A minor update – although quite a few things done.
First up was finishing the yellow paint. I ended up going 5 coats in the end, with enough paint left over in the tin to touch up plenty of spots should anything go wrong in the near future. Once the yellow was done, I pulled out the left over black high gloss from my Galaga cab and found there was enough to get several coats onto the display area. I ended up going 3 coats here – it seemed to be fine.
I’ve been a bit slack with photos and updates over the past 3 weeks, although have been busy most nights and weekends getting in a hour or two here and there to move the project along.
The control panel was something I really enjoyed doing on my last project, and I am looking forward to getting it completed for this one also. The artwork has been ordered, and the acrylic is still to be purchased. Meanwhile, I decided to cut out the joystick, button and bolt holes to be ready for the next stage. A hole saw here was very useful – as was a 240V drill. I cut the first two button holes with my 14V cordless – never again – too weak, too slow, too annoying. 240V all the way. The control panel will support dual joysticks – for use with Robotron on the 19 in 1 board, along with 6 player 1 buttons to support most horizontal games. The P1 and P2 start buttons are located on the small front face of the control panel.
It’s been a few weeks since my last update. I’ve been getting small chunks of time here and there and progressing.
First on the to do list was cut the slot for the t molding. Thanks to a friend and the loan of his router bit, it was easy done. After making a few attempts on some scrap to get the right height, I attacked the side panels and got the groove cut in no time.
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Work has continued on construction over the last week and a half – although a little slower than I had hoped.
Firstly, I’ve cut out
– speaker hole below the marquee
– IEC switch hole at the back
– passive vent holes on the rear door
– coin door in front panel
I have some vented handles in the mail from Mikes Arcade, which will hopefully arrive in the next few days – so I will revisit the rear door once those arrive and cut out some holes for those too. All these cuts were done after assembly last time – and that was a mistake. Much easier to cut before assembly 🙂
This weekend saw some more progress with the construction of the new cabinet. The hold up this week had been getting access to the super saws to chew through those massive 2400×1200 MDF sheets into the required panels needed. Late last week, my father in law dropped off some of his awesome saws for a loan. These things make the job of cutting up those 2400×1200 sheets easy as – plus fun (It’s not visible, but there is a saw that sits up from below on the orange table. With the correct sizes marked on the sheets, its just a matter of pushing them through to get a nice straight cut).
