Part 16: Finished Machine

A company called Blik does wall art graphics.

http://www.whatisblik.com/shop/pac-man-ghost

I thought I would get this as my attempts at decoration would probably look bad and cost more...

Anyway - I think it turned out better than expected...

Here are those speakers now:

Part 15: The Last Panel

I left the front door to last as I wanted to make sure it cleared the T-Moulding.


I only had thin Ply board left - so glued some wood onto the top and bottom and used my router to cut groves and a rounded lever edge at the bottom. 


It took ages to get this panel right - as the space was not exactly square! The wood wasn't either. It took so long...


Anyway - here is the almost finished panel:

Much sanding and routing later...  notice the aluminum strip to keep the door in place at the bottom. The top is held in place with a lock. 

Undercoat and black paint coats later...  these took a while to dry. 

Part 14: Front Plexiglass and Bezel

Game on Graphics do Bezel art - but I could not be bothered with all that. I got an idea from another arcade machine builder - just paint it black inside!


I first fitted the plexiglass - marked where the Monitor corners were and then applied some masking tape on the inside. 


Here is me applying the fourth coat of paint! (yes it needed a lot of work and I had to wait many hours between coats...). 

It looked rubbish on the inside - but the other side looked great!

Fitting was a pain as I had to get out all the dust and stuff from the monitor and plexiglass. 

I ended up painting the screw heads black. I was hoping to get screw caps that I thought would look more professional - but they are hard to get hold of over here...

As I did not want the unit to get dusty - I brought it inside. I slapped a PC and amp pin there and it was operational!

Solomon trying it out again...

Part 13: T-Moulding

Here was the part I had been waiting for - fitting the T-Stripping!


I saw some You Tube videos on how to do it and tried it out. 


Here is the result:

Below is the T-Moulding on a soft sheet (to prevent it getting scratched up). That thing in the middle is a mallet with a towel tied around it. This was so I could hammer the T-Mouling in the grove without marking the plastic. 

Bellow: Here is me whacking the T-Moulding into place. It fitted pretty firmly. I noticed it picked up any defect in the wood cutting and so on - so it is wise to get these cuts really accurate and straight. 

Below - when going around a bend (with an inside radius) then I had to cut out centre sections for it to fit. 

The mallet was good for large stretches of wood - but for corners and start bits - it was best to use a small metal hammer with a towel in place. This went better than expected. 

Part 12: Marquee Section - finishing off

OK - so I got the dimensions of all the sides right and all I needed to do it add the sign and screw in place with the prepared and painted L-shape stripping. 

I painted the inside white where I could and added some kitchen foil to the upper panel. The bottom 'reflector' was made out of cardboard wrapped with foil. 

The actual Marquee art was placed between two thin sheets of Plexiglass. This was then screwed into place with the metal stripping. It turned out quite well. Getting the dust out of the back of the plexiglass was a pain - but managed to get there eventually...  I painted the screw heads black. 

Part 11: Fitting Speakers and Power Strip.

Now I have the black paint - I could start fitting things.

I needed power - so I drilled out a large hole and found a grommet to fit in there. I unsoldered the cable from the power strip and then soldered it back once the cable was through the hole.

Here is the only picture I took - you can see an inside view - the grommet and the bottom casing of the power strip fitted in place. I added the rest of the power strip later...

I fitted the speakers. They don't look too great here, but I dusted them up and added black paint to the screws. They look much better now...

I wired them up here. The frequency cross over circuit for the tweaters consisted of a single capacitor. 

Thankfully the clearance for the strip light was ok...

Part 10: Black Phase

Now it is time for the black paint. 

I actually used the same paint I used to paint our front door. It is acrylic (like the undercoat). Apparently acrylic is easier to sand between coats. 


I used a smooth roller as recommended by another arcade builder. I was expecting a perfect finish - but it really was a pain to get it right. Painting on white was a pain also...

As I moved down with the roller the previous application was already going dry. Re-applyiong over a slightly dryer coat made it look bad. I did not know what to do about that really. 

I applied two coats and thought it looked great (this was late at night) - so went on to start fitting stuff. Then I saw it in the day light and it was a different story. I had to add another coat. In fact one side got 4 or 5 coats as I could not get it right. 

If I was to do this again I would paint in day light with a sponge brush. A sponge does not give you the brush strokes and seems to give a better finish than a roller (for gloss anyway). 

Here it is after two coats:

Part 9: Undercoat

Now with all the panels made (Finally!!!) I could proceed with the undercoat.


I went to Sherwin Williams to see what they had. They sold me some undercoat for $11 that I could have got at home depot for $7 - but he was persuasive... or assertive or something.


I got a smooth roller from Home Depot and started slapping the undercoat on. I may have sanded and applied a second coat if needed. This undercoat was nice and thick and sort of acted as a wood filler in places. It also seals the wood. Shame it was not grey as I will be painting the thing black next...

Looks pretty good in white...

I did some of the inside also to make it look a little nicer. 

I drilled holes in the Marquee holing strips and countersunk them. I sprayed these with undercoat for a smooth finish.  

Part 8: Marquee Section

The more I moved up the machine the more I noticed that there were slight accuracy problems. I could not figure out where they came from - so put it down to bent wood and marking out problems. 

This made the Marquee section very difficult. I spent a long time getting this correct. The top was slightly wider than the bottom. I used wood to keep the top together - but it was tricky. The top panel was hard to cut as I had to use angles to make it square. The plexiglass did not quite fit either - so I spent ages getting this right. 

I did not take pictures - but I basically made all the back panels (made out of thin cheap plywood). This had the effect of making the machines a little more square. Once in place I had another go at the Marquee part and got it the best I could.

I went to Lowes and got them to cut out all the plexiglass, which saved me a lot of hassle. Home depot did not have the selection I needed and certainly did not cut the stuff - so Lowes won on this point.
I am still not sure what store I like the best as they seem to complement each other at times (one store does it but the other does not). I got all the plexiglass to fit - so was pleased about that. I would probably fit this last to make sure no dust got in there.

I did however make some adjustments to the original design. I found some really cool L shaped strips of aluminum at home depot and got some to take the Marquee panel. This will cover up the edges and give it a more professional look. It will also strengthen the wood panels that are holding it all in place...

Part 7: Speaker Panel and Draw and Joystick shelf.

I used my router again to cut out the speaker panel. I based the panel on the actual speaker cabinets that I took the speakers out of. They were nice Kenwood 180W speakers (got them at a grange sale for $2).
The tweeters had to chair the same space for it all to fit.

As you can also see - I have created a groove (with the router again) for the plexi-glass front to go over the monitor. I did this to stop the plexiglass bowing in the middle. It may not have done - but it was also a way of hiding the edges and hiding a little 'unsquareness' if there was some. It would also snap into place - and I can screw the sides to the wood blocks also...
The router came with a little guide attachment - and it came in very handy here as I was able to make a very straight grove. I assumed the edge of the wood was square... and it was fitted square...  (I was a few mil out here and there - but tried to work around it...)

Here is the draw.

I fitted the side rails as accurately to the markings as possible. I had to make a few adjustments - but got it right in the end. The biggest problem was that there was not enough clearance for the mouse. I thought I had measures it...  anyway - I ended up putting the draw base down and the front panel was just fitted to the new position. 

I had to make a few adjustments to the draw side rails to make sure the wood was flush when draw was closed. It all went better than expected. I had to fit a small panel under the draw for it to rest on when closed - and to fill in the gap.

As you can see, I added some wood to the joystick shelf to keep the joystick box securely in place. I beveled some of the wood with my router (I used this more than I thought). This was so the box would be guided into place. 

I started spraying with undercoat - to find that the spray can did not go far at all!

I looked into other undercoat options...

You will also notice that there is the matching grove for the plexi-glass. As this wood was fitted at an angle (to match the angle of the joy-stick box) I used a rounded router bit to cover all angles of entry. I also used the slot cutter to allow me to fit T-Moulding later on.

Part 6: Base and quick trial

I took a crack at this on a Saturday thinking I would make huge progress and finish it and so on.

Well it did not quite go like that. I took few photos that day - so cannot log the exact stages.

I basically joined the two panels together at the base using a 25" wide panel. I really tried hard to make sure it was square - but when I look back I have a feeling that the floor was not quite flat (with a spirit level).
Either that or the side panels were slightly bent. Anyway - I did the best I could...

Here is Solomon trying this out. I temporarily slapped an old laptop under there with a monitor.
I had to fit the monitor to make sure it was square. Thankfully it was.

As you can see I fitted the major support panels. It is starting to take shape...