|
|
|
| Planning |
Here it is. The start to any good project is a good plan. I'll let you be the judge
of the quality of the overall project but this is some fine quality.. grid.. drawing.
Okay, so all we had was a drawing I did on some grid paper nailed to the wall. It
has served it's purpose well.
Why not scan it in to get a clear shot? Good question. I don't have an answer other
than the drawing is still back at the garage and all I have is a shot from a digital
camera. The dimensions had to be changed a bit, so it isn't the best representation.
Each square is equal to 2 inches.
Which brings me to a point I want to bring up. If you want to take this design and build
your own cabinet, then go right ahead. I can't stop you. I got insipration for the idea
from lowerhell. I would ask that you add your
own flavor to the design. The last thing I want is my design turned into a cookie
cutter.
|
| Jun-18-2006 - Day One |
 Wood. Good old fashioned wood. The wood of
choice for this project is a couple sheets of particleboard. I have read of some cabinets
made out of MDF, pine, and even a fairly classy wood stained oak cabinet. Why go with
particle board? It is cheap, bottomline.
We started about noon on Sunday. The sun was a glorious 105+ degrees here in Phoenix.
Much ice for cool drinks was sacrificed on this day. I presented an old desk and the
plans you see above to my brother inlaw Ed. I had given him a couple rough sketches and
discussed some of my ideas with him before. I don't think he was ready for all the
angles I wanted to do. Angles, as far as the eye can see. My original plans had all
90 degree angles. In the end every single angled piece we had to cut, that wasn't a duplicate
piece, had a different angle. Ranging somewhere between 10-15 degree slopes. Fun!
Ed looked over the old desk and with an, "Eh.. Let's work with new wood" it
was left and forgotten. Off to the hardware store. We picked up a couple sheets of particleboard,
screws, glue, sandpaper and a good length of 2x4. Enough to get
us going. Couple measurments and a few cuts later and we have us some, smaller, pieces.
The first hour or two is slow moving. What do you expect? It is a lot of measuring,
cutting, planning, reworking flaws in my design...so on and so forth.
The arm coming from the side of this picture is my niece. I am not known to wear pink
and do not have dwarfed arms. Anyways, the tools we used ranged from your average electric
sander and jigsaw to a tablesaw and circular saw.
We choose to attack the bottom box first. Start from the bottom and work our way up.
The curved corners were just a matter of digging out a small paint can and drawing
them in. Jigsaw and some sanding and you have some nicely rounded corners.
The boards on the inside of the box are set in an inch. The box for the TV and the
controller will do the same. From the side you won't be able to tell, but from the front
it will have a nice sunken in look. I was going the have the top part of the box be
flat despite it's 6 inch slant to make it easier to work with and more stable, but
Ed convinced me he could keep the 1 inch inset.
We used wood glue and a nail gun to set the boards and screws to secure it. I can't
recall if we just ran out of material on the first sheet of particleboard or if we
measured wrong, but the bottom ended up being about an inch too short. No problem
as it is the bottom and in the back. We left a short lip on the top and bottom of the
back, maybe 4 inches, so you have access inside the box. I won't be storing the
computer in the bottom box, but I wanted to be able to get in there easily for the
wiring and if I ever built a dedicated computer for it.
The next step was building the two pillars that the TV box will stand on. We used
the angled scrap pieces cut off the top of the side panels as a guide to cut the
bottom of the pillars. I believe it was an 11 degree slope. The front of the pillars
have the boards sunken in an inch, as well. I plan to put T-molding around the edges
of the boxes and front of the pillars.
To help secure the pillars to the angled top of the box we screwed some stronger
pine boards that were laying around the garage in 4 strips that the boxes could be
attached to. We didn't attach the pillars just yet as we needed to drill out some
holes under where the pillars would be for wires.
At this point daylight was dropping so we went on to start on the TV box. It seems
when I wrote down the dimensions of the television and I thought I had rounded up I
had infact rounded down. We wouldn't realize this little detail until a few days in
the future. We did end up cutting, rounding, sanding and finishing the side panels for
the TV box. It ended up looking really good. I didn't get a shot of it, but for how many
angles and curved corners it had it looked clean. We deceided to call it a day and
pick up on it the next day after work.
|
| Jun-19-2006 - Day Two |
Today, I forgot the digital camera. So no new pictures.. sorry. We started a bit later
due to work, so we only got a good 2-3 hours. We did manage to cut out all the side
panels for the front pillars that the controller will be sitting on. We also picked
up some plexiglas and caulk for the marquee and bezel.
We took another look at the side panels for the TV box. We figured it would be a
tight fit but were confident we could make it work. Cutting the angles on the front
pillars, since it is basically all angles, ate through most of the day. We called it
a night.
|
| Jun-20-2006 - Day Three |
 To help anchor the controller box and pillars,
as it will probobly be punched on multiple occasions, we took two solid pieces of 2x4 to
attach the pillars to. With enough glue and nails it officially became a part of the
bottom box.
The back pillars are 8 inches wide while the front pillars are 5. They line up on the
outside but the front has a larger gap in the middle. We finished up the front pillar
boxes and attached them to the box. Once the glue had settled in a bit we were able
to lean and lift the box with just the pillars. They passed the strength test!
Satisfied with that we moved on to the side panels of the TV box. I looked up the
exact measurements online to find out, as I had previously mentioned, my measurements
were off. Words of advice.. DOUBLE CHECK, DOUBLE CHECK, DOUBLE CHECK! 3/4 of an inch
can really wreck your day.
We mulled over the side panels trying to find a way to squeeze the TV inside what we
had to work with and eventually faced the truth that they weren't going to work and
we would need to recut them.
So we did!
Cut, cut, cut, round, round, round, sand, sand, sand...
And we had new side panels with a much needed extra 6 inches. Rowr! We wanted to
continue on, but it was getting late in the suburbs and normally friendly neighbors
are quick to turn into phone wielding, police calling, animals. Since the side
panels were the most current things we had done I have a little more
info on them in their own update.
|
| Jun-20-2006 - Day Three.5 |
We cut, rounded and sanded the side panels. Also you can't see too well from the
picture but we figured out all the dimensions for all the inner pieces. We marked off
the remaining wood and looks like we are going to barely make it.
Might need to pick up a bit more to build the control box.
|
| Jun-25-2006 - Day Four |
The Tv box is quite a mammoth. We cut what we could out of the remaining wood. We had
enough for about half the panels we needed to build the box. So, we went back to the
hardware store and picked up another 4x8 piece of particleboard. Having to recut the
two side panels chewed up a lot of wood, so I am not going to include this 4th board
on the overall cost page as if I had the measurements right the first time we probobly
would have had enough wood with just the 3.
Being the bright young men that we are we deceided to pick up some bor bits to drill
the holes for the controller. Attempting to go off memory of when we measured the holes
nearly a week back we deceided to get a set of bits from 1/2" to 1 1/4". When we got
back we measured the holes to find out they were 1 1/8". Looking through the set it
went 7/8", 1", 1 1/4". Oh boy! Another miss! Hope the hardware store has a decent
return policy.
The controller got put on the back burner and we went back to working on the Tv box.
Having more than enough wood we went on measuring, cutting..ect. During the tv box
fabrication we were discussing how we were going to handle putting in and taking out
the Tv. My plan was to enclose the box and secure the plexiglas with exposed screws
for access. Ed suggested to put hinges on the back and top boards in the back so the
plexiglas would be flush and look like nothing is holding it there. We butted heads
on it back and forth and eventually I lost.
Also after some consideration, and trying to move it, we deceided to make the cabinet
sectional. We built some pegs that the TV box would use to slide down into the pillars
and hold it in place. The weight of the TV will help keep the box in place. It would take
a very violent jolt for the top box to even wobble.
The bottom of the box has a double layer of boards seperated and braced together by
about 1 1/2 inches of boarding to lift the TV up an extra 3-4 inches. We eyeballed
where we thought the center of the screen was going to be and felt it need to be lifted
a bit higher. Good thing we cut the new sides as we had plenty of room to do it.
We finally got to see what it looked like assembled and the response from our little
audience that would come and check the progress periodically was something like, "Oh,
I can see it.. now." I guess a drawing on a piece of grid paper isn't enough for some
people.
|
| Jun-26-2006 - Day Five |
Today we did some painting. I needed to spray paint the side panels for the TV box
and main box as the art was going to be painted on and the artist requested a flat
black spray paint to be used. The rest of the cabinet we just used semi-gloss regular
black house paint. The paint dried rather quickly in the summer heat so keeping it
clear and smooth was a slight bit of work. We didn't bother painting some areas as they
were going to be cut, covered or something else in the future planned with it.
The whole remaing week was quite nice as I got to kick back and watch Matt, the artist,
paint. The most I had to work was giving him a hard time about certain aspects of the
painting. He was quite dedicated to the project as you will see in the following days.
|
| Jun-27-2006 - Day Six |
Now you may have been thinking, 'Why are they already painting if the control box isn't
done and there are still areas that need to be cut?' The simple answer is Matt is moving
in three days and if we didn't get it to the point to be painted on it was going to have
some cheap printed out stickers that could send the cabinet straight to the hall of shame.
This could not happen!
As I said I didn't do a whole lot and sadly I forgot the camera all week except
for one day. Maybe I can get Matt to write up some more details on painting and brush
strokes and all that as I'm not knowledgable enough about it to say anything worthwhile.
The basic idea I gave Matt in the weeks preceding was an organic machine. After some
more discussions and sketches we came up with an idea of an oversized brain, eye and
heart. It is going in my living room so... Why not?
|
| Jun-28-2006, Jun-29-2006, Jun-30-2006 - Day Seven, Eight, Nine |
No pictures. Sorry. Over this period we saw that time was running very short and
there was no way Matt would have enough time to replicate everything on the otherside
so we brainstormed a bit to try and think of something simple to throw up so it isn't
just blank, black, nothingness.
I suggested a beach and palm tree as a suprise for Carla, my better half, and Matt
went to work. He was so dedicated to the project that he worked all that way until
late Friday night minutes before he headed directly out of town on a 17 hour drive
across the country. Super thanks are not enough for the guy. I demand all of you to
give him a mental high five, right...NOW.
|
| Jul-1-2006, Jul-2-2006 - Day Ten, Eleven |
Zing! Glorious!
Over the weekend we tore apart the X-Arcade controller and started working on the control box.
While pulling out all the wiring we labeled each, and excuse my ignorance as I will call
them, button clicker box with something simple to remember what wire corresponds to
what button. I realize they are programmable but it made life a lot easier to keep
them using the standard setup.
The box was a bit tricky as we needed to build it so it was accessable in the future
incase any rewiring or just for any reason needed to get in the box arised it wouldn't
have to be torn off and rebuilt. Also, it had to be strong as people would be leaning on,
kicking, spilling and who knows what else to the poor thing in the future. We deceided
to make the bottom board completely anchored to the pillars and the top part of the
box would unscrew from the bottom board and lift out.
The top flat part is where the cupholders will go and the buttons on the side for pinball
will remain. The button layout is straight to the point. The six button layout with a
few extra above if they are ever needed. We angled them a bit to give plenty of room
for player one and two.
We left a decent enough gap in the center, too, if I ever want to put a trackball in
there. I can count all the trackball games I enjoyed on one hand so...I dunno. We will
see.
Now, can you spot the error? Look hard...
When we did the L-shaped button pattern on top rather than really thinking about it,
we simply mirrored it on player-two's side. See it now? It wasn't until after we drilled
the holes in and took a step back and looked that we realized they were quite off.
Looks like we need some putty and bondo! Not tonight though... I'm pooped.
|
| Jul-3-2006 - Day Twelve |
Well there she is. Really starting to come together. I thought today would be the
last major day of work besides the T-molding. I was wrong! We'll get to that in a minute.
I patched up the holes and drilled in the remaining needed ones. And after much deliberating
we deceided to patch up a bit on the beach and palm tree scene. Much love Matt but the
green water was voted off the island and sadly the shark-whale went with it. If I can
track down an image of the original beach scene for reference I will, but all I can
find is this current one. I know there are some early shots floating out there on
someone elses digital camera. I'll see what I can do.
Moving along, I unloaded the TV and we stuck it inside the the box. Perfect fit!
Outlining the TV on the otherside of the plexiglas for reference we pulled it out and
taped the inside. The remaining spray paint from the sides wasn't enough so we ran to
the store and picked up some more. We also got some speakers with mount plates to replace
the pc Speakers with, as there is nothing to mount them with.
When we got back we finished spray painting the bezel and after it dried a bit we pulled some
of the plastic off on the front of the plexiglas to discover.. Dun, dun, dun... NOOOO!
The black caulking we used to affix the plexiglas with was riddled with bubbles. Bubbles everywhere!
We pulled off the plexiglass and tried to make it better by scraping off the caulk and
spraypaint the edges but it seems black sparypaint comes in two shades because the new
paint we picked up didn't match. The old paint looked dead solid black and the new stuff had a kind
of pencil lead look to it. We are going to try and save the piece of plexiglas, but we
may end up just getting a whole new piece.
I have been reading about smoked plexiglas and it looks quite interesting. Guess we'll
see what happens.
|
|