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Some month ago a member dropped me a line after he saw that I offer CNC-labor to the arcade-scene.
He got a common past with Zaccaria´s Starsplash and was desperately after one but could not get his hands one.
The member was Kewydee and I had two good news for him. First of all a I just testet my self developed POS-procedure (parametric outline scanning) and it was absolutely satisfying.
For me, a scratch build can only be justified if it is 100% accurate and done by genuine specs of an original machine.
While some machines may be easier to measure others are almost impossible as the have special curves named polynom or spline how they are called in the CNC-world.
A spline is curve with variable radiuses. Which is easily explained in the theory can turn out as horror in real life.
To define such a profile in a perfect way is close to impossible.
A very prominent example for such a cabinet is SEGA´s Pengo which nearly only consists of curves and splines.
You can of course make a round figure that will have the approximate shape and maybe nobody ever would know any difference.....BUT WE WOULD KNOW IT, which we could´nt live with...could we?
What I work with when I use my POS-system are not so much measurements but rather with tracing.
As soon as I have the outline in the computer I use Solidworks tracing feature and trace the outline again to define it for the programm.
When the outline is traced I define one core-measurement and SWX will calculate all other measurements relatively to the core-measurement. What a great featurr!!!
After I did this I just extrude the shape linearly and we have a ready to be CNC-cut sidepanel....perfect in shape and 100% accurate.
So now the attentive reader will claim how that all that sounds quite OK, but is useless if you dont have access to the machine you will reproduce.
This is the point when we come to the second good news for Kewydee - a Starsplash is just right the next room.
I have bought it from a guy from hungary who even transportet it to me (as it was on his way germany and crossed Austria) for 30€.
The cabinet is a piece of junk, but perfectly for what we do and I going to restore it to its former glory anytime later and make it a Mr. Do!
OK, lets start with the tracing:
What I have to do is to prepare a big surface of paper.
I tried it with brown paper/packing paper but it turned out to be to slippy and the scanner could´nt pull in.
This was the problem at the R-Type POS...but it worked after half an hour and two dozent attempts.
This time I go another route.
I have bought some stained paper which was a lot stronger and more handy.
While the brown paper big enough to cover the entire sidepanel of the machine, the stained paper comes in small pieces. So I had to glue 6 pieces to a big surface to have the space for the big outline.
That done we can start.....
....time to lay the machine on its side, but before we do that we have to remove the T-Molding for a perfect result.
30 years being mated to the ZZZ machine the T-Molding lost its one will and accepted to be a part of the Starsplash
....we lay the cabinet onto the paper surface....
and of course......start to trace the outline....
...some bloddy T-Molding left.....
And the reward of all the hassle is....a properly shaped outline.
You cant get a result more accurate as it is a 1:1 copy and therefore perfect.
Later today I try to geht that stuff scanned and importet in SWX.
The other parts of the machine will just be measureing and modellizing.
I keep you updated.......
He got a common past with Zaccaria´s Starsplash and was desperately after one but could not get his hands one.
The member was Kewydee and I had two good news for him. First of all a I just testet my self developed POS-procedure (parametric outline scanning) and it was absolutely satisfying.
For me, a scratch build can only be justified if it is 100% accurate and done by genuine specs of an original machine.
While some machines may be easier to measure others are almost impossible as the have special curves named polynom or spline how they are called in the CNC-world.
A spline is curve with variable radiuses. Which is easily explained in the theory can turn out as horror in real life.
To define such a profile in a perfect way is close to impossible.
A very prominent example for such a cabinet is SEGA´s Pengo which nearly only consists of curves and splines.
You can of course make a round figure that will have the approximate shape and maybe nobody ever would know any difference.....BUT WE WOULD KNOW IT, which we could´nt live with...could we?
What I work with when I use my POS-system are not so much measurements but rather with tracing.
As soon as I have the outline in the computer I use Solidworks tracing feature and trace the outline again to define it for the programm.
When the outline is traced I define one core-measurement and SWX will calculate all other measurements relatively to the core-measurement. What a great featurr!!!
After I did this I just extrude the shape linearly and we have a ready to be CNC-cut sidepanel....perfect in shape and 100% accurate.
So now the attentive reader will claim how that all that sounds quite OK, but is useless if you dont have access to the machine you will reproduce.
This is the point when we come to the second good news for Kewydee - a Starsplash is just right the next room.
I have bought it from a guy from hungary who even transportet it to me (as it was on his way germany and crossed Austria) for 30€.
The cabinet is a piece of junk, but perfectly for what we do and I going to restore it to its former glory anytime later and make it a Mr. Do!
OK, lets start with the tracing:
What I have to do is to prepare a big surface of paper.
I tried it with brown paper/packing paper but it turned out to be to slippy and the scanner could´nt pull in.
This was the problem at the R-Type POS...but it worked after half an hour and two dozent attempts.
This time I go another route.
I have bought some stained paper which was a lot stronger and more handy.
While the brown paper big enough to cover the entire sidepanel of the machine, the stained paper comes in small pieces. So I had to glue 6 pieces to a big surface to have the space for the big outline.
That done we can start.....
....time to lay the machine on its side, but before we do that we have to remove the T-Molding for a perfect result.
30 years being mated to the ZZZ machine the T-Molding lost its one will and accepted to be a part of the Starsplash
....we lay the cabinet onto the paper surface....
and of course......start to trace the outline....
...some bloddy T-Molding left.....
And the reward of all the hassle is....a properly shaped outline.
You cant get a result more accurate as it is a 1:1 copy and therefore perfect.
Later today I try to geht that stuff scanned and importet in SWX.
The other parts of the machine will just be measureing and modellizing.
I keep you updated.......
