Something a little different. FINISHED for now. Added Web Album of Construction.

[Pixelhugger]

So it's the opposite of yours...a cabinet with no explanation! 

 

Yeah, I mean wheres the drama? The longwinded bloginess? The ridiculous OT rambling? WHERE ARE THE MOCKUPS? Sheesh. 

[Rom]

MaMeNnO The only artwork would be the control panel overlay. Being the type of cabinet it is I can't really see how art on the sides would add to it.

theCoder That's pretty much what I did. Created a skeleton out of mdf for the curves 3 pieces top, middle ad bottom and then glued thin strips of MDF to the frame. Got out the old sander and went to town smoothing it out. Any gaps were filled with builders bog.

This leads on to another lesson. As the cabinet was built over 2 years it meant the MDF I had been using had unfortunately got moisture. I only found out the hard way. The last summer of building when it came to painting, some of the filled screw holes would show. I spent a good few weekends sanding them down and then going over them with primer. Thought I  had finally got to a stage where this didn't continue. Alas I painted it in it's final coats.
Well.. sad to say.. when I finally moved it from the garage into my home it happened to be one of the driest and hottest summers here. Only then did I see the extent of the moisture. Basically all that work smoothing out the curves has gone to waste. You can see the strips. Almost like a poor attempt at gradation in photoshop - banding. 
To get it back to its vision of smooth curves would require a complete sanding down and repaint. Something that I'm not considering at this point in time.

Pixelhugger Tis a shame I lost a lot of my build photos. It would be a good exercise in what not to do. Iv'e seen your thread and I can see a lot of planning has gone into your creation the rigs you create etc. Mine would be a Tim the toolman Taylor account of cabinet building as the old skill saw was used a fair few times to trim things down. 

[Pixelhugger]

Mine would be a Tim the toolman Taylor account of cabinet building as the old skill saw was used a fair few times to trim things down. 

That only goes to show what an incredible job you did. I mean, look at the results. This is one of the most impressive and certainly one of the most creatively inspired cabs I've seen.

[Nannuu]

The saddest part for me is that I just don't play it. I got more enjoyment out of building than the final product. Everyone that sees it is impressed and in a way that gives me greater satisfaction than to turn it on and have a game myself. Strange how that turned out. I thought that it would cool to be able to play the old school games but it seems I've moved on from that.

Yep, I'm sure that'll be about the same for me.  I get more enjoyment out of building junk and others enjoying it.

That is a really nice looking cabinet.  Very cool design.
You can also take satisfaction from your art being used all over the world as well.  It seems to be a favorite of a lot of people.

[MameMaster!]

RETROBLASTED. (retroblast.com)

Awesome job!.....

[Rom]

Moved house in the last week so had to remove the computer from the cabinet for safe keeping. Thought I would use that opportunity to take some pics to show the housing for it. It's all made of wood (MDF) with polyurethane  to protect it.
As I mentioned before this was only necessary as I hadn't taken into account space inside for a small computer case.
The original 20" Philips screen came in handy for this. I removed the metal mesh surrounding the tube and cut it into pieces which then provided me with plenty of ventilation for the computer. Turned out quite well.
Making a case also gave me the benefit of being able to add connectors for the various functions as can be seen with the last pic.
Still like many things with the cabinet this wasn't planned. Guess that's the joy with such things you never know what's going to come up 

[Rom]

Been going through my old photo's and decided to give this web album thing a go. Not sure if Picasa is the best - would like to be able to link to photo's on a site so suggestions welcome for a better free site would be appreciated.

As had been mentioned I lost a lot of the very early construction photo's through formatting the wrong hard drive. 
Still if you're interested you can find more pictures of this cabinet here.

http://picasaweb.google.com/lifeonmarsnz


Still haven't gotten around to getting the control panel graphic printed. A flatmate used some kind of household cleaner on the perspex cover for the panel which has left it cloudy in places  so will have to replace that too.

[Zakk]

You should be able to buff the scloudiness out with a rubbing compound made for plexi (or whatever the hell perspex is!).  You really should finish it up, it's kind of sad seeing it ....almost... done.

Also, I think the black trackball looks cool (is it black?).  I nee nothing but white and blue ones here, and the black looks oldschool.

[Rom]

Zakk: I'll look into this compound you speak of. Would certainly save the hassle into trying to make another panel cover. It's not perspex but the other stuff. lol Been so long I've forgotten its name. The harder plastic which doesn't crack.
Was shocked to see it. She wouldn't let on to what she used which doesn't help. Cleaning up her child's mess and ended up making it worse. Oh well fingers crossed there is something I can use to remove it.

I take your request to task. I would dearly love to get the artwork printed and finally call it a day on this cabinet. I'll make it a New Years Resolution to get the artwork all printed up and on the cabinet.

-----------

On a side note, I had a look through the control panel thread and it's really cool to see the artwork I made so many years ago showing up on peoples cabinets. Thanks to those for choosing to use it. Gives me as big a buzz as seeing people play my cabinet.

[Pixelhugger]

If its the stuff that doesn't crack then I'm guessing its polycarbonate (Lexan). I don't believe that can be polished with the same compounds as plexi. You may want to be careful... on the other hand, if the only alternative is recutting it then maybe its a moot point.

[Franco]

Awesome cab Rom!   

I think this build must have been just before my time as I have never seen it.

I would like to say thanks to you for creating and sharing the 'tile explosion' art. I used it on my last cab and it is without a doubt my favourite artwork.

[Zakk]

If its the stuff that doesn't crack then I'm guessing its polycarbonate (Lexan). I don't believe that can be polished with the same compounds as plexi. You may want to be careful... on the other hand, if the only alternative is recutting it then maybe its a moot point.

I've polished the edges of lexan before, and it worked well, but admittedly I've never used the buffing/anti haze stuff on it, just on plexi. 

[Rom]

If its the stuff that doesn't crack then I'm guessing its polycarbonate (Lexan). I don't believe that can be polished with the same compounds as plexi. You may want to be careful... on the other hand, if the only alternative is recutting it then maybe its a moot point.

That's the stuff, Polycarbonate. Seen mention of Novus 2 will get some of that and fingers crossed it does the trick.

[Zakk]

novus, that's the stuff.  There's like a kit with 3 different bottles in it, as I recall it was like using different grits of sandpaper, and the final bottle was the haze and polish stuff.