ITS CLICKBAIT FINISHED (ie not finished, nearly finished)

PREVIOUSLY

I left the last blog entry with the panel in the grip of some clamps having corrected the mistake I made with the height it was mounted on the desk. As you can see, it is now around the same height as my desktop. Nice and straight too.

The spinner, under the panel, is too big if I want to eventually put a base on this. I will do that at some point as I want to fit feet so it can be used away from my desk. Won't be the most elegant controller, with large bits of wood sticking out the back, but will serve as an excellent test controller for any arcade machines I happen to be building (keep an eye open for PROJECT TERRYCADE, coming soon™).

I had already routed out a recess for the spinner, about half the thickness of the MDF, before I put all this together. Now I needed to think about how to mount it. 

As you can see, it's a massive unit. Solid aluminium. Very heavy. 

And in the wrong place. The routed out section underneath needs to be a little larger to allow the base to move down to centre the stem. Took a few seconds to extend the recess.

No point mounting the spinner until the finish is, um, finished.

I glued a couple of bits of wood to each end of the inside to give me something to screw a base to. I'll probably cut a piece of thin ply for this later.

And the first coat of paint goes on. Primed the whole thing in white acrylic primer. Then decided I wanted some contrast, so painted some black paint on the sides and front (and back).

A second coat of primer on the top.

And then a coat of white eggshell. Lovely stuff to paint with, goes on very nice with a foam roller. 

More black on the sides and front.

I was supposed to start painting pacman ghosts on this. Instead I cracked and started putting the controls in. I know, I am weak. I might still paint the ghosts on it one day. But for now I needed to play some games and these are the best quality controls I have ever used, so you can understand my need.

The side buttons are not the same as the ones up top. These I bought from Amazon in a warehouse deal, they were crazy cheap. They aren't microswitched and are a little more clicky than the leaf switches I have in the main buttons, but they are still really nice. Push fit, I kept the holes very tight and there is no way these are ever coming out without destroying the wood. They actually feel really nice and are perfect for this.

Marked out and pilot drilled the holes for the spinner to be mounted.

Holes made bigger for the bolts. I used countersunk machine bolts. I will probably, at some later stage, 3d print a cover for the bolts and the hole to neaten this up.

The bolts were way too long. Five minutes with a hacksaw and a file sorted them.

The blue tape is on the spinning section of the VHS head, this gives the mouse sensor something to read against.

Wired up the extra buttons. 

Its a bit of a rats nest, some hot glue will sort that once everything is finalised.

It sat like this for a week while I waited on the postman to bring the T-molding to trim the edges.

And it was worth the wait! I think it looks stunning. Some small bits of paint that need touching up but it really does look the part now. And not only that, it plays fantastically well too. Very satisfying to use.

I still need to install the mouse sensor. But that can wait for now. 

Very happy!