Sockgoblin : christmas cabinet

[sockgoblin]

Been scheming for a month now, Im going to build a full sized cabinet using a 19 inch LCD. It will be a slightly fatter Kneivel Woody.

I have some previous, in that I made a control panel in 2006 , but it never really got used and ended up under my study desk ,this time the cabinet will be situated in the playroom or in the kitchen diner and will act as an mp3 juke box as well as an arcade machine.

I will have this thing finished by Christmas.

To speed things along I am goign to use a prebuilt control panel a scorpion panel built by digitalsystemsdesign in the UK. Im going to try to disguise the fact its a pre built panel I dont like the X arcade type setup. ( more later)

Anyway the reason to post here is to ask for support . If I lose momentum I will not finish the build so appreciate any help and advise and the occasional KITA.

cant work out how to post pics

[Le Chuck]

Well you can post the pics on a 3rd party photo site like photobucket then click he direct link that is given and insert it like so

Code: [Select]

[img]linktopick[/img]
or you can post them in the stickied photo thread by clicking the plus sign by "attachments and other options" and the click "browse" and select your pic.  Then click post.  Return to that post and right click the attachment and select "copy image location" then paste that into the above example.  Finally you can just attach the files directly into your thread and folks can just click to view them. 

A good way to learn to do all this is to click "quote" on a thread that does what you want to do and then reading the code as it will be written out in the reply box. 

Best of luck and stay on schedule!

[sockgoblin]

design and mock ups

Ive spent some time mocking up my cabinet ,in particular as I am using a pre bought Control Panel Ive been trying to work out how to blend it into the cabinet

initially I planned to pull the top of the panel and build it into the cabinet with the pinball buttons on the outside of the cabinet. However the manufacturer assures me he has glued and dowelled the top on..Doh.

I have a cunning plan I will sandwich the panel between two slabs of mdf and will match the t moulding

like this photoshopped Kneivel cab

[sockgoblin]

I have set up the height of the CP using a combination of Man Utd VHS tapes and PC games !

and then used cardboard templates to test the fit.

This is starting to take over my working day , I am constantly sketching and visualising layouts..

[yotsuya]

Inspired by those tapes, go with a Man U color scheme.

[sockgoblin]

I wanted a theme on the line of EVIL CLOWNS  ghost trains , Psycho Pinball  but wife says no. Apparently Evils clowns are not allowed in the house

[Le Chuck]

I wanted a theme on the line of EVIL CLOWNS  ghost trains , Psycho Pinball  but wife says no. Apparently Evils clowns are not allowed in the house

Do a theme using nice clowns, like the ones that JW Gacy paints.  That should avoid the creepy factor completely. 

[sockgoblin]

Ive bought 2 sheets of MDF one 18mm and 1 at 12mm, also my shopping list continues to grow, masks, goggles, ear defenders, slot bit, flush bit, measures, squares, 2 x 4 for the base.

the parts are drawn onto the boards

[sockgoblin]

I wanted a theme on the line of EVIL CLOWNS  ghost trains , Psycho Pinball  but wife says no. Apparently Evils clowns are not allowed in the house

Do a theme using nice clowns, like the ones that JW Gacy paints.  That should avoid the creepy factor completely.

I wanted creepy. based on a beer mat in a local pub CLOWN POISON but I would like to remain married .

[sockgoblin]

just googled J W Gacy, now that is a new dimension of creepy.

[Le Chuck]

just googled J W Gacy, now that is a new dimension of creepy.

...come up with a thick woody.

[TopJimmyCooks]

Typically would refer to it as an Evolution rather than a fat woody.  I would call it a fat woody if it was going to be wood finished rather than paint/art. 

[sockgoblin]

Screw length


The sides of the cab will be 18mm ,  front and back panels 12mm

the beading /support strips will be 37mm x 37mm . I would like to drill from the inside out , trying to avoid having to fill and sand holes in the front and sides of the cab.

so my question is ,to ensure a strong structure how much screw needs to penetrate the MDF. Standard sizes are 40mm and 50mm , 50mm is too long and 40mm can be countersunk if a deeper penetration is needed. So my thoughts are that I go for 40mm screws countersunk by couple or 3 mm which would give 6mm into the MDF. If I glue as well would this be OK?

[TopJimmyCooks]

Yes, with PVA type wood glue or better most of the hold is the glue anyway, the screws mainly hold the wood while the glue dries.  The amount of screw penetration into the mdf you're describing will work. 

And now .. . ..  the Larch.

[sockgoblin]

This is the first time that I have used a router and the first time I used it it scared the chuff out of me ,it jumped and chewed up the wood. So I read up on these forums turns out I was going in the wrong direction. If you move the router in a anticlockwise direction it cuts like butter. I would recommend the purchase of a flush trim bit, mine has a bearing at the top and I have used it to cut curves with hardboard templates and straight edges using a piece of MDF as a guide, brilliant.


.

[sockgoblin]

moving on

the cabinet finally stood on it own today,

a few learning points, this is the first woodworking project for me and there are some very basic things I am learning

When screwing into MDf countersink both sides of the beading , that is the side that faces the MDF. Because if not the screw pulls the MDf up and lifts the beading , the countersink gives the MDF somewhere to go. Also clamp the beading before screwing this forces the beading to sit against the MDF.

A router keeps spinning a long time after the cut , dont wave it around whilst admiring your work , it tends to chew wood.

[sockgoblin]

I have used a series of templates made from 1/4 inch hardboard  for the bends and curves routed with a flush trim bit and then connected the curves with same bit and a straight edge of MDf.

the thing taking time is the lack of a circular saw. I am using a jigsaw for a rough cut and then routing back to the pencil line with the trim bit, and then I make the cut edge clean again before the next cut. 3 operations for one cut.

made a pigs ear of part of the slot cutting as the router tilted I will fill that and reroute. How do folks avoid the router tilting?

decased my lcd and now it doesnt work so have bought a second hand one from ebay , note for future dont bother decasing.

decided on Mala as a front end and working on how to compile to remove the nag screens.

on the whole I am enjoying the experience and learning a lot.

[Arturius]

Looks like you are making great progress so far

[sockgoblin]

thanks mate

[sockgoblin]

speakers are installed , Ive drilled 25 mm holes for the tweeters

[sockgoblin]

want to share the simple solution for adding a power inlet I didnt want to cut the plug of my power strip so

I salvaged a power socket from an old power adaptor off a tape drive.

added it to the electrical  surface mounting box for a plug socket. As the plug box has screw fixings and the salvaged socket has pre soldered cables I managed to avoid having to solder the cables

I used a deep box , 50mm to allow the socket to sit away from the front plug socket, and made hole with the dremel in the back of the box to fit the socket , Then drilled a hole in the cab to access the box

[sockgoblin]

Ive decided to mount the monitor in a rebated hole in a piece of 12mm MDF ( same as a few other projects here)

I decased the LCD and using the bezel I had removed from the LCD , as a template drew a line around the inside edge it on the back of the board. This would form the hole through which the screen would be seen Drilled pilot holes in each corner and used a jig saw to rough cut the hole. Then using a series of straight edges to guide my flush trim bit to make the hole to the same as the pencil lines outline.

Then placed the board across two chairs I lit the LCD and lay underneath the set up moving the LCD until I could see the whole of the screen, then I drew a pencil line around the outside of the back of the LCD, this would be the edge of the rebate

Then I made a rebate of around 4 mm deep using a straight edge to guide the router parallel to the hole. This is the first time I have ever done a rebate , it took me a while to work out the maths. The router base is 50mm wide so I set my line 25mm from the edge clamped a guide rail, put in a 12mm straight bit and thankfully tried the setup on a piece of scrap wood. The router bit made a line nearer to my guide than expected. Of course you have to take into account the width of the bit , half of width will be biting into the rebate area. So I set the guide 25 plus 6mm ( half the width of the bit) and the rebate cut was spot on.

I rebated around the hole in a series of straight edges ( all of this is balanced on a Black and Decker workmate as I dont have a full work bench)

I took the finished board into my study again and the LCD dropped in sweet as a nut. I was as surprised as anyone else............brilliant.

[sockgoblin]

t molding is applied to the main cab body. Im going to also apply to edge of control panel

[sockgoblin]

shows the woodwork to fix the monitor in place

[sockgoblin]

taken delivery of my marquee. its a Scramble graphic screen printed onto the back of a piece of glass recovered from an old arcade machine

it fits perfectly into the space and I will mount it this weekend

does anyone recognise the graphics its certainly not the scramble graphics I can find on the various databases

the light shining through it is fantastic Im really pleased

[sockgoblin]

finished.   got to sort out MALA and arcade jukebox configuration but the cabinet is finished for christmas

my sons and I are planning a tournament over the christmas hols

[Le Chuck]

Looking sharp!  Great first cab.  Can't wait to see more pics of the finished product in use!

[SpaceHedgehog]

Great stuff! Turned out nice.  There are some interesting maths challenges thrown at you when construct a cab.

Would have gone for Super Cobra rather than Scramble though 

[sockgoblin]

I intended to print a marquee and mount it between plexi but I found the original Scramble glass marquee and it fitted and it lights up beautifully

never intended to do a genuine restoration but I quite like that I am using something from an original cab

I remember playing that game in 1981 when I was a student in sheffield

[sockgoblin]

well finally got the cab operational using MALA and a version of the Zebra skin.
Still lots of config issues with SNES and SEGA emus but they will have to wait until after the holidays

Older son is home from University and he and his brother have been introduced to the classics. apparently in kidsspeek its AWESOME and MINT

Both lads are gaming enthusiasts usually playing  Modern high tech, high def, XBox games I Really enjoyed their reaction to the simple graphics but fiendishly designed classics

My work here is done.