An Original Fix It Felix Build --- 100% Complete!

[jdbailey1206]

Hey All.  Getting close to finishing my weecade so I thought I would do something even more original and start a Fix It Felix.   

The Computer Specs

• 1.86 GHz Socket 775 Core 2 Duo E6300 - Refurbished
• Gigabyte GA-G41MT-S2PT - 2.1 - motherboard
• 8 GB Ram
• 19" LCD Dell Monitor
• Dell Keyboard and MouseUsed sparingly for diagnostics when build is complete
• Windows XP Service Pack 3 with no other software
• .NET Framework 4, XNA Framework 4, DirectX 9.0c

I opted out of the video card since the on board video was sufficient to run any 'gaming software'.

The Cabinet Materials  Subject to change

• (4) 5/8 4X8 MDF                                    Lake Orion Lumber
• Amico 1.5" Caster Wheels                       Amazon.com
• 35' Nintendo Flat T Molding                     T Molding.com
• Nintendo Art Bezel Retainer                    mikesarcade.com
• Nintendo Top Marquee Bracket                mikesarcade.com
• Nintendo Bottom Bezel Bracket               mikesarcade.com
• Control Panel Latch                                mikesarcade.com
• Strike Bracket                                       mikesarcade.com
• (2) Cabinet Handles                               arcadeemulator.net
• 19" LCD Monitor Kit                               arcadeshop.com
• 19" LCD Bezel                                       arcadeshop.com
• 1/8" 24X24" Smoked Plexi                     estreetplastics.com
• Nintendo Replacement Joystick               twistedquarter.com
• (4) Classx Buttons                                 groovygamegear.com
• iPac                                                      ultimarc.com
• Lepai Mini Amp                                      ebay.com
• Nintendo Coin Door                                ebay.com
• 18" Fluorescent Under Cabinet Light        homedepot.com
• (2) Lexan Poly Carbonate Sheet              homedepot.com
• Paint                                                     homedepot.com
• Cabinet Art                                            gameongrafix.com

I recieved a couple of measurements I needed from Automark before my edit.  Thanks for help.  On to the build!

[jdbailey1206]

Laying out and cutting the sides and cutting my angles for the bottom support.

[Automark]

nice,
always like to see a DK cab
Ill take the measerements now .....

[Automark]

coin door A = 27,2 cm
coin door B = 42,5 cm

C = 5 mm

Dont know how much in inch though 

[meyer980]

Awesome! I'm in the middle of a Felix build too, but it's my first ever cabinet so it's going slowly. It'll be nice to watch your build.

Are you getting artwork Ridicrick or doing something different? And you're right, Sjaak and his contributors did a great job on the software.

[Automark]

seeing this, wants to copy my original nintendo cab for something similar 

[jdbailey1206]

Thank you for the help Automark.  It's perfectly fine that it's in cm and mm's.  I can convert online to get my measurments.  The conversions were in decimals so  I picked up what is called an Engineers measuring tape.  I was excited too because I thought I would have to get out my Engineers scales and measure with that.  Would not be fun.  By the way Automark were you able to get the "D" measurement for me?  I would greatly appreciate it.  And good to hear that you are inspired.  At least you have a Nintendo cab to work off of.  I have to rely on the kindness of strangers.  (No homo)   

I didn't do a lot last night.  Got the speaker hole measured out and drew it on the mdf.  I also used our plotter at work yesterday morning and found that when I printed out the CP the Jump and Fix buttons were off yellow and did not match the rest of yellows on the CP.  Nothing too bad.  Just have to fix it in Inkscape.   

Hopefully I can get motivated tonight.

[Automark]

d is 12 mm

[jdbailey1206]

Thank you Automark.  You're a lifesaver.  I was at a loss on where I could actually find that thin of plywood but I found it at Joann Fabrics of all places.  Go figure.     They had 3/16" 24X24" sheets.  Must be for small scale modelers.  Might come in hand if I completely lose my brain and do a mini cab.  I attached a picture marked 'C' to show how small the width was I was looking for.

[Automark]

no problem 

here's a close up of mine

if you need more detailed pics, let me know.

[jdbailey1206]

Looking for five more measurements if you can swing it Automark.  I appreciate all your help thus far sir.  Pictures at the bottom.  From what I could gather this morning the measurement marked A has to be 1/2" high because CP is 5/8 minus a 1/8th inch notch that is cut out.

[jdbailey1206]

Welp it's been quite an interesting winter so far.  In between my grandmothers 90th birthday bash, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and finding out that I am finally a father for the first time, I am still going strong on my project but I keep forgetting to update my post.  For all of those who have been waiting for updates (which I'm sure is in the negative numbers  )  I've uploaded all my recent pictures over the past three months, got them sized and hopefully I can take some time tonight, since I'm waiting on parts (one important one that I had to re order since I'm a clumsy ---fudgesicle---  ) and I don't want to paint, to finally update the post. 

Thanks again for everyone who has helped over the past three months, directly or indirectly by posting a thread for me to gain information from, thank you and I'll be posting again tonight.

[meyer980]

Awesome, looking forward to seeing how it's coming!

Maybe I misread, but you're not painting your cabinet? Are you using vinyl then?

[jdbailey1206]

Awesome, looking forward to seeing how it's coming!

Maybe I misread, but you're not painting your cabinet? Are you using vinyl then?

You didn't misread meyer.  I am painting my cab.  I'm just not a big fan doing it.  My OCD comes out and I tend to work and rework an area. 

[meyer980]

Got it, painting is a mixed bag. It's such a minor thing (compared to all the other work on the cabinet) but if done wrong can make the rest look like crap.

Oh, congrats on being a dad!

[jdbailey1206]

To start my build I decided to create my base after measuring and cutting all my pieces.  As they say you can't have a good build without a solid foundation.     To create the base I used 1 x 6 x 8 #2 & Better Kiln Dried Whitewood Board from Home Depot.  This pine board was sturdy enough for me to score one board in half and measure the length I needed for each side.  I took the measurements from Jakobuds plans and made my 45 degree angle cuts and dry fit my boards before I glued and put together with finishing nails.


The easiest thing I found to do was take my back and left piece and before I fit them into the corner clamp I used some Loctite Clear Power Grab adhesive.  This glue is nice because it is strong enough for what I need and I dries clear.


After the pieces of the foundation were glued I hammered 5 finishing nails into the boards to keep them together.  The whole time I kept my level on my boards just to make sure I didn't kick anything out of whack when I was working on my bottom piece.


All together and level.   


Got tired of being cold so I went indoors and set to drafting out my guidelines for my speaker holes and button/joystick holes. 

[jdbailey1206]

The following Saturday I accomplished more than I set out to do which is always a good thing.  Having my base together I reinforced it with small pieces I cut from a 2x4.  I drilled small recessed holes into the center pieces on each side which can't be seen.  After I glued and screwed my support pieces into my base I ran two quick coats of Rustoleums Painters Touch Ultra Cover on my base.  I used a semi gloss and it gave the wood a nice finish which can be seen in the following pictures.




I like how the paint saturated enough into the wood that the texture of the wood still showed through. 

While my paint was drying in between coats I drilled the pilot holes for my speaker holes so I could router the holes from top to bottom. 



After applying my router guide to my router it was easy enough just to adjust the length and follow the one side of the speaker board to make my holes. 


All finished.  Just some quick sanding with my files to clean it up.


Towards the end of the day I measured and cut the recesses for the back of the cab.  I picked up a piece of 7/16th 4x8 sanded plywood from Home Depot.  It was on the expensive side but it gives the original look of the back of the old DK cabinets. 



Pretty clean fit if I do say so.


I dry fit my speaker board and coin door board and called it a day.

[jdbailey1206]

Found some time in the next week to start to piece the cab together.  It was getting cold and I pushed myself to get the majority of the cab together so I could pull it inside (with some help of course) and paint it. 

Once I got the base connected to the bottom piece and one side of the cab I set it on it's side on my 'work table'  and began to cut my support pieces out of 3x1 square dowel.  Finding this was a life saver.  Before I found the square dowel I had the awesome task of cutting down a pine board into 1x1" pieces for my weecade.  Oh well.  Live and learn.

Before the construction began I grabbed the piece for my coin door and cut it out.  Figured it might be easier when it was loose.   


I only had a couple of hours this day so I got all my pieces except the left side put on with the square dowel and glue and screws and called it a day.

[Boxxle]

Excellent work so far! I'll be following this one. 

[wp34]

Your build is looking great so far.  Thanks for posting pictures of how you routed the speaker grill.   

[Generic Eric]

Your build is looking great so far.  Thanks for posting pictures of how you routed the speaker grill.   

Where does he get those wonderful toys?

The router guide looks handy!

[PixelPaul]

This looks really good! Watching with interest as I build my DK cabinet.

[bobfrankly]

Great start! I gotta get me one of those joinery clamps 

[jdbailey1206]

Excellent work so far! I'll be following this one. 

Your build is looking great so far.  Thanks for posting pictures of how you routed the speaker grill.   

This looks really good! Watching with interest as I build my DK cabinet.

Thanks for the support guys.  This build (knock on MDF) seems to be going a lot easier than my Weecade build.

Your build is looking great so far.  Thanks for posting pictures of how you routed the speaker grill.   

Where does he get those wonderful toys?

The router guide looks handy!

It's a huge help.  When I did the speaker holes for my Weecade I completely forgot about it and used some MDF as guides and remembered I had it when I was done routing the holes.  All I could hear was the Price is Right horn in my head.

[Louis Tully]

.

[jdbailey1206]

By the next weekend I was able to complete making my cuts on my square dowels and get everything tightened up.



When I got to the construction of the marquee area I ran into a snag.  I went to install some support pieces for the bottom of the board for the marquee and realized I couldn't quite get my drill at a good angle to install my screws. 


Then I remembered that Dewalt carried a nice little Right Angle Drill Adapter.  Saved my butt for the tight squeeze.


Not too shabby.   

I got the cab on its feet finally and was able to do some quick work for side pieces that the CP sits on.  After combing the threads I was able to find a reference photo and cut my piece from the dimensions.  The piece was taken from a DK3 cab but I had no problem using the dimensions and lightly tweaking it for my needs.


Not much difference and the piece came out better than I expected.


All ready to go. 




Couldn't resist the marquee. 

All level.

[meyer980]

Very beautiful. The close pictures of the side pieces the CP sits on are very useful for me too.

[jdbailey1206]

I found some spare time the following weekend to do a some work on the back of the cabinet.  I got a package from chompingquarters.com earlier in the week.  It contained my Nintendo bracket set.  I'll have to track down some black screws that will fit the brackets.  Shouldn't be too hard but that will come at a later date.



It was cold that weekend so I just spent a quick two hours measuring out and cutting the back panels.  I got my hands on a Dremel Saw Max.  It was a little on the expensive side but I was over making jagged uneven cuts with my jigsaw.  Even with guides the jig saw was giving me fits.  The Saw Max was nice.  It was quick and made some nice precise cuts.  The sanded plywood I had picked up was really nice to work with.  It was easy to cut and matched the back of the old DK cabinets nicely.





The only draw back of the sanded plywood I used is that it likes to bow.  Hopefully once I get it screwed down it will give the back a nicer look.

[pinballsmith]

I almost had my build finished and then I managed to buy a real one. A friend of mine was making a perfect recreation of the artwork.

[jdbailey1206]

I almost had my build finished and then I managed to buy a real one. A friend of mine was making a perfect recreation of the artwork. He's gauging interest for the artwork at the moment. Here's a sample:

Geh.  Don't even get me started on buying one.     I started looking back in July of last year.  The first one I found was in great shape for $50.  The downfall was it was in Florida from the Arcade Boneyard.  Couldn't justify paying $600 for shipping.  I also found one local but I tried to get the guy down from $200 to $150 and then when I talked to him again he went up to $350.  Makes me shudder to think he will contribute to the gene pool one day if he hasn't already.     The last one I found was a DK3 cabinet that would have served better as a restoration and not a full conversion. 

Oh well.  The artwork looks great.  I got a copy from one of the guys over at the KLOV forum. 

[jdbailey1206]

That Sunday I was able to do some quick work on the CP and Bezel retainer.  I wasn't sure what wood I could use but I found that I could rip down a piece of 2X8 and it worked out quite well.  I was reluctant to use the 2X8 because most wood anymore isn't of true size.  Following the Jakobud plans I needed a piece that was going to be 2 inches thick.  The 2X8 was only off by an 1/8 of an inch.  It wasn't a problem for what I needed.  Again I cut my wood to the inner length of the cabinet and used my router guide, the appropriate bits and added my two pieces of square dowel and gave it quick sanding and called it good. 

[meyer980]

This may be a dumb question...but the notch on the bottom of the board. Does the control panel "fit" into that? I had assumed the control panel just edged up to that board but now I'm starting to think it goes in deeper.

[jdbailey1206]

....but now I'm starting to think it goes in deeper.

[jdbailey1206]

But in all seriousness you are correct.  The control panel fits in that notch and is latched down.  Probably for those of us who get a little too involved in our games.

[pinballsmith]

I almost had my build finished and then I managed to buy a real one. A friend of mine was making a perfect recreation of the artwork. He's gauging interest for the artwork at the moment. Here's a sample:

Geh.  Don't even get me started on buying one.     I started looking back in July of last year.  The first one I found was in great shape for $50.  The downfall was it was in Florida from the Arcade Boneyard.  Couldn't justify paying $600 for shipping.  I also found one local but I tried to get the guy down from $200 to $150 and then when I talked to him again he went up to $350.  Makes me shudder to think he will contribute to the gene pool one day if he hasn't already.     The last one I found was a DK3 cabinet that would have served better as a restoration and not a full conversion. 

Oh well.  The artwork looks great.  I got a copy from one of the guys over at the KLOV forum.

I meant a real disney-made machine, but I agree that the prices of bare cabs are outrageous at the moment. A local guy was trying to unload his bare cabinet and monitor for $750.

[jdbailey1206]

A local guy was trying to unload his bare cabinet and monitor for $750.

Nice.  It's like these people are doing us a favor by letting us buy their used cabs. 

[jdbailey1206]

I did a little work on my cab during the week.  Trying to get the major work done before I pulled it in the house before the cold really set in.

I was able to find a speaker at my local thrift shop for $2.  I wanted to get this for the actual speaker grill and didn't want to spend close to $30 for the grill when it is just going to the upper back vent holes.  A hammer, some tin snips and a quick coat of paint to it and it worked out perfectly.


I also got my wheels from Amazon in the mail.  I was able to reference other builds and found that Amico sold a caster wheel really close to the original DK wheels.  They can be found here.


Didn't take much to install the wheels.  I thought the wheels were going to be too big but when I dry fit them to the cab they were perfect.  Just close enough to the ground.


I was also able to drill my holes for the cord that goes to the marquee light.  I was really happy I had picked up a fostner bit set eariler in the year.  They take out a lot more material and don't tend to wear down like spade bits.  I also found some 3/16" balsa wood to create the supports for my marquee.  I was afraid I wasn't going to be able to find some that thin locally but tracked some down at Joann Fabrics of all places.   


I got my control panel retainer installed and went to work on my control panel which I was making out of MDF.  I had gotten my holes drilled and completely funked up my board when I went to rip the small 1"x1/8" notch on the back.  Completely unhappy with how the MDF acted I went to Home Depot and found this nice piece of 5/8" pine board.  I came home and re did my notch and it worked out beautifully.  This board is 10x sturdier and makes an awesome "thunk" sound when throwing around my joystick.   


After I got home I screwed in my dowel supports for the back bottom and top pieces.  I did a dry fit of pieces and called it good.  The pieces don't fit perfectly but I am going to fill it with some wood putty. 


It was getting late so I did a quick monitor mount and called it a day. 

[wp34]

Looks great.  Always exciting to see one upright!

[jdbailey1206]

Looks great.  Always exciting to see one upright!

Thanks WP.  I'm glad I was able to finish most of the building and get it inside before it got too cold.  December was a complete bust due to the holidays but I picked it back up without a hitch at the beginning of this year.

[jdbailey1206]

It was a quiet New Years Eve so before the wife and I watched the ball drop I made to quick cardboard template to see how the monitor would workout.  In the picture it looks like the bezel is cutting off the bottom of the monitor but once you get up close it is spaced nicely.  The 19" monitor seems a little too big for the application and I may downsize to a smaller monitor at a later date but the one I have now was the best price.  Free.   


The next day when my wife was at work I took a little time and worked on the back pieces.  I took the speaker grill that I had mentioned earlier and stapled them in place in the back.  You can't really tell from the picture but they look really close to the original.



I threw some DAP Plastic Wood in the screw holes and gaps and it didn't look half bad after a quick sanding.

[jdbailey1206]

By the weekend I found some time to get a couple more things done.  I cut two short pieces and two more longer pieces to retain the bezel.  Some glue and screws and everything fell into place. 


Pushing forward, a little too fast, I accidentally cut my marquee too short.


Luckily the sheet I had was just big enough so I could cut it again to the correct size. 


After correcting my marquee I installed the marquee light.  It was just a simple 14" under cabinet light.  It can be found at Home Depot.


By the end of the day I spent a little time fixing a couple knicks I had out of the cab.  The major problem I had to fix was the fact that when I had cut the slots for my t-molding I tilted the router slightly towards myself and made the gaps too wide.  A little bit of DAP plastic wood and all I had to do was re cut the slots the next day.


By the end of the day I dry fit the bezel and marquee holders.  No major problems I just have to either expand the marquee artwork or create a black border around my marquee artwork like I have seen on some of the other FFJr cabs so it fits correctly in between the retainers and no light shines through.


Next comes my favorite aspect, paint.  Pbbhhhh.

[meyer980]

Looking pretty sweet. Pepsi seems to be a reoccurring theme in your pictures...must be what jdbailey is powered by. I've always been a Mt. Dew guy myself...higher octane

[jmike]

jdbailey this looks great. Been following your thread, it'll be my guideline for when I build my own Fix It Felix arcade. You and PixelPaul have done an amazing job in recreating these Nintendo Style cabs.

Keep up the good work and keep taking pics, I'll need them.

 

[jdbailey1206]

Looking pretty sweet. Pepsi seems to be a reoccurring theme in your pictures...must be what jdbailey is powered by. I've always been a Mt. Dew guy myself...higher octane

I was on a Mt Dew kick for a while but started to get bad headaches when I went without it.  I really need to cut out my soda though.  I'm starting to get a dickydo.

jdbailey this looks great. Been following your thread, it'll be my guideline for when I build my own Fix It Felix arcade. You and PixelPaul have done an amazing job in recreating these Nintendo Style cabs.

Keep up the good work and keep taking pics, I'll need them.

 

Good to hear I'm helping out.  This build has been fun so far.  I'm kinda regretting the fact that it is going into my old man's man cave.  He keeps pushing me to put Pac Man on to it so I might have to keep this one and build him an actual Pac Man cocktail cabinet.  First I would have to convince my accountant (wife) to let me build it.  She'll probably tell me I can do it as long as I cure cancer first.   

[jdbailey1206]

Nothing too major happened over the following weekend.  I proceeded onto paint.  If I could avoid paint I would.  But it's one of those necessary evils.  If I do a cocktail for my next cab I plan on buying the pre finished shelving.  It's like buying particle board with the laminate already pre applied.  Should save me some time. 

I just used regular painters tape to mask off the different areas. 




On both sides of the inside of the cabinet I used a flat black.


In between letting the layers of paint dry I was able to install the hardware for the control panel.  This included the CP latches, strike plates, and retainer.  These, as of now, are all in stock at Mikes Arcade.




After my flat black had dried I taped the areas for the next coat.  I thought I could get away with a semi gloss but it just didn't give that pop that the gloss had. I also apologize if some of my pictures are a little blurred.  I forgot to use the anti shake feature on my camera so some of them are a little blurred but you get the idea.



I painted the outer sides and bezel retainer with the gloss black.  I thought about going with vinyl on the bezel retainer but I liked how this paint soaks into the wood I got.  It goes in enough just to show the actual wood grain.  I'll try to get a good picture of the results if I can.  I also painted the top of the cab in flat black.  Nobody will ever really see up there so I didn't waste the gloss paint. 

[jdbailey1206]

Over the weekend I was able to get to Sherwin Williams to do a paint match for the Donkey Kong blue color.  I was able to get an exact match thanks to chopperthedog who pulled a small paint chip off of his Donkey Kong restoration.  I unfortunately asked for a oil based enamel.  This will come back to bite me in the ass later in the build.  The paint code can still be found below. 


Like everyone says there is no good way to catch the exact likeness of this blue on camera.  Once I had it applied it was an exact match.


I also received my Nintendo Joystick from Twisted Quarter (not pictured)  and my Classx Leaf Buttons from Groovy Game Gear. 


At the time Randy was back ordered on the yellow buttons.  This didn't pose too much of a problem since he had white and Rit Dye is easy to come by.  I just ordered white buttons and dyed them yellow.  The tutorial can be seen in the following post. 

[jdbailey1206]

Like I had stated previously Groovy Game Gear had the blue buttons I needed in stock but the yellow buttons were out of stock.  I purchased the white ones knowing that the white plastic would easily take the yellow Rit Dye. 

Once I had the buttons I took them apart and gave them a quick wash in warm water.  I took out the leaf switches because for some reason I didn't think the switches would work well after a dip in boiling water and being dyed.   



The Rit Dye package instructions read that I could accomplish my dying job with only hot tap water.  My only problem with this was the package also instructed that I keep the water at this temperature.  To maintain the constant temperature I needed I used an old pot I had gotten from the thrift store and got the temp up to 140 degrees.  It was easy to find the sweet spot for the water with a candy thermometer. 
Again sorry for the blurry photos.


I went with a Golden Yellow color.  I thought this color was going to be over the top but it in the end it was a great choice.


Once I found the sweet spot for the water on the stove I dumped in the whole package just to be safe.  The directions called for a certain ratio but once I measured everything out I only had a teaspoon of dye left so in the mix it went.  The directions called for me to let everything set for only 10 minutes but I pulled out one of the buttons the saturation wasn't what I wanted.  I ended up letting everything cook for close to 30 minutes.


I pulled the buttons out with chopsticks and went to the sink to run them through a quick wash of warm water and dish soap.  Like I said I was afraid the color was going to be too vibrant but it they really came out nice.


Before:


After:


Niiiiice.   

Up next:  Control Panel.

[yotsuya]

Niiiiiiiiiiice is right! Color me impressed! 

[wp34]

Wow.  Nice job on that yellow button.  I would have never thought of doing that.   

Over the weekend I was able to get to Sherwin Williams to do a paint match for the Donkey Kong blue color.  I was able to get an exact match thanks to chopperthedog who pulled a small paint chip off of his Donkey Kong restoration.  I unfortunately asked for a oil based enamel.  This will come back to bite me in the ass later in the build.

I'm curious about your concern for oil-based enamel?

[jdbailey1206]

Niiiiiiiiiiice is right! Color me impressed! 

Wow.  Nice job on that yellow button.  I would have never thought of doing that.   

Over the weekend I was able to get to Sherwin Williams to do a paint match for the Donkey Kong blue color.  I was able to get an exact match thanks to chopperthedog who pulled a small paint chip off of his Donkey Kong restoration.  I unfortunately asked for a oil based enamel.  This will come back to bite me in the ass later in the build.

I'm curious about your concern for oil-based enamel?

Thanks guys.  It was actually an experiment.  I was pretty sure it would work and I didn't want to wait around two months waiting for something to come in.  I knew spray paint wouldn't work because that just coats what you are working on.  So I went to look at Rit Dye's website and they actually have a tutorial on dying buttons and I thought that the material isn't that far off from the buttons we use. 

WP - My main concern about oil based paints is the drying time.  My basement is at about 60 degrees and I didn't take that into consideration when I bought the paint.  The colder the environment the longer it takes for paint to set.  I also didn't get a latex base which has a quicker setting time.  When I went into Sherwin Williams it slipped my mind to tell them to give me a latex and I didn't realize it until I got home.  Not wanting to waste it I used it and it just went downhill from there. 

Being impatient, and because the fact my brother in law is moving into the basement (my work area for the winter) with my wife and I while he's house hunting, I needed to get everything done.  That being said I put a space heater in the basement to hurry along the process but the heater must have been too close to the cab because the oil began to leak out of the paint causing small beads to form on the newly painted surface.

Being in a rush I, like a moron, tried to sand the beads away.  And they were still tacky.  It gave me quite the mess.  As you can see below.


I waited until the next day sand down the one layer of oil enamel and ran to Home Depot first thing in the morning and got a latex based paint.  Luckily for me the oil based layer sanded down enough and I applied three coats of the latex within hours.


Hence the biting me in the ass.   
 

[Malenko]

do you happen to have the bezel art?

[jdbailey1206]

do you happen to have the bezel art?

PM sent sir.

[jmike]

Glad you where able to reapply the paint. (lesson learned for next time)
Patience in this hobby is crucial at times, believe me, I've been there. 

Looks great!!!!!


 

[wp34]

That looks fantastic!

[talkgeek]

That looks fantastic!

I second that!  - definitely watching this build, showing great skills, and thanks for covering all the steps, this cab is on my to do list.

[Malenko]

The finish looks fantastic!  Any reason you didnt paint the front at the same time?

[SORHP]

I see that you are thinking of using a smaller monitor later, I believe the 19" is the best way to go, I have a 19" in my fifjr cab, and I think it is perfect

[jdbailey1206]

Thanks for the support guys.  I know it sounds cliche but it really motivates me.  To anyone who has asked for the artwork I'll try accommodate you asap.  The year has really ramped up quickly.  A lot of family ordeals on both sides (All good!) have kept me busy.  I thought if I did this project during the winter months I wouldn't have to juggle it with anything.  Boy was I wrong.   

Malenko.  Two things.  First, thank you for sharing the artwork with Haruman.  I haven't gotten a chance to do much besides work and find a couple minutes during break at work to post updates.  Second, I didn't paint the front panel because I knew the coin door opening was too small and I didn't want to have to repaint if I made a mistake making the hole bigger.  So I waited until I got my coin door back from the sand blaster to remeasure and recut the hole before I painted.  Plus I wanted to drill the bolt holes before I painted. 

SORHP.  The 19" is working out well.  When I first installed it I thought it would be too big but I got a good angle on the monitor by creating a mockup of the bezel and once I played a few games with it on it felt fine.  The thing that was aggravating me the most was the actual monitor bezel was only 1/4" away from the glass bezel but once I removed the bezel from the monitor I gained 1/8" of space between the monitor and the bezel and it looks fine.

[Malenko]

I was asking on behalf of Haruman    I'm gonna host the files somewhere so ppl will bug you less.  I didnt know your coin door hole was too small for the coin door, but thats a great idea.  I look forward to more progress pix

[jdbailey1206]

Before I started on the painting debacle, which I have already given you a preview of, I worked on my control panel.  It didn't take long for me to find proper measurements for the CP.  The measurements, along with detailed pictures, can be found over at KLOV. 

Like I said before I used a pine board that I picked up at Home Depot.  As of right now I can't find the sku but I make enough trips to Home Depot during the week that I can get it for anyone that needs it.  I was a little concerned because the board itself is glued together pieces of what looks to be 2" wide boards but it has really held up. 

Front:


Back:


I had a couple hiccups when I created the CP.  I first drilled my 1 1/8" hole for the joystick to gauge where my joystick needed to be.  But the problem began when I started to route out the first hole for the upper plate of the joystick.  I made a guide that my bushing could follow but my feeble brain forgot to place 1/8" mdf in between the guide and CP.  It took me a couple minutes of my router only plunging half the distance before I realized you can't cut the wood if your router it isn't touching what it needs to cut.   

After that debacle everything went a little smoother.  I measured and drilled my holes for the joystick bolts and routed out the bottom for my joystick.  Everything was a really snug fit.  This wasn't a problem.  I would rather get things in with a little elbow grease than have the joystick be loose right from the beginning.

The last and minor problem I had was I initially mounted my strike plates for my control panel with wood screws.  They, unfortunately, were loose right from the get go.  I would latch my cp down and it would wiggle a little too much during game play.


Going through my stash of screws I found small tapered head bolts that I could wrench down and it gave a tighter hold.



Once I got the joystick and buttons mounted I mounted my Kade Encoder and got it all wired up.


Sorry for the shadow on this last picture.  My fat head got in the way of the light.   

[jdbailey1206]

Today's lesson:  Haste makes waste.

After I got my control panel all wired up I ended up breaking the usb head off of my encoder.     There isn't much distance between encoder and the front exterior wall of the cabinet.  Instead of inserting the usb extension onto the encoder after I put the cp in I tried to put the cp onto the cabinet with the extension on.  Oh well.  Luckily I did this on a Monday.  I ordered a new encoder and I received it by Thursday.  404 recommended I keep everything and try to solder it together.  I will most likely do this when I get better at soldering.  But that's not today.

[jbenesh]

You might want to swap out that pine panel with some plywood or mdf before you go much farther.  Real wood is unstable and will expand and contract with varying levels of humidity.  Plywood is more stable due to the grain running different directions each layer.   I would hate to see your CP expand and damage your cab. 

[jdbailey1206]

You might want to swap out that pine panel with some plywood or mdf before you go much farther.  Real wood is unstable and will expand and contract with varying levels of humidity.  Plywood is more stable due to the grain running different directions each layer.   I would hate to see your CP expand and damage your cab.

Benesh - It should be fine.  The CP has spent more than 3 months in my basement.  A pretty humid place.  If it really goes south I'll just create a new one.  Wasn't that hard to create in the first place. 

[jdbailey1206]

I've already told everyone of my whole paint mishap.  Below I've listed a picture of the Behr Latex paint I used.  It yielded nice even coats. 


The paint code is shown below.


If anyone can't decipher the label it reads:
Behr Ultra
Base: 7754
PP Ultra Int Satin\Satin
Custom Color Match
CLRNT     DL     EL     TL
384th      50     303   19
Quart

If you need this color and can't access the internet in the paint store I found that Behr's Liquid Blue was almost an exact match for the Donkey Kong blue.  It's not perfect but damn close.

[404]

Today's lesson:  Haste makes waste.

After I got my control panel all wired up I ended up breaking the usb head off of my encoder.     There isn't much distance between encoder and the front exterior wall of the cabinet.  Instead of inserting the usb extension onto the encoder after I put the cp in I tried to put the cp onto the cabinet with the extension on.  Oh well.  Luckily I did this on a Monday.  I ordered a new encoder and I received it by Thursday.  404 recommended I keep everything and try to solder it together.  I will most likely do this when I get better at soldering.  But that's not today.

If you want, you can send it to me and I'll solder it back for you. Or, I can give you one of my minimus units and we can just swap out. I might even have a locking male usb connector somewhere around here. My soldering skills are WAAAAYYYYY better than my wood working skills. 

[PL1]

If you exchnge AVRs, you'll need two of these from the KADE associated parts list:

  Pin socket, 12 position, .1"/2.54mm terminal spacing
M20-7821242
2 ea
Harwin Inc
http://www.digikey.com/product-search/en?keywords=M20-7821242


Scott

[404]

If you exchnge AVRs, you'll need two of these from the KADE associated parts list:

  Pin socket, 12 position, .1"/2.54mm terminal spacing
M20-7821242
2 ea
Harwin Inc
http://www.digikey.com/product-search/en?keywords=M20-7821242


Scott

yep, i know. Buddy of mine has quite a box load of minimus units as we were both mutual friends of someone at team XCE.  He ended up with a sizeable batch of 16 and 32 units.

Degeneatrons was gracious enough to send me two KADE addon boards when the project was completed but he forgot to send me the terminal posts. I ended up buying a few of them. I'll use them to replace the board as a worst case scenario.

the pics of the AVR aren't detailed enough for me to see clearly but it almost looks like the solder pads are still intact. Perhaps during production that corner of the board simply didn't heat up well enough.

[jdbailey1206]

Scott, 404 - Wouldn't it be easier just to replace the USB Type A Connector?  Since it only has 4 connectors I need to solder instead of purchasing 2x 12 way sockets and having to solder 24 times.  And if I'm not mistaken isn't each 32 minimus coded to each individual PCB?  The two of you would know better than I would. 

[jdbailey1206]

Got my coin door today from one of the members over at KLOV.  $30 was a pretty good deal in my opinion for what condition it was in.  I didn't need all the bells and whistles on it because I knew I was going to modify it for my needs.



Malenko - I also didn't paint the front of the cab is because I still had to sand the underside of the speaker panel and paint the inside of the speaker holes.  If I did the black first then I could easily sand and paint over with blue any black areas that bled on me.  You can see from the picture below how close the coin door was to fitting when I first got it.

[meyer980]

Looking really good. Thanks for posting paint codes, that's always appreciated. Looking forward to seeing what you do with the coin door.

[404]

Scott, 404 - Wouldn't it be easier just to replace the USB Type A Connector?  Since it only has 4 connectors I need to solder instead of purchasing 2x 12 way sockets and having to solder 24 times.  And if I'm not mistaken isn't each 32 minimus coded to each individual PCB?  The two of you would know better than I would.

That's what i was offering to do for you. Re-solder the connector or replace it. If all else fails, i can probably get you a replacement.

[jdbailey1206]

Welp I must be on a mission to sabotage my cp.  I went to install the wires for the speaker I got yesterday and almost bent the usb head off of my second encoder.  I caught myself before I did it but maaaaaaaan.  Nothing too exciting for the speaker and mini amp.  I'll get pictures up as soon as I get my speaker grill in and I have everything installed.  Until that time - We're sending you back to the future!....Uh, sorry.  I mean...Back to the build!

Here, as Malenko has requested, is a fully painted front.  At this stage I still had a little clean up to do around the edges and my primer was still showing around the speaker holes.  Easy enough fix with a small hobby brush.


I didn't get much accomplished this day.  I was able to finish my back door.  I had some trouble finding out how the bottom hole was covered.  When I did some research on the internet I stumbled across a youtube video of a Popeye restoration.  I came to find the hole was just slightly covered with some angled pieces of wood as seen below.


After that was completed I just flipped it over for a one quick coat of paint and set it aside to dry.


The final project I took care of that day was creating a custom serial plate.  Member CoryBee started making them over a year ago.  The post can be found here.  You can make them yourselves from either my directions or Cory's.  From my understandiing CoryBee is willing to sell them for One Schrute Buck.     Pretty good deal if you ask me.

To create the serial plate you need Avery Easy Peel Clear Inkjet Labels,Rustoleum Triple Thick Glaze, and an Aluminum Sheet or like CoryBee be smart enough to just use a pop can.  I used the aluminum sheet because it was a little more sturdier. 
Now you can either get a media file from CoryBee or if you are artistically inclined you can create one yourself in your favorite media editing program.  When you have it your specifications just print it out.  NOTE:  Don't be like me and accidentally touch the ink after it is printed.     After you have your serial plate printed immediately spray on your Triple glaze. 


I did three very light coats.  When doing this don't go heavy.  Just hold the can about three inches above your paper and lightly spray back and forth covering the whole paper.

Once it was dry I cut about an inch border around the serial plate and affixed it to my aluminum sheet.  Cutting it out of the aluminum sheet was a little bit of a bear.  This is where I think the aluminum can would come in handy.  But a small file fixed my problem. 




Outside of painting my coin door there are no real major projects in site.  I can see the light at the end of the tunnel.  Hope it's not a train.   

[jdbailey1206]

During the week I got my coin mechs from Twisted Quarter.  They can be found here.  I didn't want this machine to have to rely on coins.  So I took a page from chopperthedog's build and modified the coin acceptors I got from Twisted Quarter.
To modify the coin acceptors I used Nintendo Coin Button holders that I found on ebay.  I just removed the actual button holder with tin snips and bent the remaining metal so that it sat my switch close to the coin button return. 



Then when the coin return button is pushed in turn it will trigger the switch to activate and tell the computer that a coin or credit has been applied.



Now I have to decide whether I want to keep the original coin catch which is on the right or use the one from Mikes Arcade on the left.  The one from Mikes Arcade is bulky and I may just keep with the original.

[Malenko]

lookin good!

[jdbailey1206]

lookin good!

Thanks Malenko!  But how does the cab look?

[Malenko]

lookin good!

Thanks Malenko!  But how does the cab look?

*almost* as good :*

[Generic Eric]

I didn't get much accomplished this day.  I was able to finish my back door.  I had some trouble finding out how the bottom hole was covered.  When I did some research on the internet I stumbled across a youtube video of a Popeye restoration.  I came to find the hole was just slightly covered with some angled pieces of wood as seen below.

I don't understand what I am looking at.  Do you have a link to the video?  Or a picture of this back door in use?

[jdbailey1206]

A picture of the back door in use is a whole other website.     But I have attached photos to hopefully make it more clear. 

This is the front of the back door.  It's hard to make out but there is an opening at the bottom.  In all pictures I have seen it has been covered up somehow. 


This is the back with the wood installed.


I couldn't quite figure it out until I saw the following youtube video.    At about 1:03 you can see the Popeye back door in the background.  It is essentially just wood covering up the hole for ventilation purposes I assume.

Disclaimer:  I in no way condone what that bearded gentlemen did to the Popeye cab.  If you have a weak stomach please DO NOT watch the preceding video.  Please keep all small children, women, and animals way from the screen if you decide to watch.  View at your own risk.   

[Malenko]

pole position did the same thing

[jdbailey1206]

Back door?  Pole Position?  Perverts.   

[jdbailey1206]

Last weekend was one of those weekends where I thought I could what I wanted to get done in two hours but the cab had other ideas.  Even though I thought I had fixed my channels for my tmolding I was wrong.  I'm starting to think my router is on it's way out.  What do you expect from something that is 25+ years old.  Pretty good run for a router in my opinion.

The right side t-molding went in without a hitch. 


But the left hand side(the side I filled in earlier in my build) gave me the most trouble.


Not only was it like this at the top but all the way around.  Not good.  After going back and forth with my wife to no avail where she put the hot glue gun I went to Home Depot and got a nice Dewalt one.  Not only can it not get lost due to size and color but it did a pretty good job of holding down my t-molding.


I was also able to get the bezel off of the monitor.  I was going to leave it on but once I got my cardboard bezel cut out the monitor bezel forced the cardboard bezel up and it looked awkward. 


In between all this I was hitting the low spots on my coin door with Bondo's Glazing and Spot Putty.  It takes a little bit longer to dry but it is already mixed and it sands away really well. 


I also did a quick test to see how well the coin buttons work and it's about as easy as putting a coin in the slot.  This picture was an early picture.  I have already ran a wire wheel on the back and was in the process of filling the low spots also.

[jmike]

 
               Coming together. I can see the finish line... I think.

Do you have all the artwork printed? If you have the bezel printed can you tell me what the measurement are for the inner portion? Where the monitor will sit.

I want to see how big a screen will fit in the bezel.

 

[jdbailey1206]

Yeah jmike.  I can get you the measurements.  I can tell  you right now I have a 19" LCD and it seems to be just a little too big.  It fits almost exactly in the inner dimensions of the bezel but I tend to have to look to the top of the screen and then back down.  I would like to try an 18" or 17" monitor just to see how much difference it makes.  But I am happy with the 19" monitor.  It's not like I have to constantly watch Ralph to know where he is.  I can see him in my peripheral vision most of the time.

[wp34]

Awesome!   

My painter (wife) will only use Behr.  Thanks for posting this.

I've already told everyone of my whole paint mishap.  Below I've listed a picture of the Behr Latex paint I used.  It yielded nice even coats. 


The paint code is shown below.


If anyone can't decipher the label it reads:
Behr Ultra
Base: 7754
PP Ultra Int Satin\Satin
Custom Color Match
CLRNT     DL     EL     TL
384th      50     303   19
Quart

If you need this color and can't access the internet in the paint store I found that Behr's Liquid Blue was almost an exact match for the Donkey Kong blue.  It's not perfect but damn close.

[jdbailey1206]

               Coming together. I can see the finish line... I think.

Do you have all the artwork printed? If you have the bezel printed can you tell me what the measurement are for the inner portion? Where the monitor will sit.

I want to see how big a screen will fit in the bezel.

 

Okay jmike if I understand you correctly you would like the inner dimensions of the bezel.  They are as follows:   Height: 14 1/4 x Width: 15 1/4 
If this is incorrect let me know.  I have also included a picture at the bottom.  These are very quick measurements.  So don't expect them to be precise.

wp34 - No problem on the paint.  Glad to help.

[jdbailey1206]

Disclaimer:  I am not a licensed electrician.  This post is not in anyway a certified way to wire your arcade cab.  Only a suggestion.  I in no way can guarantee or warrant your application of the following how-to.     

Last Monday I had some free time at night so I decided to take some time and wire up my power supply to my rocker switch which will be on the outside of the cab to get power to all the components.  The rocker switch can be found here and the I found the power supply I used at Meijer.  For those who don't have a Meijer close by the power supply can be found here.  The Rocker Switch also requires a 10A fuse.  Those can also be found on Amazon.  The link is here.

Before the operation:


When working on this setup always remember that BLACK=LIVE, WHITE=NEUTRAL, GREEN=GROUND.  And as the following pictures show you it is easy enough to wire up. 



All wired up.


And installed.  (All be it blurry.    )


I wanted to thank PL1 for showing me how to put together this set up when I put together my weecade.  I was nervous when I put together my first one but for this build it was a whole lot easier.  More to come.

Note:  Always use spare wire from your power strip to create your jumpers.  If you use a smaller gauge wire you run the chance of creating a bottle neck for the electricity.  Someone may want you dead but its not me.   

[PL1]

Glad to assist.   

Mind if I use the 3rd and 4th photos for the wiki entry on this topic?


Scott

[jmike]

 

  Thanks for the bezel measurements jdbailey.
Nice job on the Rocker Switch.

Thanks for the links too

[jdbailey1206]

Glad to assist.   

Mind if I use the 3rd and 4th photos for the wiki entry on this topic?


Scott

No problem Scott.  Good thing I was a hand model before I took to arcade building.   

[jdbailey1206]

That weekend I was able to start getting all the small stuff that needed to be done buttoned up.  This included installing my power strip, installing my Bezel Art Retainer, and cutting and installing my monitor bezel.  I also cut out and installed the matte board that hangs behind the monitor bezel.  Or as Phetishboy over at KLOV calls it a Ninty Mullet.  I didn't get any pictures of the bezel and mullet before I installed them.  Since I didn't use an arcade monitor my measurements were different than the originals and it was easy for me to measure for the monitor bezel, install it then measure and cut my "Ninty Mullet". 

The mullet's dimensions were as follows:  22 3/8 x 13 1/4.  There is a fold 1.75" down from the top that creates the lower part of the mullet that hangs and creates the light barrier.  On the top part of the mullet there is a 1 1/8" gap.  This gap is centered in between the length of the mullet.  This creates an area where for the Bezel Art Retainer to poke through so it can be accessed from the back of the machine.  As seen below.


A front internal picture of the 'mullet', bezel and retainer.


Everything all wired up and rocking my mullet.   


I also had some time to install my serial plate.  I picked up metal number stamps at Menards.  The flash was too bright and flushed out the number.  Nothing too important.  I just used the number 11212.  The date Wreck It Ralph came out.  My screws were a little off too.  Guess I have used my good eye when I installed the ones on the left.   


By the end of the day I threw my artwork mock ups back in just to see how it is going to look.  Not too bad.



Up Next:  Speakers, grills, and amps.  Oh my.

[PL1]

Good thing I was a hand model before I took to arcade building.   

 

Pics cropped/labeled/added to wiki.   


Scott

[meyer980]

So beautiful

[wp34]

Looking great.  I really like how that serial plate turned out.   

How do you like that replacement Nintendo joystick?

[jdbailey1206]

So beautiful

Looking great.  I really like how that serial plate turned out.   

How do you like that replacement Nintendo joystick?

   Again thank you for the kind words.  WP - The stick is heavy and clunky.  And I love it.  Sometimes it's not only good to get the look of the old arcades but also the feel. 

[jdbailey1206]

I feel like I'm borrowing time to work on this anymore.  I found a little time to install the amp, speaker and speaker grill.  I received my speaker grill a little after I got my monster of a speaker.  They each were ordered from Mikes Arcade and Quarter Arcade respectively.  The speaker looked to be an excellent reproduction while the grill was an original.  It still had DK blue on it.     It was a little scratched up in spots but a quick rub down with 400 grit, a shot of semi-gloss and it was like new.  The speaker grill was 1/8 taller than the MDF speaker grill.  This was of no fault to the grill itself.  I believe my measurements were off on the cab itself.  A quick haircut with my tin snips and everything fell into place.   

One thing that also threw me off was the connectors to the speaker.  Most loose speakers that I have dealt with have the same connector size and are marked accordingly.  IE The positive is marked red and the negative is black.  With a quick search I found this cool little tutorial to determine your speakers polarity.  After that it was easy enough to wire to my amp.


After everything was put together I put my control panel on to see how much clearence I had.  Oooohooo.  Dat's close.   


Glad my amp is tiny.  I found this little guy over at Amazon.  Wish I had seen one of these for my weecade.  Could have used the room.  It doesn't matter.  I have a feeling that my weecade is going to be pieced apart for other grander ideas. 


A quick note on the sound.  I know that these are only arcade sounds but some of the sound effects sound hollow.  I am going to see if I can merge the channels down to one in Windows and see if that helps any since I am only running on one channel.

Besides getting my coin plates installed into my newly resurrected coin door that was all I could accomplish for the day.  Hopefully I can get my coin door in place and I'll just have to order my bezel glass and artwork and she'll be ready for prime time.

[jdbailey1206]

Yesterday I went to eplastics.com and priced out the sheet of plexiglass I needed.  Their pricing was fine but to ship it across the States cost just as much as the plexiglass itself did.  Yuck.  Had to find someone locally (which I should have done in the first place) and I think I'm in luck. 

Last night I took a couple hours before bed and finally got my coin door in and wired.  I can't get an overall quality picture of the coin door.  The paint I used was Rust-Oleums Texture Black Spray Paint.  Maximus used it on his DK restore and it really looked great on his coin door. 

You can see the texture of the paint below but it doesn't give you the punch it does in real life.


I knew when I ran the wire from the coin door to Kade I would have to make a break in the wire in case the CP had to be serviced.  I thought I would have to hack some smaller computer molex connectors but ChanceKJ pointed me in the direction of Digikey and sent me the molex connector part numbers he used on his Flynn build.  It was greatly appreciated.


Finally I wired the other end to my coin door and zip tied it to my USB extension cord.  Now when I have to service the cp all I have to do is open the coin door and do two quick wire disconnects and the CP is free.


Hopefully I can get my plexi squared away at lunch and I'll be sitting pretty.  It may take me some time to get the art work all printed out but if I purchase it over the next month or two I should be fine.

[wp34]

I picked-up an old Nintendo cabinet a few weeks ago.  I used your Liquid Blue swath idea to compare the blue's and apparently my cabinet is a little darker blue than a regular DK (or FIF).  I didn't realize there was that much variation in the colors.

If you need this color and can't access the internet in the paint store I found that Behr's Liquid Blue was almost an exact match for the Donkey Kong blue.  It's not perfect but damn close.

[Santoro]

Love the way this is turning out.  Looks factory fresh!

[koolmoecraig]

This is just great.  I love the serial # plate.

I have been out of the hobby for a while.  Is this run in MAME?  If not, what is the optimum set up for a cabinet running Fix it Felix and nothing else?  A friend of mine has been begging me to build her one.  Excuse my thread hijack but something tells me you know the answer.

[meyer980]

This is just great.  I love the serial # plate.

I have been out of the hobby for a while.  Is this run in MAME?  If not, what is the optimum set up for a cabinet running Fix it Felix and nothing else?  A friend of mine has been begging me to build her one.  Excuse my thread hijack but something tells me you know the answer.

The Fix It Felix software runs in Windows, but MAME isn't needed. There's actually a few different versions of the software, the "official" version used by Disney leaked and is pretty easy to find online. When you add on Howard_Castro's wrapper found in this thread, it's actually pretty decent. http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,135805.0.html (Without the wrapper you can't change controls, high scores don't save, and it adds a few other nice things)

There's also two scratch made alternatives. One by Sjaak from this forum, another by BadBoyBill (on KLOV I think?) Neither are publicly releasing their versions but they did allow a few to test, and both of theirs look amazing with many cool features. You can drool all over Sjaaks software/cabinet in this thread, he did a great job. http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=129479.0

Anyway, back to your question. All you'd really need for a dedicated fix it felix is a cabinet, windows pc, the software, and some way to interface it (jpac or ipac, what have you) That's all Disney did! Here's a video showing the inside of one of the real cabs.

[koolmoecraig]

Thank you for taking the time to compile and post all of that information!

One question I was wondering - I was playing a one of the "real" ones at Disneyland and they have both a "Fix" and "Hop" button.  Thing is, Felix hops when you push up on the joystick so the "Hop" button is redundant.  I actually played 10 times better when I stopped trying to use the hop button.

Am I missing something here with that button?

[jdbailey1206]

Moe - The reason for the hop button is for when the large pieces of brick are in the way.  Then you can "hop" over them.

[Sjaak]

Moe - The reason for the hop button is for when the large pieces of brick is the way.  Then you can "hop" over them.

Correct, you will not get past level 3 without the hop button

[ridicrick]

Awesome work man! Great build!

Here is something I have been working on that you might enjoy. Had a custom lexan overlay cover made. I then reverse printed and put it on the back of the overlay. It turned out amazing and professional looking just like it would have been in the 80s (but only screen printed). The translucent look before I added the white also looked very cool.

Also I am looking into have 100 authentic serial plates made with numbers stamped out 1-100 of course. I will post them if I do get them made.

[jdbailey1206]

Rick - Did you consider doing this with the monitor bezel also?

[ridicrick]

I am actually doing this with not only the bezel but also the marquee. The way these light up is 10x better then the translucent vinyl inkjets print on for marquees. But this cost more as its two sets of vinyl instead of one. Im also doing pinball playfield plastics like this.

[jdbailey1206]

What is it gonna run?

[meyer980]

redicrick, consider me interested too.

[ridicrick]

PMs sent

[SORHP]

I may be in for this also with my orders I'm placing

[pinballsmith]

My cab looks exactly the same as the one on youtube. Disney painted the entire inside including the wood that holds the computer black on mine. I've been noticing the leaked version is surprisingly easier than the final version used in the cabs.

[404]

I've been noticing the leaked version is surprisingly easier than the final version used in the cabs.

ghost the drive
accidentally leave a copy lingering somewhere on the intarwebz 

[jdbailey1206]

Okay guys.  I know I'm repeating myself but don't expect much out of this topic for the next month.  I have gotten the cab to the point where all I need is to find the monitor bezel and pay for and apply the artwork.  I just jumped on to give some quick responses and post the pictures I took (finally) of the coin door up close.

WP - Wow.  That is a real drastic difference from the color I have on my cab.  My paint color was taken from Choppers paint colors which he found on his cab when he was refurbishing it.

Nice DK cab.  LCD doesnt look bad behind the plexi either... What paint codes did you use for your blue??

I removed the control/speaker panel side and took the whole piece in to SW. Underneath one of the corner blocks was a great area to match from that had not seen the light of day since built..

The only thing I can really think of is that your paint has faded over the years.  I'm just wondering if there is a hidden place on your cab you can find that has been protected and will show a different shade of blue. 


Santoro -  Thanks for the kind words.  I took my time on this cab and I am really happy with it so far.  It even plays well.  I can't wait to get the artwork on and call it finished. 

koolmoecraig - I was really happy on the way the serial plate turned out.  It wasn't hard for me to replicate the DK serial plate and put my own spin on it.  I want to thank CoreyBee also for the excellent, quick, and easy tutorial he has on making these beauties.  Sorry I didn't respond to your earlier questions but it looks like meyer980 more than helped with that.  Kudos to him.

ridicrick - Love the artwork man.  I'm glad you have ventured into doing something original with the artwork.  We have already talked over PM and I think once you get the monitor bezel's worked up I am going to order one for my cab.

pinballsmith - I've played the leaked version and I have to agree that the leaked version is almost tedious to play.  I never got a chance to play it in the park (too far in either direction) but the leaked version gives me the feeling that I am playing Pong.  Fun?  Yes.  Not really demanding and tedious?  You bet.  Also thanks for posting a picture of the cab.  I was going to go with a tinted monitor bezel but now that I know the originals aren't tinted I can just go with plain ol' lexan.  I avoided painting the entire inside of my cab.  I wanted to give it the feel of the DK cab which is not entirely painted and I also didn't want the sides to distort in case the paint soaked in and distorted the sides of the cab. 
 
404 - With all of your luck I think it should be more than fair for someone to 'linger' you a copy.    

Finally just a few quick pictures of the coin door.  I couldn't get a good shot in my dark basement but my brother in law helped me move the cab upstairs and I snapped some pictures in a well lit room to show not only how well the textured paint came out but also the Bondo filler worked.  The paint may not be what was on the coin door originally but I really like how it turned out.

Before:  (Dents,scratches, stickers, and bends.)


There was a gigantic dent in the middle of the door underneath the sticker.  I filled it with my Bondo filler and after paint it's like it never even existed.


After:



Close up goodness:
I really like how well the coin face plates and coin door look together.



Thats all for now.  I will still be haunting the forums so don't be afraid to ask any questions.  I will always check on the topic.  I just won't be posting that many updates.  I just hope it doesn't take me another month to update.   

[pinballsmith]

Wanted to mention that the real Felix cabinets were not painted in Liquid Blue, and they also primed the cabinets in a black enamel before the blue went on.

[wp34]

That coin door looks fantastic.  How did you clean up the coin mechs?

[jdbailey1206]

Wanted to mention that the real felix cab is painted in Liquid Blue, but the primer they used was black. It makes the blue slightly darker.

Yeah.  The original paint code from Choppers DK cab is a real close match to liquid blue.  The picture I took doesn't do the match justice.

That coin door looks fantastic.  How did you clean up the coin mechs?

The door itself just came with the service switch and counter attached to the back.  I picked up my coin mechs here.  I didn't want the machine itself to be coin operated so I removed the coin mechs from the face plates, installed the face plates, and wired up switches to act as the coins when the coin rejection button is pushed.  The idea itself was 'borrowed' from Choppers Dk build.

[wp34]

The door itself just came with the service switch and counter attached to the back.  I picked up my coin mechs here.  I didn't want the machine itself to be coin operated so I removed the coin mechs from the face plates, installed the face plates, and wired up switches to act as the coins when the coin rejection button is pushed.  The idea itself was 'borrowed' from Choppers Dk build.

Thanks!   

[koolmoecraig]

If you make the full art kit available - Lexan CPO, Bezel, Marquee, Side art and Serial plate, I would be interested and I'm sure many others would be as well. Might be a nice was to defer your costs?

[SORHP]

A quick note on the sound.  I know that these are only arcade sounds but some of the sound effects sound hollow.  I am going to see if I can merge the channels down to one in Windows and see if that helps any since I am only running on one channel.

just curious if you got the sound issue worked out, and what you did?

Thanks man, love the thread

[jdbailey1206]

A quick note on the sound.  I know that these are only arcade sounds but some of the sound effects sound hollow.  I am going to see if I can merge the channels down to one in Windows and see if that helps any since I am only running on one channel.

just curious if you got the sound issue worked out, and what you did?

Thanks man, love the thread

SORHP - I went into my Windows sound settings and played with it until it sounded correct.  It's been a while since I had heard anything from a single speaker.  I am so use to having a 5.1 system for gaming it's really odd reverting back to mono sound.

If you make the full art kit available - Lexan CPO, Bezel, Marquee, Side art and Serial plate, I would be interested and I'm sure many others would be as well. Might be a nice was to defer your costs?

Craig - I did not create the artwork I am using.  It was created by ridicrick.  If you read earlier on this page you can see what avenue he is taking with creating the physical artwork and I will most likely be going with him.  I would PM him for the artwork package.  I sent you a PM with the serial plate artwork.  If you go to the second page of this thread there is a detailed explanation on how I physically created it.  Don't worry about compensating me for the serial plate.  I've been on here for two years and guys are always helping me out.  Le Chuck helped me with artwork when I first got on and 404 saved my butt last week by soldering my Minimus AVR (mentioned earlier in the thread) back together.  Think of it as paying forward.

[pinballsmith]

Some more news from the front! The color was actually a custom mixed blue color. I should have the color code sometime in the near future. As for the brand of paint... They used whatever this brand is. It's too hard to tell from the pictures I have though.

[jdbailey1206]

Some more news from the front! The color of the Disney Felix cabs is not Liquid Blue. The color is actually a common rustoleum spray paint called Aqua Satin. It looks slightly darker as it's sprayed over a matte black primer.

Crap.  Now I have to burn my cab to the ground and start over.   

[pinballsmith]

Some more news from the front! The color of the Disney Felix cabs is not Liquid Blue. The color is actually a common rustoleum spray paint called Aqua Satin. It looks slightly darker as it's sprayed over a matte black primer.

Crap.  Now I have to burn my cab to the ground and start over.   

lol. I'm enjoying your build immensely and wouldn't change a thing.

[cadajr]

fascinating thread to follow---enjoying all the pictures.  any new updates?

[ChanceKJ]

I knew when I ran the wire from the coin door to Kade I would have to make a break in the wire in case the CP had to be serviced.  I thought I would have to hack some smaller computer molex connectors but ChanceKJ pointed me in the direction of Digikey and sent me the molex connector part numbers he used on his Flynn build.  It was greatly appreciated.

    yay!  I'm just seeing this now. Love it.  Makes me want to build a DK replica cab.

[jdbailey1206]

Hey everybody.

It's been a busy year for me.  Work mostly and once it slows down a little bit (hopefully here in June) I'm going to hop back on this build.  The only major aspect I am waiting on is artwork.  RidicRick over at Arcade Skins posted earlier in the topic build about creating a double print on lexan and I have contacted him on Arcade Skin's website, here on BYOAC, and over at the KLOV Forums.  Once he returns my emails I am going to order the artwork and I should be close to finishing the build.

[shdwknt]

are you using a rom or a custom built image?  I want to do this in a mini cab that would fit on my desk - any information would be great.. thanks!

[underoath23]

I too have been trying to contact Rick. The artwork is all I have been missing for a while. Just want to finish it out.

[ChanceKJ]

Why not go with a different printer? If you can't get ahold of the guy, that's not good.

[underoath23]

Im going to end up having to do that. Just wanted Rick since he has done such great work designing everything and such, figured Id let him do it.
I will have to figure out the dimensions I need and have it done here in town. And suggestions on what to have the marquee printed on. Dont want it to be too think and kill the light behind it.

Thanks guys!

[Sjaak]

Im going to end up having to do that. Just wanted Rick since he has done such great work designing everything and such, figured Id let him do it.
I will have to figure out the dimensions I need and have it done here in town. And suggestions on what to have the marquee printed on. Dont want it to be too think and kill the light behind it.

Thanks guys!

Print on transparent foil or directly on plexi...

[jdbailey1206]

Im going to end up having to do that. Just wanted Rick since he has done such great work designing everything and such, figured Id let him do it.
I will have to figure out the dimensions I need and have it done here in town. And suggestions on what to have the marquee printed on. Dont want it to be too think and kill the light behind it.

Thanks guys!

Print on transparent foil or directly on plexi...

[Sjaak]

OK, let's try this again.

You can either print on transparent foil (it's called 210 µm Backlit foil). It's thin plastic foil which let's through light. Than you put that between two plexi plates.



Or have it printed on the back of plexi with a white backing, so you have this:

----white layer-------------
----marquee graphics----
----plexi---------------------

[jdbailey1206]

I have to say Sjaak that your marquee looks a lot better than what I had purchased for my previous cab.  Where did you get it done?

[Sjaak]

I have to say Sjaak that your marquee looks a lot better than what I had purchased for my previous cab.  Where did you get it done?

Foil at https://www.onlineprinters.com/
Plexi at http://www.pixartprinting.com/wide-format/printing-flat-bed-rigid-materials/perspex/

Not sure if they ship to the US

[jdbailey1206]

Great!  Did you just do your marquee with printed plexi or was the cp and monitor bezel printed on also?

[Sjaak]

Great!  Did you just do your marquee with printed plexi or was the cp and monitor bezel printed on also?

I just did the marquee. The cp is just a vinyl sticker. I think the original cabinet is also a sticker with clear plexi on top.

My bezel is also a sticker on glass. The difficulty with printing on plexi is that most printers can not print white. White becomes transparent. To fix this, a white layer is put on the entire backside of the plexi, making all the transparent parts, white.

[jdbailey1206]

Im aware printers dont print pure white.    From what I read it seems to me that when the process is done it was done with a silk screening process which of course can be done in white.  I took a quick look at pixarts web site and it looks promising.  I found one compreable here in the states and they wanted $170.00 for the marquee alone.  Im gonna check tonight with pixart.  Hopefully their price is a little better.   

Good to hear that the monitor bezel and cp are regular prints.  The company I used last time did a great job and I can order from them again.

Thanks again for all the insight Sjaak. 

[Sjaak]

I found one compreable here in the states and they wanted $170.00 for the marquee alone.  Im gonna check tonight with pixart.  Hopefully their price is a little better.   

$170 is way too expensive, I ordered 4 of them for $68 (including shipping)

[ChanceKJ]

Did you check with Brad? Not 100% sure if that helps, but working with him for my art was the best decision I ever made.

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,134866.0.html

[jdbailey1206]

It has been awhile since my last update.  A lot has happened in my personal life and with that I have not had much time to work on my FFJR cab.  No major work has to be done and I am just slowly accumulating all of the artwork.  That being said I purchased the marquee.  I went with Sjaak's advice and went with pixart printing.  Needless to say I was  completely impressed.  I would highly recommend pixart printing if you are looking for a marquee that pops.  Anyway...Enough of me plugging pixart printing.  On to the showcase.   

When I opened the package I was taken aback on how well this resembled a true arcade marquee.  I believe this is how I am going to do marquees from now on.


I could not believe how reflective this was.  But once I pseudo installed it in front of the marquee light it really gave that original look.





By the end of the month I hope to get the control panel and monitor bezel artwork printed out.  After that I am going to send the cab to its permanent home.  More to come. 

[Sjaak]

The marquee looks amazing!

[jdbailey1206]

The marquee looks amazing!

Thanks Sjaak.   I couldnt quite figure out why you ordered yours with the black on the top and bottom but pixart only allows their custom plexi to be no smaller than a certain size.  So I also had to compensate for the size difference. 

I still have to cut mine to size but I am reluctant to do so.  Afraid I might scar the plexi in the process.  It so shiny!

[Sjaak]

The marquee looks amazing!

Thanks Sjaak.   I couldnt quite figure out why you ordered yours with the black on the top and bottom but pixart only allows their custom plexi to be no smaller than a certain size.  So I also had to compensate for the size difference. 

I still have to cut mine to size but I am reluctant to do so.  Afraid I might scar the plexi in the process.  It so shiny!

Just sandwich the plexi between two sheets of mdf with the part you want to cut off sticking out. Then use a router with a copy bit (or a flush trim bit) to cut off the plexi.

[yotsuya]

That looks great, jd. Can you give us a brief walkthrough of your purchasing experience? 

[jdbailey1206]

That looks great, jd. Can you give us a brief walkthrough of your purchasing experience? 

What kind of info were you looking for yotsuya?

[yotsuya]

I'm just curious how the whole process went. I've never ordered from an overseas vendor.

[jdbailey1206]

I'm just curious how the whole process went. I've never ordered from an overseas vendor.

I was reluctant myself but I couldn't pass it up after seeing the result that Sjaak had received.  It has been two months since I have placed the order but if I remember correctly the whole process only took about a week.  It was nice to be able to upload my artwork directly to the website.  I would love to get my monitor bezel done through them but there is not a good process to only print a border.  ie I cant print around the edge of the monitor bezel.  I should contact them to see if it is possible but with all that is going on right now I don't have the time.  If I could get it done it would really blow the alternative of the applique on lexan out of the water.

I ended up paying close to $70 for my marquee but the high quality product they printed was well worth the money.  Also from the back you can see very tiny (and I do mean tiny) spots where the ink didn't take but it is completely unnoticeable from the front.

Again all in all I am very impressed with the outcome.  On a side note I received another package from them with business cards from the UK in them.  My bank account wasn't charged and I haven't been contacted about it.  Oh well.  I hope no one gets in dutch for the snafu. 

[SORHP]

Great Work here.... I may do this to mine some day

[jdbailey1206]

SORHP - I have to give credit for the previous idea to chopperthedog.  He did it for his Donkey Kong build and it was what I needed because I never wanted people to pay for playing the game but I still needed a way for them to apply credits without having a random button sticking out of the cab. 

[ChanceKJ]

This really makes me want to build a nintendo cab once i'm don't Flynn's.

Science knows i have parts laying around.

[jdbailey1206]

This really makes me want to build a nintendo cab once i'm don't Flynn's.

Science knows i have parts laying around.

What?   

[ChanceKJ]

Holy crap...

Sorry my mind was elsewhere when I typed that. I meant to type:

"This really makes me want to build a nintendo cab once i'm done my Flynn's build.

Science knows I have parts laying around."

(The autocorrect on my Mac replaces "Lord", "God" etc, with things like: "Science", and "Science!"... Don't ask) 

[jdbailey1206]

Some programers joke.   Kinda comical.  If youre a computer science would be your creator.  From your work on your Flynn cab I would love you do something more simplified like a Nintendo cab.

[ChanceKJ]

I have been wanting to do a DK Replica. But I'd like to have it be able to play DK1-3, Mario Bros, FixIt, and Popeye. Tall order if I want to avoid mame a I know.  Might have to try and find a DK/Mario 3in1 combo board and leave it at that.

[yotsuya]

I have been wanting to do a DK Replica. But I'd like to have it be able to play DK1-3, Mario Bros, FixIt, and Popeye. Tall order if I want to avoid mame a I know.  Might have to try and find a DK/Mario 3in1 combo board and leave it at that.

DKs are vertical, Mario Bros and Popeye are horizontal. Don't think you'll find such a board.

[ChanceKJ]

I know. But there's also that Namco 3-in-1. It's just a thought. you know me, I'd figure something out. 

[yotsuya]

I know. But there's also that Namco 3-in-1. It's just a thought. you know me, I'd figure something out.

Fathers, hide your NUCs. ChanceKJ is back in town. 

[jdbailey1206]

Your only option looks like you would have to do a MAME setup.  Maximus Arcade, though a little exspensive while most FE's are free, lets you use the program as a base while changing the graphics load screens etc.  you can use it for a 30 day free trial to see if you enjoy it. 

 The good thing with having a cab that large is you could almost do a rotating monitor.  And when I say space I mean SPACE.  Roomy enough for me to be able to reach in the cab and paint one side without really bumping the opposite side.  And if you want the extra room you could always make a wideboy.

[nordemoniac]

Foil at https://www.onlineprinters.com/
Plexi at http://www.pixartprinting.com/wide-format/printing-flat-bed-rigid-materials/perspex/

Not sure if they ship to the US

Hmm. Is it the "Adhesive film" option? I noticed they have DIN-A1 at €18 including shipping! Perfect for control panels.
Is it sticky on the back or front? I just didn't understand how you mounted it to the plexi. The result is amazing!
Also, I noticed that they don't print white. IMO that's great for bezels, as you don't have to cut out the details, but what if you need white details? White vinyl sticker first, then bezel?

[Sjaak]

Foil at https://www.onlineprinters.com/
Plexi at http://www.pixartprinting.com/wide-format/printing-flat-bed-rigid-materials/perspex/

Not sure if they ship to the US

Hmm. Is it the "Adhesive film" option? I noticed they have DIN-A1 at €18 including shipping! Perfect for control panels.
Is it sticky on the back or front? I just didn't understand how you mounted it to the plexi. The result is amazing!
Also, I noticed that they don't print white. IMO that's great for bezels, as you don't have to cut out the details, but what if you need white details? White vinyl sticker first, then bezel?

If you want your marquee printed on the back of plexi (like we did), use pixartprinting -> Rigid Media -> Plexi Glass, then choose size and the following material: Clear Polycarbonate (Perspex) 3 mm and make sure you enable "Printing white"

If you want a marquee on thin backlit foil, use onlineprinters.com -> Digital Print -> Posters/Plots, then choose size and the following material: 210 µm backlit film (light box film) for outdoor usage - front side matt

Neither method can be used for bezels!

[nordemoniac]

Thanks!

So can the "backlit foil" be the film applied on thin plexiglass, and then plexiglass in front of that?

How about bezel, you'll need something with glue on the front right? A sandwiched bezel would be a bit overkill

[Sjaak]

Thanks!

So can the "backlit foil" be the film applied on thin plexiglass, and then plexiglass in front of that?

How about bezel, you'll need something with glue on the front right? A sandwiched bezel would be a bit overkill

No, the backlit foil has no "sticky" side, just put it between two pieces of plexi. But the printed plexi is much nicer.

I haven't found a solution for the bezel, these two options will not work for sure. It's difficult to find a printer that can print white and can "print" transparant.

[jdbailey1206]

Nord - our option here in the states is to go to a printer like Gameongrafix where they can print the monitor bezel and cp artwork and we can apply them to them respectivley.  I am not going to sandwich my monitor bezel but I am going to sandwich my cp artwork between the panel itself and some thin plexi.

[jdbailey1206]

Well it has been over a year for this build and I am getting towards the end.  I spent the past two days getting little nuances taken care of.  I spent Friday night finishing up the small things in Windows.  I removed the password protection, changed my wallpaper to the classic 'Winners Dont use drugs', and finally figured out how to make my keyboard shutdown shortcut work properly.  I was getting to the point where a lot of combos didnt work and kept rotating the screen rotation software I had installed.  I finally realized that keyboard shortcuts were enabled on the software and once they were disabled I used Crtl+Alt+6 and it can now be shutdown without use of the keyboard.

Today I cut my marquee and my monitor bezel to size.  I was really reluctant to do so because I had the marquee printed on plexi and it cost me close to $70.  It had to be done though so I bit the bullet. And of course I messed it up slightly.  The flush bit I used did not have the guide tightned down so the first couple inches of my cut was wobbley.  It doesnt really matter though.  The cut is hidden and I cant even tell. 

My monitor bezel didnt fair much better.  The first one I cut was accidently dropped when I was peeling the plastic from the acrylic and I created a big scratch when I tried to catch it between my knee and the wood stool I had placed the plastic on.  Needless to say it left a big goige right down the center.     This piece fit perfectly.  The next piece I cut was less then perfect and the cuts were jagged leaving small spaces in between the bezel and the sides of the cab.  Ill head back to one of the big box stores tomorrow and get another piece to cut.  Third times a charm, right?   

The last thing I have to finish is artwork.  All I have to do is find the best printer at the right price and Ill be golden. 

[ChanceKJ]

The last thing I have to finish is artwork.  All I have to do is find the best printer at the right price and Ill be golden.

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,134866.0.html

Wouldn't use anyone else myself.

[jdbailey1206]

I was thinking of using Brad.  Im working 13 hour days and have a 3 month old so having time to get to a local printer is scarce.  He is in my top 3 printers I am looking at right now.  I havent emailed him for a quote but I did some math based on his topic here and he seems to be the most reasonable.  We'll see what happens.

[ChanceKJ]

Even if he was a bit more. Personally I'd  always pay a little more when quality of products and service is that good.

[yotsuya]

Even if he was a bit more. Personally I'd  always pay a little more when quality of products and service is that good.

Agreed. The quality and service is outstanding.

[jdbailey1206]

Even if he was a bit more. Personally I'd  always pay a little more when quality of products and service is that good.

Tru dat.

[anx10us]

It has been awhile since my last update.  A lot has happened in my personal life and with that I have not had much time to work on my FFJR cab.  No major work has to be done and I am just slowly accumulating all of the artwork.  That being said I purchased the marquee.  I went with Sjaak's advice and went with pixart printing.  Needless to say I was  completely impressed.  I would highly recommend pixart printing if you are looking for a marquee that pops.  Anyway...Enough of me plugging pixart printing.  On to the showcase.   

When I opened the package I was taken aback on how well this resembled a true arcade marquee.  I believe this is how I am going to do marquees from now on.

Hi

I've been lurking your thread for some time and you have inspired me to build my own cabinet, I have been looking at various options for bezel, cpo and marquee. As I am UK based then pixart seems like a god place to get a marquee printed up. I have followed the instructions on which options to choose, however the only art I have is 540x135, I am in effect missing the black borders to take the marquee up to the minimum height on 200mm.  By the looks of it you added a black border top and bottom ? The crucial piece of information I am missing is what size these borders are top and bottom ? Do you have the artwork you used in pdf or jpg ?

Many Thanks

Simon

[Sjaak]

Hi

I've been lurking your thread for some time and you have inspired me to build my own cabinet, I have been looking at various options for bezel, cpo and marquee. As I am UK based then pixart seems like a god place to get a marquee printed up. I have followed the instructions on which options to choose, however the only art I have is 540x135, I am in effect missing the black borders to take the marquee up to the minimum height on 200mm.  By the looks of it you added a black border top and bottom ? The crucial piece of information I am missing is what size these borders are top and bottom ? Do you have the artwork you used in pdf or jpg ?

The minimum print height is 200mm, so you can just add a 1cm border to the top and 5.5cm to the bottom, or 2cm at the top and 4.5cm at the bottom, or 3cm top and 3.5 bottom, etc. As long as the height is 20cm, it doesn't matter how big the borders are.

[anx10us]

Ah ok, I did wonder if there was some specific size for top and bottom due to the size of the marquee retainers ? I shall get one ordered today, one final question (probably) did you get the CPO made in the same way ?

Thanks

Simon

[Sjaak]

Ah ok, I did wonder if there was some specific size for top and bottom due to the size of the marquee retainers ? I shall get one ordered today, one final question (probably) did you get the CPO made in the same way ?

Thanks

Simon

Just remember that you have to cut off most of the black to fit the marquee.
And, no, I just used a sticker for the cpo

[anx10us]

Thanks for the information, I don't suppose you still have the original pdf or jpg you used with pixart ? No worries if you haven't, I will fire up gimp and try and figure it out :-)

[jdbailey1206]

Thanks for the information, I don't suppose you still have the original pdf or jpg you used with pixart ? No worries if you haven't, I will fire up gimp and try and figure it out :-)

Sorry anx.  I nuked the file after I sent it off to be printed back in September.  And the guy I got it from hasn't been active since March.  Gimp is a good way to go.  I have been in your shoes and needed artwork for a cab.  I'm more partial to Inkscape and I have found that if you have a jpeg of the artwork you need you can just import it and make a vectorized copy.  The funny thing is you can make a better copy than what is actually available.

So heeding everyone's advice I talked to Brad yesterday and I am sending him my artwork later today.  As everyone has said he is very laid back and the beginning of our transaction has been effortless.  Can't wait to get the artwork on the machine so she can go to her forever home. 

I had a little hiccup while measuring the CP for the artwork.  Just like last time I almost bent the head off of the KADE controller.     *in my best Norm Macdonald impression*  Note to self:  Put the KADE controller in cab and not on CP for next build. 

[JDFan]

Thanks for the information, I don't suppose you still have the original pdf or jpg you used with pixart ? No worries if you haven't, I will fire up gimp and try and figure it out :-)

I downloaded a copy of the FIFjr artwork that was posted and still have it if you want I can upload it to my dropbox and send you a link. It has .eps,.psd and .jpg versions of most of the art (sideart,Bezel,Bezel instruction card, CPO in various layouts, CPO instruction card, Marquee) and is 173MB +\-.

EDIT : I went ahead and uploaded it while typing this so here is the link if you want it ( https://www.dropbox.com/s/ms276eju43l4g8q/Fix%20it%20Felix%20cabinet%20artwork.rar?dl=0 ) -- not sure exactly where I got it from but I believe it was earlier in this thread or another FIFJr thread on this forum but could not find the original link so uploaded my copy instead of linking to it !

[anx10us]

Thank you for the files, I have everything I need (almost), I have just printed out the plans at 1:1 for the side and off to get some MDF this afternoon, one tiny piece of information that I see different answers for is the inside dimensions of the front of the cabinet ? basically what size should the marquee and bezel be (and hence the front pieces of wood) ?

Thanks

Simon

[jdbailey1206]

Thank you for the files, I have everything I need (almost), I have just printed out the plans at 1:1 for the side and off to get some MDF this afternoon, one tiny piece of information that I see different answers for is the inside dimensions of the front of the cabinet ? basically what size should the marquee and bezel be (and hence the front pieces of wood) ?

Thanks

Simon

Both the Jakobud plans and Buick455 (his measurements are from an actual DK cab that can be found here ) have the inner width of the cab as 22 1/2 inches.  I built mine and just realized it is 22.375 or 22 3/8 inches.  Everything came together on mine oddly enough. 

[Rick]

Not to nitpick, but are there two spaces after the "of" in "Tobikomi of America" on the marquee? From the angle in the pictures, it kind of looks like it to me.



(Although, it may just be the way the pic appears, or else, the top of the capital "A" which is tricking my eyes.)

[jdbailey1206]

HA!  Never noticed that before.  It may very well be.  I didn't create the marquee so I don't know.  The artwork came from Ridicrick.  Too late now.  I already had the marquee printed and installed.

[yotsuya]

HA!  Never noticed that before.  It may very well be.  I didn't create the marquee so I don't know.  The artwork came from Ridicrick.  Too late now.  I already had the marquee printed and installed.

I wouldn't worry about it. There was all sorts of glitchy stuff on NOS items from arcade manufacturers.

[Rick]

I wouldn't worry about it. There was all sorts of glitchy stuff on NOS items from arcade manufacturers.

Exactly this. If anything, I find it more endearing when these little tidbits are found. Nothing is perfect, and even repros can look 'too perfect' if they're dead-on.

Personally, I'm envious of the cab. It looks pretty great.

[jdbailey1206]

Thanks fellas.  I'm really surprised my OCD isn't flipping out about it.  I worked hard on this cab and I hate to see her go.  But its only going 10 miles up the road to my parents house where it will fit in better.  My old man has a 'gaming room/bar' where it will get more use than if it was at my house.

[jdbailey1206]

Well I thought I was done with this project on Monday but I had a little hiccup.  I received my artwork from Lucian045 (Brad) on Monday.  Except when I opened the package the yellow on the CP and Bezel were more green than yellow.  I looked back at my mock ups I printed last year on another printer and noticed that they were indeed more green than yellow.  Just not as noticable.  I contacted Brad and he is sending me a mock up so we can print the correct yellow.  I want to thank Brad for how helpful he has been working with me.  I also want to thank my monitor for being a dick and showing me the wrong color.  I guess its my own fault for not remembering that when you print it can be physically different than what is one the screen.  I used to hate doing print work in college.   

Enough crying out of me.  Below I posted pictures of how well the artwork came out.  Besides the yellow of course.  Now on my monitor the pictures are showing up in yellow but IRL they are a yellowish puke green.  If anyone else sees a off yellow or a greenish color on any of the yellow please let me know.  IRL it is considerably noticeable and I wasn't going to have it on the cab after working so hard on the rest of the cab.

[pinballsmith]

Sorry for bringing this topic back up, but I did find a picture of the paint brand that was used. I also have the color code thanks to someone on the inside. I'm trying to fix some damage on my latest Felix machine and would love to use the exact same paint if anyone knows what this brand is.

[jdbailey1206]

I finally got all my artwork issues resolved.  Unfortunately I did not get the finished product through Brad.  He could not fix the yellow on the files I had sent him so he was awesome enough to refund me half my money (shipping and cost of materials).  I finally realized that the files I kept sending him were not completely vector.  They were saved as .eps but being a dummy I did not realize that the images that were contained in the file were raster.  Brad explained this to me and I hung up the phone.  Later that day I realized what I had done and instead of wasting anymore of Brads time I reworked the files over the weekend (into actual .ai vector files) and took them to a local printer where I could more of a hands on experience. 

My local printer printed me off a quick mock up of the files (so I could check the yellow this time  ) and I accepted them and had the artwork by Tuesday of the following week.

In the meantime I took the time to sand down and throw a couple of layers of Kilz on my control panel at the behest of those on the forum.  I'm glad I did because I would have wasted my CP artwork.  The paint doesn't give too much of a texture but enough to give something for the artwork to grab onto. 

Over the following weekend I was ready for my artwork.  The side art, which I thought would be the toughest, went on the easiest. 

The first thing I did was measure each side to see where exactly I wanted the artwork.  Now from what I have read on the internet there is only a 2 3/4" space between the top of the DK side art and the top of the cab.  That to me seemed a little high even for DK so I just looked online for the side of a FFJR cab and placed my artwork accordingly.  Most of the pictures I saw placed the bottom of the artwork even with the bottom of the speaker grill panel so I went with that.


To make sure my side art stayed in place I placed some tape to keep it from moving.  The larger piece of tape was to keep the artwork down when I removed the upper part of the backing to finally squeegee it in place.


After I got the side art like the picture above I cut off the small part of backing and squeegeed the top part to the cab then began peeling and applying pressure to the rest of the artwork which went on wonderfully. 

Final application goodness.



After the side art was applied I turned to the control panel.  In my haste of reordering the new artwork I forgot to tell my new printer that I needed a matte finish on my control panel.  After I got it applied with no problems I put the plexiglass on top and began to tighten down my bolts to keep the plexi in place.  As I did I realized that I was getting odd smudges all around where the bolts were putting pressure on the plexi.  I was also experiencing this problem even worse near where the push buttons were at.  Half way through I realized my artwork was gloss so when the plexi glass met the gloss of the CP it left smudges.  I already had my artwork applied and I was not going to rip it off and spend another $40.00 getting new artwork.  It was fixed easily enough by putting small, thin washers between the CP and the plexi.  You can see how poor it looked in the picture below before I put the washers in.  Note the lower corners and around the push buttons.



I also applied my coin door decal set from thisoldgame.com  I'll post a better picture when I take it.  The one I took is a little tilted.  I think I was high on paint fumes when I took it.   

I saved what I thought would be the easiest art to install for last.  This being the monitor bezel artwork.  I.  Was.  Wrong.     I should have known when you cut the middle out of something it would make the structural integrity weaken.  It took me two times to get it right.  The first one I tried, I ripped in half when I tried to apply it.  The second one was a little better.  I also used the wet method this time and it was easier to re-position.   I still had a tiny rip in the bottom left hand corner about 1/4" long but its hardly noticeable and I think it gives the bezel a NOS look.  Like it has been sitting in a warehouse for about thirty years until I dusted it off and placed it in my cab.   

Here is the machine sans bezel art:


And the bezel artwork applied:


Don't mind the black dots on some of the pictures.  They were taken with my phone and I forgot to clean my lens before I took the pics.

Well that is it for now.  The only thing I have to do is remap a credit button and I should be good.  I'll try to get some better pictures up when she heads to her forever home.  I also want to get a quick video shot of it being played.  We'll see how it goes. 

I learned a lot on this cab.  Some things were new others were things I should have remembered from my weecade.  (Like how plexi and gloss artwork don't mix.) 

This is should be it on major updates.  The next one probably wont happen until its moved in the spring.  As much as I want it traveling in the open bed of my truck in this wonderful Michigan weather.     I also wanted this cab done by the end of last year to hopefully get nominated for the UCA but, Hell, how many times can a FFJR be nominated for a dedicated fullsize.  Props to Sjaak for winning last year.  He was a major influence on me building this cab.

[ChanceKJ]

  lovely. Great job on this.

I'm interested to see the work you did on vectoring the art. I know just looking at the standard art package floating around that a good fully vectored version is a long overdue replacement. If you'll share that is seriously no pressure.

[Rick]

I'm interested to see the work you did on vectoring the art. I know just looking at the standard art package floating around that a good fully vectored version is a long overdue replacement. If you'll share that is seriously no pressure.

Another vote for this, if you'll share. I'm also interested in seeing the missing art from the movie incorporated into these builds - like the missing bezel instructions. I haven't seen anyone put these on a cabinet yet.

[jdbailey1206]

I'm interested to see the work you did on vectoring the art. I know just looking at the standard art package floating around that a good fully vectored version is a long overdue replacement. If you'll share that is seriously no pressure.

Another vote for this, if you'll share. I'm also interested in seeing the missing art from the movie incorporated into these builds - like the missing bezel instructions. I haven't seen anyone put these on a cabinet yet.

Chance - Just send a self addressed envelope along with your PlayChoice in a box and I'll see what I can do about sending you a copy on a flash drive.   

Rick - I do have a copy of the bezel instructions.  I was on the fence about putting it on there but I have a feeling it will end up being placed on.

[ChanceKJ]

Hmmm.... Sounds legit.

 

[ChanceKJ]

On second thought, you probably won't want it. I'm ripping it out of that SNES controller one day and repurposing it for a future Nintendo theme'd project. Then keeping the controller as a USB Device.

[jdbailey1206]

I forgot in my last post but I wanted to thank the following people for helping me in this endeavor:

Automark, meyer980, wp34, Generic Eric, Pixel Paul, Louis Tully, pinballsmith, jmike, YOTSUYA, Malenko, SORHP, talkgeek, 404, PL1, Santoro, koolmoecraig, Sjaak, ridicrick, ChanceKJ, JDFan, Rick.  (And anybody I forgot...)

If you were listed but didn't feel like you helped in any way your words of encouragement motivated me immensely.  I tend to get bored with things and your words helped me reach the finish.  Thanks again guys.   

[yotsuya]

I forgot in my last post but I wanted to thank the following people for helping me in this endeavor:

Automark, meyer980, wp34, Generic Eric, Pixel Paul, Louis Tully, pinballsmith, jmike, YOTSUYA, Malenko, SORHP, talkgeek, 404, PL1, Santoro, koolmoecraig, Sjaak, ridicrick, ChanceKJ, JDFan, Rick.  (And anybody I forgot...)

If you were listed but didn't feel like you helped in any way your words of encouragement motivated me immensely.  I tend to get bored with things and your words helped me reach the finish.  Thanks again guys.   

WTF? Why is my name so big?

[Rick]

WTF? Why is my name so big?

He's seen you in the showers?

[yotsuya]

WTF? Why is my name so big?

He's seen you in the showers?

Oh, ok.

[jdbailey1206]

As much as I wamt to make fun of Yots for having a small penis (ALLEDGELLY) I enlarged your name for shits and giggles.  You thanked me when you didnt have to and I returned the favor.

[yotsuya]

Man, my BYOACation can't come soon enough.

[ChanceKJ]

Wait, I was helpful??   

[yotsuya]

You thanked me when you didnt have to and I returned the favor.

Of course you helped. I wasn't going to do any bezel art, save for the instruction cards, and you gently nudged me in that direction (with YOUR small penis, btw). For that, I was grateful.

[Rick]

...you gently nudged me in that direction (with YOUR small penis, btw). For that, I was grateful.

So it didn't hurt that bad?
 

[jdbailey1206]

and you gently nudged me in that direction (with YOUR small penis, btw). For that, I was grateful.

[Generic Eric]

I forgot in my last post but I wanted to thank the following people for helping me in this endeavor:

Automark, meyer980, wp34, Generic Eric, Pixel Paul, Louis Tully, pinballsmith, jmike, YOTSUYA, Malenko, SORHP, talkgeek, 404, PL1, Santoro, koolmoecraig, Sjaak, ridicrick, ChanceKJ, JDFan, Rick.  (And anybody I forgot...)

If you were listed but didn't feel like you helped in any way your words of encouragement motivated me immensely.  I tend to get bored with things and your words helped me reach the finish.  Thanks again guys.   

Looks great!  Your pics were very detailed, and no doubt will help others. 

I still don't understand why there is such a large space between the CP and bottom of the bezel?

[ChanceKJ]

....I still don't understand why there is such a large space between the CP and bottom of the bezel?

What space? 

[Generic Eric]

....I still don't understand why there is such a large space between the CP and bottom of the bezel?

What space? 

[yotsuya]

That's part of the Nintendo cab design. Some cabs have instructions there, other's don't.

[ChanceKJ]

i can't tell if you're bugging him for not putting an instruction card, or if you seriously have never noticed that on Nintendo cabs before....

[Generic Eric]

That's part of the Nintendo cab design. Some cabs have instructions there, other's don't.

Now I understand.

@ChanceKJ
I couldn't place it, so I asked

[ChanceKJ]

The sad thing is i don't blame you, it brings to light a stark realization to me that i've been obsessing about Nintendo cabs for too long.   

[yotsuya]

The sad thing is i don't blame you, it brings to light a stark realization to me that i've been obsessing about Nintendo cabs for too long.   

Yes, yes it does. 

[ChanceKJ]

...you just wait till the weekend.

[jdbailey1206]

...you just wait till the weekend.

Why?  Wazgunna happen?  Huh?  What?  You tell me.  This is 'merica!  Now!  Tell me now!  Tell me wuzgunna happen. 

[ChanceKJ]

That's " 'Merica "

Im in Canada.

[yotsuya]

He's picking up a Nintendo cabinet, obviously. And since he's in Canada, it's either from a Mountie, a hockey player, or a small brown beaver. Duh.

[jdbailey1206]

[yotsuya]

No, that's not racist, that's stereotyping. Duh.

[ChanceKJ]

...or a small brown beaver.

Whaaaaat? Get outta town! Since when did your mom move to Saskatoon?

[yotsuya]

Dude, moms are off limits, bro. No bueno.

[ChanceKJ]

Since when?!

[yotsuya]

Since I promised your mom we were through!

[ChanceKJ]

Um...  You might want to go to a clinic and get checked.

...Seriously bro.


Edit: Here, i googled this for you:
http://www.stdcheck.com/?loc=Phoenix

Time is a factor.

[yotsuya]

Dude, that's your MOM you're talking about.

[ChanceKJ]

I'm aware.

And may i remind you, you're wasting valuable time. 

[yotsuya]

You should knock your block off for talking about your mother like that.

[ChanceKJ]

Speaking of blocks, i hear your mother's making better money working the corner of a new one.

[yotsuya]

Who hurt you, man?

[ChanceKJ]

   i've got another one for this,

really i do...

but i'm having a hard time typing because i'm laughing so hard.


we've destroyed this thread enough. 

[Generic Eric]

...you just wait till the weekend.

Why?  Wazgunna happen?  Huh?  What?  You tell me.  This is 'merica!  Now!  Tell me now!  Tell me wuzgunna happen.

Hey Zeus! ~maybe its got to do with the DK he has been sitting on~ calm your tassles

[jmike]

I forgot in my last post but I wanted to thank the following people for helping me in this endeavor:

Automark, meyer980, wp34, Generic Eric, Pixel Paul, Louis Tully, pinballsmith, jmike, YOTSUYA, Malenko, SORHP, talkgeek, 404, PL1, Santoro, koolmoecraig, Sjaak, ridicrick, ChanceKJ, JDFan, Rick.  (And anybody I forgot...)

If you were listed but didn't feel like you helped in any way your words of encouragement motivated me immensely.  I tend to get bored with things and your words helped me reach the finish.  Thanks again guys.   

Hey I made the "thank you" list ( ).
But seriously this looks incredible. I'm finally gathering up all the parts for my Fix It Felix cab.
I actually tried to install the side art the same way on my cabaret but had a bit of trouble. Thinking it would be easier to put the cab on its side to install the art next time.
Thoughts?

 

[ChanceKJ]

I prefer to do the art with the cab on its side. Removing gravity as a factor just seems like the way to go.

[jdbailey1206]

No, that's not racist, that's stereotyping. Duh.

Better?

we've destroyed this thread enough. 

No worries.  The only thing that sounds like it might be destroyed is Yot's dick. 

~ calm your tassles

That was prolly the most G Rated tassel gif I could find. 


But in all seriousness I thought about tipping the cab over but to save time I decided just to try the top part first with the cab upright.  It went pretty well so I threw caution to the wind and tried the rest and it came out fine.  The real problem came when I applied the monitor bezel artwork.  That was where I would like to see a tutorial.  Or any tricks people have used.  I watched a couple of videos online but they were useless.  It might have been the material I used also.  I used a vinyl with a grey backing to keep the light from shining through (which I prolly won't use again) and the material itself may be why it was so hard to apply.  Plus the glue seemed stronger on the bezel marquee material than the other vinyl. 

And Chance are you seriously sitting on a cab?  And speaking of your 'project', how many cabs are you working on in that thread?

[yotsuya]

No worries.  The only thing that sounds like it might be destroyed is Yot's dick. 

What's your fascination with my pee-pee all of a sudden, brah?

[jdbailey1206]

I was not the first to reference your tally whacker.

• He's seen you in the showers?
  

• (with YOUR small penis, btw). For that, I was grateful.
  

• Um...  You might want to go to a clinic and get checked.
  
  ...Seriously bro.
  
  
  Edit: Here, i googled this for you:
  http://www.stdcheck.com/?loc=Phoenix
  
  Time is a factor.
  

After all that penis referencing that went back and forth all you could remember is the two times I brought up your dick outside of this post?




Oh yeah.  I forgot to post this about moms. 


Okay now we have been officially derailed. 

[jdbailey1206]

As you can see above Rick that is the instruction card that, from what I could find was never on any of the manufactured FFJR cabs.  The funny thing is though if you watch the arcade scene in the beginning of Wreck It Ralph and you look closely you can see it on the cab.  I added a picture of the scene below.  Squint and you can see it. 




And as you can see in the photo below most of the Nintendo cabs had them.  You really cant see Popeye, Mario Bros, or Punch out but I believe Popeye and Mario Bros had one but  Punch out did not have one.  Mario Bros instruction card was larger and placed dead middle of the CP and Punch Out didn't have one due to the way the monitor bezel ran right into the control panel.

[ChanceKJ]

/Droool, now that's a good nintendo row.

When you say "sitting on a cab" you don't mean that literally, I hope?

And why do you get the impression that it's two... Er, more than one?

[jdbailey1206]

Never mind.  I saw your cocktail cab and assumed it was a DK cocktail but I was wrong.  Now that I see it I can see it is not.  Looks like you used it as a test bed.  So I can assume you have a Nintendo cab in the wings or you have built it already....

[jmike]

About to have the marquee printed can anyone confirm the dimensions?
Thanks.

 

[ChanceKJ]

Never mind.  I saw your cocktail cab and assumed it was a DK cocktail but I was wrong.  Now that I see it I can see it is not.  Looks like you used it as a test bed.  So I can assume you have a Nintendo cab in the wings or you have built it already....

...maybe.

[yotsuya]

Never mind.  I saw your cocktail cab and assumed it was a DK cocktail but I was wrong.  Now that I see it I can see it is not.  Looks like you used it as a test bed.  So I can assume you have a Nintendo cab in the wings or you have built it already....

...maybe.

You cabteaser, you!

[ChanceKJ]

You guys know me. If I had built it there would be a dozen pictures showing each type of screw or nail I used, from multiple angles.

I'm not 1000% sure I have what I'm looking at yet, so I didn't want to completely spill the beans. But I'm going to look at a cab on Saturday.

[Rick]

As you can see above Rick that is the instruction card that, from what I could find was never on any of the manufactured FFJR cabs. The funny thing is though if you watch the arcade scene in the beginning of Wreck It Ralph and you look closely you can see it on the cab. I added a picture of the scene below. Squint and you can see it.

That's the one issue I had when Disney produced their "original" FFJR cabinets: they weren't even true to their own movie, nor the history of the Nintendo cabs that they're emulating. I 'get' that they were creating a fictional set of cabinets - ones that 'could have' existed and have been used over the years - but why didn't they go overboard to create "the one" you see in the movie? Build the software with the cut-scenes that you see in the movie ("Hey! You moved my stump!") and make everything else functional?

 

[jdbailey1206]

Never mind.  I saw your cocktail cab and assumed it was a DK cocktail but I was wrong.  Now that I see it I can see it is not.  Looks like you used it as a test bed.  So I can assume you have a Nintendo cab in the wings or you have built it already....

...maybe.

@ Rick.  That's the Disney money making machine.  Get it out quick, make sure it's family friendly and watch the profits roll in.  Not a bad business strategy if you ask me. 

[Buick455]

I know your coin buttons were installed on the returns (I'll be stealing that idea). What did you do for other admin buttons?

[jdbailey1206]

Sorry for the late reply Buick.  I really don't have many admin buttons.  Since it's a computer running XP I made sure my 'front end' started right up in the beginning.  All I have to do is reach in the coin door, hit the power on the PC and wait for it start up.  Since I wanted this to feel like a real arcade game I really didn't need any other admin buttons.  To shut down the PC I just made a shortcut on the desktop to shut down the machine when I hold down the jump, fix, and if I remember right both credit buttons down.  I wish I could tell you what the sequence is but my machine is back home.  350 miles away.    

I have to install the dust washer, map the second credit button again, and this machine should be on its way.  Probably this weekend. 

[Buick455]

Good to hear you have almost got it finished up  I told myself "this isn't going to be another 5 year project" but progress is slow to nonexistent on my machine.. I have smartened up though, I'm gettin the machine completed and working then I will tear it down for paint and art.. I hope 

So I guess your also using a button combo for quitting game and going back to front end [escape]? The only reason I ask is b/c the temptation to install an escape button in the 2"-ish board under the CP/Speaker above the coin door is killing me

[jdbailey1206]

It's your cab.  If you feel it could work I wouldn't hesitate to try it out.  It worked well for Superfrog on his Nintendo bartop as seen below.

In the future I might add a couple of these little guys for admin purposes but I haven't decided either way.

[ARTIFACT]

I just love this project..... Beautiful work and pics. Makes me want to build another cab! My Artifact cabinet also has coin buttons on the Coin Returns

[itruk]

Hi there. Sorry to bump this... but I'm just starting to put together a Felix cab from scratch and have now got to the control panel..

I've got the artwork for the CPO, but I wasn't sure if it's best to have it printed out first before drilling holes into my new plywood. Which way round did you guys do it?

Thanks

[ChanceKJ]

Print an el-chepo copy of the CP art out at your local staples. Tape that to the wood, drill, the actual high quality print should line up just right. Well unless someone screws up on the printing.

The print at staples should cost about $3-$7 in their large format printer, and only take 5 minutes for them to do.

[jdbailey1206]

Print an el-chepo copy of the CP art out at your local staples. Tape that to the wood, drill, the actual high quality print should line up just right. Well unless someone screws up on the printing.

The print at staples should cost about $3-$7 in their large format printer, and only take 5 minutes for them to do.

Werd.  I was fortunate enough to have a "plotter" at work that we use for blueprints.   I went in early one day printed my mock ups and used that for a template so I wouldn't mess up the artwork.

[dbhjed]

This looks awesome! I played one of the Disney made ones at a museum by my house. I think looks in better shape, but from what I heard Disney made theirs looked worn in. But Great clean FIFJ cab!

[jdbailey1206]

I finally dropped off the old girl to the her forever home.  I was fortunate to get a break in the weather over Christmas.  It wasn't that hard to say goodbye and I know it will get a lot of use in my old man's basement.  He and mom are good for throwing parties where I know it will get used.
I can safely say that it might be a while if I build another one if at all.  Pictures below like usual.

[ChanceKJ]

.

[jdbailey1206]

Wait... That looks so small next to that door.  What wizardry is going on here?

That is the magic of an over sized door.

[ChanceKJ]

.

[jdbailey1206]

Nope.  Just the magic of craftsman making doors that are larger than the standard 6'8".   
































































And the magic spell I put on it to shrink it down so I could move it easier.