Donkey Kong Bartop Scratch Build - FINISHED

[BabyDuckGames]

That DK cab is looking very sweet !! Can't wait to see it when you get some colour on it, making wan't to crack on with starting my cab build now. Amazing work so far mate, really is looking good !Gonna have to come and have a nosey next time we are up in Carlisle

 

[Mr20to5]

Gonna have to come and have a nosey next time we are up in Carlisle

Make sure you do pal, up to 3 cabs now and looking to source my fourth, so plenty to go round!!

 

[Mr20to5]

Hi Guys, with the weekend off, I got to work on prepping the cab for paint. The pictures don’t really do justice, either for the time spent working on it or the finished quality of the surface, but suffice to say that I am very pleased with how this turned out.

So first up, time to fill the countersunk screw heads and caulk the seams inside and out ready for sanding;

Another photo with all done;

And with that done it was time to start the sanding, priming, sanding routine, tools of choice at hand;

So, to save a lot of very similar photos, I sanded the entire cab, including the side panel of shop fresh MDF up to 360 grit, then primed, very light sand, then primed again, to achieve this, fairly flat and smooth, but still grainy to the touch;

More sanding, with 1200 grit, but wet sanding now that the wood is protected, never wet sand bare MDF, very light, very tight concentric circles, keeping the surface wet to allow the block to glide over;

And here is the result. You can’t tell from where you are, but this now feels like glass! It will get one more very light coat of primer, another very light wet sand and then the fun bit, some colour!!!!

Did get lots of other bits and pieces primed today, like the rear vent piece, the monitor support, all the metal brackets and some screws, which will be painted black as they will be on show when finished, but forgot to take a picture.

That’s it, for now, not much to show for a lot of work, but it was worth it and if the colour goes as well, I will be a happy bunny.

Until next time.

 

[silverfox0786]

very skillfull prime and sanding there

well done so far

 

[BabyDuckGames]

Looking lovely so far Neil, great attention to detail !

 

[Mr20to5]

Hi Guys,

Things are really starting to come together now, and really pleased with how things are going. As this is my first ever foray into scratch building something, I had always had a certain level of trepidation attached to the inner workings of this cab and this is where things are heading towards So let’s see how I get on….

First up though and there were still many hours of sanding and priming to go. I don’t see there being a whole lot if interest in putting up any photos of this, you get the idea. However with this all finished, it was finally time to get the paint out. I chose to use spray paint, hoping for fine finish and it saves on brushes/rollers and the cleaning of the same, but also it makes some of the more awkward bits all that
more easy.

Arsenal of choice being Halfords Grey Primer, Black Gloss and Ford Olympic Blue.

I think the better match may have been Ford Maritime Blue, however having bought one originally, the colour was way off the lid colour, and despite the lovely sales assistant, ripping the seals of every can they had, then ordering one from a nearby store, they all seemed far, far too dark and nothing like what a google search shows it should be. Not sure if it was a dodgy batch or what, but sacked it off in favour of Olympic blue. The Maritime had a slightly greener tint to it, but I’m happy with Olympic for what I need it for.

Decided to try out my skills on the easier stuff first so painted up all the metal work. Happy with the results;

Continuing the black them but moving onto some wooden parts, I painted up the monitor support panel first (mainly because this will be hidden and seemed a good place to start, just in case), and the piece that goes above the CP and receives the bezel mounting strip.

Inspired by the results I turned to the 3 pieces that make up the back panel. These are painted off from the cab, with the top and bottom being fixed with visible screws (painted black also). This is purely for maintenance needs and will not be seen really as it is the back. The larger middle section is fixed by a rebated edge on the bottom and the traditional cam lock to the top. Again Happy with the results

With all the bits done it was time to move onto the actual cab and out with the masking tape. I stuck to the black paint, so time to hide the bits that will be blue.

And on with the black paint.

With the black all painted it was the moment of truth, adding the blue colour. First up, more masking, yes it’s boring, yes it takes a wee bit of time, but it’s unavoidable, so here another photo;

And here’s the results. Happy face !!!

Keeping the momentum going, I masked up the rest of the cab ready for painting the sides;

Then applied the paint, here are a photo of where I currently am, with one side painted, twice, then wet sanded using 1200grit paper, ready for final coat to cover up the blemishes/dulled patches. Should get this finished off tonight/tomorrow, but for now, here she is;

One thing that I should add is that this paint seems to show up very different on camera, depending on the amount of natural light and the angle of the photo.

Next instalment should cover the internals and how I get along trying to wire up the birds nest that is currently on my bench!!

Neil.

 

[Mr20to5]

Hi guys,

Just a quick update, whilst on lunch break, with a few photos I took this morning, with the painting now FINISHED. I have tried to get the photos to reflect the actual colour of the paint but the shade changes so much dependent on the lighting. WOuld be keen to know from genuine DK owners what they think, as it took a fair bit of trouble to get to this shade. (thanks to those who helped).

Either way, I am very happy with the outcome, the shade is waht it is and until I (one day) find/afford a real DK, it is not going to be in direct comparison with the real deal; the finish is bob on, all those hours of sanding and prep finally paying off; also the lines between the black and blue paint are nice and sharp.

Next up is to try and squeeze all the internals inside, a job which my OCD will undoubtedly make much harder than simply throwing it all inside and walking away!!

But until then here's a few photos of how we looked this morning, enjoy!!

Neil

 

[big10p]

Nice job. Bet you're itching to put on the side art.

 

[Hurray Banana]

You've done a cracking job on this mate. top effort

 

[cparsonsuk]

Skills!

cNp

 

[Mr20to5]

Nice job. Bet you're itching to put on the side art.

YES and NO......

Yes because it will REALLY lift this, Muddy has came up proper trumps with all the artwork for this.
No in case I royally cack it up!!!

 

[Mr20to5]

Hi guys, just a little update today, but things are moving along nicely. Just waiting on a load of insignificant yet needed bits and bobs from Ebay to arrive before I can go on – cable ties, cable clips, forstner drill bit, etc, etc.

So, some little bits of progress both on and off the cab;
Got the electronics spread out on a table and wired up to check that everything worked (including me!) – success!

What this did highlight though, this being my first encounter with both scratch building and a multi board, is that I hadn’t figured on needing service/test/credit buttons, so these are now to be ordered, but typically the Sanwa 18mm that I want are out of stock in the colour I
want. Never worry, no rush…

Next up I quickly cut out a monitor surround to hide all the bits I don’t want to be seen. Used black card, cut with sharp utility knife and fixed into place using black adhesive Velcro strips. You can also see the now fitted flexible adhesive LED strip lighting for the marquee.

Lastly, for now, started to get the internals inside and deciding on where to put things. The power basically comes into a switched socket on the bottom rear of the cab. This provides power purely to the strip adaptor which I have fixed to the rear of the monitor back panel. Plugged into this will be the 3 plugs you can see, one for the PSU, another for the monitor, and the third for the LED strip lighting as this came with a plug and I have just left it as such. One good side to doing this is that I am able to ‘coil’ the cables around the monitor to keep the tangle of wires to a minimum, knowing that they will be hidden by the monitor surround.

The PSU is screwed into place onto the base, as will be the multi-board, but just need to wait for some cable clips and ties first and then it will be onto getting the loom tidied up and inside and then the CPO cut out and wired up, which is probably the last of the bigger jobs left to do.

The artwork is getting finished off at the printers, courtesy of Olly, then things will really be getting near, dare I say it, finished....

Neil

 

[Mr20to5]

Hi guys, update for progress so far.

Most of the jobs that I’ve got done through this update are the little things, devil in the detail, type jobs, but some good progress by the end nonetheless.

First up, let’s start small and work from there. Fitted some small felt pads to the base support, more to protect any surface it may sit upon, rather than add anything to the build.

Next was to spray paint some screws black as these will be visible once completed. I know I could probably buy these in black, but I had the screws and had the paint, so why not.

Whilst I had the paint at hand, I sprayed some aluminium mesh, which will be used behind the speaker grill at the front and the vents at the rear.

More paint different colour this time. Having realised (oops) that I needed some service/test/credit buttons (slight oversight), I ordered some 18mm buttons which had white buttons with a black surround. Even those these will be virtually hidden, being positioned on the small hidden shelf underneath the front panel, I just didn’t like the black surround, so a quick spray later and they are colour matched to the rest of the cab. I like the white buttons, as this will match the impending Tmold, so the white stays.

Paint going on, did an extra one just in case. (it was a good job…)

Here’s the one I didn’t use, my impatience got the better of me and I touched the paint a little too soon.

And here are the three buttons fitted in their final resting place. Middle one will be credit, the two on the right for test and service.

Onto the rear and the fan fitted to the inside of the panel, I had to cut the screw length slightly as I didn’t want to risk them pushing through the mdf, then fitted the grilled guard to the outside, but fitted back to front so that it sits flush, inside the cut out, as opposed to raised above.

A bit more progress on the inside as well, with the PSU, game board safely screwed into place, I began securing some of the many cables/wires, and wired up the buttons and stick for testing inside the cab.

From the rear;

From the front;

Now for a big update – Tmolding – I love how this really dresses up the cab. I warmed the plastic first to get it nice and pliable as I had a few tight corners to get around, then armed with a rubber mallet and sharp knife, I began.

One side on, with unbelievable ease.

And the other, a bit more trouble round the triple bend on this side for some reason, anyhow, after about 4 times as long as the first and a bit of gorilla glue, both sides were on.

Here were the cuts I made on the part that goes round the tricky bit, as I wanted this to be really tight to the panel.

I really am getting close now. I wrote another list after finishing the above and there’s not much on at all. Most of the list will be crossed off with various artwork related jobs and hoping to get my hands on this very shortly. The CP is probably the only major part left to do, with some routing and acrylic cutting required.

Until next time…..

Neil.

 

[Hurray Banana]

looking very good mate, so close

 

[muddymusic]

I had a delivery today, there will be something in the post for you in a few days

 

[Mr20to5]

I had a delivery today, there will be something in the post for you in a few days

Woot Woot! Cheers pal.

 

[iamjimmi]

Looking great - not long now!

 

[TimArcades]

Cool idea ! Looks good

 

[Mr20to5]

Hi guys, well it’s been a little while since my last update, but hopefully you will agree that this has been time well spent, shall we see……

So, I left you last time, awaiting the arrival of the artwork from Olly and with the bulk of work going to be focussed around the application of this and the building of the control panel.

Well the artwork arrived and with a sharp new blade in my knife and having ‘borrowed’ Mrs M’s cutting mat, I set about trimming away the excess waste and getting each piece ready for application.

With that done, first to be fitted were the pieces that would fit behind the acrylic panels, and as you can see, another transformation takes place as soon as these are in place.

And from there it was onto the large, adhesive backed vinyl decals for the sides. After having left them taped to the side of the cab for a day to get rid of the ‘curl’, it was time to apply. Masking tape across the middle, top half applied then the bottom, using a soft squeegee thingy to smooth out any bubbles. Actually went on super easily, no bubbles, no mistakes.

So, with the artwork in place over the control panel I was able to accurately line up the exact centre holes for the buttons and stick. With these measured up, then measured again – measure twice, cut once!! I hole punched the centres and started drilling out the holes using a 28mm Forstner bit. Handheld drill only, no luxury of perfectly vertical drill stand, so had to concentrate!

Umm’d and arr’d over the best way to drill both the wood an acrylic, whether to do the wood first then use a flush cutter on my router table, or do them both together with the drill bit. I think either would produce the same result as long of the speed of the bit is controlled to not melt the acrylic. In the end I chose the latter, sandwiching the acrylic and CP between a scrap of wood. Again happy with the result.

Although the buttons would, to some extent, secure the acrylic to the wood, I also wanted to reinforce this with some fixings. I chose to use some chrome plated small headed screws, they are actually used in guitar making, and used some masking tape to accurately mark out the positions and give the drill bit some purchase.

And here’s a side profile photo which shows the screws, but also how the different thicknesses work with the Tmolding. The CP is 12mm thick, the acrylic is 3mm, the Tmolding is the same 18mm as I used on the side (no point in ordering any different size when I only need 14”). You can see that with the slot cut in the centre of the wood, the top lines up exactly and I then simply trimmed the bottom by running a sharp blade along the bottom edge of the wood.

Next up was time to add some hardware to the CP, the buttons were simple to fit, but I had decided to use the blind fixing screws for the joystick, as I didn’t want the 4 bolt heads visible on my CP. It was only when I opened them and trial fitted them on a scrap of wood that I realised they needed a minimum of 18mm thickness and not the 12mm I had fashioned my CP from.

The simplest solution seemed to be to graft a 6mm panel of wood onto the base of the CP and set the fixings through this.

Which worked out just fine – although it would throw up another problem later on…..

From there, it was easy to then fit the actual stick to the CP and then a bit of time and effort to carefully fit and sort out the wiring, as I was determined to put the tangled nest of wires into an organised (read OCD) manner.

The two metal plates at either end are there to correspond to the magnet fixings I have screwed to the side panels in order to keep the finished CP in place.

Then time to fit this last piece of the puzzle, stand back and admire the fruits of my labour so far.

Remember that problem I eluded to earlier, when I fitted the extra wood panel to the base of the CPO, well it’s clearly had the effect of shortening the shaft of the stick itself, so if you look closely you can see that it’s far too short, requiring a ‘claw’ like hand to use it. Never fear a Seimitsu Shaft Extender (OOER!) is on order and will soon sort this out.

Of course the real test was to reach behind the cab and flick the power switch fitted to the outside of the rear at the bottom of the cab and see what happened…………………..

Did it work?
Did anything happen?
Did it power up?
Did the marquee light work?
Did the game board power up?
Had I wired it all up correctly?

Well, here’s the last photo I took. Why is it the last, well I kind lost hours of my life very shortly after taking this photo. I promise I’ll take some arty shots at the weekend, but for now………

Neil.

 

[big10p]

Fantastic job. Looks top notch!