Some major delays in getting my arcade finished, but I was able to get some work done over the Thanksgiving weekend. I finished drilling all the holes in the Lexan cover... then I had to route out some small square areas for the joystick and trackball brackets to fit in - they're now flush with the surface of the wood (sunk down about 1/16" to 1/8") - finally I drilled out the areas where the joy and trackball hardware will fit up under the control panel and connect to the brackets.
Saturday, November 29, 2008
More Work on Control Panel
Some major delays in getting my arcade finished, but I was able to get some work done over the Thanksgiving weekend. I finished drilling all the holes in the Lexan cover... then I had to route out some small square areas for the joystick and trackball brackets to fit in - they're now flush with the surface of the wood (sunk down about 1/16" to 1/8") - finally I drilled out the areas where the joy and trackball hardware will fit up under the control panel and connect to the brackets.
Sunday, August 10, 2008
T-Molding slot on CP and Chamfer Bit
Today I cut the slot around the Control Panel that the t-molding will fit into - because my CP is covered by 1/8" Lexan, I also chose to use a Chamfer bit with my router to shave a bit of wood off the bottom edge that is visible when the Lexan and t-molding are put on. The Chamfer bit cut the wood at a 45 degree angle. You can see in one of the photos here the slight edging done.
Saturday, August 9, 2008
Cutting the Lexan and Drilling Button Holes
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
Software for creating Control Panel
Monday, July 21, 2008
Control Panel Overlay
Sunday, June 29, 2008
Slot cut and Chamfer for the Control Panel

I'm going to wrap a piece of green t-molding around the control panel and the Lexan protective cover. This will require me to shift the slot I cut into the side of the CP up 1/8" (to make up for the extra thickness of the 1/8" Lexan). Unfortunately, this will also leave a 1/8" wood gap below the t-molding. To hide this, I'll be using a Chamfer router bit to cut an angle into the wood (see image). Since the CP will be painted black, this should make the underside of the CP less visible.
The slot for the t-molding will also have to shift up 1/8" inch so it will now be cut 1/2" from the bottom of the wood using the 1/16" slot cutter bit.
Saturday, June 28, 2008
Control Panel design
I'm finishing up the control panel which has been my biggest holdup on this project - it's got a lot of woodworking involved, including some special routing and drilling. Here's a draft image for the button layout and the joysticks.
Also, I'm posting two images for the control panel overlay - these aren't 100% and I'm not even sure one of them will be the final overlay graphic, but I think you'll get the idea. The green trackball will light up and will be inside the central saucer.


Tuesday, June 24, 2008
Back to work...
I was told that Lexan will get scratched over time - to prevent this, they add about a US$60 fee to make it "scratch resistant" - not buying it. It just makes it more difficult to scratch, but not scratch-proof. Considering this 24x48 piece cost me about $30 I can afford to buy 2 more pieces over the years if I have to and just redrill the holes.
I also bought a great little router bit that will help me cut out the recesses for the joysticks and trackball mount plate (so they mount flush with the wood). I'm hoping to get started on my control panel this weekend and get this project finished by end of summer. I got sidetracked by a little 1 year old boy who has been learning to crawl, then walk, and now talk - totally worth shelving this project for a few months or more. But ready to get back to it...
Saturday, February 2, 2008
Wednesday, January 2, 2008
Test Run
Monday, December 31, 2007
Painting and T-molding done
Well, I didn't get to do much during the Christmas break, but New Year's Eve was productive.
Today I was able to get the t-molding on... what a pain. But it does look nice. t-molding.com was able to get me two matching rolls of Galaxian Green (the previous 2 rolls sent to me were slightly different) and I lucked out in that they are almost an exact paint match to the sides.
I also got the GGG LED bar installed and it is BRIGHT! My only complaint is the 3" of wire they give you and it's very thin gauge... but I can work with it. I had a 12V harness from another project (8 AA batteries) that I was able to hook up to it and test it out with the marquee in place.
Tomorrow, weather/wife permitting, I plan on getting the Luminglas mounted in the front hole, wire up the speakers, mount the marquee (picked up the L-shaped molding from Home Depot and need to spray paint black), and mount the SmartStrip inside the cab.
I'm debating working on the bezel first or jumping straight to the CP. I have to admit the CP has me a little frazzled as I'm not good with electronics or drilling straight/vertical holes. That said, if I ever want to play this thing, I'm going to have to do it sooner or later...
Happy New Year, all!
Jim
Tuesday, December 18, 2007
First coat of black paint on...
Sunday, December 9, 2007
First 2 coats on the sides
This will be a two-tone cab, so I decided to start with the sides first - everything else will be black.
I'm using foam rollers which are working great BUT... I didn't realize the first coat would be so thin. The foam rollers definitely don't coat like a normal "fuzzy" roller for painting walls and such. After the first coat dried, I put on a second coat and the color really came out nice. I realize now that after sanding, it will probably take numerous coats to get the consistent color and smoothness. I'm not going for glass-finish, just smooth with no jaggies. (Definitely recommending the foam roller treatment to anyone preparing for this portion - the application looks nice and it doesn't have that textured look using 'fuzzy' rollers or brushes.)
Thursday, November 29, 2007
T-molding arrived
Saturday, November 24, 2007
Marquee received
Got all the putty done and the sanding and will be priming tonight. Hoping to get to the painting before Sunday. Also, my marquee arrived today from mamemarquees.com and it looks great. The cut is perfect, too. I haven't had a chance to test it yet but I want to prime the inside of the cabinet before I mount my LED strip.
Friday, November 16, 2007
2 new items ordered and received
Sunday, November 11, 2007
Speakers installed and video/sound test
Finally, I hooked up the speakers and monitor to my laptop and tested the sound and video out. Everything looks awesome... and cranking the volume up to 8 gave me a Pac-Man experience I've never had before I can't wait to try out other games with these speakers.
Up next:
1. I've going to mount the front panel using barrel bolts (4) on the inside. If I remove the control panel, I'll be able to unlatch them and remove the front panel if I like. With the Luminglas mounted on front, I don't want the front panel to be able to open on hinges like a door. Using the barrel bolts will keep it locked in place but accessible anytime.
2. Filling in holes - I've got maybe a dozen or so holes to fill in and sand down before priming and painting.
3. Prime, paint, t-molding...
Saturday, November 10, 2007
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.
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)
Thursday, November 8, 2007
Marquee design
I've got a friend who's wife is a graphic artist and she's helping me to fine-tune my marquee, sideart, and CPO. This isn't the final marquee image, but it's getting there as we make little changes here and there. She took my original concept and greatly improved it - I love her version of the saucer and the "burning" effect applied to the lettering is very original and somethign I would never have thought of...
The biggest change? I've changed the title of the game from "Saucer Invasion in Sector-J" to simply "Saucer Invasion" - sounds more arcade-y anyway. The image here is low-resolution but the hi-res colors look much better.
What am I working on now? Well, I've managed to cut some small wooden pieces to raise my monitor in the front, providing it with a suitable angle for viewing by 2 players. Now that I've got the angle done correctly, I can move forward again. This weekend, I hope to get the following done:
1. Cut the speaker shelf down to size and test out placement of speakers and make certain they don't interfere (magnetically) with the monitor image.
2. Special Effect woodwork for the front panel. I have decided NOT to go with a coin door but have instead found something else I want to try. I'll hopefully have some pictures this weekend of my attempt.
3. If 1 and 2 get done, I plan on starting with some priming and sanding. Painting won't happen this weekend, unfortunately.
Saturday, October 27, 2007
Monitor installed...
Got my monitor...
I've been having trouble deciding between an LCD or a monitor. Add to that the fact that the width of the inside of my cab is 26" and all of the 27" TVs I've found are slightly too wide. So, I decided to go a little smaller. Turns out that 25" LCDs are difficult to find in 4:3 Ratio... they all seem to be widescreen format these days.
Now, I've got to reinforce the monitor shelf some more... did I mention this thing is HEAVY?!
It remembers its settings when power is lost and has just about every type of video input on the back (see image). No speakers built-in, but that's what the Klipsch 2.1 system is for...