Nerdbloke

I got some time during the school holidays to get some work done on the MAME cabinet.

I prepped the speaker shelf and got it mounted. I used the speakers that came with the TV. I had to cut the speaker wire and extend it so the speakers could be mounted in the shelf. I made a plug so I could detach the speakers from the TV if I ever needed to pull the TV out (for repairs, replacement etc)

Speaker Shelf:

Speakers:

Plug:

Ages ago I uploaded my Galaga CPO to the localarcade site to see if anyone else would like it. It didn’t appear on the site for ages and I had forgotten all about it. Today I was searching for some inspiration for “Galaga Side Art” in Google and up pops my CPO.

And the one person that rated it gave it a 5 out of 5. Yay!  :-)

Yeah yeah – small things amuse small minds…

I had a big session in the garage the other day and managed to get the top mounted, with the top shelf and speaker shelf attached.

I also managed to get a grill attached to the rear of the base to allow a little bit of air flow for the PC (and keep out little fingers, and cats).

I’ve have managed to get the base door attached (finally). I was originally intending to use hinges you find in your kitchen cupboard, but was having some dramas with them, so I fell back to using steel piano hinge. Really glad I did as it has worked better than I thought. It looks nice and is really sturdy.

Here is what I’ve got so far:

Here is a view of the mounting bolts, from the outside and inside:

The mounting bolts are 10mm thick so for the countersinking I had to resort to using my router as my standard countersinking bits were not deep/wide enough. With six of these one each side the left and right panels are not going anywhere.

I had to cut the speaker wires from the tv to mount the TV in the cabinet. I am planning on rigging up some kind of quick disconnect so that if I ever need to remove the top I don’t need to cut and resolder the speaker wires again.

TODO NEXT:

• Raise the tv by an inch
• Attach rear panels on the top half
• Solder the speaker wires to plugs

TODO Later:

• Get a marquee printed and attached
• Sort out the plugs and soldering for the control panel
• Figure out how to mount the control panel to the base so it does not move, but is still removable.

Cleaned up the garage – now have enough room to move about in there. Decided I’d better get cracking on the top half of the mame cabinet. Here is a pic of one of the top sides going through a test mounting.

I used some tiny corner braces to hang the top sides on the base so I could step away and get an idea of how it will really look.

TODO:

• Looks like I will need to straighten up the top half (rotate a few degreees anti-clockwise in pic) to make the back edge truly vertical. Once I’ve sorted out exactly where the top half will go relative to the base I will mount it using the fancy-pants mounting screws I purchased ages ago.
• Change the mounting screws for the monitor to move the monitor back a few centimetres. To give more room for bezel/glass.
• cut and splice the wires from the TV speakers to extend them so they can be mounted in the speaker panel below the marquee.

I’ve always wondered how I would trim the excess t-molding that pokes out above and below the edges of the timber. I tried using a really super-sharp chisel on the control panel and it worked, but you could see the marks for each different cut. Not too happy with the result.

I just did some searching and I found a tool called an “edge trimmer”. I am going to have to get one.

[UPDATE: Couldn't help myself - I just ordered one from mcjing about 5 minutes after writing this blog entry]

Looks like they are available from a variety of places:

• http://www.rockler.com/product.cfm?page=1266&filter=Double%20Edge%20Trimmer
• http://www.mcjing.com.au/woodworking/finishing/FINISHING.asp
• http://onlinetoolreviews.com/reviews/torquataedgetrimmer.htm
• http://www.timbecon.com.au/productsearch/default.aspx?txtSearchBox=edge+trimmer
• http://www.carbatec.com.au/power-tools-and-accessories/edge-banding-machines-accessories/edgebanding-edge-trimmer