"Crabby patty"

A work in progress

Started 8/16/06. Playable and 90% complete on 9/21/06.

Where: Texas, DFW area.

Who: Me, a native New Englander living in Texas.

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It begins. Picked up a DK Jr. cab, which was converted to a VS. PlayChoice 10 for $130 on eBay, local.

Home and ready to sacrifice itself so that others may live. After parting it out on eBay, I actually MADE about $100.

More guts.

Let the Parting Party begin!

Staples, very few screws and wood glue hold classic Nintendo cabs together.

Smoothing out the sides. Started by sanding the sides and filling the bolt holes, etc.

Another shot. Note the heavy damage near the bottom of this side, on the rear.

Close-up of the area in need of the most repair.

Clamped firmly down to the work surface, with a 2x4 bracing the rear. Note the newspaper covering the 2x4. This is so the Bondo only sticks to the cab side, not the 2x4 which is there, not only to brace the rear, but to provide a smooth, finished surface for the rear of the cab's side.

Regular, autoshop Bondo. I like to use this for any major repairs since it sets up nice and firm and, if need be, you can even screw into it. Just something I learned back when I was collecting and had to redo the front panel of a Spy Hunter II.

The slathering o' the Bondo. Just applied it to any areas on the side that needed filling. In hindsight, would not have used it for the bolt holes. This stuff is MUCH tougher to sand then wood putty and the like. :P

Both sides with imperfections filled and sanded.

Close-up of the Bondo filler. Added some wood putty for final touchup.

The bottom. Kept the original Nintendo bottom since it was in very good shape. Those original wheels would turn out to be a MUCH greater help than I initially thought as, by the end, this would be the heaviest game I have ever owned, with Race Drivin' coming in a close second - and that had a force feedback engine in it! The lighter colored wood is new plywood applied by me to compensate for the added width of the cab.

Used some of the original Nintendo fasteners. Added four 2x4 supports to keep the weight of the sides from sagging the new plywood floor which hung over the sides of the original floor and bore the weight of the sides and top almost exclusively.

Hello, my name is John and I'm an overbuilder. Hi, John. . . As I was pretty much making this up as I went, turns out I should have rotated those two rear, tall 2x4s. The TV couldn't fit through the opening and one had to be trimmed about an inch in width.

I didn't want to go with an arcade monitor (part of the reason I'm building a cab is to get away from having to repair stuff monthly) and a large computer monitor was just to pricey. This baby is from WalMart and was $180 total with tax. Not bad for a flat screen!

Um. . . okay, jumping the gun here. :)

No, seriously. Just trying to get a feel for where the CP would be, etc. Again, just making it up as I go!

Screwing on the sides and countersinking the holes so they fill nicely. Used a screw, which had a "built in" washer for added support. Yes, I have a problem, but that's the first step in getting help! :)

Good shot of all the screws for securing the sides and the new supports/floor.

And the inside of the right side. In hindsight, I should have filled the area where the bezel used to be. Had to do that after the fact and it was a bit of a pain.

Close-up of same area. Yes, screws, wood glue and brackets. It's the framer in me. :(

Both sides attached and ready for sanding of the countersunk screws. Should've just sanded both sides at once instead of filling/sanding the bolt holes first - would have been easier than doing the whole shebang twice.

Sides applied and pretty much all framed out now.

Leveling front to back now, after having already done left to right. . .

The front and rear parts of the rotating CP. Plywood for the sides and MDF for the visible panel surfaces. It's been mentioned before, but bears repeating - USE A MASK WHEN WORKING WITH MDF. This crap creates a ultrafine dust AND it contains formaldehyde. Ugh. Also, if possible, cut/route outside!

One of the tops done. . .

And secured. I went with corner brackets and bolts with wingnuts to secure the tops of the panel. Why? Just seemed to be very secure but also provided a tool-free release when needed.

Again, countersinking. Note, also, the slight overlapping of the MDF as compared to the plywood side. This is to lessen the gap between the insides of the cab and the CP. Going flush with the MDF to the plywood would have left a sizeable gap AND allowed you to easily see the lazy susan thingie.

The corner brackets/braces. Not only important for holding down the tops, but also to provide much needed stability to the CP itself.

I opted to rig one of the front/rear panels with those rolling cabinet catches. I can pop this panel off to allow access to the wiring if need be.

The panel, completed and exposed with the removable section on top.

Detail of the removable panel. Note the slight beveling of the inside of the removable panel's sides. This allows it to slide in snuggly without damaging the other panels it contacts.

More leveling, this time of the actual panel.

I opted to make the front door fold down, not only for access to the insides but to allow the panel to rotate. If nothing else, the steering wheel control needed extra clearance. Note the piano hinge at the bottom. The red thing is a magnet/striker setup that I got at a hardware store for about eight bucks and is perfect for holding the door shut with just the right amount of force. I was concerned about it affecting the controls/screen but, in the end, it wasn't strong enough for that.

Getting there!

Cutting in the coin door. For this, just simply laid the frame of the door on and traced. Cuts didn't have to be perfect as the frame would cover any slight overcutting, etc. Slipped right in. Done with a hand held jigsaw and a circular saw.

Yup. It's a coin door in need of touchup. Still looking for some nice new red inserts and the $.25 transparents. Anyone???

Marquee area installed, more Bondo for those aforementioned original bezel cutouts which I thought wouldn't be visible but, clearly, now are going to be to some degree and the nice "sun room" of our house being a holy friggin' mess!

I had also left in the original place holders for the bezel, thinking I might use that design. When it became evident that wasn't going to work, I had to remove them. Simply sawed them off flush with the cab using a sawzall. In hindsight, would have had smoother/better finished results by removing the wood from the groove and just using Bondo. Still, looks plenty good done but it's one of those things "only you notice" that could have been avoided.

Rain delay in the final interior/exterior sanding of the entire cab.

The installation of the admin panel/backsplash. The 1P, menu, pause, mouse button and P2 buttons will go on this. Did I know exactly which buttons would go on it when I thought of it - of course not!

The admin panel flipped up to allow for the rotation of the panel. The steering wheel, incidentally, will act as a "stop" to prevent the entire panel from going a full 360 and eventually twisting the wires to hell. In other words, the joys will fit under the admin flip up fine, the steering wheel won't. And, yes, THAT part WAS by design! ;)

Plexi from the Depot. Also got the $3 cutting tool for plexi. Just measure, scribe about 5-8 times and snap. Easy.

Plexi test fit. Note the nice smooth dark brown wood I placed on the admin surface - thought the plywood would look a bit rough. I'll end up skimcoating the coin door panel for that same purpose. Guess I could have gone with MDF there, too. *shrug*

Super stuff. Learned about this goop when I did carpentry - we used it mostly for putting on the top of the floor joists before laying down the subfloor. Kept the squeaking of the floor to a minimum in later years. Strong, great stuff for nearly any project. . .

Such as this one. I had sanded the plywood to get it as smooth as possible, then proceeded to put the bottom piece of the marquee box ON THE WRONG WAY. Sigh. Instead of disassembling all that, it was Liquid Nails and waferboard to the rescue, just like on the admin panel. Note all the wood putty used to seal up the seams to prevent light leakage back into the cab.

Clamp, clamp and clamp when it comes to getting the best results from any sort of adhesive. The strips of MDF aren't only to prevent any damage to the nice smooth waferboard but also to evenly distribute the force of all those clamps and wedges. This sat overnight. No more knot! :)

Everything sanded, given several damp cloth wipe downs, dry cloth wipe downs (old, plain white t-shirts work great for this stuff) and ready for priming.

More of the same. Note that the CP was painted by itself in separate sections to prevent gumming up of the lazy susan sections by coat after coat of paint.

First coat of primer. That stand up light was most helpful and was only $30 at the Depot. A Wagner Power Painter was used for spraying on Behr sandable latex primer and, eventually, semi-gloss black paint. The "fume room" was mandated by the wife and she was right to demand that - the power painter creates LOTS of fine paint particles which will just drift and drift if not contained.

Wet sanding with 600 grit waterproof sandpaper after the first coat of black. The front door needed another skimcoat of "mud" to help it smooth out a bit more, too. Again, damp wipe downs and dry wipe downs until NO residue is left between each coat. You'll need lots of t-shirts. :)

The sections of the control panel ready for sanding off of the Bondo/wood putty, then painting. Both the section laying on the top there will eventually overlays instead of just being gloss black. The lazy susan thingies were taped off to prevent paint from getting in the workings.

Sham of a mockery of a sham of a CP. (Been waiting a long time to use that line!)

Practicing cutting out the trackball pattern on a spare piece of MDF. ROUTE MDF OUTSIDE AND WEAR A MASK AS WELL AS EYE PROTECTION. Can't stress that stuff enough. Nasty, nasty stuff. :P

The underside of the main control panel, all marked out for cutting. I didn't use any computer software, templates or whatnot. Just simple math to divide the CP in half width and length wise, then figured out the width of the holes needed for the buttons, joy and trackball. Don't get "analysis paralysis!" Just do it but do check it twice before drilling and whatnot. :)

Cuttin' and routin' out of doors in the 103 degree Texas heat. OH, YEAH! Hey, it's a dry heat, tho! :) The "ribbing" under the hole for the trackball is actually cardboard which I had underneath the CP with the very top layer removed by the router.

Routing out the channel for the wires.

The "ball" or "bullet" catches installed to help hold the panel steady and in place when rotation has stopped. This was where the lack of in-depth planning hurt me the most. Much swearing and other unsavory behavior in trying to layout the total of four catches I used.

The top of the finished main CP. Simple layout with one trackball and four buttons per player. They didn't want a spinner and none of us are into the six button mashing fighters so here you have it. My wife actually only wanted two buttons per player but I managed to twist her arm for the four per "just in case."

Since all the dirty work is now done and it is mostly just electronics, the cab moves into the house. Note the, ahem, "amending" of where the wire channel had to go based on where the ball catch plates ended up. Like I said, the lack of planning REALLY hurt in regards to them.

The admin panel taking shape. Again, no weird templates or whatnot, just simple math, dividing the panel by width and length, sketched out on the back of the panel.

And the pretty buttons.

Two Happs for the 1P and 2P buttons and some Nintendo buttons I had from the original CP that came with the machine.

Adventures in alternate trackball mounting! I guess of all the stupid "no-plan-just-do" things I came up with on this project, I'm the proudest of this. I originally intended to mount the ball with bolts from the top, countersunk. After routing, however, I realized that I had very little wood left to put these bolts through and, therefore, provide support for the ball. Fearful that the wood would crack near the mounting bolts from the pounding a CP takes, I came up with this.

Everything except for the grounds and trackball all wired up and ready to go!

The control panel - done. That black button was added after determining that that was the perfect spot for a "hyperspace" button. Sadly, it gets whacked regularly with trackball use. :( So, before the overlay is applied, it'll be filled in.

The underside of the main CP. It ain't pretty, but it works!

The finished trackball mounting. Very simple, very secure.

Oooooh. . . Aaaaaaahhhhhh. . .

Almost playable!

T.V. behind the bare plexi. Note the markings for the corners of the screen. The plexi comes with a protective plastic film on it. I marked, taped and cut appropriately before spraying. Again, a bezel with artwork will eventually replace the plain black one.

Marked and ready for gentle cutting to remove the plastic protector on all but the center section, where the picture tube will be.

Like so.

Backside of the completed bezel. Note the bezel drops into a slot at the bottom, is held in on the sides from behind and is held in simply by a piece of wood at the top. Solid and clean from the front is all that matters! The sides of the section where the tube is ended up with this weird, "paint seeping in" effect but the top and bottom didn't. Not sure why just the sides ended up like that, but I actually liked the look so I kept it.

And, it's doneish! Still have to do side two of the CP (steering wheel side) and pedal, apply the t-molding, overlays and artwork as well as blacken up the case of the TV right around the tube.