Monday, February 05, 2007

So... cold... can't... work...

It has been hovering around 10 degrees outside for the better part of a week now so I haven't been able to get much work on my cabinet done in my unheated garage. In fact, I noticed that the cold weather started to affect the dimensions of the cabinet - pieces that I had previously cut (but hadn't glued) that used to be snug were fitting a little looser than before.

On Saturday I had my dad come over and help me move the unfinished cabinet from the garage to the basement. By Sunday night when I went to test fit the same piece it was snug again due to the warmth of the basement. Whew!

The big problem now is going to be painting the cabinet in the basement. I am going to try and set up some sort of paint booth made out of plastic drop cloths so I don't get the paint everywhere. I'll probably end up covering other important stuff with plastic just to be safe - I wouldn't want to get pink paint on Knights of the Arcade Table! I'll also have to make sure the booth is well ventilated to the outside somehow so I can breathe.

Anyway, I managed to cut a few of the smaller pieces to fit around the back of the monitor bezel panel which will eventually hold the monitor in place. It looks pretty good so far and my cuts were accurate enough to allow for the front of the monitor to lie exactly flush with the monitor bezel panel. I'm also playing around with the idea of physically screwing the monitor to the monitor brace. It depends whether or not the brace I'm making plus gravity holds the monitor in place with no chance of movement. There are 4 screws on the back of the monitor that don't seem to do anything so I would be able to use them to screw the monitor in place. Take a look:



Bringing the cabinet inside also let me play around with some of the finishing pieces like the marquee to get a feel for what it will look like when finished. I can also install the coin door and monitor to really get a sense of what the finished cabinet will look like (I'm even tempted to put the t-molding on but I'd have to remove it to paint so that's not such a good idea).

I guess the next few steps are going to be setting up the computer and making sure all the vertical games you can play with 3 buttons and a joystick are working properly. I'll also have to configure the front end (MaLa) which could take a while. I'm getting so close!!

Thanks for looking!!





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