Let me first preface this with the following:
A: I am a musician/singer/hobbyist coder.
B: I have never used a jigsaw before.
C: I embarrassingly enough had to google how to properly read a ruler.
D: Router to me means, internet.
E: Home Depot can be scary for those who have no idea what they are doing.
F. Home Depot is even scarier when you find out you know more than the employee that is helping you.
G: MDF is heavier than you can ever imagine. Please please please bring a friend or two. I am not by any means weak. Each board is 96 lbs!
H: MDF is messy as hell!!! I had to dust my whole living room after putting plastic over everything and just routing 12 inches of the arcade to test my t-molding. (More on that later).
I: I am positive most of you out there will laugh at me thinking ,”What the hell was he thinking?” Well you know what? Fair enough.. I thought I was. And hey, I still built my dream arcade. Yes I took the long way but whatever....
So, let us begin on the journey.....
If you are here to just scan thru and find info on how to build your arcade quickly, please email me at Jkazemek@yahoo.com and ask me there. I will do my best to reply quickly. (Not very busy at the moment). Otherwise, hang on...it’s goin to be a VERY bumpy ride. At least it was for my jigsaw and router.
PART ONE: THE DREAM
I was born July 16 1974. I will never forget my first arcade. The sounds of all the machines going off at once. My Dad giving me a five dollar bill out of his brown corduroy jacket to get quarters was like I hit the jackpot. All 20 quarters barely fitting into my little hands, I felt rich!! This was also about the time the TV show Silver Spoons came out. I remember Ricky Schroeder having a few upright cabinets in his house. At that age I thought, ehh I’ll never have that. I grew up in the Southside of Chicago. Bridgeport. The land of Mayor Daley, Catholics and hot dogs. Arcade cabinets were for the wealthy and arcades, not for me. From then on, my Dad would take me to every arcade we could find, until they stopped. (I am 46 and we still play PlayStation 3 games together now that arcades are closed down). I have even learned how to code, 3D build in Blender and create my own VR arcades. But it’s not the same. So one day I spilled the beans to my wife who had no idea of my inner wanting.
PART TWO: HERE WE GO! It was around my 46th birthday when all of my family came together to help me purchase the gear to create my dream! My father in law helped me measure out the pieces but made me saw them with the jigsaw I borrowed. My real Dad is still in Chicago. I had the Home Depot guy cut the 8 x 4’ MDF into 5.5’ x 4’ MDF. Guess what? They still didn’t fit in the suv. So we roped them to the roof and rolled our windows down driving slow hoping they wouldn’t t fall off. Just like The Beverly Hillbillies!
We cut them outside at his home in the yard because I heard about how much dust it created and would be either evicted or divorced if I did that here.
Once we were done cutting:....
I piled all of the heavy pieces into my tiny Prius and lugged them up into our apartment.
Before that, I must tell you where I got my plans.
Geekpub.com was who I settled on as I had been googling like crazy trying to find the easiest and best plans etc.. Mike on Geekpub is fantastic. However, if you are a noob like myself, message me. I was confused over a few things and ended up returning a lot of items back to Amazon that I never needed. No worries. Mike at GeekPub is a total pro with a pro workshop. He even mines his own Bitcoin!!!! He is my new hero. Anyways, he leaves a few things out that most of you would probably already know. (Which is why I’m sure he didn’t mention it). Like, never use water based paint for MDF. Always prime MDF. You don’t need a piano hinge for a full upright. Etc....
Mike made his arcade with cream of the crop gear. I had to improvise with only a jigsaw, router, drill and sandpaper. I bought brad nails but never used them. mike has a fancy air compressor nail gun he uses. I do not possess that. But, I DID use wood glue and pax MDF screws that I found at Home Depot and bought only because they said MDF! They contain their own bit to use which is a star shaped but.
It’s crazy how strong wood glue is. I glued a brace in the wrong spot and had to chisel it off 2 hours later!! Be careful and triple check. Take it from me!!! For your control panel Mike recommends Forstner bits for your control panel and I agree. Do yourself a favor and get these.
When it comes to routing out for the T Molding, I did it with a portable hand router. I DID purchase my bit on Amazon.
PART THREE: LEARN THY TOOLS
Ok so if you are going to borrow a router, find out the size of the shank before you order your bit for the t-molding slot. I originally ordered the 1/2 “ shank only to find out it needed the 1/4”. Also, take note or the size you need when ordering your t-molding!
Always rout from left to right. And again, if you are using MDF, mask your home with plenty of plastic. Make it look like in ET when they come to take home away. You’ll be glad you did!!!
If you are screwing into MDF, go slow and try to limit the times you have to re screw or else the wood fibers will split on you and your screw will just keep turning.
PART FOUR: PAINT
I haven’t started this yet but have learned a lot from researching other’s builds.
I learned to NEVER use water based anything on MDF as it will ruin it by swell.
I will add more info once I purchase my items from you know where.
I also made many mistakes by trying to saw a straight line with a jigsaw. No...I didn’t know about a straight edge guide.. Anyways, I just ordered a hand plane and I hope this will fix it. Will update soon!
Final -ish thoughts:
I’m positive I left out a bunch. I recommend you go to geekpub.com and buy the guild pass. I have zero affiliation with Mike. But am a big supporter as he does have quite a lot of knowledge. If you would like to just learn thru me, I can get you set and rolling with the knowledge that I have. Jkazemek@yahoo.com
Cheers, Jesse
No comments:
Post a Comment