Star Wars Cockpit (Rebuild)

[speleo_de]

Got some time to take care of my Star Wars Cockpit that sat around in pieces for a couple of years.

Introduction
Reason for disassembling & rebuild was the bad condition and overall weakness of the structure. In this thread I hope to share out regularly the progress of getting the whole cabinet to buildup again. Maybe not something for the purist, as I will manufacture a good amount of the cabinets' wood/particle board. Also I will use woodplugs in combination with particleboard screws to be able to take it apart (at least a couple of times).

If you want to get the whole story so far (2004 - 2009) ...  http://www.andysarcade.de/projects_sw.html
If you want to se the pictures of disassembling (2004)   ... http://www.andysarcade.de/data/picseries/sw_restore/overview.html

Building the base assy
The last couple of weeks I have put together my shopping list of black covered particle board and plywood mainly, wood glue and particle board screws. Having the original cab as a reference made things pretty easy. I have first build the bottom frame from 3/4" (19mm) plywood, only challenging thing was to cut the various angles, as I don't have a circular hand saw   so I used a setup/tool where I can cut the angles with my router. The original rollers (including screws and nuts) have been cleaned, greased and reused. The bottom part of the base assy will just be screwed, the upper part with the connecting side strips are glued together. The large holes for the rollers/wheels were also cut with a router.

[speleo_de]

Continuing ....

Building the Sides

Trusting in the reproduction of the sideart by Thisoldgame, I have decided to rebuild the sides and apply the new sideart when it becomes available. There are two identical pieces for each side (total 4) plus the arches that I want to re-use. The arches are in a very good shape and not so easy to reproduce... The arches are used to connect the large front side with the small rear side ( front means : in flight direction ). The position of the sides versus base and arches is guaranteed by additional wood plugs, stability maintained by screws/glue. The old sides are being kept, just in case.

The new sides are being 'copied' with a router and by using the original sides as a master. The new sides are made of particle board and before routing, are roughly being cut to size with a jigsaw, this relieves stress from router and carpenter . The original side needs to be cleaned of nail, old wood, glue & old T-Molding, so that the router can move smoothly and the trimmer (right word?) can follow the curves. Some additional effort is required where the old sides are structurally weak. Here we can not simply copy the old / broken edges.  I've build a sort of template with 6mm birch plywood, that I 'copied' to the new sides. The second new (identical) side is copied from the first one.

[speleo_de]

Continuing ....


Assembling Base and Sides

It's time to leave the garage, there's simply not enough space. The cab will be assembled, lying on its side. Some wood strips between ground and sides avoid scratches. Starting with the right side, the three pieces making up one side are positioned and wood plugs are fitted to be able to take it apart for transportation (just in case...). Same positioning and woodplugs for the other side. Then everything is screwed together. The first board that was screwed in (foot room) gave sufficient stabilty that the cab can now be rolled around. Looks already like a SW Cockpit, doesn't it?

[hatrick]

Nice work. I'm anxious to see the finished results!

[Level42]

Looking great so far Andreas ! Really glad to see the progress !!!

Think about the goal, installing that minty fresh Amplifone tube in there as the last part and firing it up..... pure bliss

[ckong]

That looks very nice already. But where did you get the black covered particle board? Never seen that.

[speleo_de]

...  where did you get the black covered particle board? Never seen that.

Easy enough - got it from my 'local' wood supplier. Its particle board with a "black pearl decor". A quare meter costs ~21 Eur when they cut it to size for you.