Oak Cabinet Build

[ken524]

It is also time to point put Ken's generosity too. Without his hard work many of us would have had no starting point.
Thank you both!

You're welcome! I'm glad to be of help.

I agree with Nick about things being for free. I have seen plans for sale on Ebay. I'm sure they are nice, but it's nicer for a few folks to come up with a design to share. The whole point of PachiTalk is helping each other out.

[nickbuol]

Alright. Friday night I didn't get anything done with the cabinet. I ended up going to a local high school football game, and when I got home, I have to prep all of my gear for a day of paintballing with my paintball team today.

Tonight, however, I managed to get everything final sanded, cleaned, and stained. That was at about 6PM. 5 1/2 hours later, I noticed it was nice and dry and I put the semi-gloss polyurethane on it. The stain and the poly are the same that we used for the doors and wood trim in the house, so it should match nicely. Unfortunately, I can't do a whole lot more until my fabric covered neoprene arrives this coming week. I want to apply it to the two ramps in the cabinet BEFORE installing them, so I will be at a stand-still for a couple of days until that gets here.

I will post some pictures tomorrow of the progress once the poly has had overnight to dry.

[birdbrain]

has it really taken 2 weeks to build a cabinet? or are you just dragging it out for the sake of literary suspense? most people finish heir cabinets in 2-4 days. taking their time.

[luckydog]

quality over quantity

[johntofva]

Your doing a nice job Nick...

[nickbuol]

has it really taken 2 weeks to build a cabinet? or are you just dragging it out for the sake of literary suspense? most people finish heir cabinets in 2-4 days. taking their time.

I only get about an hour at a time tops to work on it. Many nights I get all of 15 minutes. Most people cut the wood, screw it together, fill the holes, sand and paint.

Look back at my steps. I've taken many extra steps to ensure precise cutting, had to cut my own wood plugs (which takes a LOT longer than just using wood filler), routered the edges, changed the design a little. Did a LOT of test fitting prior to assembly (since I can't make a single mistake without screwing up the oak. Cheaper wood can just be filled again.) etc, etc, etc...

Geez, if it is taking too long for you, then maybe you wouldn't mind coming to my house, and running my kids around to their events and activities, and getting everything else done that I have to do every day after work.

[KennithX]

Slow and steady wins the race friend. Keep on pluggen away and you'l have it done real nice.

[Chrisdice]

The PA convention has to happen first

Wow can't believe its been almost a year since the last one. Dawn any plans for another this year? We can have one by my house this year but then we would have to rename it the PA convention in Delaware.

[dattia]

My house is ALWAYS open for a Pachi convention. If there is interest, it can happen!!! Of course, a Delaware Convention would be good too

[birdbrain]

sorry nick. im getting impatient to see the finished results. i didn't mean to be a jack@#$ about it, sometimes i just blurt out crap instead of thinking how to word it first.

[nickbuol]

I know, I know... I owe everyone pictures and an update.
I am waiting on my cloth covered neoprene to get here from Virgina still. Other than that, the cabinet is DONE. Routed, stained, power supplied (with external switch)... Done done done done done... I am a little frustrated with the guy sending the neoprene as it was supposed to be sent last week, and didn't get sent until yesterday. I have my Lumina frame in pieces waiting to be put into the cabinet, so I have been Pachinko free since I started the build and I WANT TO PLAY!!!

Pictures will come when I have it done. I will take plenty of the finished product.

[luckydog]

were not trying to pressure you into finishing, relax and have a drink

[nickbuol]

Funny thing is, I just cracked open an ice cold... Mt Dew...
I'm one of those odd ducks that doesn't "drink" if ya know what I mean, so any time people want to have a Midwest get together, you've got your designated driver!

[Horologist]

I been dinking with mine for on to a year and it ain't done either-Priorities, I guess. If you want a neon Pachinko light, I know a fellow in Spencer Iowa that'll make it for you!

[nickbuol]

Well, the fabric covered 3.5mm neoprene arrived today, so I got to work on trying to finish the cabinet.

I glued the neoprene to the two ramps, and cut it the shape of the ramps. I glued the bottom ramp in place, and did the same on the top ramp, but with the top ramp I needed to ensure that the area by the "drop hole" as down lower, so (and I forgot to take this picture before putting the ramp in), I glued it to the pieces that raised the outer edges. These were two pieces of the 1/8" plywood glued together, and then cut into small strips. It just needed to hold the outside of the ramp up. I then used 3 screws near the "drop hole" to pull it down to make the ramp sloped from all directions. I put the screws under the neoprene (didn't glue it down near the hole until after I had screwed it in place).

The bottom ramp was straight forward glue, cut, and drop in place (glued to hold it)...

Oh, I was using the Goop brand glue as it holds like heck!

I then cut a piece of neoprene that would go against the back of the cabinet for the "spent ball" drop. This is in case balls come out the back of the machine, and zing down the neoprene "funnel" and smack into the back of the cabinet. I then made the funnel. Just measured the metal "wire" as well as the height and cut. I did some trimming of two of the corners to give them a \ / cut so that there wasn't SO much material over-lapping. I then hand sewed (come on, how hard can that be), the neoprene around the wire. Again, this wire is "square" and VERY stiff, so it held its shape well. I then took the bottom of the funnel area and put a could of stitches in there just to hold it. The 3.5mm neoprene doesn't buckle, so it made a nice rigid funnel.

Next came the reassembly of the Lumina frame, making sure that every plug got plugged back in, and the wires got routed the right way. I then focused on how to mount the power supply. I wanted it on the Lumina frame, and not the cabinet, and I wanted it held in place, but easily removed.

I added a small wood piece to the inside bottom of the Lumina frame to make a platform for the power supply. I just screwed it in place. Next, I marked on the platform where the screw holes would go, and then, with the power supply setting off to the side, put 4 screws into the wood, but left them sticking up about 3/4 of an inch. I grabbed the Drummel, and cut off the screw heads. This left 4 "posts" for the power supply to slide on to for holding it in place. Worked pretty well. Then, if I ever need to take the power supply off for any reason, I can easily do so without having to try to fit a screw driver back there and bash my knuckles against the wall, or have to remove the Lumina frame to get to it. Hopefully this will be something that I never have to worry about, but it could happen, and took me an extra 2 minutes now to do it.

I finished putting the frame together, and still had to put in the "drop tube" from the top hopper to the Lumina's hopper. I put it in place, marked it with a pencil, added the glue, and put it back in. Should be dry by tomorrow.

I put a few balls in the top, and going into the top hopper is very quiet. Dropping down the tube is noisy at first, but once the payout hopper in the Lumina frame fills up, the balls no longer "drop" but sort of just "flow" down the tube, and it becomes really quiet. The spent balls make noise running down the inside of the back of the machine, but as soon as they exit the back, they are almost silent with the only noise being the balls hitting each other after then roll to the front of the bottom tray.

All in all, I am super happy with the results. The Lumina frame isn't secured in the cabinet yet, but it is a nice snug fit, so for now I am not worried about it falling out. Of course, for now, the cabinet isn't mounted on the wall either. It is on our dining room table... As soon as my wife sees it still there, I will get an ear full, so I should wrap this up and go move it. I will hopefully get it wall mounted soon, but I am waiting on some other things to get moved around in my basement so that I only have to mount it once, and that will be the location that I REALLY want it in.

My only 2 complaints about my own build are the inability to use a wood cleat to mount it. Looked at the metal ones, but couldn't justify $30 for one metal cleat for something that should stay put until me move, and we aren't planning on that any time soon. The other issue is that I had to put a drop tube, angled inward, under the bottom "overflow" tray of the pachinko cabinet so that the balls would land into the cabinet tray at the bottom.

Both of these issues are worked out, but just not quite as "clean" of a build as I would have liked.

Now for some pictures. I apologize for the bad quality... The lighting is terrible in our dining room and the camera was having a hard time adjusting to the bright lights of the machine compared to the darker background.

If anyone wants to see something from a different angle, or close up, let me know and I will take better pictures later.

Another disclaimer, I know that things are a little dusty. I'll be cleaning that up a little more. The dust really shows up in the pictures, and in some cases makes the wood look unevenly stained, but it isn't In fact, I was surprised that several pictures make the wood look funny colored or like it doesn't match. Like in one picture the side color doesn't look like it matches the front, but then when you see just the side, you can tell that it is the same color.

Anyway, here they are.

[nickbuol]

Here are a couple more pictures. The one from the side is my attempt to show a sample of the simple edge I put on the cabinet with my router.
You can see some of the blue pachinko balls that I got from Arby too...

[luckydog]

A quality build thats for sure

[birdbrain]

I don't think the lower tray was designed to catch the the balls from the payout tray, but, extends just to make it easier to scoop the balls out.

[nickbuol]

Yup, but it would be nice if it did.

[dattia]

That is a great job Nick... Thanks for sharing this experience with us!!! Gee... now I'm feeling bad that my Star Wars and Julie are sitting in my gameroom all naked and cabinetless...