If you’re interested in more info on MAME and where to get needed hardware you can check the project page here:

http://lumberjocks.com/projects/9022

I have many more pictures than what I will show here, so if you want to see my complete album on Photobucket go here:

http://s277.photobucket.com/albums/kk49/gwurst/MAME%20Machine/

Anyway, on with the show!

The cabinet is largely 3 sheets of MDF and a couple 2×4’s, so parts are cheap (until you get into the controls!)

I drew the side layout on The MDF and used a jigsaw to cutout the shape.

I then clamped to the two sides together and used a belt sander to smooth the edges and make them identical. This is also where I rounded the edges for the T-molding.

Cutout the control panel piece.

Layout the attachment points on each side for the various braces.

Attach the base to the sides. The 2×4’s and other pieces are attached with countersunk wood screws and glue.

Attach the other cabinet pieces. Now it’s starting to look like an arcade cabinet! The cabinet sits on heavy-duty caster so you can roll it around (MDF is heavy!).

Attach the drawer and door.

Back access door.

Automotive speakers are attached to panels to allow easy change-out should they need to be replaced.

Attach control panel sides.

The control panel rest over another panel attached to the cabinet with a hole in the back to allow cables to run through. This panel is just screwed-on to allow removal to get the cabinet through a door (with the panel removed you can get it through a standard 32” door frame).

Layout controls on control panel and cut holes.

Patching screw holes before priming and painting.

Word of advice – Rout the slots for the T-molding BEFORE assembly. I was fortunately able to use wood putty but when I built one of these for my in laws I routed the slots right after the sides were cut.

Prime and paint with the Wagner power painter.

After attaching laminate to the control panel I recut the holes for the controls.

Attach T-molding to the cabinet.

Fun time! Attaching and wiring the controls.

The monitor is the perfect width and just rests against a couple braces. The monitor control board is mounted to the platform.

PC and subwoofer go in the cabinet. I wired the speaker leads to the automotive speakers on the top of the cabinet. The volume control is on a separate control that is velcroed to the bottom of the control panel.

Print the marquee and attach it between a couple Plexiglas panels with a fluorescent light behind to shine through.

Drape cloth over the speakers to keep light from shining-through.

Attach Plexiglas to the front to protect the monitor.

Let’s play!

Thanks for looking!

I only really have one more detail piece to cut, and that is the arch. I go ahead and print a scale model of the arch in Sketchup and draw it on the board. I run it through the bandsaw and clean-up the arch with the drum sander.

Since I need two 3/8” thick arches, I figure I’ll cut the piece in twain with the bandsaw using the currently attached 1/4” blade. Surely it can cut through a couple inches of 3/4” oak, right? Well, in short no. It couldn’t hold a straight line to save its life and I ended-up planing the thing down to 1/4” on my jointer and buying another piece of 1/4” oak at Lowes for the other side. Only $2, but one more delay and another piece of wood from a different tree (although this one matched pretty-well). A 1/2” would have given me a much better result I would imagine.

I screw the main frame together using pocket holes (no glue – which turns-out to by quite fortunate), and lay the pieces on to see how things will look. Looks good, except those rails look a little thick. Sure-enough, I cut them 5 1/2” instead of the 4 1/2” I had figured. These were the pieces I had miscut earlier and had to get another board, so this just adds to my pleasure. I unscrew them and cut them down to size and re-chamfer the end. Fortunately, I put the pocket screws far enough inward no holes would show.

I then lay the mirror on the back to check the fit. The side fits fine, but it’s too long! What the heck! I check the mirror and it’s 47 3/4” long. I check the package and it says the same. I had it as 47 1/4” in my plans, so where did I get that number from? I check the Ikea website and it’s listed there at 47 1/4”! AARRRGGGHHH!!!! The stupid website had the wrong dimensions, and that’s where I got it from! After pounding my head into the wall a few times, I figure I’ll just have to score and cut the mirror a 1/2” shorter. Since that’s such a small amount to remove, I create a snapping jig out of some 3/4” plywood scrap and a 1/4” piece of plywood. The mirror broke correctly so I’m back in business. (UPDATE: I went to Ikea to get another mirror and they are now 47 1/4” long like the website states).

I tape-off and pre-finish what I can before attaching the trim. I used Zinser de-waxed shellac with a golden oak tint.

I then glue and attach the moldings. At this point I can see the new pieces I had to cut from a different board are darker than the rest of the mirror, despite my sanding them as fine as I could. Most people probably wouldn’t really notice, but it sticks-out like a sore thumb to me.

Apply 3 coats of water-based polyurethane..

Place cut mirror in the frame..

Attach hardboard mirror backing and mounting cleat and I’m done.

Finished mirror hanging in the entry-way.

Despite a number of setbacks the mirror is finished and in my opinion looks pretty-good. The rails are darker than the rest of the mirror since they came from a different board, but I’ll just have to live with it. If you’re interested in my Sketchup plans and material list you can get them here:

http://cid-258899c12334cc4d.skydrive.live.com/browse.aspx/Hall%20Mirror?uc=4

Thanks for looking!

Here’s what happens when you don’t buy that tenoning jig you were going to buy. Clamp the test piece to a couple 2×4’s straddling the fence and run the ends through. It worked well enough, but I wouldn’t recommend it.

So, I get all the pieces cut and move them to the basement for routing and assembly.

Using stop blocks and an edge guide on the router to rout the decorative slots.

Move the stop blocks back 1” and rout the middle slot.

Here’s what happens when you lift the router when cutting a slot and decide you can just back-up and cut the slot to the correct depth. Fortunately I can flip that side over and nobody will ever see it on the back.

To add insult to injury, I cut the 20 degree bevels on my rails instead of the top and bottom. I had to make a trip to Lowe’s to get another piece of oak and recut the rails. Now I get to move onto assembly and finishing.

I then cut the front and rear table pieces from the 2×8 blocks. I used Sketchup to print a scale model of the curve to transfer to the pieces. I then cut a couple cup holders, which I somehow cut one closer to the side than the other. I thought both were 4 inches from the edge, but I obviously measured wrong. If it really bugs me I’ll cut a new piece. I used a hole cutter to cut the outline and then a smaller forstner bit to remove the material. I then drilled a 1” hole for drainage.

I then attached the armrests. The fronts are attached with dowels and the rear is screwed to the side of the char.

The table supports are screwed to the sides.

At this point I put all the pieces on the bench just to see what it would look like.

I then started to apply the first coat of finish. It is supposed to be a cedar-look finish, but it looks a bit darker than normal to me.

I made the mistake of using a regular brush to apply the finish to the bench. It took me 2 hours and until midnight to finish for the evening. Saturday I switched to a foam brush and it went 3x as fast.

The table top pieces and seat slats are each attached with 4 screws and can be replaced if needed. I put the bench out by the swing set so Melissa can watch the boy when he’s playing.

Overall, I’d say not bad for eyeballing someone’s project and creating a plan. The bench is nice and sturdy, and should hopefully last for awhile.

I had already cut the pieces for the bench a week ago and let them sit in the garage. Wednesday night I took the seat supports down into the shop and cut the curve on the band saw and smoothed them with the oscillating drum sander (I printed a scale picture of the curve to use as a pattern). I also cut the legs to shape using the band saw and the scroll saw. FYI, a band saw blade can get nice and stuck if you’re not making a through cut and the wood tension causes the kerf to close behind you. I spent 20 minutes prying the wood apart enough to get it off the band saw. On the other 3 legs I used the scroll saw to make a cut across the piece to avoid that problem, but even that small 3” cut closed and I had to widen a hole using the jigsaw blade and then release and remove the blade.

My first mistake was in buying a self-centering doweling jig from Harbor Freight. I’ve bought a number of basic tools from Harbor Freight, and while there are certain tools you just don’t buy there I figured how could they screw-up a doweling jig? Well, they did. This POS couldn’t find the center of a board if its life depended on it. I didn’t even attempt to use it since I could see it was cockeyed.

So, a trip to the local ACE hardware and $37 later I get a decent jig with a 4” capacity.

FYI, It takes a LONG time to align and drill 120 or so 3/8” holes for dowels. I started on the backrests and drilled the hole in the slats and then used centering pins to transfer the hole locations to the horizontal supports.

Assemble one side, mark the centers again, and repeat to finish one backrest.

It was at this point I started the bad habit of assembling one side of a part before marking and drilling the holes in the other side. After noticing I had assembled a chair side before drilling the holes for a support and noticing a rail was in the way of the jig, I changed to marking and drilling all the holes BEFORE and assembly. I had to take the doweling jig apart and hold the drill bit sleeve by hand on a few holes before I learned this lesson.

Here’s one side assembled and clamped.

I then assembled the interior side pieces and attached the backrests to create 2 three legged-chairs.

By this time it was 9 PM, so realizing I wasn’t getting everything done today I decided to get the bench assembled and tackle the arms another day. I attached the rear center brace and the front brace to tie everything together and called it a night. I cleaned-up the garage and put the bench to the side and managed to get both the cars in the garage.

As always, these things take me much longer than I think they will. Oh well, I’m almost there.

The entire mirror frame is made from that walnut board, with the exception of the French cleat for hanging which is 1/2” ply and the mirror backer board which is 1/4” hardboard. The mirror sits in a recess that will be routed-out and squared once the main frame is assembled. Here you can see the material list and board cutting diagram.

Butt joints, pocket holes, and glue should make this a fairly simple project. I just need to decide what kind of finish to give it.

So, after getting some rough dimensions from other benches and eyeballing his project I came-up with the following design:

Much the same as the original, it’s built with 2×4 and 2×8 lumber and 1×4 pine. Construction is butt joints and dowels, but you could make it mortise and tenon or screw and glue if you wanted.

I wasn’t happy with what I felt was a lack of support across the middle of the bench, so I redesigned the back to incorporate a couple more legs for added support.

I then saved the file under another name and started exploding the parts to get some dimensions.

Most of the roundovers are 1 1/2” radius. The seat curve has a 3/4” radius and the rear or the seat slants at a 7 degree angle.

With the dimensions I created a material list and cutting diagram.

Wood needed is just 6 2×4x8’s, 2 2×8x8’s, and 2 1×6x8’s. You could also just use 4 1×3x8’s and not have to cut to width.

If you would like the Sketchup files and Excel material list you can get them here:

http://cid-258899c12334cc4d.skydrive.live.com/browse.aspx/Garden%20Bench?uc=4

I just finished a coffee table and am currently “forbidden” to start another project for a couple weeks at least. As such, I’m not sure when I’ll get to start building this but hopefully soon. Thanks for looking!

Greg

I went ahead and finished the side panel frame and partially assembled them. I left one side off so I could slide the finished panels in and glue them together.

For the cherry side panels I finished them with about 9 coats of Formby’s Tung Oil Finish which is essentially just a wiping varnish. In hindsight I was probably wiping them on too thin to begin with, since they dried very quickly between coats. I applied the first several coats using paper towels and small pieces of t-shirt material. I would use 0000 steel wool between coats, and at about 7 coats (the stage I was at when I took this picture) I wasn’t getting the sheen I wanted so I tried something I read online. I wet-sanded the panels with 600 grit automotive sandpaper. This smoothed them out very well, but obviously dulled the finish. I then buffed the panels with rubbing compound and a buffer, which eliminated the scratches but still left them with a dull sheen.

Not satisfied with the appearance, I followed another suggestion and took a large piece of cotton material and formed a fairly substantial 3×3 square. After saturating it with finish, I wiped a much thicker (but not too thick) coat across the panels. After drying this provided a much glossier (and smoother) finish than I was achieving earlier with the thinner coats, but I still had a couple dull spots. One more coat and I was pleased with the look. So, if you decide to use Formby’s Tung Oil Finish I’d ignore the advice on the back to apply very thin coats like an automotive wax (except maybe for the first few coats to soak the wood) and apply a thicker coat with the grain. I could have probably got the same finish in 5 coats or possibly less.

After the panels dried I went ahead and glued and clamped the panels and frames together.

I then started attaching the frames to the table. The shorter sides were attached at the top with three pocket hole screws I had drilled into the top before attaching it to the table. I then drilled a hole through the apron on each side and attached an 1 1/4” screw to hold the sides of the panel in place.

The larger panels were slightly more problematic. Due to the large hole cutout, I couldn’t use pocket holes in the middle to attach the panels since the cutouts for the holes would have been visible. I had a pocket hole on either side of the cutout, but that left the center without being firmly attached to the table.

I had thought about drilling through the edge banding of the cutout and attaching a deep screw and then plugging the hole. Fortunately, I thought some more and realized there was enough depth on the frame for me to drill a hole through the apron very close to (and partially through) the top and use an 1 1/4” screw to attach the center of the panel to the skirting.

With the side panels in place I could finish assembly on the table. I started by attaching a side for bottom box that holds the lift mechanism. Here you can also see the 1/4” oak plywood panels I used to cover the pocket hole screws in the skirting I used to attach the top. I added a coat of shellac to the exposed underside of the top in front of the plywood panels that is still unfinished in this picture.

I then coated both the 1/4” plywood panels with glue and clamped them to the skirting.

After attaching the other side I added the bottom. I attached it at the top and bottom using pocket holes into the skirting and on the side using regular 1 1/2” wood screws.

A coat of shellac on the exposed surfaces is applied for the sake of appearance. Incidentally, I love shellac. The Bullseye de-waxed shellac tints very easily, and while too thick for wiping out of the can if you thin the mixture with denatured alcohol you can just wipe the finish on and get great results.

Finished base ready for the lift mechanism to be installed.

I attached the lift to the bottom first. While there were no instructions to speak of, installation was pretty-obvious. The frame is 3/4” thick with beveled screw holes on the sides for attaching wood screws. I aligned the lift in the hole and marked the screw locations with a transfer punch. Remove the lift, pre-drill the holes, and then attach the lift with 1 1/4” wood screws.

After that, I placed the table top on the lift, aligned the top, and repeated the punch and drill operation. Probably the easiest part of the whole operation

A fun project and I tried several new things I hadn’t had any experience with before:

1. Using shellac and tinting and thinning the finish.
2. Using a wiping varnish.
3. Resawing, jointing, and planing rough wood to size.
4. Working with and finishing figured wood.
5. Building a traditional table using table legs and skirting (everything else I’ve built has been essentially a box).

While there are things I would go back and change and do differently if I could, I am overall pleased with the results and can take my lessons learned to my next project.

If you’re interested you can get my Sketchup files for this table here:

http://cid-258899c12334cc4d.skydrive.live.com/browse.aspx/Lift%20Coffee%20Table

Old Shopcraft T7060 3 wheel bandsaw circa 1986. Didn’t know much about the compnay, but apparently was sold by JC Penney at that time. It seems to track straight and has a new drive belt and a spare belt and couple blades. Probably not the greatest bandsaw, and I know the 3 wheel bandsaws tend to eat belts and blades faster. It has a little more than 5 1/2” capacity, 70” blades, and only 1/3 HP motor. Paid $50 for it. Probably underpowered, but I’ll try resawing some white oak on it to see how it does here in a couple days. I have a 2 wheel Ryobi in the basement, but it only has a 3 1/4” capacity. Hopefully it will be a decent resawing bandsaw.

Here are a couple pics of the panels with the frames around them. Obviously the panels will need to be cut to fit. The frame is supposed to be stained the same as the rest of the table with a dyed de-waxed shellac.

Here I’ve put a piece on the finished to to show you what it will be going with.

Let me know what you think.

Thanks!

Greg