Building My Arcade Machine log

Optimus Prime

Cool, i just found on gremlinsolutions ebay site, 10 of those already wired up. so i bought a load of them, only 5 quid each. saves me hassle!

Ive loads of those connects already at home anyways if i need anyway, was just looking for the wire itself.

CathalDublin

Radionics rialto

Optimus Prime

Got an email off GameonGraphix he is printing again and reposting them. might end up getting two in the door!

My coin door arrived today. anyone know where i can get the little pics to go in the coin inserts? eg 50c Insert Coin or whatever they usually say on them?

CathalDublin

I printed my own

Mine say
======
FEED
ME
MONEYS
======
PUSH TO
REJECT

Optimus Prime

printed some off there today, turned out grand.

Optimus Prime

Made some progress today, got my coin door the other day, pictured below. so as suggested i printed up some Coin Inserts in work. stuck them in earlier.





Also cut out the slot for the coin door on the front panel.



and also this arrived, got it for 15 delivered, its a double edge trimmer for trimming the sides of T-Moulding etc. its got blades inside, you run it along the mdf and it trims the Moulding! Hopefully it does the job.

Optimus Prime

Finally done with Priming, no longer is the mdf white in colour!!

Optimus Prime

Sigh, I finally got my arcade artwork last week, but, of course, there was a problem..

The control panel was a completly different shade than the marquee. what happened was the original is more a purple colour so i change it to a brighter blue and change the marquee colour too. when ordering i uploaded the purple coloured one first by mistake. I realised my mistake and didnt follow through with the order.

I then uploaded the correct blue coloured control panel and marquee and then followed through and paid. what happened then was a mess, first the order was printed and the guys sent it to Israel instead of ireland! so i got onto them and they printed again and posted it to me. when it arrived, they had printed the first CP i uploaded, the purple one i didnt pay for! after much emailing back and fort and the guys saying it was only a slight difference etc they finally realised they had indeed sent me the wrong one.

So the CP is printed again, the correct one this time and is hopefully getting posted today.

Heres an image of the one i got, granted you can barely tell here its more purple, but thats due to the camera i think, its looks purple to the eye. You can see the colour difference between the marquee and the control panel.



and this is the correct one i wanted, they sent me a pic of it yesterday before they posted. you can see its brighter and more of a Blue colour.



I dont know what it is, but whenever i order something, there is always some problem with it, granted i know its not as big a problem as Steve is having with the monitor but it really is a pain in the a*$e when you order something and it gets messed up. seems to happen everytime!:pac:

Andrew76

Bottom one looks brighter alright, cool image. But wtf with the double E in arcade?






(hehe chances arm with same joke again)

Optimus Prime

Andrew76 wrote: »

Bottom one looks brighter alright, cool image. But wtf with the double E in arcade?

SIZE]

Haha fool me once shame on me, fool me twice... never gonna fool me again!

Deep Thought

keithgeo wrote: »

Haha fool me once shame on me, fool me twice... never gonna fool me again!

Or as George W Bush would say........

"fool me once, shame on ... shame on you. It fool me. We can't get fooled again."

Optimus Prime

Thats what i was going for but couldnt remember the exact quote, so again.. i made a fool of myself. I could Ninja edit, but ill leave it.. :pac:

Optimus Prime

Im having some trouble with finishing the painting on this, im not happy with the way the black turned out. It wasnt as smooth as i was hoping, not even close in fact. Ive sanded it down again but it needs another coat of paint on it as the sanded black is definatly not acceptable.

At the minute it has 3 coats of primer sanded in between each coat, and 1 coat of black sanded. all applied using a small roller.

My brother can get one of those spray machines they use for cars etc, he works repairing supermarket fridges and they have one. So im thinking of getting this and spraying on a coat of black to finish it off.

has anyone any experience of painting their cabs and getting a smooth finish at the end?? what way would you recomend i do it?

The Last Bandit

Are you looking for a high gloss black finish ? Black is a bugger to get right and will happily show up any imperfections in the undercoats.

Unless the base surface is absolutely smooth you'll see it in the final coat. I'd suggest a few coats with filler primer (any car paint shop will have it) and rub this back with 800 & 1500 grit paper.
How you apply the top coat will determine how much rubbing back (again 800 then 1500 wet) you'll have to do to get a decent finish - brush being the worst and spray the best.

I've no experience of painting cabs, but done a bit on cars..

Optimus Prime

Im not looking for a real shiney mirror finish to be honest, i just want the paint to be smooth, thanks for the tips, there are so many different ways of doing this its just a bit confusing!

Optimus Prime

Right, my brother is organising getting that spraying machine and im going to give that a go.

I bought this today for the marquee. its brilliant led backlights made by novamatrix, I got extra strips so ten in total and they hook up to the pc power supply.



Fairly cheap too, think it was like 25 quid including shipping.

Optimus Prime

Got the Spraying done today! Painting is officially finished (took long enough).

I cant recommend spraying enough, its a bizillion times better than trying to roll onto mdf. It went on like a dream, the finished mdf looks almost like plastic its so clear. Heres what i did today.,

First up, I Dexter'd My back room! :pac:











My Bro got me a lend of the spraying machine, as you can see this is no B&Q jobby, its a proper yolk.





Heres the result, paint is still wet here so it doesnt even look perfect, but trust me this is the ONLY way to go if you are fussy about the finish on your cab. rolling for me is no a go if im ever doing this again, too many bits and imperfections as far as im concerned.



Finally i can make some real progress over the next couple of weekends, should be finished by Christmas!

Pyongyang

Looks great! Love your gaf, it looks like a scene from The Departed.

Optimus Prime

I put the artwork on the control panel last night and cut out the holes for buttons etc. it took some time to get it on without it bubbling up. I put a coat of paint over the mdf on the panel last week with a brush then sanded it down. Id forgot that i needed to coat this part, i figured i didnt need to since the artwork was going on there.

After reading some stuff on the net its recomended you paint over the mdf and sand it down so the adhesive on the artwork sticks better. I got it on fine in the end, then cut out the buttons using a hobby blade AFTER the artwork was on. I didnt feel confident enought to cut out the holes first then attempt to line them up. they came out perfect.

I then started to put on the TMolding. initially i thought this is going to be a breeze, it went on perfect, banged home with a rubber mallet. BUT i then got to a part on the sides where the channel cut by the router was too wide to hold in the T on its own, knightmare.

I had to get a tube of adhesive, its like no more nails but bonds wood and plastic. stuck that in the gun and fired it into the channel, stuck in the T and have it sitting with a weight on it now, it takes 24hours to fully bond. hopefully it turns out ok. I dont think the Tmolding is going to be as tight as the sections that just popped in, but theres nothing i can do about that now. :rolleyes:

Dont have the camera so cant post a pic, but the artwork looks well on it.

Optimus Prime

Heres the control panel, stuff isnt wired yet, but finally looks like a bit of progress. as i said i had to basically glue the tmolding into the channel on the right hand side, i turned out ok. not exactly flush to the side but its staying in there. i may.. .may.. try to superglue it to the side, but one wrong move and the art thing will be ruined.

Andrew76

Looks very nice dude.

CathalDublin

keithgeo wrote: »

try to superglue it to the side, but one wrong move and the art thing will be ruined.

Woodglue works a treat
Looks excellent BTW

Deep Thought

Looks fab, Nice Job

Optimus Prime

CathalDublin wrote: »

Woodglue works a treat
Looks excellent BTW

Ive glued the bottom part of the Tmolding into the slot made by the router, its just the top part isnt flush to the wood in two places (like the top of the T), i was thinking of glueing that to the wood. but i could mark the artwork if i dont get the glue in that slot cleanly. I dont want it spreading everywhere if i have to wipe it.

nacimroc

You could use "Impact adhesive" (little tube). Squeeze it in between them and push them together to get it on both sides.Wipe edges clean and hold parts apart as it takes about 5 mins to dry. Wait until they are dry then push together. It will give a clean glue free edge and you won't ever get it apart again. Its great stuff. Its contact cement which is used to hold laminate to wood so its perfect.

Optimus Prime

cheers, ill look into getting that, can you get that in B&Q etc?

The Last Bandit

keithgeo wrote: »

cheers, ill look into getting that, can you get that in B&Q etc?

Yep any hardware place would have it, avoid the can & brush one as its well messy..
Regarding the tmolding fitting, if you warm them with a heat gun or hairdryer they should be much more manageable.

Optimus Prime

cool, its more the channel cut by the router was too wide so it wouldnt stay in without being glued.

Myrddin

keithgeo wrote: »

cool, its more the channel cut by the router was too wide so it wouldnt stay in without being glued.

Could you thicken up the part of the molding that sits into the groove maybe? A few layers of proper tape cut correctly might just give it enough purchase to hold tight once hammered in, & would save the big risk with the glue...

Optimus Prime

EnterNow wrote: »

Could you thicken up the part of the molding that sits into the groove maybe? A few layers of proper tape cut correctly might just give it enough purchase to hold tight once hammered in, & would save the big risk with the glue...

F*ck. You know what, i never thought of that, thats a great idea.:cool:

Myrddin

Or you could also thicken up the groove with something like a small strip of silicon...if its too difficult to get the tape to stick to the molding. Like yourself I'd be worried about ruining the artwork, because once glue gets on that its going to destroy it. And you know yourself with glue, its impossible stuff to be careful with & usually ends up all over stuff.

Optimus Prime

Yeh, i mean, to do that now, i would have to pull off the TMolding thats on there. I think i will leave the control panel as it is. id be afraid id wreck it and like you say glue goes everywhere.

I know for a fact that on the Side panels of the cab itself that im going to run into this problem again there. I think i will do these parts as you suggest above.

nacimroc

If you havent done the side panels yet use a hot glue gun. Do about 1 foot at a time as it goes hard quick and beat home hard with a rubber mallet. It won't matter how wide the slot is if theres hot glue there to hold it in place so you shouldn't run into the same problem again.

Optimus Prime

Cool, Hot glue and Gun, B&Q have them? How much are we talking? and possible stupid question, do i have to heat the glue or is that just what its called??

nacimroc

B&Q should have them. I got mine in lidl. I squeezed it into the slot them hammer home t-molding. It goes hard after a few seconds so be careful. squeeze it into the slot for about 1 foot then beat home the t-molding about 3 or 4 inches past that, then do this the whole length. Hot glue gun below.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SL-7P4b-oW4

Andrew76

nacimroc wrote: »

B&Q should have them. I got mine in lidl. I squeezed it into the slot them hammer home t-molding. It goes hard after a few seconds so be careful. squeeze it into the slot for about 1 foot then beat home the t-molding about 3 or 4 inches past that, then do this the whole length. Hot glue gun below.

Must, resist, childish jokes! :pac:

Optimus Prime

ok that looks perfect, ill pick up one of these. thanks a lot.

CathalDublin

keithgeo wrote: »

Cool, Hot glue and Gun, B&Q have them? How much are we talking? and possible stupid question, do i have to heat the glue or is that just what its called??

I got mine in mcquillans for about €10-15

Optimus Prime

Quick question, should I put the tmolding on the bottom of my cabinet? Along the bottom of the side panels? I'm leaning toward yes but not sure.

Myrddin

keithgeo wrote: »

Quick question, should I put the tmolding on the bottom of my cabinet? Along the bottom of the side panels? I'm leaning toward yes but not sure.

Are you putting it on castors? If not, I'd be wary of having t-moulding on the bottom incase you were ever moving the cab & it snagged on something...

If the bottom will be raised off the ground though in any way, it should be grand

Optimus Prime

I will probably lift it off the floor a bit, im thinking those stick on felt things at the least, that wont mark the floor if moving it around. im not putting wheels or anything on it. I just cant make my mind up if i should put the tmolding on them bottom or not.

o1s1n

After having two cabs, one with castors and one without, I'd never go without again. It's the difference between having to drag it around the house, with great effort, ruining the floor and gliding it around with your baby finger.

Optimus Prime

well, before seeing your post, i went ahead and put the T-Molding on, i didnt put any on the bottom. it went on grand except for one part im going to need hot glue for. I cant see myself sliding it around too much to be honest, im going to get some of that stuff you stick on the bottom of things anyways to stop from scrapping the floor. so should be grand.

Optimus Prime

Heres a pic for those interested..

o1s1n

Wow, that t moulding looks great! Love the colour.

Optimus Prime

o1s1n wrote: »

Wow, that t moulding looks great! Love the colour.

should match up well with the control panel. I "attempted" to trim the sides of the moulding with a blade after i put it on, it didnt work haha, i also tried that double sided edge trimmer i bought and it didnt work either, it was too jagged for my liking, so i pulled that piece back off and started again, im just going to live with the slight lip over the side, you cant really notice it anyways.

Optimus Prime

Picked up the Glue Gun in B&Q, 14 euro i think it was and worth every cent. worked perfect, fixed the control panel where the T was slightly away from the mdf and used it on the wide parts on the side panels, worked perfect.

Optimus Prime

Finally putting this together tomorrow. pc is rebuilt and setup again! Finally got it going. also got the two buttons that wouldnt work on the ipac working by assigning the ipac different keys to them. must have been conflicting with something.. final pics of it in pieces!

Optimus Prime

here it is together finally. Just need to get glass for the front, plexi for the marque in put in the leds i got to light up the marque.

Pyongyang

Keith Chegwin, you've brought tears to my eyes. You started building this cabinet around the time of the battle of the Somme and it's finally at the finishing line.

Well done mate, very well done indeed.