My "Conference Call" Cocktail Cab (GLASS TOP TEASER PICTURE)

[Major Rock Hardy]

Time to put up or shut up, fish or cut bait, s**t or get off the pot, etc., etc...

I finally decided this morning before going to the shop that if I keep designing this damn thing I will never get to building it.  My eyes were bloodshot from staring at AutoCAD on the computer monitor so much yesterday.

Seems like on this forum you have to have a name for your project, so I pulled the "conference call" name out of ---my bottom--- just now.  It is a bit cheesy - I was trying to think of something that was synonymous with "executive" but now that I think about it... it fits very well (metaphorically) with one of the sayings at the beginning of this post (if you catch my drift).  If you have any better names, by all means, let me know.

So my inspirations for this project are many.  First was probably Whammoed's Whammocade.  Like it, this is a 27" multi-sync arcade monitor-based cocktail.  However, I wanted to be able to swap controls.  So another inspiration was this post:
http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=43236.0
Also, I wanted it to be really slick with stainless and cherry or mahogany stained wood but I was going to use wooden legs until I saw this:
http://arcadecontrols.com/arcade_news.php/2512
... and I thought, hey I can do that... oops.  Takes a bit of work to design with tubular legs in mind.

OK, so what equipment am I going to use?  See the following list.  NOTE: Most of the controls are USED arcade controls.
Controls:
Midway 49-way joysticks
Black leaf buttons
Custom-built spinners (by yours truly: http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=72027.0)
Atari 3" trackballs
Star Wars Yoke (or equivalent... I'm not 100% sure it came from a SW... the seller told me it did)
SF Rush Triple Pedals
4-way shifter
Interfaces
GGG GPWiz49s
Ultimarc A-Pac
Ultimarc Opti-Pac
Hacked Dual Strike

Well, blah blah, I'm sure anyone reading this is ready for some pictures so here goes.  Picture #1 is an AutoCAD rendering of my design.  The woodgrain isn't quite right, the glass top is not dark enough, and I have yet to draw in the bezel but here it is:


OK, so that's the design... now, to build it!  Next slide please...

... that would be me using the band saw today to cut the 2" diameter aluminum tubing to the correct length for the legs of the cabinet... actually a bit longer, so I can put them on the mill and end-mill the ends nice and flat.  That brings me to my next slide...

... the only thing I have to say is I had to use low range on the mill (~200 RPMs) because high range makes a terrible squealing noise.  I wanted to put a nice flat surface on one end of each of the legs to mate with the glass surface.  Once all of the 4 legs had been end-milled, I took them to the lathe... next slide please.

I wanted to get a nice brushed finish on the legs before I weld them because I figured after welding them to the frame of the cab it would be impossible to get the finish I wanted since I couldn't put the whole cab frame in the lathe!  I tried a few types of sandpaper but what seemed to work the best was to grab a sheet of this medium grit sanding screen and grip it to the lath with both hands and SLOWLY work down the length of the lath so as to not get obvious spiraling "brush" marks.  The lathe setup was a bit ghetto- one end of the lath was in the 3 jaw chuck and the other end was supported very loosely by the tail stock.  The RPMs were set at about 60, so it was pretty safe to hang on with my hands.

So here is the before and after the "brushing" on the lathe (actually two different legs):


And here are all 4 legs done:

[Namco]

Nice legs... wait Looks like Matt Kenseth making tailpipes. That last pic looks like some kind of super shotgun elmer fudd would stick in bugs bunny's face.... ok enough with the lame comparisons. 

Nice design. Should be a nice cocktail!

[BUCKETHEAD]

Matt Kenseth making tailpipes.

I think you look like TERRY BELUE !

Nice work !

[Crafty]

Good start so far.. Keep up the photo's as you go...

[DaOld Man]

Nice shop!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Can I bring some junk over and play??

[Major Rock Hardy]

Nice shop!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Can I bring some junk over and play??

ha, you haven't seen the welding or the wood shops yet (see below)

OK, so yesterday I spent most of the day cutting all the aluminum C-channel for the frame of the cab.  8 pieces, 4 cuts each (2 at 22.5 degrees, 2 at 45 degrees) = 32 cuts on the band saw.   

Today was welding day.  First I made a jig out of 1/2 inch particleboard and scrap wood to hold all of the C-channel just right against the legs.  Here I am making the jig in the woodshop:


... and here is the finished jig, with some C-channel laying in there to get the idea of its function:


... OK, time to weld - put on the leathers and grab the spoolgun:


... gratuitous goof-off photo:

(I need to fix the foam on my safety glasses)

... here is the frame with the upper set of C-channel welded into place.


... so that's the update for today.  The spoolgun is supposed to be the "easy" way to weld aluminum, but the current is so high (so the heat doesn't have time to spread out) that you have to go silly fast with that thing or else you'll blow holes in it.  Which I did - several times - this is 1/8" thick metal!  I jammed up the mechanism (and hence had to clean it and re-string it) 3 times today.  I have to say I am pleased with the result so far - all 4 of the legs touch the ground at the same time!  I assumed it would come out of the jig warped in some way that would make one of the legs lifted off the ground, but no!  Plus, it is super strong.  I hope to get a picture of me sitting on it tomorrow once I add the second set of 4 C-channel braces.

[Franco]

Top work fella 

Bet your arms were aching after polishing those legs! Did you try emery paper/wet n dry rather than sandpaper? You will find that after you get the 'scale' of the bar and get an even finish and you can increase the revs. I polished some same diameter bar to make some monitor supports and got the revs up to 1000rpm for the finish polishing.

Loving it so far, thats gonna be one strong ass mo fo 

[Major Rock Hardy]

Working long hours at the shop has left me too tired to post updates... so tonight I had another chance.  First off, here's the cab frame with the lower set of c-channel welded in place, and the 3/4 inch particleboard top:


If you're wondering how I'm going to hold the glass down, here you go... I machined these threaded caps (one to press into the top of the tubular leg, one to thread into that and hold the glass down:


Back to finish up the 3 other spinners.  Here I am turning down a brass counter weight:


Also I need to get some control panels done... so here is yours truly (in action) using the sheet metal shear:

(having a big ass comes in handy for this)

The shop closed for xmas so I picked up some 1/4" MDF with mahogany veneer.  This is going to be what people see up against the brushed aluminum legs and the dark glass.  I liked it better than the cherry that was available because the veneer bookmatching didn't repeat as often as on the cherry.  I also learned how to use a router.  Wow, what a cool tool!  I got a pattern cutting bit which was great.  I could easily "customize" a piece of wood (think 1/16 off one side but nothing off the other) to fit a slightly out-of-square metal frame (reality of my welding job) by clamping a straightedge to the workpiece and running the router down it.  Much easier than trying to use a saw!

I used the router to cut slots in the front panel to accommodate the control panel support shelves:


The finished product:

(doesn't the mahogany look nice?  I don't know _what_ my calipers are doing in there...)

Today, my beautiful assistant has helped by putting the first coat of stain on the mahogany back panel:


I hope I'm doing the pictures OK... is everyone able to see the pictures in "large" format or are they stuck as thumbnails?  They should look big because I'm using links to the large format pictures in the photo thread... but you never know...

[DaOld Man]

Great job so far!!
Pictures look good, but where is the one of the beautiful assistant?

[Major Rock Hardy]

Great job so far!!
Pictures look good, but where is the one of the beautiful assistant?

thank you... I'll post one of her one of these days... for now, here are some updated pics...

these are the beautifully-stained player 1 and 2 side panels (thanks again to my wife)


(moment of truth) - let's see if this thing is structurally sound... these days I am about a buck-ninety... this shot shows the back panel of the cab:


 

... and without further ado... I picked up the glass top from the glass shop the other day.  It turned out great.  Here's a teaser of it sitting on the frame (sorry only the front panel is in place on this shot):


... I still need to clean the glass a bit with the razor blade but I am stoked about the look.

[pacmandude]

It is a very modern looking design. The coloring of the wood and the glass top really compliment eachother too. I am looking forward to seeing more of this! 

[Major Rock Hardy]

It is a very modern looking design. The coloring of the wood and the glass top really compliment eachother too. I am looking forward to seeing more of this! 

thanks for the kind words...

update: today I built in the monitor supports.  SOLID.  And my beautiful assistant worked on cleaning up the stainless control panel where the spot welder made the divots and discoloration.  Looking fantastic.  Especially the trackball.  I am stoked.

I also did a bit of engineering to figure out how I'm going to do the switcheroo on the lighted switches when the power turns off.  Got the idea from bfauska's thread, but I'm going to add to it a bit.  It turns out that an ATX power supply has a pin called +5VSB.  According to the sticker on the side of my PS, it can deliver 2 A... which should be plenty for a sweet pulsing light (think iMac power button) when the machine is turned off.  Hmmm....