The Complete Noob's First Project Thread - (No Theme/Name yet...)

[walterg74]

Hi!

So, after bothering a lot of people on my briefly infamous "Building Basics" thread (which can be found for your pleasure right here: http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=118557.0), I decided to take the plunge and start the attempt at building my very first cabinet (Took ya long enough!).

So being a complete noob,I'm pretty sure that many more questions will keep popping up, but luckily there are a lot of experienced folks around here willing to help a noob out

Also, this thread will be progressed a little as a tutorial and as a made by a noob and for noobs, in the hope that many others that like myself have absolutely no clue of woodworking and building these cabinets in general can maybe find it easier to start (I do admit I now do have one or two clues after starting ).

Like any guy with a new baby, there are lots of pics, so here we go...

First thing I did was get all the tools I needed. No pics of those but I bought:

Circular Saw
Jigsaw
Router (+ some bits)
Drill (already had it)

Like I was told, these are not *all* necessary but are nice to have if you can, so buy them if it's within your means,or rent them, or whatever if possible.

Supplies:

Glue
Screws (1 3/8")
Sandpaper (got several to test out, 60, 100, 150, 220)
Small Drill Bit (3.25mm) to make pilot holes for the screws

Clamps:



This should do it for now...



And of course, safety first boys and girls, so here's a small little starter's kit:



Following the Verticade's plans, and after calculating how much I needed, I ended up buying 1/4 sheet of 12mm MDF, and another 1/4 sheet of 15mm MDF (no 16mm where I live). Also, since here in my country sheets come in 1830mm x 2600mm size, 1/4 was more than enough for this build.

Besides this, I also bought a 2.44m stick of 1"x1" (which was actually 22mm x 22-23mm), for the interior moldings. Would you believe I ran short by about 10-12 inches (that's what she said!) and now I have to go back to the store since I missing the 2 little moldings for the monitor..? 

So anyway, that's it for post #1, take a look at post #2 for starting to actually do something!

[walterg74]

Ok, here we go with post #2... What did I actually do so far? Good question...

Started out on friday night, and the first thing I did was to *try* to copy the plans onto my nice MDF square...

Just as background, the 16mm 1/4 sheet mdf (1830 mm x 650 mm) was cut by the place I bought the wood from (they do straight cuts for free) into two 650mm x 650mm squares, and a remaining piece of 530mm x 650mm.
The 12mm 1/4 sheet I just took as-is since I didn´t know if I would need to make adjustments to it, and also to get some practice with the circular saw (more on that later...).

So anyway, like I said above, first thing was to get the plans onto the wood:




Not surprisingly, this did take some time (hello, noob here remember?), specially for getting the curves done right. And speaking of curves, trying to find out how to do these exactly, I came into a lot of posts that said "well, that's easy enough... just take a nail and a piece of string as long as the radius, moron!", and then I was like: "uhmm... ok, so how do I know where the center should be to actually place that nail??" among many other questions I had like how do you know where the circle is supposed to go through exactly being that many times the points where the curves stem from are *not* tangent to the circle.. but I digress... 

What I ended up doing is simply drawing circles with my handy compass onto a piece of paper, and then cutting them out. With that nice little circle I just played around with it on the wood until it looked right, and like the plans.  Only isue with that approach was when I had to do the big R67cm curve... that screwed me..   For that then, I ended up taking the advice I found on other posts, and simply use my handy flexible 1m steel ruler to place it between the two endpoints, and trace a curve I liked and that looked to me something like the VertiCade one
(Well.. actually, being the anal jerk that I am, I really ended up making a quarter circle -not enough to make anything more- out of cardboard, and attempting a new curve, which surprisingly was very similar to what I had already drawn  )

So.. had to wait until the next day for something called light to come up...  Next day then, took the square outside and readied to cut:



Now I'm really sorry but I seemed to have lost the pictures where I first:

- Used the circular saw to cut of an excess slice to the left, and another one to the top of the square
- Used the jigsaw to trace-cut the shape of the side

Once I had done the above, I simply placed the cutout piece on my second square, traced the shape with a pencil and did the same as above to have the second side cut out. Again I lost that pic (last one I lost, I promise.. ) but just so you know (specially if you'rea noob like me) what I ended up with was two sides that were *pretty* similar but had their differences (one had more wood on some places than the other, etc) but all in all fairly similar.

Before I end post #2, this is what I looked like before actually starting to use the circular saw. Yeah.. before I knew I would be covered up to my ears in sawdust after hitting the trigger for the first time... 



Coming up in a few minutes... post #3

See ya then!

[walterg74]

Ok, moving on...

Last post we were stuck with two *similar* pieces of wood that are supposed to be the sides...

One of my questions on the building basics thread was "how do I get them to be the same"? (or at least pretty darn close). One of the answers I received (and saw in ither places) was sanding. I honestly did not think I was going to be able to get away with that having never done it before. So I asked "what about routing?"  The answer to that was that it could be done and I would be better off leaving the pencil mark when I cut out the second piece, so I would have some extra material for shaving from the second piece.

Now even though that's what I *tried* to do, it was hard enough to try to follow the line with the jigsaw for the noob, so even though there *was* material to shave off, it wasn't exactly what the person that gave me the answer had in mind I bet 

So anyway, I kinda knew what I wanted to do, and that was to use the router, with the flush trim bit (for us noobs, is just does a straight cut on the edge of the wood). Naturally I was *not* going to try out my theories on the freshly cut sides, so I got some scrap wood to do some tests, and voila!:



Here is a closeup of the bit I used:



Noob explanation, here's how I did it: I clamped both pieces of wood together, aligning them by the two common sides that were the same, placing the piece of wood that was "bigger", or with excess material, on top. The "Ring" on the bit "rides" the bottom piece, in a way that the bottom piece os the "guide", and the blades will cut off material from the top piece. Since the blade is not large enough to cut the *whole* width of the top piece, once you do a first pass, you need to adjust the depth of the cut. The "ring" will no ride the lower part of the top piece, but since that's already cut to size and the same as the lower piece, no problem!    You will then have the two sides at the same nice size:

Pics on sides starting, and processed:











Easy right?

Coming up: Some sanding gets done! 

[wol-nz]

Off to a good start - I'm just wondering... steal shutters and iron bars covering that window...you would hope that isn't an exit point in an emergency 

[Ond]

That's some clean router work for a "noob" you might want to reassess that title 

[walterg74]

Off to a good start - I'm just wondering... steal shutters and iron bars covering that window...you would hope that isn't an exit point in an emergency 

Yeah well, sadly every house has them here... better safe than sorry, as we can't have the luxury of not having them as in most of the civilized world... 

[walterg74]

That's some clean router work for a "noob" you might want to reassess that title 

Thanks!   Maybe beginner's luck? I guess after the questions I asked, the time I spent investigating on the net how the bits work, and the tests I made on those rounded pieces you see in the pics, seems it was enough to get it right

[walterg74]

When last we posted, we were left with two pieces of (fairly) identical wood, that are the sides of the cabinet. Now while these were in fact very alike, it still didn't take from the fact that the jigsaw cuts left a bit to be desired in the overall smoothness of the shapes, and specially on some curves.

What I did then was to put some more clamps around them, to keep them together evenly all around, and then I proceeded to do some sanding, not with a sander (which I don't have yet) but with "elbow grease" as Woodshop Flunky had suggested...

Being this was just for some rough sanding/shaving some material off, I decided to make a judgement call and I used some 60 grit sandpaper. I then just sanded all around, just to get a nice evenness to the whole thing, and also to get the top and bottom rounded parts to be really rounded instead of the residual bit of jaggedness that the jigsaw had left behind (and having done the routing meant that while now both pieces were the same, they both had the mild jaggedness   ).

Here are the results after sanding (not too long mind you):









And after that, I decided to call it quits on the side panels. I think I got a pretty decent result for the first time, and I didn't think I could find a way to improve it anway (or even wanted to spend more time on it for this first try).

My next steps were to cut the inside moldings out of the 1"x1" stick...  On one hand, to get the length of them, I simply looked at the plans, and subtracted the width of the wood in the places that had them on the plans, to determine the length of the moldings. That part was easy enough. The difficult part was to determine what angles were used at joining these together, as sadly there are no indications on the plans. The only one I knew was of course the bottom + back, since they make a 90º angle, so 45º on each piece. But the rest, no clue... I simply kept cutting at some angle that *looked* more or less ok to me, and I guess I'll have to see how it turns out and make adjustments later on (hope not too many...).

Here are some pics of how they came out, where they are just placed on top of the side panel to get an idea of how I was going to attach them. As you can see, you can appreciate what I mentioned in the first post happening: I ran out of this type of wood and was left without the piece that holds the monitor panel  









As you can tell from the last pic, it had already started to get dark, so I decided to call it quits for the day, and that my friends, was Saturday!

 

[walterg74]

The arrival of Sunday came with the chance of doing some more work on this...

Instead of continuing with the moldings, I chose to start with the cutting of the other panels (don't know why, free will I guess  )

What I had was one big ass piece of wood that was 1830mm x 65mm x 12mm. All the panels in the VertiCade were exactly 370mm wide, so I started out by tracing this width along the length of the piece of wood:



Now as you can see from the picture, I don't exactly have the Woodmaster's tables/benches there (oh and funny story, if you look at one of the previous pics you'll find traces of my first use of the circular saw, which is why I now owe my wife a new table...  ), so that meant I had to find some workaround to hold the wood relatively firmly and in a way it didn´t fall to the ground, which I did using a couple of extra chairs. I also took the precaution of making sure the line of cut was away from the table, so that it wasn't just that I owed my wife a new table but that I would also be able to keep using this one whole instead of settling for half

Happily the circular saw did it's thing kinda the way I wanted to, with a little un-neatness at the end of the piece which I wasn't using anyway, but good enough:



Next was to cut up all the panels. Since all were the same 370mm wide, it was just a matter of following the measurements to draw those lengths onto the wood, and do all these cuts. Long story short, here are the panels:



Now one thing I will say, and here I make a pause for the experienced folks to tell me why, is that most cuts did not come out good at the end. I know I don't have the best (or even the most basic) way of holding the wood properly to cut it with the circular saw, and all my cuts consisted in placing the long end of the wood on the table and the short end (closest to the cut) onto a chair, and eveytime I would make a cut for each panel I would get something like this:



It's not *that* big of a deal since it's really a very tiny thing that I sanded off, and on the remaining piece it just goes on the inside anyway, so can't be seen (and again it's really small), but why does this happen, and how can I avoud it? (and also what is the best way to cut panels like this with a circular saw? (since I only have one table and don't know what the *right* way to give the wood support is)

Most other cuts did come out fairly ok like so:



Next up, last part of Sunday, and closing for the weekend.

L8r!

[walterg74]

Ok, here we go...

Last post of the weekend covering up Sunday's last things...

As you may recall, I had cut the inside moldings but done only that. Looking at the examples, I saw that the way to attach them was using both glue and screws. The glue part was easy enough (although even now I'm not sure of the right quantities or if you have to apply it/spread it a cretain way, feel free to comment on it if you know), but regarding the screws I had some doubts.

While these are for the insides anyway, and not seen at all, when I bought the screws I luckily chose (by making assumptions) more or less the correct length, since I was using  12mm MDF, and I learned later about the 1/3-2/3 rule, were 1/3 goes into the material where you first drive the screw through. In my case, I wanted to to the whole countersink thing, so I had first calculated for some reason for the 15mm MDF, and since I thought about doing it roughly 5mm in, that left 10mm of material for the screw, and the rest would be driven into the other part, and since the screws I bought are actually 32mm, that seemed extremely close to the rule.
Turns out after looking that the screws actually hold the 12mm pieces onto the moldings, not the 15mm ones, *but* as fate would have it, 5mm is way too big anyway for the countersink part, so it turned out that *aproximately* 2mm was more than enough for the screw's head to get under the wood, so that still leaves about 10mm of material, so we're good to go anyway. I'll put a pic of the screws for you to see later on.

So anyway, all this was nice and dandy, *but* there was one small problem... The isn't a single store here in my country that actually sells countesink bits...    Much less those 1-step coubtersink+drill bits.

What I did was order some from Amazon, that a friend will receive and take over to Europe for me, where I'll be heading to next month for work. So those I'll have for NEXT project, since of course I wasn't going to wait a month to conitnue this, specially since these go on the inside anyway... (and while I was at it, I also ordered those slot cutting bits for the outside t-molding, and some bullnose bits that could work for this maybe later on, to give it that rounded finish Koenings did on it with the milling machine).

I decided to improvise, and got some scrap wood again to do some tests...

First was the screw by itself to see how if worked on MDF, *just* using the screwdriver (they're "auto drilling" screws -or whatever they're called in the US). That worked in the sense that it did go through the material, *but* the wood started splitting as you drove the screw...

Next was the screw by itself but with a pilot hole, to see if the 3.25mm drill bit I bought was good enough (not too big not too small). Drilled a hole through the MDF, and only then I placed a screw on it and drove it through the wood. Results were as expected, with the screw "biting" at the wood (the hole was in fact not too big, so great) and also the wood did not split.

Last step was to simulate the countersink, so adding to the previous step (and before inserting the screw) I used an 8mm drill bit to start a shallow hole at the same place. After that I drove the screw in again. Might not be perfect, and surely takes longer, but I got the desired results (and again, for insides, it will do just fine).

I present you the scrap:



So after that I said "What the hell, let's do this", and went on screwing/gluing the moldings, starting as so:



The glue I got said "Extra strenght" and that it needed only 15 minutes of press. I did leave it longer anyway, just in case, and I managed to do up to this:



before it got too dark and had to call it quits....

And that's all for now...

Don't know if I can get any more done during the week, if not, I'll have to continue next Saturday.

See you guys soon, and of course, all your comments, questions and suggestions are more than welcome!

L8r! 

[walterg74]

Not much progress today being a weekday and all, but still I did manage to get to the store to buy the needed 1"x1", which I cut up for the moldings that hold the monitor panel, and those have been installed 

I also bought a couple of those spade round drill bits for cutting holes, and they worked out pretty good, like Koenigs said, wokred better for me than the cup saw (although in all fairness I don't really know if the ones I had were fastened 100% correctly to begin with...

One thing I did see, as I was holding together some panels to see what the thing would look like, is that the measurements are not all that correct... 

Thing is I decided to leave 2mm off the back just o have a little border I liked, and also, my curve at the front was a little "curvier" and so instead of 482 where the bottom starts curving up, I actually have about 469-470. But besides that, I don't know exactly how I should the edges of the bottom and front panels, since the step-by step does not show it 

It would seem he mounts the front panel on top of the bottom panel, but if I do that, there will be an angle between them, unless I cut the bottom panel at the same angle as the front panel goes? would that be enough? For it's top part, if will be flush and on the same plane with the moldings, and so the control panel should fit in nicely (and if I add some routed rounding to the edge, it would make it look even nicer).

Is that the way it should be done, or is there a better way to fit these pieces together? 

[lcmgadgets]

Congrats on an amazing start! & thanks for the extra detail you're putting into your posts. I'll bet this project will become a must-read for all noobs like me. Keep up the great work!

[walterg74]

Congrats on an amazing start! & thanks for the extra detail you're putting into your posts. I'll bet this project will become a must-read for all noobs like me. Keep up the great work!

Thanks for the encouragement!  I'll try to keep up the details, as I know it really helps to have more than a summary of each step when you're not familiar with the things you need to do (at least I know it helped me).

Sadly, I can only progress this through the weekends, since you know, I don't wanna get fired and being winter here means that by the time I get home it already starts to get dark soon so no point in setting up shop outside for a couple of minutes of light.. 

Hope to have more on saturday!

 

[walterg74]

So.. About to continue with the build tomorrow...

Haven't seen any of the woodworking gurus around, if any of you guys hapoen to read this,mgot any advice to my questions on the next steps? ( and/or the panel cuts issues?) 

[jammin0]

The arrival of Sunday came with the chance of doing some more work on this...
Now one thing I will say, and here I make a pause for the experienced folks to tell me why, is that most cuts did not come out good at the end. I know I don't have the best (or even the most basic) way of holding the wood properly to cut it with the circular saw, and all my cuts consisted in placing the long end of the wood on the table and the short end (closest to the cut) onto a chair, and eveytime I would make a cut for each panel I would get something

No super expert here but my guess is that your wood pieces have some flex and the weig of your circular saw/ the force you're using downward on your saw is causing a break at the end.  I don't have a very good workspace so I usually end up cutting on the floor.  If you place enough scrap under both sides then you should breeze through it.  Try and envision when the cut is finished what will happen to it.  Is it supported enough that it will remain in place?  If either side is able to tip off your work surface (I'm guessing your chair side) then that's why you're getting too much flex and tear out at the end.

[GIZMOGAMES]

theres no real way to counter the tear at the end unless both pieces sides are clamped to a surface if you use 2x2 blocks to support left and right side of yr cut that helps other than that use the jigsaw and cut a few inches from the oposite side first then cut from the correct side altho again gravity will still try to tear the 2 apart either way with support both sides of the cut neither tears
hope that helps the angle cuts are also more proffesional can be achived with chopsaw and setting the angle you require also remember the thickness of the cutting blade so cut outside the line
apart from that your doing great :and at worst you can work the angle out with a protractor  ..

[walterg74]

@jammin0 / @gizmogames

Thanks for the tips! sounds logical, and kinda what I had figured. I guess I need to find at least a small workbench to hold these better for next time!

As far as the angling goes, I sort of figured it out and managed to fit the pieces pretty well... Been working yesterday and will get some more things done today and then post the results tonight.

L8r! 

[walterg74]

Ok, back to the show!!

Here's what I managed to do during the weekend + some today:

Ok, so last advance post, I had managed to get most of the interior moldings, but quite a few were missing (plus I had ran out of wood!). Got the final pieces cut,  and installed, same method as the previous ones, and this is what came out:



And as far as the angling of the pieces, I went ahead and tried to copy the same angle that the moldings that support the front had, and cutit like that for the botton plate and the front plate as well:





I did have a problem here, since to start my bottom panel having copied the plans exactly, was too long, and had to be cut down. When I did, to follow the way the VertiCade had assembled the pieces, I made the mistake of measuring up the point where the front piece started, but not to add it's width, andso my piece was now too short 

I had two options: make a new bottom panel, or make a "higher" front panel, and change the assembly from the plans, in a way that the front piece is the only piece seen from the front, instead of following the original plans where that piece is mounted on top of the bottom piece.

I decided to pick the latter, since it was easier to make the smaller piece and also because I saw no reason or sense for having the two pieces seen from the front, as having just the one seems cleaner.

So anyway, here's how the pieces looked and the assembly part:







And adding the other side panel...





And rise frank err.. cabinet!



Wasn't perfect, but nothing that can't be perfected and made prettier with filler.. here is some details with the front only presented to check it out:









Next up.. Going off to the back... 

[walterg74]

Ok, so back to the err.. back I guess...

One more comment, on the above pictures, the front piece seems like it has a lot of space to the moldings, and it did, but some sanding was done later to make it fit better.

Anyway, for the back, I presented the pieces to see what it would look like, and while they fit more or less ok:





I wasn't too happy with it, or with the amount of filler Koenigs *seems* to have used there.  I decided to go ahead and try to angle the borders to see what I could get...
something like so:



Angling bot the top piece and the angled top piece,  and presenting showed this:





That was all I could do for the day, so I called it quits, but then got an urge to do something more, whatever I could, inside. So I decided to do some of the top. Played around with the top and angled top pieces, to see the correct placing for the top moldings which I hadn't yet installed. After a while, I ended up attaching them like so:





Once that was dry, I said "what the hell", and decided to continue with the top piece and the "under marquee" piece, and here it is:





Of course my noobines made that the whoe thing was definitely not straight, and so, I only got 3 out of the 4 corners to align, and so opted for the best choice (in my nooby judgement) and chose the 3 I thought were the best, and so, at the front left one, where there was space left, I filled it up with some wood putty/filler I had bought. The results were not pretty, but dried up perfectly and will be sanded exactly as needed for priming/painintg later on (and it won't even be seen, so not a problem. this is the "raw" or "just applied shot:



And that, was Sunday!

Ah... but luckily, today I managed to do some more work... So there's a BONUS post! Say tuned

[Vidiot]

Looks like you're really making some progress! I really like the shape of this one. Looks kinda like my little bartop. I love all the pics. Thanks for sharing 'em. I look forward to your progress.   

[walterg74]

Allright, Monday bonus post!  

Back angled top was cut and angled, but was missing the ventilation holes. I decided to follow Koening's advice and use the flat spade bit, that I had practiced with on some scrap last week. followed a similar design, with 7 25mm holes, with 6 22mm spaces between them, leaving roughly 22mm (the moldings) + 10mm on each side.
The result was pretty decent:







Ok... if you look closely you'll see that the first hole is slightly off from the rest... you spotted that, didn't you..?  

All in all it's not that bad, specially for a first time, and while you can see it if you look close enough straight on:



It-s not that bad from an angle:



Here without the back panel:



And who's really gonna be looking at the back, right..?  

Anyway, I then sanded the front a bit, and went ahead to attach that. As you can see, it is the only piece seen from the front, and attached with glue plus one screw per side:







The last thing I did was for the monitor panel. Now for this, I saw a lot of lines drawn on the the VertiCade page, for what I assume is getting the right size for the VESA mounting, otherwise you're screwed...
I thought I would take a different approach: I simply held a sheet of paper on the back of the monitor, held it tight, and pierced it with a pencil to get the 4 holes at the right spots...





I then drew a line at what I thought was the half of the monitor support and used the paper (after trimming it a bit to make it easier) and poked the pencil through the holes to mark them on the wood:



Now that's as far as I got...

Unfortunately, I have a slight problem with the monitor.... I bought one for this (a used one) not too long ago, and when I went to measure the mount thing today, I realized something I had not seen before, and that is that the stand on this model is *not* removable   so that is a huge problem, since of course the cabinet is not wide enough to accomodate the monitor AND the stand (well maybe just barely, but that would mean the monitor is not centered and way to a side).
So now I either have to find a way to cut/modify the stand part (carefuly because the controls are on the part closest to the screen) or worst case scenario, get a new monitor...

Also, sadly to continue I need some advise guidance, regarding 2 things:

1) Since my cabinet is all wood, and not acrylic CP, I need to have that done now too before starting the priming/painting phase. For that I have two doubts/questions:

- Where can I find a decent layout plan for it? This will be a 1 Player (well one set of controls) panel, with 6 (could be 7) buttons, plus the joystick, and a player 1 and player 2 start, all of these I want on the top surface, and then the coin 1,coin2, pause, exit (which I guess I could just put a coin ubtton and have it double as coin 2 with the shift key and maybe another button for pause and doubling as exit with the shift as well?)

- Most importantly, how the heck do ?I install the joystick?? The buttons as stupidly simple, just cut a hole and stick it in... But the joystick? considering there will be nothing on top of the wood as well, and it will be just the paint and maybe some art on it if I can get thehang of doing that part. It seems if I just screw the joystick from the bottom, that not enough of the stick gets through, so what's the best way to do this?

2 - The bezel part... I see the size in theplans, etc, but how the hell is this thing supported???   One picture seems to be like it just rests on the monitor, but that can't be right.. There is no indication of any support on theplans for it, and yet there has to be *something* keeping nice and straight, right?


so ok.. once I get the design for the CP, and hopefully get some tips here about mounting the joystick, I'll be cutting that up, and then I guess I can start sanding/priming/painting the whole thing and see what happens... Oh, and I also have to do the ventilation/cutouts for the back panel, but that's ok, no questions there except deciding what to cut (like I don't think I want USB connectors, etc).

So, until next time, and hopefully some of the nice folks that passed through my basics thread will also see this one and chime in.  

See you soon!!  

[walterg74]

Looks like you're really making some progress! I really like the shape of this one. Looks kinda like my little bartop. I love all the pics. Thanks for sharing 'em. I look forward to your progress.   

Thanks for the encouragement!  That's the idea, to record the progress of this and share with others some stuff I would have liked to have

[Mikeosoft]

loving what i see so far. keep it up man! i'll be watching this because after i finish my gremlin conversion, I'm building one of these small bartops like yours.

[Le Chuck]

Dude, first off you are making outstanding progress.  Your practice with the tools before hand is paying off.  Some of the gaping issues you have had are frustrating now but easily fixed with a generous application of filler and some light sanding so no worries.

A few things I've seen that you may want to adjust and also my take on your questions (since you asked )

The marquee panel mounts look to be flush with the edge of the marquee opening.  This can cause you to get 4 blacked out squares in the corners of your marquee once lit.  If you have a good sharp chisel you can take about a cm off each bracket and that should allow the light to bleed across the back of the marquee art and fill those corner areas. 

What're you hinging the back panel with?  I recommend piano hinges, just make sure whatever you use you anticipate the raise you'll get as you may need to shave your panel down some in height. 

For your monitor I recommend decasing.  Post some more pictures of it please so we can give better advice.  Likely the plastic outer shell is separate from a metal from that houses the boards and the LCD panel.  You will have a much easier time if you lose that plastic shell, but again if you don't feel comfortable with what you're doing pics help tell the story. 

Bezel art can be applied directly to the monitor glass (or plexi) or sandwiched between two thin pieces.  There are a variety of ways to do this.  For a build like yours I recommend routing a thin notch into the back of your cp for it to slike down into.  On either side of the monitor install thin strips for the bezel glass to rest against.  For other ideas you can checkout what I did with Darkade (see my sig).  That used a piece of angle stock to support the bezel and the monitor. 

For the CP most are made out of wood and then just covered with a sheet of plexi either cut off clean or bent to fit.  Buttons are just drilled through like you said.  Joys are either top mount or bottom mount.  I top mounted on my build but lots of other builds bottom mount.  Either way you'll want to get friendly with that router again to make some depressions for everything to fit.  As far a layout goes I recommend you take a shoe box and make the holes in that to template out your ideas to see how they feel under you hands.  The CP is where the user interfaces with the machine, it is paramount that you take your time and find a setup that works for yours.  You can check mine for ideas but Darkade is a bit esoteric.  Better examples of good classic CP layouts would be Unstupid's, Badmouths, Santoro's... any CP you see in the Hall of Fame thread, really there are tons of great examples out there.  As far as making one you should post the size of your CP and then post a link to one you think you might like and we can help you get it laid out. 

Sorry for the long ass post bro.  Keep it up, you'll get there man.   

[GIZMOGAMES]

For the CP most are made out of wood and then just covered with a sheet of plexi either cut off clean or bent to fit.  Buttons are just drilled through like you said.  Joys are either top mount or bottom mount.  I top mounted on my build but lots of other builds bottom mount.  Either way you'll want to get friendly with that router again to make some depressions for everything to fit.  As far a layout goes I recommend you take a shoe box and make the holes in that to template out your ideas to see how they feel under you hands.  The CP is where the user interfaces with the machine, it is paramount that you take your time and find a setup that works for yours.  You can check mine for ideas but Darkade is a bit esoteric.  Better examples of good classic CP layouts would be Unstupid's, Badmouths, Santoro's... any CP you see in the Hall of Fame thread, really there are tons of great examples out there.  As far as making one you should post the size of your CP and then post a link to one you think you might like and we can help you get it laid out. 

Sorry for the long ass post bro.  Keep it up, you'll get there man.   

LMAO long assed post thats what hongkong post said when i waited 40 days for my lvds controlboard for my 19"touchscreen lol
it arrived and now im just waiting again for decent weather :S
Apart from that sidetrack awsome work you are certainly doing things the RIGHT way check slagcoin for various button/joy layouts just print to scale to get a feel for layouts also im sure theres guides to top and bottom mounted joysticks too "more practice routter work bud but nothing you cant handle
and utilise the shoebox/spare wood choice for a feel of the control layout as said above you could always post yr dimensions for a cp and others would be willing to help no problems
Apart from that keep doing what yr doing its GREAT work     
GIZMO

[walterg74]

Wow! Lot's of good stuff/tips/etc. from everyone! Thanks @Mikeosoft, @Le Chuck and @GIZMOGAMES !!!

I'll try to add more info and reply to your follow up questions without quoting as to not make this too large/confusing:

First @Le Chuck:

Marquee panel...

Yes, you're right and I see what you mean. would this be important if it's gonna be black in that part anyway?If so, then yeah, I would probably have to do what you say, either with the chisel, or maybe with a small dremel-like tool? Don't know how Koenigs did it, since I followed his pics and they seem to be flush too... In anycase, for the lighting, I went ahead and bought several (about 10 so I have fo future builds ) of those white led strips on UK ebay. Sent them to a colleague in the UK and I'll hopefully be meeting him in Switzerland in about two weeks for work, so great

Back panel.....

There is a slight space already, but honestly, I wasn't planning on putting hinges on it. I kinda agree with Koening's logic that I won't really be opening that up too often, so I was just planning on using 4 screws, although I don't want to just use standard screws but rather some of those metal shafts, etc, so that screwing/unscrewing (even if not often) doesn't wear out the wood and then you're screwed.. (no pun intended...  )

Monitor issue...

Ok, took some pics, as follows...













So options...
1) Get a new monitor
2) Cut off that plastic (carefullly as to not destroy the controls)
3) Decasing like you say

Only problem for 3 is I don't know how.. Don't see any other screws besides those in the part that is "in the way"


Bezel...

Yeah, what you say about the ridge and support sounds good/more or less what I thought. I will look at your build for ideas, bu I guess you have to find the balance between support angle and to try that you can't see inside the cab and just the screen, right? I remember arcades being totally dark as what you saw if you looked inside/around the screen.

Control Panel...

Yes, so this will be made out of wood. I will try the shoebox idea, and also since this is small, I can print up to A3 size at work, I will try to print some layouts and see. I'm not too sure on mounting the plexiglass on it, wouldn't that make the buttons and joystick be raised even more? (opposite of what I need?)
I'll try to post a pic later of the joystick I have just in case. I guess for top mounting I would cut a big ass hole for the whole mechanism to pass through, and then I have to deal with covering up the plate.

I'll try to do one and post like you mentioned, to see what you guys think. The main difference is this is just a 1 player cab, and most of the ones I have sen are full size and two players.
Just so you know, the size of this one would be 370mm wide, and the depth, well the plans say 170mm, but I can make it a bit deeper if needed
And as buttons, as I commented, I want a joystick and 6 or 7 buttons, and then P1 start, P2 start, P1 coin, P2 coin, exit, pause. don't really know if it's worth adding a shift key for such a small build and so little funtions needed... Oh and I have a mini pac (with wiring harness).

Wheeeew...
Exhausting, but thanks for your long ass post!! Really appreciated!! 
 

Now @GIZMOGAMES:

More thanks for the encouragement!! So, I will google and probably find it, but just in case... what the hell is a "slagcoin"

Ok, so will try the spare wood/shoebox thing, and as written above, dimensions are 37cm wide, and 17cm deep (can make it more if needed for the depth).


Thanks guys!! Looking forward to your replies, and will print some layouts tomorrow at work hopefully, so I can try to make progress on the weekend

 

[walterg74]

Two minor comments to add to the above...

1) for the CP, I have at my disposal either 12mm or 15mm MDF. Which would be best for this case? (Koenigs for some reason says 16mm, but I think for this small you could get away with 12mm?)

2) While I did say P1 coin + P2 coin, are there really many games that actually need you to insert the coin there for P2?? Off the top of my head I can only think of some like the multiplayers like x-Men, The simpsons, etc).

 

[Le Chuck]

http://slagcoin.com/joystick/layout.html

See the above link.  Pick out ones that remind you of your childhood or something.  Actually try a few and see what you like.  That should get you rocking on CP layout.  I would go with the 15mm MDF for added stability since that is where the rubber meets the road.  Almost all games use a P2 coin, even games with turn based play action.  Since yours is single player it is your call, you can just shift the P2 coin since it wont be used that much.     

On your monitor I would wager that silver bezel should pop off the front revealing the screws that are keeping the black plastic connected.  I think that decasing is the way to go to get you down to a workable shape and you'll have a better result than trying to hack away at the thing with a saw or something.  Use a small flat head screw driver and start prying around the outside edges. 

On the marquee it depends, if you are doing a foil appliqué to the opaque areas (masking) to prevent light transmission then no but if you aren't you'll be able to see darker squares. 

Back panel, sounds good. 

With a weecade type design the monitor angle is a big deal so you need to play around and find your sweet spots first before you glue anyting down since you don't have that deadspace that you have behind the glass in some larger units.

[walterg74]

http://slagcoin.com/joystick/layout.html

See the above link.  Pick out ones that remind you of your childhood or something.  Actually try a few and see what you like.  That should get you rocking on CP layout.  I would go with the 15mm MDF for added stability since that is where the rubber meets the road.  Almost all games use a P2 coin, even games with turn based play action.  Since yours is single player it is your call, you can just shift the P2 coin since it wont be used that much.     

On your monitor I would wager that silver bezel should pop off the front revealing the screws that are keeping the black plastic connected.  I think that decasing is the way to go to get you down to a workable shape and you'll have a better result than trying to hack away at the thing with a saw or something.  Use a small flat head screw driver and start prying around the outside edges. 

On the marquee it depends, if you are doing a foil appliqué to the opaque areas (masking) to prevent light transmission then no but if you aren't you'll be able to see darker squares. 

Back panel, sounds good. 

With a weecade type design the monitor angle is a big deal so you need to play around and find your sweet spots first before you glue anyting down since you don't have that deadspace that you have behind the glass in some larger units.

Ok, so I went ahead and did the decasing...

Two issues...

1) while I was able to remove everything, that plastic "extension" or whatever, does not come off.. It's just part of the back casing...

2) While I could just simply not use it, how the heck am I supposed to hold this to themonitor playe?? The VESA screws actually fasten to the casing, so I don't see any way to attach this to the monitor wood panel (in an easy way).

Pics below. Maybe it would be best after all to just use a small hand saw and cut that part off? It would fit fine without that...









Regarding the marquee, not quite sure what you mean... I though I just had to print my design on opaque vynil, stick it on one of the acrylic plaques, put the other one on top and fasten... Am I missing something..?



One last thing, since besides the monitor issue I have to start sanding and painting... What is best to use? Brush? Roller? Both? (and use the same method for prime than for paint?). From what I read I should start sanding at something like 150 before priming, and then sand off the coats with 220 or something like that?

Thanks!! 

[GIZMOGAMES]

http://slagcoin.com/joystick/layout.html

See the above link.  Pick out ones that remind you of your childhood or something.  Actually try a few and see what you like.  That should get you rocking on CP layout.  I would go with the 15mm MDF for added stability since that is where the rubber meets the road.  Almost all games use a P2 coin, even games with turn based play action.  Since yours is single player it is your call, you can just shift the P2 coin since it wont be used that much.     

On your monitor I would wager that silver bezel should pop off the front revealing the screws that are keeping the black plastic connected.  I think that decasing is the way to go to get you down to a workable shape and you'll have a better result than trying to hack away at the thing with a saw or something.  Use a small flat head screw driver and start prying around the outside edges. 

On the marquee it depends, if you are doing a foil appliqué to the opaque areas (masking) to prevent light transmission then no but if you aren't you'll be able to see darker squares. 

Back panel, sounds good. 

With a weecade type design the monitor angle is a big deal so you need to play around and find your sweet spots first before you glue anyting down since you don't have that deadspace that you have behind the glass in some larger units.

lol what He said
Painting go with foam roller and a small hard sponge possibly small brush for edges and such
Remember when painting that its better to do many thin coats than few thick coats thinner coats are easier to maintain inbetween for sanding and evening out and take a lot less time between coats to dry
ide suggest 10 coats minimum
1 primer/ 2 undercoat /5 main coats sanding between coats/ and im sure 2 finnish coats so maybe 10 total to have a very resistent paintjob
take a look at bellas arcade for paint top tips
and great work bud keep it up

[walterg74]

lol what He said
Painting go with foam roller and a small hard sponge possibly small brush for edges and such
Remember when painting that its better to do many thin coats than few thick coats thinner coats are easier to maintain inbetween for sanding and evening out and take a lot less time between coats to dry
ide suggest 10 coats minimum
1 primer/ 2 undercoat /5 main coats sanding between coats/ and im sure 2 finnish coats so maybe 10 total to have a very resistent paintjob
take a look at bellas arcade for paint top tips
and great work bud keep it up

Wow...  TEN coats???  you sure about that? Saint's book mentions 2, possibly 3 but you say TEN?? Isn't that a bit like overkill for this..?

Besides that, are the grits I mentioned ok?

[walterg74]

Allright, so while I wait to be lucky enough to get more answers let's continue...

Got one of those design just to try a mockup. I found this:



So I said to myself, "Ok, Just DO IT..."  

Pierced the center holes of the mold, drew some circles with the compass and cut out the holes:



An installed the buttons and placed the controls:



Ok, so what do we do from here..?  On one hand, looks a bit barren (and actualy size will be even like 2/3 cm wider than this still).

On the other, have room to rest hands/palms (that joystick has to go a bit more to the right anyway, since I don't have enough space for my hand, being a lefty...).

Maybe the layout is ok and will look better once it also has some nive artwork?

The other buttons I was thinking of putting on the front ar the coin button which would also be coin 2 with the shift key and the pause button which would also be the exit/esc button with the shift key (and this last thin would also avoid accidentally exiting a game).

Any other buttons you may think I need or would be nice to have..?

One last think I just thought of... I first said to myself "6 buttons is more than enough, don't need more", but now I'm thinking... "Ok, so I'm making this a Vertical cab... how many vertical games actually use six buttons..?"

I actually made a list a few days ago of all the vertical games I liked, and all the horizontal games I liked (yes, I scanned the entire game list..  ) so I think I'm gonna go back to the list and check what is exactly the maximum number of buttons my vertical games on the list use... (Might even think of redesiging to have only 3 buttons on the CP, who knows...)

 

[walterg74]

One more, since I think it was @Le Chuck that asked about the controls to know how to best mount them...

They're these:





 

[jammin0]

The tip you got to decase the monitor meant to take off the back plastic case as well.  Without the front LCD bezel in place the back plastic isn't doing much.  Route out a rabbet or rebate or whatever it's called into the back of a piece of mdf to create your bezel.  Then is clips or straps from the backside to hold the monitor securely to the wood.

[walterg74]

The tip you got to decase the monitor meant to take off the back plastic case as well.  Without the front LCD bezel in place the back plastic isn't doing much.  Route out a rabbet or rebate or whatever it's called into the back of a piece of mdf to create your bezel.  Then is clips or straps from the backside to hold the monitor securely to the wood.

Hi jammin0, thanks for helping out!!

Sorry but I don't follow... I actually did take the front and back of the casing (doesn't it show in the pics?).

So what you're saying is to get a piece of mdf and to cut a hole in it that is just big enough for the back part of the monitor to go through and then fasten it with straps? Or is there something I didn't understand?

Thanks!!!

 

[jammin0]

Sorry, I'm probably not explaining it very well.  I did notice that took off the whole case, it must have misread that you were going to try and cutoff that extension that was there for the stand in order to keep the casing on it still.  A pictures worth 1000 words so this is what I'm saying.

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=118927.0

I did something similar with a 23" LCD and it came out super sturdy.  Sometimes the control board and powersupply are kind of loose without the case, I JB Welded that part to the back of the panel and then secured.  If you have a tight recess that it fits into you really just have to secure it from falling out of the bezel.  Vertical weight is supported by the wood.

[Ond]

10 coats of paint is probably overkill  .  I've copied over some notes from my project thread on my painting method which got me to here:



"    Surface preparation – my goal is to prep any surface regardless of what the material is, MDF, plywood, aluminium, plastic etc to the same pre-prepared state.  That means all pits, grain, bumps GONE.  For this I use Bondo & automotive single pack putty & primer.  Several coats with sanding in between are needed to achieve the prepared  surface finish.  There are various primers available, cheaper household primers will not get the same finish.  I know, I’ve tried.  Where a mirror finish is concerned, automotive products in general (which are more expensive) are what I recommend.  Now I’m not saying you can’t get good results with cheaper household type products but the quality of products you use does make a difference including how hard it dries and how fine and evenly it sprays from the rattle can or spray gun.

Multiple coats – I’ve found you need at least 3 coats of primer and 3 of paint (preferably 4) to get the desired results including colour depth etc.
 
Eliminate orange peel - not just minimize it, eliminate it completely.  With quality paint, each sanded coat becomes finer and finer as far as the peel effect goes, this is also helped by spray technique.  When spraying, the rule is, spray several light coats as many folk advise (with a short break between each) – except your final pass, make that a little heavier, good paint will settle to a very smooth finish if a slightly heavier final pass is applied.

Allow plenty of drying time - why doesn’t Ond post an update?? – cos I’m sitting around waiting for paint to dry properly!  OK lame excuse (there’s always something you can progress on your cab given you have the time).  Give the paint at least 3 days preferably 5 to dry.   It makes a difference in the next steps.

Sanding -whether you are working on either the primer refining stages or paint refining stages wet sanding is the way to go.  The mechanical action of wet sanding with regular dips in the water with the paper and surface wipe with damp cloth give the best results.  I spend about an hour on any single surface working through grades of paper but I never go beyond 600 grit between coats of paint.  600 grit produces the right surface for paint to adhere to.

Final Finish - this is where the magic happens assuming the proper preparation has gone before it.  So you’ve got your final paint coat to a fine finish using 600 grit wet sanding.  The surface now has a dull kind of plastic look but is entirely peel free.  I work through the next grades perhaps 30 mins on each of 800 then 1200 (you can skip straight to 1200 if you want) and then 2000 grit wet sand.  Now the surface is shiny, it’s nice but under good light swirl scratches are evident.  Medium grade cut and polish compound applied with a soft rag ( I like to use old towels )is next.  Spend about 20 mins doing that and wipe it all away with another clean rag.  Now you have an impressive shiny surface with only the finest swirl marks visible under good light.  If there’s any peel visible YOURE OUTTA THERE, go back to sanding with 600 until it’s gone.
 
Now it’s time for auto finish swirl remover, apply the liquid with a soft cloth – spend about 30 mins on this at least.  Buff clean.  The Grail is in sight, are we there yet?  No.  Finally take a lamb’s wool buffer on a mechanical buffer and buff lightly all over.  Lightly because too much pressure and you can cut through the paint and cause a burn mark which in my case ends up in a screaming fit which sets the neighbourhood dogs barking and startles the neighbours. Did you buff lightly? Then you are there, you’ve reached paint gloss finish nirvana, congratulations! "

There are also some discussion between javeryh (the guy that did Bella's Arcade) and myself about my surface prep and painting here.

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=88912.msg1252162#msg1252162

 

Ond

[walterg74]

Sorry, I'm probably not explaining it very well.  I did notice that took off the whole case, it must have misread that you were going to try and cutoff that extension that was there for the stand in order to keep the casing on it still.  A pictures worth 1000 words so this is what I'm saying.

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=118927.0

I did something similar with a 23" LCD and it came out super sturdy.  Sometimes the control board and powersupply are kind of loose without the case, I JB Welded that part to the back of the panel and then secured.  If you have a tight recess that it fits into you really just have to secure it from falling out of the bezel.  Vertical weight is supported by the wood.

Ahh gotcha...  This actually was what I was thinking from your previous post, with the exception of how you prevent it from falling back. So the wood bezel itself keeps it from going forward, and those strips you screw on from going back.... Yes, this would be an alternative, and I guess if I do this, I can also make it the right size to get a nice dark surrounding...
You did not get it wrong though, my intentio WAS to cut off that extra piece that is for the stand and keep the casing. That way, I could just follow the original design and secure the monitor to the mdf board with the 4 screws for the VESA mount...

[Le Chuck]

I see what you're saying about the back panel.  Now that you can move the control board out of the way I'd just chop off the stand that hangs off the bottom then reassemble since you were doing a vesa mount.  You won't see the cut piece and it won't do any damage to the fuction and installation of the monitor. 

If you're feeling froggy make an MDF bezel but it isn't necessary, I say chop it. 

CP layout looks good, I recommend playing with it on a variety of games and I also recommend having more space round the joystick than around the last buttons so if you have the room shift right some.  Also putting P1 and P2 side by side along the top will allow you to center a bit better.  You have plenty of room tho so find something comfortable. 

I would bottom mount those joys.  You can drill your center hole then take the mounting plate off and use that to template the area to round in a bit, tho with only 15mm MDF you probably wouldn't need to route in much to get good standoff for your bat height. 

Most I've ever done is 5 coats with primer (I can't bring my self to triple coat primer) and I've had some pretty good success with my paint finishes but too each their own.  Follow OND's advice is the best advice I can give. 

[AlienInferno]

Just found this thread.  Good build so far.  It makes me want to start building a cab all over again, and I'm not even finished with my first.  I found the most enjoyment from building the major components of the cab.  It's just cool seeing it take shape and know that you are the one that built it.