The T-Molding

As I said in my last post, I gave up on trying to drill the holes in the control panel. But I felt like I had to do something, so I installed the t-molding. It was a fairly straightforward process. All I used was a mallet and a box knife. The mallet is to hit the molding into place. The knife is for cutting the part that goes into the MDF, the | part of the T, if that makes sense. If it's an outside angle/radius, you have to cut some away, to basically keep it from running into itself, think about a miter, except it doesn't have to be precise. With an inside angle/radius, you have a couple of different options. The first is to just cut the molding like you did with the outside angle. The other option is to just cut slots in it, and since they are spreading out, they won't run into each other. Honestly, I went back and forth between the two. Another thing that came in handy was a piece of wood with a 45 degree angel on it. This was great for hammering the molding into corners.

After I got it in on both sides, I realized that I may have damaged the paint job slightly. It shouldn't be too bad, since my room isn't super bright, and should hide the flaws well enough.
Another thing I realized, and a lesson for you all, is that if you decide to make a MAME cabinet, make sure that the edge that the t-molding is going on is smooth. I thought I could get away with not working too hard on it, after all, I figured that the molding would cover most of the flaws. I was wrong. It's not super noticeable, but it is there: just a slight variation, almost a ripple.

Status Update

Just because I haven't been posting doesn't mean I haven't been working on it.  June 29 - July 1 I was gone at the college orientation, but I did manage to put a coat of primer on before I left. Even before that, I drilled out as much of the control panel as I could, but I'll get into that later. As soon as I got home, my friend Wesley arrived from Oklahoma, and we worked on it a lot, but we were having so much fun I didn't get a chance to blog about it. To start with, we put more coats of paint on. The primer was white, and I wanted the cabinet to be black, so we ended up putting 2 coats on. We had some paint left, so we added another coat on the side that will be seen when walking into my room.

Here it is painted. That's my elbow sticking out.

We also spent a lot of time on the software aspect. We were originally going to go with Windows 2000, but we were having so much trouble trying to get it to boot up to do a fresh install, we gave up on that computer and went with Windows XP. We are going to use MAMEWah for the frontend. A really cool thing that Wes did was modify the Windows XP splash/loading screen to have the MAME logo instead, so this way when you boot up you will see a MAME logo instead of Windows XP.
We didn't do much with the controls other than a couple of things. One thing we did was hook up the spinner. This was the easiest thing to do since it just hooks up via USB. It is recognized as a mouse, so we had to configure both the frontend and the actual emulator to accept mouse input. We also visited my neighbor to get some advice. He sometimes wires up airplane control panels, so we figured he would be a good person to ask about wiring. One thing he told us was that we should use different colors of wire for the controls, to distinguish the different buttons, and make different bundles to rout around. He showed us a connector, and when he told us we didn't have to have them all in a sheath, as his were, but when I saw that, I remembered that my dad had a big spool of Cat5e ethernet cable. It will work great, since the biggest number of buttons we will have is 6, and and Cat5e has 8 wires, so we will have 1 left over, assuming I run all the ground together, which it will be eventually anyway. We also worked on the speakers. I had a set of computer speakers in my shop, so we took them apart, and hooked them up to the 4" speakers we had. Also for convenience sake, we used hot glue and glued the amplifier onto one of the speakers, simply to make it easier when installing them.
July 7-14 I was in Florida visiting my uncle. We did some woodworking, watched the shuttle launch, went to the beach, and when I got back, the paint was dry. Finally!
I didn't do much work when I got back, because I had a gig that night, then a weekly acting camp that I nearly forgot about while laying around recovering, and then the very next day (Sunday), I was off to UNT for a jazz combo camp. Once I got home Friday, there wasn't much time, and the next day, I was off to the acting camp again, and then spent most of the rest of the day at Half-Price Books, and ended up with some good CDs. Monday I mainly recovered from jazz camp, and also went to the consultation to have my wisdom teeth pulled. Tuesday I finally dragged myself back out to the shop to try out the drill guide that I got, since my drill press isn't deep enough for all the holes in the control panel. I bought the Lee Valley guide, because I know that they usually have excellent quality, but this was terrible! There was so much play in it that it is nowhere near close to drill press accuracy, even a crummy one. I am sending it back, and after doing some research online, I am actually going with the Craftsman brand. It got the best reviews, so I figure it's more or less the lesser of x evils. Of course, this morning I had my wisdom teeth pulled, so I'm pretty much out of commission for at least a week. Luckily, thanks to the wonders of teh interwebs I can order the drill guide so it will be here and ready when I am.

Still Going Strong(ish)

It wasn't my original intention to only blog once a week, but that appears to be what is happening. Anyways, like last week, I have been working on it.

Here it is with the front, top, and diagonal attached. There really isn't a whole lot to say about this, except I did cut some angles to make it fit together better. The angle in front should help when I install the marquee and backlight.

 This is the "ventilation slot" I was talking about. If I had thought about it better, I might have cut a slot for T-molding to make it look nicer, but it is in the back after all, so it probably doesn't make a difference.

This is the template I used to route the holes, and it worked fairly well.

I did manage to get a TV finally. I had been looking on Craigslist, and maybe it's better when you want to pay for something, but people were so flaky, I probably sent out about 20 emails, and got back maybe about 3, with one being spam, and the others saying it was already taken. I eventually gave up and went to Goodwill. That's what I should have done from the beginning. I spent way too much time trying to save what turned out to be $25, and I really needed it to keep going. If anything, I actually went a little overboard with trying to find the best deal, and ended up with a 27" screen!

Sorry about the worse than usual picture quality, but anyway, this set me up for the next step.

This was to screw the TV shelf in place, but I wasn't sure where to locate the the shelf. When I got the TV, I was able to measure it, and figure that out. I decided to have it at a right angle to the slant on front, so hopefully the TV will be parallel with the bezel. Before I screwed it in, I screwed another piece of MDF to the bottom, kind of like I did the base, to help support the TV. You can kind of see it in the following picture.

 

I still didn't completely trust it, so I decided to glue cleats to the edges. At this point, I don't think it will budge at all.

I also decided to glue a cleat to the top of the shelf. This is to make sure that the TV doesn't slide back, since it will be at an angle. It should be plenty strong enough.

Around this time is when things started to fall apart a little bit. I had originally planned for the speakers to be 3" from the edges. This meant that the opposite side would be approximately 7" from the edge. That was before I took the bezel into account. I realized that if I kept the holes where they were, I would have to either cut out a place in the bezel for the speakers, or have no bezel at all. Both of these options were unacceptable of course, so I had to create new holes in the board. To do this of course, I also had to make a new routing template. Luckily, I was able to squeeze out what I needed from the same board I had used for the original measurements. The new holes were 1" from either edge.

 I got that routed, and also managed  to rout out part of my bench cookie in the act. It looks a little bit sad, but I learned my lesson, and hopefully will be able to keep from doing that again.

 Anyway, I did that, and cut the bevel, just like the last time, and screwed it in. That probably would have worked, but I have not mastered the fine art of drilling a straight hole yet apparently. I had also been using a bit that was too small, which had been working fine, although it has cracked the MDF slightly. All these combined problems caused the board to basically split. I tried to fix it by watering down some wood glue and injecting it into the hole, and that worked to make it stronger, but I couldn't clamp it good enough to more or less stuff the MDF back in. I eventually gave up and made another board.  Anyway, the picture is the only really good way to show what I am talking about with the splitting and blowout.

 You can see the more or less stain from the glue. You can also see the holes alternating sides. This is from my less than perfect drilling.
The sequence for making the second board is more or less the same, so I won't get into that too much, but I will note a few things I did differently the second time around. To start with, since the holes were already drilled in the side, I took a ruler, and marked a straight line centered on the holes, and then measured 3/8" down to put the board precisely in the middle. I also used a larger drill bit. For those keeping score, I went from a #40 to a #34. Both of these things helped keep the MDF from splitting. I also used 1 1/2" screws near the holes for the speakers, instead of 1 3/4", which is what I am using for the rest of the project.

The next thing I did was screw on the two back pieces. Also pretty straightforward. All I did was measure in 1/2" from the edge on the inside, and 7/8" from the edge on the outside. Clamp in place and drill, countersink, and screw. Done.

I also filled in the holes/countersinks with woodfiller. Both of the cans of Plastic Wood that we had were dried up, and my idea of MDF sawdust and wood glue didn't work as well as I hoped. So today I went out and bought a canister of Timbermate woodfiller, recommendation of the Wood Whisperer.

It worked very good. I had to put it on a second time, but I think that is more due to the fact that I have not yet mastered wood filler. I am almost done with the filler, I just need to finish sanding it down, and I should be ready to prime. Now I just need to turn my shop into an operating room, aka, clean it up really good, and I'll be ready to prime, then paint. Unfortunately, I only have tomorrow to work on it before I go to my college orientation, a 3-day live on campus ordeal. After that, my friend is coming in town, and I had hoped to have all the construction done and the cabinet hauled upstairs before he came, but it looks like I will have to rethink my strategy. On that note, anybody know of a non water-based primer that dries quickly?

Cool Stuff and More Work

Wow, it's been a while since I've posted! I got more supplies last Friday, but I had to leave before UPS came, or else I would have posted pictures, and the last few days, I have been blowing and going. Anyways, there were actually two different packages, but they just happened to come on the same day. The first box was from Rockler, which had the T-Molding and router bit. I took a picture of the box right when I got it, at first because I thought it was funny, but then I realized it was a good thing I did, and here's why:

This is pretty much exactly how it looked when I got it. The papers you see on top were in the box, but fell out when I picked it up to bring it inside. Like I said, at first I thought it was funny, but then I realized the router bit could have easily fallen out; luckily it didn't.

The other box I got was from Hagstrom Electronics, which contained the keyboard encoder, breakout board, and two PS/2 cables. I'll get into this more when I start wiring it up, but anyway, I got them.

Once I got the router bit, I could start on cutting the slots.

I started by making some test cuts in a scrap board to make sure it was centered. I did this by cutting a slot, it doesn't have to be very long, and then I took a piece of the T-Molding, and hammered it in, to see how centered it was. It took me quite a few tries to get it right, but I eventually did, and started on the big piece. Interestingly, when I started to cut the slot on the first side, despite the weight of all that MDF, it tried to shift on me. The solution? 50-pound weight to the rescue! It worked perfectly, and allowed me to easily rout the slot all around.

After I routed out the slot, I could get to work screwing it together. I had actually already drilled and countersunk the holes while I was waiting for the stuff to come, so it was a fairly quick assembly, except for one problem. I had planned for the base to be flush with the sides, but when I got it together, one side was further forward than the base, and the other side was too far back. After thinking about it for a while, I ended up planing/shaving/sanding the base down on the other side, so that it looked about the same on both sides.

This is the side of the base that was too far back.

And this is the side of the base that I had to plane down.

Here it is standing up. The board on the back is just clamped on to provide rigidity while I got the other pieces screwed in. It's at this point that you really start to realize how massive this thing is.

I am actually farther than I have pictures of. I have the front screwed in, as well as the top and diagonal piece.
And now, for the mistakes I made. When I was cutting the sides out, I misread the measurement on the plans and had the diagonal cut as 18" from the corner on either side, as opposed to 16", which is what it should have been. What this means is that I had to cut the top piece down to 7" from 9". This also means that the diagonal is too short, but in the spirit of engineers everywhere, it's not a flaw, it's a feature, it makes for better ventilation! I also failed to read the instructions that said to cut a slot for the T-molding in the base, but it's too late for that. I'm sure it will look fine, but I wish I had noticed that. I don't know if I would call it a mistake exactly, but I wasn't exactly consistent in whether I glued-and-screwed, or just screwed. A mistake I did make was when I was drilled the holes in the top piece. I started by drilling the front screw on either side, but I failed to clamp it the whole time. This  made the board sag in the back a little when I drilled the back holes, and in turn screwed it in. Once I noticed this, I backed the rear screws out, lined it back up, and clamped it down hard, and re-screwed it. Of course later I realized I needed to cut a bevel on the front edge of the top piece, and when I took it off, there were cracks in the sides. It may have been fine had I done nothing, but I decided to water down some wood glue, and drizzled that on the edges. I would recommend using a brush of some kind, but I couldn't find one, and this worked fine. The MDF is so porous that it soaked it right up. I'll see how it turns out tomorrow. I also made a template out of 1/4" plywood for the speaker holes, and I can make those holes tomorrow as well. All I did was mark out a circle with a compass, and once I did that, I drilled holes all the way around and used a coping saw to saw out the middle circle. After that, I put a drum sander on the drill press, and sanded to the line. There are definitely much better ways to do this, but it doesn't have to be too precise, as there will be a grill covering it up.

The Sides

Well, I managed to finish the sides of the cabinet, for the most part. I used a circular saw and a straightedge for the long straight cuts. I had some problems keeping the cuts square, since I was using a framing square to line the cuts up, which doesn't really have any reference edges. So I had to make a trip to Home Depot to get a different square. It's more or less a drywall square, but I got one with an adjustable angle, which I guess will come in handy if I ever need to mark an angle, but I mainly got it because it can fold up when not in use.

Anyway, here the sides are partially done. I meant to take some pictures of the MDF before I started cutting it, but I guess I just got too excited. Already at this point you can see the shape of the cabinet coming through. You may notice the plethora of clamps around it. This is because I cut both sheets at the same time; this way, they would be as close to exactly the same as possible.

Here it is with the front profile cut, and setting up to cut the back diagonal. I mainly used a jigsaw for the profile. The blue foam underneath is to provide support for the material, while providing a surface that the circular saw blade can cut through. I don't recommend using the foam when using the jigsaw, because you can't control the depth of cut on the jigsaw, and you would end up pretty much destroying the foam. Also, I had a big problem with the jigsaw blade deflecting. This could possibly be the blades fault, but most likely because I was cutting through 1 1/2" of MDF.

Here it is all nice and cut. When I was first planning the cabinet out, I wasn't too crazy about the shape, but it has definitely grown on me.

I'm not sure how much I will need to clean up the edges and corners. I think definitely more than I have in this picture, but maybe not too much more since it will be covered up with T-Molding. I think I just need to make sure all the edges are smooth. I also need to decide what size molding to get. That mainly depends on whether I only paint it, or put some kind of laminate on the side. I think I will probably just paint it a solid color.