Today I was able to cut down the speaker panel so it would fit properly above the monitor. I also started on my modification of the front panel. I long ago decided not to go with a coin door. I'm not building this for vintage accuracy and I don't want to rely on tokens (or a cheat button combo) to pay for a game. Instead, I've purchased a 12" diameter Luminglas circle (in green) that will be mounted flush from behind the front panel. A smaller circle (viewed from the front) will allow the viewer to see only the lightning effect and not the approx 1" clear edge around the effect.

There are 2 ways to do this, I've found out. The first is to cut out the inner circle first and then route out the back so the glass fits inside flush. The problem with doing this is once you cut out that inner circle, you've lost your center point to mount the little device that allows your router to cut a circle. The second method is to cut out the larger flush circle (about 3/8" deep into a 3/4" panel) so you keep your center point. The problem with this is that once you clear out the inner circle, there's not much wood left for the device used to cut a circle to rest on and stay flat with the wood. (This probably isn't making sense unless you actually see it).

I went with the second method, figuring I'd find a way to cut deeper into the smaller, outer circle. Long story, short - I did a little tweaking and used a longer pivot point nail, extended the router bit deeper into a second board clamped to the bottom of the front panel and I was able to get a perfect front circle.

Attached are some images... the lightning effect looks great in person. It looks washed out in the picture, but is very bright even in a lit room. I haven't actually mounted it to the rear of the front panel yet so it might look a little off center but I'll fix that.






Up next:

1. Wood putty all the holes on the cab in prep for priming.
2. Mount the speaker shelf using an alternative method from the book (I can't use braces underneath so I'll go above)
3. Mount the front panel
4. Order my marquee
5. Mount LCD light behind marquee area (I've ordered one)