the same as the original. I was toying with the idea of keeping it a one button cab, but there are just too many classic vertical games that use two buttons. I don't think the extra button will spoil the CP. You are right though, it will detract from the "authentic" look very slightly, but it's a compromise.

[LeedsFan]

OK a small update. Got the marquee box made and installed. Here a some pics.....








I think I will probably go with fluorescent lighting on this rather than LEDs. There is a small baton of 274mm wide that I can get from my local B&Q. It's actually slightly too wide when the power cable is plugged into the end, but I shall make some resourceful modifications. 

Here's a shot of what the CP looks like when opened up. My camera is total sh!t so sorry for the piss poor quality. 



I also got Mame installed on my new PC. I had to compile my own version of Mame to incorporate my own generic bezel to make the games all appear smaller on the screen. Using the full 15" of the monitor was way out of scale. Now all the games appear with a blank (all black) bezel with a size of about 10" diagonal. I had to offset it from centre slightly too as the physical bezel of the monitor isn't the same all round. But when the monitor is in the cab the games will appear dead centre.

[LeedsFan]

More updates. I actually got a really productive day in yesterday. First thing to do was to install the mini fluorescent tube light I bought from B&Q. It's only 274mm wide and I had to "modify" the mains inlet plug as with that plugged in it took it over the 295mm maximum I had to fit it in. Here's a pic of it installed to the back panel of the marquee box.



Then I went to a local company in Leeds to get the Lexan pieces cut to size. The company is Barkston Plastics and they have a counter where anyone can go and buy pieces of Perspex, Lexan etc.etc. cut to size on their special machine.

http://www.barkstonltd.co.uk/

I'm using 2mm clear lexan on this project. There is one piece of 3mm smoked grey lexan for the screen (which will be covered by another 2mm clear piece sandwiching the bezel artwork in between, much like the marquee). I really don't know how this smoked lexan will turn out. It may be too dark for the games to show well, but I thought I'd give it a go. If it turns out to be poor then I can just get another clear piece cut. Someone in another thread advised getting grey over bronze/brown tint. I don't know why grey would be better, but I decided to get grey and try it for myself.

I also ordered this for my marquee retainer: (scroll down to the rigid lipping LIP/34)
http://www.pvcextrusions.co.uk/html/plastestrip/EDGING.HTM

Now I was gonna use normal Happs marquee retainer strip, until they insisted on a £50 minimum order placement. Errrrrm... no thanks! The stuff I bought turned out to be perfect for my project. It is very rigid and the "lip" will not bend to any angle like the Happs stuff does. But for a small project like this it looks really good. Here's a pic of the cab as it is now with the lexan pieces in place:



I'm really pleased with how it's turned out so far. I think it's starting to look a bit Donkey Kong(ish) at this point.

However I did come across my first main blunder later in the afternoon. I went to put in my ITX PC case and fit a template for the monitor. It's all fittted nicely.... until I realised I'd forgotten about the space the U360 body would take up. It wouldn't fit in the panel without the PCB assembly wanting to take up the same space as the ITX case. Bollocks! 

I was about an inch or so out. In the end I had to lose the front panel of the ITX case. That gave an extra 1.5" or so to move the case further back. That's now enough to allow the U360 to be lowered into position without any problems. I was worried I was gonna have to lose the case altogether and have the motherboard, hard drive, etc.etc. all placed on the base individually. I suppose I got a bit lucky with that one. 

I even managed to get all my artwork ordered with Scott at MameMarquees. Now that I know the exact dims of all the lexan pieces I thought I'd better get the artwork ball rolling.

While the artwork is being prepared next up is to get on with other details... like speaker grille, sanding, priming etc.etc.

[javeryh]

This project is turning out great!  With the lexan and marquee in place it is really starting to look like a DK cabinet.  Good thing you found a solution for the U360 and computer case - I'm ALWAYS making little mistakes like this.  It seems like I can never think of everything (at least on the first try).

Did you route the slots for the t-molding yet?  It's best to do that before you paint the exterior.

 

[Franco B]

Looking good 

Is there any reason you went for polycarbonate (Lexan) rather than acrylic? The polycarb will scratch easier than acrylic and acrylic is just as easy to cut in that kind of thickness. Acrylic is generally cheaper too.

Btw, do you live in Leeds? I like Leeds.

[extendedplayarcade]

Nice job and fast too

I am almost motivated to start mine. 

[LeedsFan]

Did you route the slots for the t-molding yet?  It's best to do that before you paint the exterior.

 

I don't even have a router yet.    But I did order the correct router bit with the T-molding I ordered from T-Molding.com. So I will be investing in one shortly. Yeah I better do that before I do any painting. 

To Franco...  I thought Lexan was harder to scratch than Perspex? People in USA call this stuff different names to what we do. When I said lexan they knew what I meant but they instantly called it something else. Oh well it's done now.    And yeah I live in Leeds. I work as a taxi driver here. (Or a cabby as some of you would say).

[retrofuture]

Lexan (polycarbonate) does indeed scratch more easily than Perspex (acrylic). I wouldn't worry too much about it though. 

I'm using polycarbonate on my bartop, and l will swap it out if I have problems with scratching later on down the line.

[LeedsFan]

What do you guys think to this as a slightly modified DK CPO? Any feedback is appreciated, even if you think it's crap.



As I explained earlier I want to be able to play 2-button vertical games on this cabinet. All I've done is lose the "Nintendo™" logo on the right side of the panel in order to fit in the extra button. The circles have to be 28mm diameter in order to fit Sanwa OBSF-24 buttons. I had to make the word "Jump" smaller on the first one. Just gonna leave the second button with no wording.

Only other thing I did was lift the P1 and P2 buttons very slightly so that their Y-axis was more centralised with the "Donkey Kong" logo. (Though I hardly think anyone would ever notice that). For P1 and P2 I'm gonna use non-arcade buttons. They aren't "play" buttons so don't need to be of playable quality.

As you can see, my Microsoft Paint skills are complete poo!  Please forgive the pooiness of the image.

Or what about this one? Moved the play buttons to the left and lost the decal on the 2nd button so that the buttons can be closer (I think they too far apart on #1). This also gives me room to get the Nintendo™ logo back in, albeit smaller than original.



I'm leaning towards #2 right now. Thoughts?

[Chicken McNobody]

I like #2 better so far, but here is what I would do.  I would move the instruction card over a tad bit to the left to leave a little bit mor room on the right for the second button.  I don't feel that you need the orange casing for the second button, especially since it will not have a label to it.

Also, I would level the 1P & 2P tops to line up with the top of the orange surrounding the jump button.  That is more true to the original, it just looks "off" with those unaligned to me.

lastly:  I wouldn't worry about keeping the button within the orange surrounding, as you can see by this pic, the button is wider and hangs over the edges of the surrounding.  So if you set it up more like that, you will have more room to work with the full size letterering as well.



That's just my opinions though. . .

Looking great so far!

[javeryh]

I would go with #2 also.  The second button should be red to blend in with the background.  I'd even go as far as to find out the exact red that your button is and color match it to the red on the CPO.  I'd also be a bit concerned with shrinking down the instruction card to fit your CP.  Will the text still be legible?

Looks good!   

[LeedsFan]

Chicken and Jave.... you guys both came up with great ideas. I decided to line up the the tops of the button decals and I'm also gonna go with red for the second action button. Dunno why I didn't think of that myself really. 

I actually forgot, or didn't realise that the original buttons overlapped the decals at the bottom. These little details make all the difference.

Here's the updated image. (I explained to Scott that the circle can overlap the bottom of the "Jump" decal. This is just a guide picture really). The final image Scott comes up with may not have the tops of the decals as close to the top edge of the image. We shall see what he conjures up. 




This new panel graphic template has been emailed to MameMarquees and the artwork is all ordered now as we speak. I also received my stuff from Ultimarc and T-Molding.com. Just need to get the Sanwa buttons now.

[Chicken McNobody]

I like it, I think it really looks more like a smaller scale replica with some extras.  I think the idea of using a smaller 1P & 2P start buttons was a great call.  it really frees up the room to allow for a otherwise full scale control set-up.  I think it would look too cramped and odd if they were full sized.

[LeedsFan]

Time for an update me thinks. Haven't had much time to work on the project this last week as I was busy with work and other events. Still waiting on Scott for some artwork to verify, but I understand he's very busy. The quality will be worth the wait I'm sure.

In the mean time I managed to make some further progress. I cut out the grill slots for the speaker on the front panel.







The cable you see there is the fluorescent lamp cable. It will eventually be trimmed down to a suitable length. The grill slots were much easier to do than I imagined. I just carefully drew a circle with a pair of compasses the correct size (to scale) then drilled 3mm holes for the top and bottom of each slot. I enlarged the holes carefully until I could get a jigsaw blade in there then carefully cut up to each corresponding hole. Then I just spent some time with a small file set trimming up each slot. It's not 100% perfect but it's very clean and I'm really pleased with how it turned out.

One thing I would like to know though..... did the original DK cabinets have a grille mesh behind those speaker slots? I'm thinking they may have put something there as it would be very easy to insert something into a slot to cut through the speaker cone.

It's difficult to see in the pic but I have managed to cut the slots for the T-molding. Yes I finally invested in a router and the cutting was way easier than I thought.

The sanding and priming is not something I was looking forward to. It's part of a build that I have no patience with and not much skill. I fully understand that more care and time spent here will result in a better finish. But I just know that I won't get a piano finish no matter what I do, so if I get a decent finish (for my limited talent) then I will be quite happy.

I basically ran wood putty into any imperfections first. Then I sanded with an orbital sander first with 180 grit then with 240. A quick rub over with 1800 paper by hand was the last part of the sanding. I may not have done this totally right by other people's standards, but it seemed smooth enough to me. I had to be careful of over sanding because I'm using plywood and the top layer is quite thin. You can actually see where I've just gone through the top layer on the left side of the speaker panel.

[javeryh]

Your speaker cutout looks really nice.  I imagine you spent quite a bit of time on it and it wasn't easy to cut out.  You are right in your assumption that there is a speaker grille behind the panel and in front of the speaker.  I still haven't figured out what I'm going to do with mine.  I think the originals were metal mesh but I'm debating using some black speaker cloth so you won't be able to see inside at all.   

[LeedsFan]

Your speaker cutout looks really nice.  I imagine you spent quite a bit of time on it and it wasn't easy to cut out. 

Honestly, it really wasn't difficult. I think I spent maybe two to three hours doing the whole thing from start to finish. I had to be careful I didn't go too wide on the slots, which is why I started with a 3mm drill bit. For the scale I'm working to it was 3.0 to 3.5 for the slots.

So far the hardest part of this project was getting the panels to line up square and have the base sit flat without wobbling. Then again I'm no professional joiner so I'm probably making things harder for myself anyway by not using correct build techniques. The plywood I bought was very slightly warped (which I didn't realise till I got the cut pieces home) but once all put together (and tweaked several times!) it's all come out fine. So far so good. 

[retrofuture]

So far the hardest part of this project was getting the panels to line up square and have the base sit flat without wobbling.

Amen to that 

[LeedsFan]

It's been a short while since I posted. That's because not too much has been done this last week or so. I'm basically just waiting on the artwork before I can really get to grips with the control panel etc.




I have made some small progress. I painted the underside black and added the little rubber feet. These feet were self adhesive but I didn't trust that to hold them properly so I used Evo-Stick impact contact adhesive. If they come off now they will bring wood with them. 




I finally decided to go with authenticity and painted the top black (first coat only in the pic). I was thinking of painting it blue like the sides because with this being a bartop the top panel will always be visible (unlike a full size cab). But I decided on satin black anyway in the end.




I printed a mock up of the bezel and placed it in position. I'm not totally happy with the size of it here. All the full size cabs I've seen have the top black circles just touching at the top and sides. The larger bottom circles just touch at the bottom with a small orange gap to the sides. So I'm gonna resize this before giving the final dimensions to Scott. He's on holiday at the moment so I have a little time here to get it just right.





Here's the final CP layout that I have already verified with Scott. I have printed this out at the correct size to test (294 x 103mm) and I can get 2x Sanwa 27mm buttons in there nicely. The button placements were moved up slightly together with the DK and Nintendo logos. They needed to be moved up to give the buttons room to fit without intruding on the lower artwork. But the aspect ratio of all the artwork parts in the image is as the original. I've still not decided which buttons to use for the P1 and P2. Something to ponder.....

[Chicken McNobody]

Looks sharp!  Love the final CP, I'm sure you can find buttons to work, but getting them in the right color may prove to be the tricky part.  what size do you need?

[LeedsFan]

Looks sharp!  Love the final CP, I'm sure you can find buttons to work, but getting them in the right color may prove to be the tricky part.  what size do you need?

I've looked at all sorts of buttons. I'm thinking of using these sub-miniature buttons that come in various colours (7mm hole). I don't think they are really good quality but they aren't game buttons so don't need to be arcade standard. And I can get them in blue. Dunno yet, not made up my mind.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/MINI-PUSH-TO-MAKE-SWITCHES-X-10_W0QQitemZ230369949851QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_3?hash=item35a31e789b&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14

The width of the white decal on the panel is about 15mm. So anything that size or less would be OK (or maybe even 1mm/2mm larger to overlap the decal like the original panel)

[Chicken McNobody]

Remember, that the real buttons overlap a bit as well, so that wouldn't be a bad solution.  In fact if they fit within the marked area, it may actually look less "authentic" to begin with.

[Bender]

these are available in blue, but have a black housing

[LeedsFan]

these are available in blue, but have a black housing

I might just try those. Looking at the specs the outside diameter (above the panel) is 17.5mm. That's just the width of the decal if you take up the black lines also.

[LeedsFan]

Long time no post. I basically took a short break from the project as I awaited the artwork from Scott. I didn't really time it right as he went on holiday for a fortnight and he couldn't actually start it until he got back. But as the saying goes... all good things come to those who wait. 





Now you will notice that there's no marquee in that shot. That's because I was so hyped to receive the goodies that I instantly went and fitted it to the cabinet.    The bezel did get printed too large for my glass though. Even if I trim it down I will end up cutting into the images within the black circles. But not to worry... I managed to get it reprinted and resized at Staples for less than £2 on a nice glossy card. Now it fits perfectly!





So now it was time to get some more work done and stop slacking.   
Here you can see the monitor from the rear and how the ATX case fits snugly inside. I fitted a plug to the fluorescent lamp cable and tried it out with my new marquee. It rocks!!! 





Control panel coming along fine together with a "butchered" U360. I had to cut down the mounting plate and drill new mounting holes because the plate simply wouldn't fit without fouling the front panel or the cross piece across the top of the CP.

The CP assembly didn't go without it's problems however. I knew this was the most delicate part of the project and I tried to be so so so careful. I clamped everything hard down and drilled through all the pieces together to ensure the holes all matched up. But still the artwork tore between the two orange buttons. 

I then spent ages looking for bits of card that colour matched the original artwork and cutting little pieces like a jigsaw to make a good repair. It does look pretty good because I was determined for it not to look bollocks. But it's still there and I know it's there. One of those annoying things I will have to accept. Protip.... don't drill through artwork! It's easy enough to trim afterwards with a craft knife. Wish I'd done that first now. Oh well.   





First coat of blue paint applied today. I tried using the paint codes for DK blue from this site in other project threads. But the staff at B&Q just looked at me as though I was talking Swahili.    I did however try a sample of Dulux Azure Blue #3, and that was pretty much spot on from what I see of peoples projects. It's certainly the closest I could find without getting technical and seeing a paint specialist. I'm certainly happy with it.





Another shot of the rear but this time with the mains socket wired up. I'm gonna get some kinda door stops or stays so that the door doesn't fully open up past around 80 degrees. It's attached with a piano hinge at the bottom so it will open fully right past 90 degrees and more if the cabinet is sitting on the edge of a table. And that could pull the wires out. So that needs sorting soon.





A shot of the back door closed. I installed a red leaf switch button which is perfectly placed to push the PC switch on and off. Saved me having to open up the PC case and splice the wiring etc. The case cannot move at all as it's been fixed in with angle brackets, so no danger of it moving out of line.

Also I must again apologise for the shittyness of these photos. They really don't do the project justice. But I will be borrowing a camera from a friend for when the completed pics are be taken.

[severdhed]

looking very good....makes me want to play some DK