The NEW Build Your Own Arcade Controls
Main => Woodworking => Topic started by: WCBoudreaux on August 26, 2007, 04:03:29 pm
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Ok guys... I'm currently restoring a cabinet, but at the same time, I'm getting everything laid out to build a cabinet... I have original Dragon's Lair equipment, but no cab, so I thought about building the Dragon's Lair cabinet from Jakobud... I know this has been done before by a few people on here, so I'd like to know how they did it...
The main thing that's stumping me, is on the front side of the cabinet, it has a measurement of 35.625"... And at the top, it has 13.84"... Ok, how the hell do I measure that? Is there a special tape measure for that? I'm no noob when it comes to reading a tape measure by any means, but this, is something I've never had to do... I know the plans were drawn up in AutoCad... So I'm thinking that maybe that's a result from the program... But I dunno...
Any help would be much appreciated...
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35.625 is
35 5/8"
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Ok... Care to show me how u came up with that figure? So I'll know in the future? Thanks! :cheers:
The reason I'm asking u to show me how u came up with that figure, is because my conversion came up with 35.25"... I converted .63centimeters, to inches, and it said .25"...
Again, thanks!
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take the following:
.625 8 5
------- X ----- = -----
1 8 8
^ ^________ 8/8 = 1, so we're multiplying by 1 here
|_________________ .625/1 = .625, so we're not changing the value of this number
multiply the fractions together, you have to cross multiply, and you get 5/8
How did I know to use 8/8? .625 * 2 != integer, .625 * 4 != integer, .625 * 8 == integer! yah! So will 16, 32, and up.. but you stop at the lowest integer, or the lowest common denominator. Hope that helps (i'm pretty sure that's algebra by the books)
-csa
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Damn I wish I had stayed in school... :hissy:
Any way, thanks for breaking that down... I think I get it now...
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Ok... Thought I had it, but now I'm even more lost than before... LOL I see what u did to get that one...
But let's take 13.84" for example... No matter how I set it up, I keep getting a number with a decimal... And I'm not up to date with my fractions, so I guess that's what it could be... Oh well...
Thanks again...
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http://www.mindspring.com/~alanh/fracs.html
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Thanks!
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how i did it is that i remember 1/8th is .125
i saw the .625 and figured it was divisible by .125
so i typed 5/8 in the calculator built in to windows and poof.... .625
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Ahhhh thanks AcidArmitage!! That's very helpful to know...
And again, thanks to every one that has helped out...
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Decimals are just fractions with 10 in the denominator.
.5 = 5 /10
.625 = 625/1000
.84 = 84/100
.84 = 84/100 = 42/25 = 21/25
.84 doesn't divide into 8th's, 16th's or 32's. If you needed to cut something to .84, you could go a tad shorter than 7/8. With standard wood and the woodworking we're talking about on this forum, you should be ok.
As an aside, prior to stocks trading in decimals, I had an interview for a stock trading job right out of college, and the guy was giving me fractions, making me add or subtract them and simplify them in my head (i.e. 6/8 = 3/4). I didn't get that job.
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LOL Thanks for that bit of info... I remember about the placements after the decimal (eg 10ths, 100th, 1000ths etc) I think that's where I was going wrong... Because for .84 I was thinking centimeters, because there's 100 centimeters in an inch and so on... That's why my caculations were going wrong...
Any way, don't feel alone about not getting the job... They would have probably thrown rocks at me on my way out... :laugh2:
Fractions have never really been my strong point...
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because there's 100 centimeters in an inch and so on... That's why my caculations were going wrong...
100cm in an inch... :dizzy:
there are 2.54cm in an inch...
no wonder your calculations are all screwy... :P
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Or you could just go to Lowes and by a construction master calculator. I use one at work all the time.
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because there's 100 centimeters in an inch and so on... That's why my caculations were going wrong...
100cm in an inch... :dizzy:
there are 2.54cm in an inch...
no wonder your calculations are all screwy... :P
Ooops... I got that way off... :laugh2: I was actually thinking how many legs a cetipede has... :laugh2: Actually I didn't mean an inch, I meant a METER... Damn typos...
Now I feel like a complete idiot... :badmood:
Shardian ~ Thanks for that bit of info... I'll definately look for that the next time I'm at Lowes....
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FWIW, machinists measure everything in thousandths (.001) or ten-thousandths (.0001) of an inch. They frequently use rulers that are graduated in tenths, fiftieths, or hundredths of an inch. Hundredths of an inch are difficult to see, which is why the fiftieth and tenth rules exist. You can buy them from Enco (http://www.use-enco.com/). Don't know about tape measures; usually a machinists are measuring items in inches rather than feet.
For wood, I wouldn't be overly concerned with accuracy. Being accurate to 1/16th of an inch (=0.0625) is good enough for most things. I occasionally shoot for 1/32nd of an inch (=0.03125)... but I've been woodworking for a while and have all the tools necessary to make minute adjustments to parts. And I also know where and when you can get away with inaccuracies.
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I know that this may not help in some cabinet restores where measurement accuracy is a really paramount (for the TRUE authenticity), but I am starting a build and am have plans supplied in a similar way (23.976, 16.165 etc), and I am just rounding up and down for the 'less important' measurements.
So, 23.978" becomes 24" and 16.165" becomes 16" -- its pretty imprecise, but I don't care if my cab is .113" too small!
HTH
Ratzz :)
P.S. I live in Europe and can see sometimes how the metric system favours the old imperial sometimes - If everything was in metric, up sizing and downsizing would be a piece of cake!
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I know that this may not help in some cabinet restores where measurement accuracy is a really paramount (for the TRUE authenticity), but I am starting a build and am have plans supplied in a similar way (23.976, 16.165 etc), and I am just rounding up and down for the 'less important' measurements.
So, 23.978" becomes 24" and 16.165" becomes 16" -- its pretty imprecise, but I don't care if my cab is .113" too small!
HTH
Ratzz :)
P.S. I live in Europe and can see sometimes how the metric system favours the old imperial sometimes - If everything was in metric, up sizing and downsizing would be a piece of cake!
Yeah, that is really not good advice. It isn't a good thing to end up with a piece here and there 1/2" too small. I can see on the "23.978" issue, but .165" is 3/16 and that can be a pretty big difference in a cabinet depending on where it falls.
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You're absolutely right. And in my case I've upsized my cabinet sides (both), and I would not recommend resizing JUST the control panel unless you were doing the same for ALL horizontal pieces.
"Not good advice" = a little common sense!
Although, I have a feeling you really understood my post ... ::)
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Well, I'm actually thinking about another option... Depending on cost that is...
On the bottom left hand corner of Jakobud's plans, there a ruler, that measures 6", and then 12"... IF my understanding of that is correct, I think if I were to get the plans printed out, to where those markings were actually 6", and 12", then I could just carbon paper, and trace out my pieces onto the board... Because then, they'd be "Scaled" so to speak... I only need one side cut, because from there, I can make a "stencil" of the side... I also plan to do this with each piece providing that my measurements are correct, and the cabinet goes together well... Then I won't ever have to worry about figuring this out again, unless I decide to build another style cabinet...
I definately need to do this for the marquee of the DL cab... To me, I believe that will be the most difficult to get right "each time" I build this cab... In case you're wondering, I have a Space Ace set up too... hehe Hence the wanting to build multiple cabs of the same design...
Any way, thanks again guys... :cheers:
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That drawing is already scaled. If you print that out on a 8.5 x 11 piece of paper, 1.5" on the paper will be equal to 1'-0" of the actual dimensions.
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Oh hell, is that what that meant? I wasn't sure... Thanks for clearing that up!! Very helpful indeed!!
Thanks Shardian! :cheers:
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It's time for a little "full circle" comment: back when I was playing arcade games with real quarters, "they" decided the US was going to switch to the Metric system. I think 2 liter bottles of soda was the only thing that we still have from that time.
Also I know the Metric system is better, and it's not because 10th's are easier than 1/8th's and whatever absurd crap the Imperial system has. It's because a beer in the Metric System world has 375ml. A 12oz beer is only 355ml. An almost 6% discount on beer is clearly better.
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:laugh2:
So true... That extra 20ml would sure come in handy at times... Especially after figuring up all of the damn fractions!!!
:laugh2:
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In college, we would always convert all of our English problems to metric, and once done, convert back to English with the TI calculator. One time my professor got pissed and tried to cut the credit on my test. I kindly pointed out that all that was required was to show my work in its entirety and get the correct answer. Never said I couldn't convert systems. ;D Of course, on the next test it was in BOLD lettering that the problems had to be worked out in the system the given values were stated in.
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:laugh2:
Nothing like the ol' trusty TI... Man that makes me feel old remembering the TI Scientific Caculator days... LOL
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I just wish I would have had a TI 89. On those, you could input a calculus problem exactly as its show in the book, and it would give you the answer. Awesome for checking your answers on a test. (you still had to show the work you know...of course if I didn't know how, I would "accidentally" write the problem down with a convenient error that made it simpler to solve. Then I'd get partial credit. >:D)
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>:D
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I know that this may not help in some cabinet restores where measurement accuracy is a really paramount (for the TRUE authenticity), but I am starting a build and am have plans supplied in a similar way (23.976, 16.165 etc), and I am just rounding up and down for the 'less important' measurements.
So, 23.978" becomes 24" and 16.165" becomes 16" -- its pretty imprecise, but I don't care if my cab is .113" too small!
HTH
Ratzz :)
P.S. I live in Europe and can see sometimes how the metric system favours the old imperial sometimes - If everything was in metric, up sizing and downsizing would be a piece of cake!
Yeah, that is really not good advice. It isn't a good thing to end up with a piece here and there 1/2" too small. I can see on the "23.978" issue, but .165" is 3/16 and that can be a pretty big difference in a cabinet depending on where it falls.
I did the same thing ratzz did when I built my last cabinet - I got the plans from Jaokbud for a Ms. Pac-Man and scaled everything down to 80% with a calculator. This gave me some very funky fractional measurements. I rounded to the nearest 1/16" though (so 16.165" would have been 16-3/16") and it came out pretty close to an exact 80% sized cabinet. I just wrote down the decimal for 1/16", 1/8", 3/16", 1/4", etc. on a sheet of paper - whatever the funky decimal I came up with after scaling down to 80% was closest to was the measurement I used.
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I know that this may not help in some cabinet restores where measurement accuracy is a really paramount (for the TRUE authenticity), but I am starting a build and am have plans supplied in a similar way (23.976, 16.165 etc), and I am just rounding up and down for the 'less important' measurements.
So, 23.978" becomes 24" and 16.165" becomes 16" -- its pretty imprecise, but I don't care if my cab is .113" too small!
HTH
Ratzz :)
P.S. I live in Europe and can see sometimes how the metric system favours the old imperial sometimes - If everything was in metric, up sizing and downsizing would be a piece of cake!
Yeah, that is really not good advice. It isn't a good thing to end up with a piece here and there 1/2" too small. I can see on the "23.978" issue, but .165" is 3/16 and that can be a pretty big difference in a cabinet depending on where it falls.
I did the same thing ratzz did when I built my last cabinet - I got the plans from Jaokbud for a Ms. Pac-Man and scaled everything down to 80% with a calculator. This gave me some very funky fractional measurements. I rounded to the nearest 1/16" though (so 16.165" would have been 16-3/16") and it came out pretty close to an exact 80% sized cabinet. I just wrote down the decimal for 1/16", 1/8", 3/16", 1/4", etc. on a sheet of paper - whatever the funky decimal I came up with after scaling down to 80% was closest to was the measurement I used.
That is different than rounding up or down to the nearest inch. In most woodworking, you can get away with the nearest eighth.
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Agreed - although I never said I rouned up or down to the nearest inch. I rouned to the nearesr qtr". as I said, replacement of specific parts is different than building your own cab.
Any cab must be carefully thought through for every eventuality. I planned for 3 weeks before putting pencil to MDF.
Ratzz :cheers:
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This whole thread just makes me..... :laugh2: :laugh2: :laugh2: :laugh2: