Mind the Gap (part 2)

Ok time to get that bloody gap off the bottom of the lid, i'm adding some filler as shown below to build up the bottom part by a few millimeters so that the perspex doesnt have the grand canyon at the bottom of it, ok so here's the first attempt at filler..



Top view, obviously its a bit ragged on the top edge but i've over done it so i can then sand it back nice and straight afterwards by adding a little extra now..



Hole drilled in back of box ready for the USB lead to the 360 to be poked through, i've got some grommits to cover the hole afterwards, should look fairly neat..




And the side hole for the headphone to be plugged into, i've also decided to sand down this side a lot more as that filler is so obvious it hurts, so i'll get that neater and prime it again afterwards..






Thats all for today, wont get a chance to do any more for a couple of days as i've got the MOT etc to sort out for the car, and its bound to eat up the whole day!!

200 coats later!

Sorry not much of an update today, was too rainy to do much, sanded the primer later on in the afternoon and applied another primer coat.. Sorry the pic is so blurry dont know what happened there!

New drill bits arrived.. Tomorrow i'll see about either drilling a new perspex lid or if the cracks in the existing one are ok, i'll stick with what i've got, these will do all of the holes necessary without having to break out the adjustable hole cutter, which i've grown to detest.

So heres the second coat and the lid attached..

More and a decent update soon I hope..

Get in there you bitch!!

Ok the box has been tidied and sanded now, the edges are smoothed down and rounded and it all looks a lot nicer and ready for priming..

I'm using this International primer as its hard wearing and nice and sticky for MDF which isn't that good at absorbing the paint.. Its water based primer so cleans up OK, and I'll stick a few coats of this on then sand it down with some fine paper to get a nice base for the acrylic brilliant white to go on afterwards..

First coat went on OK and it only takes about an hour to dry in this nice weather, so I'll slap on another coat before I leave it to rest overnight..

Second coat, tis covering nicely I think, I'll maybe do another coat after the sanding tomorrow.

Time to finish off the Top plate, got the hand drill working again after a bit of disassembly yesterday, so don't need to wait for the new drill I ordered on EBay to arrive, ffs!!!

Last few holes went well, I found a nice slow drill with the perspex trapped between layers of wood stops any splitting or cracking, but you do have to be a bit firmer with the adjustable hole cutter and it really tends to BITE into the perspex so you have to back up and redo it many times, slowly...

Down to the final 3 holes..!

Placement of top lid before perspex just to check how it fits in the box so far, I'll fill the top and bottom gaps with something to remove the gap. prob some wood filler which i can paint later..

Perspex lid placed over top of wooden lid, the holes all line up nicely and the buttons fit well and tight...

So here's the box ready for final prime and paint tomorrow..

I think its looking really good so far.. I'm happy with the result, the only thing I'm not too keen on is the gap at the top and bottom of the lid, but they'll fill OK, Its just more work i didn't need, the A4 lid should have fitted seamlessly.

It measures fine but still doesn't, my head hurts too much to work out why, i even sloped the top and bottom edges of the lid to account for the angle... WHY DON'T YOU FIT IN TIGHT!!

A nice tight box..

Just a bit of a small update, did the sanding i needed to do to get the box to a nice standard as I wanted to, i've now rounded off the edges on the top level, I've also used some more wood filler to clean up the gaps..

I've also got the box art graphics printed out lovely on photo glossy printer paper, borderless A4, it looks lovely but I don't want to show it here yet, as explained before, I want to wait for the "big reveal" to show you that!

Soooo, back to what you can see, you can see the cleaner lines on the rear here. (just about).

And have also rounded and lowered the wood at the so it angles down the same as the lid and won't jut up into your wrists when playing, I'm happy with the front, rounded sides and sanded flat and level edges. Wood filler has also been added to the corners will need a light sand tomorrow before priming..

Time to text the Acryllic hole cutting, so out with the layout again, this has come in very handy for getting all of the top layers the same, again time will tell if they all line up nicely when they are placed on top of each other..

Test drill the guide holes with a drill first, remember this perspex has some plastic protection over it, so that needs to be peeled off after the holes are cut.

First 3 holes done, and then the bloody thing cracked, and the drill stopped working, 4 hours of charge and 2 minutes of use, I think its fair to say it was on its way out, the power drill is miles too fast and shatters the perspex, so I'll have to see about getting another multispeed drill from somewhere/someone..

I'l also ordered some more of the drillbit hole cutters like these, a 24mm and a 28mm to do the holes properly, that adjustable bit is fine for wood, but these are better i think for precision work, and they're only £3 each so a bit of a wait for them to be delivered..

These seemed to go through the wood like butter, even with the low speed drill, so I'm happy to get them, I'd get one of every size if I could, they're lush..


Another update tomorrow if i can get the box primed ready for painting!

Lost on Spaghetti Junction...

Sorry for the lack of updates, the weather has been too foul to do much on the externals of the box and i need to get it sanded, get those edges straight and cleaned up for a decent finish on it before it is primed and painted..

Couldn't really do that indoors, too much sandpaper dust, and MDF is evil on the lungs..

Sooooo, what did I do, well a quick bit of wiring test to see how it all works, I've finally got my head round the common ground part of the electronics, so I've created a nice little daisy chain that will go from button to button, the joystick has a separate ground on the harness so no worries there,

Anyhoo, here's my first test at the wiring for the ground cable..




As you can see the Yellow wire runs in serial from button to button finishing at the top corner on the "back button"...

I also did a quick test of the individual wires from the PCB strip to the individual parts and looked at a route for my USB cable...




Obviously its all a bit messy there as the cables aren't routed in any way, just placed from bar to button, obviously I'll find nicer routes for each cable and cable-tie what i can together to keep it neater that that!! This WAS just a test to see if the cables reached.. They do.. Just..

Well I've also just discovered I need to go back AGAIN to Maplin to get the PROPER jacks for the bloody headset, i got the 3.5" and they are mini 2.5" aren't they!! well they fucking well would be as it was the only thing i didn't lug to Maplin with me...

Tomorrow I'm going to finally attempt a proper go at the graphics for the top panel underlay.. More full page A4 printing madness....

Back soon I hope..

It went in so tight i couldnt get it out! ! !

Managed the planned trip to Bromley and have acquired the micro switch, the headphone socket and some wiring as well as some last minute bits and bobs from homebase on the way back..

OK, so I've finished the holes for the controller as expected and am now ready to fit the buttons as a test before i do the same for the perspex over the top!

The completed lid..






Buttons go in fine, one is a bit tight and took an age to unscrew back out but I've got the right size on the adjustable hole cutter now after many trial runs..




Quick test fit of the joystick, obviously it needs bolting into place, but i thought I'd trial run it with some sellotape holding it in place just to see how it looks and feels..





Woot, i am pleased, now to get the guide button into place and then i can check the connections, speaking of which, this is what they look like inside the box..






One last close up, its not that clear, but i managed to fit the proper guide button from the Madcayz into the stick and have now got the back and start buttons screwed in properly, its all a bit tight around that joystick though!!




The semi finished article,




Well, its now just getting the power hole drilled and fitting the external jack for the headphones..

I'm totally shattered so that's it for today, time for dinner and then bed methinks..

In know the box still looks a little tatty and gappy, but remember it needs a good sand, and a proper wood fill and primer to get it all straight edged and ready for painting..

Soon my pretties, soon!!

Mind the Gap!!!

Tuesday update.. Slept in late today as I was so exhausted, it meant by the time i got started on the box it was 6pm!!

My first attempt to get the holes drilled for the buttons and joystick wasn't too hot, it was my first time using this adjustable hole drill and it chews MDF like butter one second then concrete the next, not reliable me thinks....

Took a few attempts and a lot of extra sanding as i was about 2mm out on the right size to get the button in the hole!!

Button fixing time... Added my first button hole and screwed one into the panel as show below to test it out..




The first button is in and screwed into place.. You can see the guides now for the others too.. Woot..



Drilled another hole and started to fill the gaps in the sides of the box with flexible wood filler, this will make painting it smooth later a whole lot easier i think.. And I've still got 2 tubs left over from the floor filling, so i might as well use it eh..




Can you spot the seam above where the 2 pieces join! I thought not... Nice..




Hole 3 is drilled and ready for sanding, I'm dreading doing the Perspex with this hole drill, its all over the shop with the bloody battery powered drill i;m using,

I may have to borrow my sisters drill or get up in the loft and check if the mains powered one is up there, of course that means braving the monster that lives in the dark corner of my loft, the one from "The Grudge" that makes that creaking noise every time the torch isn't facing into that corner.. Creepy...




That's the final shot for today, cant really do any more drilling at 11:45pm can I, well i could but no doubt one of the neighbours would throw a shit fit..

More tomorrow..

Progress.. Slow and painful.

Well the braces to hold the top and box onto the box at the right angles are now complete..

Only now do the parts need doweling or screwing together, again I'm contemplating which is best, screwing will have to be done from inside as i want no seams or screws visible on the sides front or back, the ones under the lid will be hidden under the graphics and the ones at the bottom i don't care about...

I'll do a few test joins tomorrow and see the difference..

OK first a big shout out to "no more nails" strips!!



What a time saver on sticking down those supports, i just scisored a strip into 2 or 3 lengths and then stick one to the other!! getting it straight along a fixed line without having to drill or screw ANYTHING togther,

I'd probably stick the whole box together with these if i could, but I'm not sure about the whole 2.5kg that it says/claims it can support..

OK so i bonded the supports inside the edges to give the top and bottom something to rest and be attached to..

So here's the box with the bottom supports holding the base in place..



Front and back....



Sides...





Box together with lid balancing properly on the top supports...






and this finished article, box with graphics laid over top plate showing drill positions for buttons and stick ..




I'm keeping the graphics under my hat for the time being as i think they'll be better with a proper "real thing" reveal..

Realised i need another micro switch for the "guide button" now, so i may have to pop to Maplin tomorrow.. Gah!!!


So as usual, back with more later..

Nothing happened here today...

Beyond a bit of FIFA and mostly sleeping I didn't get anything done on the box as that overdose really caught up with me by Saturday morning, so I spent the whole day feeling terrible, and then I slept most of Sunday.. I've now halved my painkillers for a few days to give my system a chance to recover, so I had more pain, but less feeling like i was going to die..

Anyhoo, managed to make it to Homebase and back on Saturday, but felt terrible when i got back, I'm happy that I managed to get some proper 12mm wood for the internal hidden bits of the Box, i.e. the bits that join it together and hold the lid and base in place, as well as some nice acrylic paint and primer while they still had a 15% sale on..

So my plan is to start putting the box together tomorrow, properly.. Honest..

Due to a mishap with the printing, i haven't got a proper workable printout that covers a whole borderless A4 page yet, I appreciate what i've got but don't really want to use the one i did get given to me, as nice as it looks, i don't want the borders, but may have to compromise if i cant get to do the printing myself.. Time will tell, I'm sure it will all come good in the end..

Anyhoo, will post more tomorrow...

Am I livin in a box, am I livin in a cardboard.............

OK its a afternoon post as I'm off to Lee's for crappy Cthulu movies and footie..

Box is cut out and ready for assembly, need to still mitre some edges but am contemplating how to do that, the saw arrived today but haven't had a chance to try it out, and figure out how it works.. ;-)

Right so here's the woodwork so far..

I've cut out the angled sides and A4 sized base, cut a slightly larger flat lid and then used an angle on the jigsaw to tilt the top and bottom edges down to A4 with an 81 degree slope so it slots into the box properly..

Assembled the lot and realised that once again I've not allowed for the edges to fit AROUND the base, so the front and back are too narrow and don't reach all the way to the edge of the sides, only to the edge of the base.. Fuck Fuck Fuckity fuck, how many times will this catch me out..

Back out in the garden and add another 12mm to each side of my measurements and re cut the front and back like so..

Now I've got all the bits right, its time to prop them together and see how they look..

Not bad if i do say so myself, ignore the wobbly edges on those cuts, i've allowed some spare "past" the cut line and sanded them down as straight and smooth as i can, later I'll use some wood filler from my floorboard project to fill in the gaps so it will be seamless.

Now i just need to use bolsters inside to join the edges together and give the base and lid something to rest on and be screwed into...

I've not pictured the lid here, cos at the moment there's nothing to balance it on, and i still need to cut out the controls and perspex over the top of it.. I'll also print the graphics tomorrow as I've got access to a nice colour photo printer, so I'll leach some of their ink for my uses!!!

Back for more on Saturday or Sunday then..

Byeeeeeeeeeeee...

My hands felt just like two balloons....

Not much to report, after a stupid overdose of BOTH my Tramadol and Co-Codamol, i woke up on Wednesday afternoon and immediately puked, nearly passed out,on toilet floor, and then crawled back into bed where i then spent most of the last 2 days doing a Heath Ledger (semi conscious on the bed) so obviously no progress on the woodworking..

I feel a bit better now though, but this is the second time I've doubled up on my tablets and this time they were only 2 hours apart, so I really need to find some way to control my meds, especially those i take first thing in the morning, on auto pilot, or next time I may well be "dead in the bed"..

The perspex for the lid arrived, wasn't in a padded envelope (bloody ebayers) but its pristine and covered in a removable film so its crystal clear. Still no sign of the mitre saw i ordered, hopefully tomorrow?

Nipped out to homebase today, got some new jigsaw blades to redo the MDF, we'll see if these ones cut better and the others were blunt as suspected, saw some nice other stuff there, but didn't really want to commit to anything else, as they have a 15% sale starting tomorrow, so it was more a recon mission than anything purchased.

In other news, my two copies of FIFA 09 arrived, so if I'm feeling well enough to go out I'll be booting the bladder into the onion bag tomorrow evening with Lee,

Which means I'll really have to get on with the box in the afternoon, before again I run out of daylight and end up doing something else or crawl back into bed..

See you then...

IMPORTANT NEWS!!

MY FIGHTSTICK IS FINISHED, PAINTED AND UP AND RUNNING....
















April fools..

:-(

Measure twice, Cut once...!!!!!!!!!!

Yep, my fantastic measurements ensured that as soon as I cut out a cardboard template of the sides of my box just to check the button clearance, it soon became apparent that the fucking thing was completely wrong!!

It was not only too small height wise, but the angle was bringing the middle down so far that the buttons would protrude out of the bottom and through the base..

I guess it wouldn't have been too uncomfortable with the prongs of the micro switches jambed into my leg flesh.. gulp!!

So out comes sketchup again and some proper measurements and angles are calculated... And this is what we get.

A plan showing the side of the box, with correct heights, free space below button plunger and base of box... Yipee...

.

I still like this Sketchup thingy as an alternative to a cad program, i'm going to highly recommend it to all, budding designers should really give it a go, I can see where google are aiming it, its great for turning doodles into 3d objects and seems to include the experts by then exporting them to 3d rendering or cad programs too, probably not as powerful for modeling but makes sense to a non cg pro.. I havent even checked out the Pro version, this is just the free one!

Ok, plan With X ray into Removed Lid and Button top, plus perspex.. Perfect..



Also found my jigsaw is shit for cutting MDF... Arghhhhhhh, now i really want the exaktsaw, after watching it eat floorboards, it would have precision cut my stuff like butter.. Bollocks..

Decided on the final layout for the panel, and have measured it all up properly, going for the JAP style curved button Sega arcade layout, as its better on the fingers and am going to do all 8 buttons rather than the 6 button layout to incorporate the rear shoulders as well, you never know which future fighting games are going to need them and i don't want to start having to drill extra buttons into it later..





Anyhoo that's it for today, was too dark to do any proper cutting so we're off again tomorrow...

Byeee...

You want Sketchup on those?

Just a quick update, had a good look at google sketchup as an alternative to a cad package... Not too shabby once you get to grips with it.. Those with x,y,z spacial brains will get it instantly, those who just watch others rendering will find it all a bit daunting at first..

Anyhoo, a quick knockup of the controller, still needs some rounded edges and some chamfering but its mainly to get a grip on the measurements and make sure everything fits inside it..





One wireframe and one filled view..



Fairly pleased so far.. All is proceding according to my designs [/palpatine]

Night Night..

Lazy days.. Still cost money..

Ok its sunday so bit of a rest day, was up all night and we lost an hour due to the clocks going forward, so after watching the 6am Australian F1 i needed some sleep, so didnt get time to work on my box today after all..

I've ordered some more bits and bobs to get things looking a bit "nicer", still havent decided on the finish of the box, but i'm going for glossy white, so it doesnt look wood/mdf, if i can get a nice sanded shine on it it might look like sturdy plastic.. We'll see...

Anyhoo, i wanted one of these "exakt saws", they cut to a set depth and you can set the blade exposure which means you could stick it against the wall and cut out a box if you wanted, or cut a plank on the floor with nothing underneith, it just seems worth it for the fact you dont need a workbench or a jigsaw protruding through the wood, and the cuts are of such a quality the back end of the wood has no splintering and you can cut plastic and tiles without any cracking... Well i cant afford one at the mo, but its def going on the shopping list for later..

For now, we'll stick to the old faithful mitre saw, i've found a nice cheap adjustable one that should help the "edging of my box", and allow me to slope the controller a bit.. Rather than just a flat square, i can give it a bit of "flavour", and "think outside of the box"... *cough*

So this is the saw i've ordered, i'll start cutting up the MDF tomorrow as long as its not pissing with rain....

TTFN!!