These Angles Are Making Me CRAZY!!!!

Effing angles. I cut a few of the interior panels that make up the interior of the cabinet. It was freezing outside and kind of hard to see but that's not going to stop me. If I have free time to work I'm not going to waste it no matter the temperature.

The panels were actually very tricky to cut since most of them had to be cut on an angle due to the somewhat odd shape of my cabinet's profile. The first thing I did was cut one of my plywood sheets into two equal halves. I don't have enough room in my workshop (the garage) to use the tablesaw for something like this so I ended up using the jigsaw to rough cut it and my router with a pattern bit installed to remove the extra material making it precise. Each "strip" was 23.5" wide and I will be cutting all of the interior panels out of these two pieces. With the exterior side panels, the total width of the cabinet is going to be 25" wide.

The next step was to cut each of the 5 interior panels using measurements from the actual side panel I had already cut. Each of the interior panels gets installed 1/2" from the edge of the side panel all the way around so I had to measure in 1/2" from all sides and take my measurements off of those lines. Then I had to calculate the proper angles to set the blade of my tablesaw at in order for all of the joints to be flush. No magic here - I use my reference lines and a protractor to figure out each angle.

Once the dimensions were worked out it was time to get some extensive practice on my tablesaw (it's about time). I am having a tough time making perfectly square cuts for panels of plywood. I think I need to make a cross cut sled or something like that to run the panels though the saw without using the fence... also my fence seems to drift about 1/16" away from the blade and no amount of tinkering seems to fix it... I just need more practice, I think. Setting the tablesaw blade at an angle was no problem but running the piece through cleanly and perfectly straight was tricky. I'm just not comfortable using the push stick, the featherboard and the proper amount of pressure on the board. Also, I don't want to lose any fingers. Norm makes it look so easy!

Anyway, enough rambling - in this first picture you can kind of see the angle on the edge of the speaker panel - plus the two sweet holes I cut for the speaker grills. I used a holesaw to make those cutouts.

In this second picture you can clearly see the 45 degree angle I cut for the kickplate panel.

Finally, the third picture gives a sneak peak at the assembled cabinet as well as shows off how I had to angle the edges of the top panel and speaker panel so the edges would be perpendicular to the floor in order to accept the marquee properly. Fun stuff!

I'll be posting the results of the glue-up soon!

You Wish You Were This Good

After hours and hours of careful planning, check out this sick bit of woodworking I came up with for the base of the cabinet. I took a 2x4, cut it into 4 pieces and get this.... glued it together!!!! Oh yeah - check out these pics and start drooling....

Here is a shot of the unassembled base with all of the pieces cut. Notice how awesomely precise all the cuts are.

This second shot shows the pieces glued together. Pay close attention to the clamping pressure - it is perfectly set to achieve a tight bond between the wood.

I could post the plans of this part here but I doubt anyone would be able to follow them due to their high complexity and the talent necessary to carry them out.

The Ultimate Button Layout!

I think this is the FINAL layout that I'm going to use for the player 1 and player 2 controls. I designed it to be as ergonomic as possible. I gave the slight arc to the buttons because that is where the tips of my fingers are when my hand is resting on a table. Check it out:

Each button is spaced 1-3/8" on center and the holes will be drilled using a 1-1/8" foerstner bit. The hole to the far left is also 1-1/8" and will be for the joystick shaft.

I toyed with the idea of adding an extra button in front of the bottom row but decided against it for now. Lots of people like to add that 7th button in order to have a row of 4 to play Neo Geo games like they were meant to be played. I might add it but I really want to keep the clutter to a minimum.

Slots to See Here!

It's about freaking time. I FINALLY routed the slot around the side panels to accept the t-molding. For a while there I thought I'd never get a chance to do some more work on this thing. The hardest part was adjusting the depth of the blade on the router bit to cut the slot so it is exactly centered on the edge of the panel.

First, I installed a 1/16" slot cutting bit into my router which I purchased from MLCS. They have pretty cheap prices and they sell just about every bit imaginable - I've ordered from them a few times so I can recommend them. Next, I eyeballed the depth of the bit with the edge of a scrap piece of the same plywood panel I used for the sides and made a test cut. Then I flipped the scrap piece over to see if the slot cutting bit fit into the slot I had just cut. It wasn't exact so I made a small adjustment and tried again. The idea here is that when you flip the scrap piece over the slot cutting bit should slide into the groove you just cut - this is how you know it is exactly centered. I actually had to make about 5 test cuts before I got it perfect.

Once I knew the slot cutting bit was at the right depth I just ran the router around the edge of the side panels where the t-molding is going to go - the ball bearing on the router bit runs along the edge of the panel so you get a nice consistent depth all the way around. Once everything was set up the cutting took all of 10 minutes. You can see the start of the slot I cut in the picture below. Pretty simple!

Next up - cutting the interior panels and the glue-up!

What's On Deck

I'll be making posts like this for my own sanity and to try and bring some order to the way I go about completing this project.

1. Cut the t-molding slots in the side panels [DONE]
2. Cut the rear panel (angled at the top to meet the top panel) [DONE]
3. Cut the top panel (angled at the front to meet the marquee and back to meet the rear panel) [DONE]
4. Cut the speaker panel (angled at the front to meet the marquee with holes for speakers) [DONE]
5. Cut the bottom panel (angled 45 degrees at the front to meet the kickplate) [DONE]
6. Cut the kickplate (angled 45 degrees at the front to meet the bottom panel) [DONE]
7. Make the base out of a 2x4. [DONE]
8. Cut biscuits on all panels [DONE]
9. Glue everything together [DONE]

All of the interior panels are going to be 23" wide which will give the cabinet an overall width of 24.5" taking the side panels into consideration. Once I get these panels cut and everything glued up it will really start to look like something.

Future

1. Cut out the 3 MDF templates for the control panel (overall shape of top, small recesses, through holes)
2. Begin construction of control panel box (mitred cuts on all sides)
3. Finish construction of control panel box
4. Paint the underside of the top panel of the control panel black
5. Apply several coats of stain to assembled cabinet (interior and exterior) and control panel

The MDF templates should be easy enough to make since I know what the layout of everything is going to be but the mitred construction of the control panel box is going to be difficult. Not only am I planning on mitring the corners sides of the control panel box but I'm also planning to mitre the bottom panel as well. All of the joints have to be perfect for this to work.