(09-01-2014) Playing in the shop

This weekend we tried our hand at making t-shirts using the vinyl cutter and I think they turned out fairly well.  We also made some insulated drink holders with various logos and sayings.

At the swap meet I picked up an old '32 grille shell.  I finally got around to hanging it up on the wall this weekend.

(06-14-2014) Beetle intake repair

I finally installed new gaskets for the intake on the old Beetle this weekend.  It runs a lot better, and doesn't leak gas everywhere now, so that's a good thing.  I even took it out for a quick spin to see how it drives.  It was a blast!

The only problem was I had a dead short once I had everything re-installed.  It turned out to be the wire going to the electric choke was touching the dog-house (fan shroud) and causing the smoke.  Didn't take long to find and fix, but it's never cool to see smoke coming from the wiring.

(05-03-2014) Wheel bearing and the magic smoke escapes...

Flash replaced the passenger side front wheel bearing on Blondie this weekend.  I usually say "we", but he did it all this time - all I did was drink beer and watch.

I did work on the Raven pinball machine some while Flash was working on the GTI and the playfield is really coming together.  After Flash left I shut everything down and went inside - only to realize the next day that I hadn't shut off the pinball machine and it appears that the magic smoke inside of the electronics has been released.  So, looks like once I get the playfield back together I will have to start figuring out what's wrong with the electronics.

(11-29-2013) Blondie 300,000 miles and gets a little help.

Recently Blondie hit the 300,000 milestone.  She's a great car, but
only because Flash helps me keep her on the road.

This weekend we put a front wheel bearing on the driver's side and changed the trans-axle gear oil.  I guess she's ready for another 300,000 miles now.

(07-06-2013) Project Slayer completed and other stuff...

Finally, Project Slayer is 100% complete.  At some point I may add XBMC and networking, but for now it's done and all of the systems are playable.  Very glad to finally have it finished up after not being able to put the finishing touches on it for the past few months.  Next step is to clean up and put away all of the tools.

I also started working on the old Super Beetle on Saturday.  I was feeling really good and thought it would be good day to finally get this project moving again, but I was wrong.  I tried to put in a battery, and a seat, so that it was movable and I could start finishing up the floor and interior - bad idea.  Putting those two things in the car hurt my back and leg, and set me back a good amount.  Lesson learned, and more attention paid to giving the back time to heal.  So frustrating to wait, but waiting is better than pain, or surgery.

(07-08-2013) Update on the Beetle.  Flash came down and installed the battery for me and now the Beetle is mobile again.  The next step is to clean the floor and POR-15 it  so that it's ready for paint and interior.

(07-01-2013) Project: Slayer

It's been a long time since I've updated this page, but finally Project: Slayer is finally 99% complete.  It's all done except for some new plexiglass to cover the monitor and some software changes as time allows.  I even installed a playable version of my old game Firestorm so that I can prove I once wrote a game (with a lot of help from my friends Charles and Mike).

(12-06-2012) It Lives!

Tonight the arcade machine is fully playable.  All of the controls are wired up and the PC power switch turns on/off everything.  Hit the power button, it boots into Hyperspin and away you go.  There is a list of things left to do: side art, marquee, painting, external power switch, t-molding, marquee light.  Still, it's fully playable and the rest are to just make it a little bit nicer and pull it all together.  I hope the t-molding arrives soon so I can finish up the cabinet.

(12-02-2012) Arcade machine nears completion

Today was a big day.  The cabinet (most of it) got some black paint, the control panel was mounted and some of the final wiring was done.  All of the controls have been tested and everything works.  Still lots to do to finish it up, but it's getting very close now.

(11-24-2012) Arcade cabinet build continues

First step was to cut out a shelf in the original cabinet to mount the new control panel.  Yes, it's huge, but it will work.

Also, I wired up the spinner control and played some Arkanoid, Virtua Racing and a few other games that could use the spinner.  It's great fun.

Later that day the mounting plate for the trackball arrived and I got that installed as well.

It's all coming together.  I need to buy some mounting hardware to finish mounting the control panel to the cabinet today.  Can't wait to get it primed and painted and just plain finished.

(11-11-2012) Wiring and testing begins

Today we hooked up everything and started wiring the control panel.  It's a slow process, but everything seems to work and should play very well.  The list of things to do is growing shorter - but there is still a ton of things that have to be done and with the weather getting colder it will be harder to get into the shop and get things done.

(11-09-2012) Controls for the control panel

I drilled and mounted all of the controls, except for the trackball.  I need a mounting plate for the trackball and it's currently out of stock.  The controls will need to be wired up next and then it's time for (hopefully) the fun part of testing before I go back to cleaning up the cabinet and painting it.

(11-07-2012) Control panel box

Last night, Flash, Jody and I worked on building the new control panel.  It's a bit rough, but I think it will work for an old beater arcade machine that lives in a dirty old shop.  It was fun to build, but there is a ton more work to do to get it finished up.

(10-30-2012) More work on the arcade cabinet

Tonight Jody and I worked on the arcade cabinet.  I bought a new marquee light and a smart power strip to turn on/off the machine with a single button.  We worked out an idea for how the control panel will be laid out and did a small amount of work on it and we sanded a lot (Jody did most of this) on the outside of the machine.  It's nasty work, but it's really shaping up and hopefully it will be ready for paint and graphics soon.

I still need to figure out where to put all of the controls on the panel, but it's coming along and I can't wait to get it all wired up and working.

(10-17-2012) Arcade controls

Last night I worked on the arcade control panel a little bit.  I cut a piece of metal to weld over the original control panel and got it to fit fairly well.  I'm not sure about placement of the controls, but at least the control panel has a fresh top to be welded on and allow for a smooth surface.  It's hard to figure out placement for 20 buttons, 2 joysticks, a trackball and a spinner control on one small area.

(10-13-2012) Just working on stuff...

Flash, Austin and I hung out in the shop and just worked on whatever seemed like it needed attention.  We worked on a kart motor for a while, started and checked out some cars (70 Chevy truck, a Porsche 914 and a 2000 Beetle), put new rear suspension on my GTi (it's much better!), reinstalled the interior in my GTi, worked on the MAME cabinet some (paint tests and some sanding of the cabinet) and played a bit of Virtua Racing as well.

(10-10-2012) MAME machine arrives

Here's a picture of the new cabinet for the MAME machine.  It's an old Zaxxon cabinet that's in pretty rough shape (left out in the rain for too long), but I think it will make a good cabinet for a MAME machine.  Some sanding and paint should do wonders for how it looks, maybe...

(10-09-2012) Two Player Virtua Racing Lives!! ...again...

It's alive, again!!  It's still a mess, but both sides of the machine are back up and running.  I will finish up the mounting of boards and cleaning up the interior of the machine and we will back to racing again.  Can't wait to play some head to head VR again.

...and later on that evening the Etchison boys came over to test it out.  Shannon got a bit over excited and did a brake check.  Or is that break check?  A little bit of cabinet work needs to be done, but this cabinet has always been rough and needed some help.  I hope Shannon doesn't feel bad about the problem, it could haven happened to anyone playing the game.

 

Also, Shannon said I could have this old empty arcade cabinet he has to turn into a MAME machine.  The PC is almost ready, but the cabinet and control panel will need lots of work.  Can't wait to get started on it.

(10-06-2012) Blondie repair

Blondie, my trusty old VW GTI, has been giving me some problems for the past month or so and today I think I finally figured it out.  Last weekend, I replaced the mass air flow sensor, but it didn't help.  The error code reported by the ECU was a P1136 - which says that the fuel mixture is too lean or some such thing.  I took all of the covers off the engine and spend a loooong time listening to the engine.  I could hear a vacuum leak somewhere, but for the longest time I couldn't find it.  Eventually I brushed the broken hose with my fingers enough to change the sound and I was able to find it.  The hose was located on the underneath side of the intake manifold - a real bear to find, see and replace.  I replaced the hose and gave it a test fire, and it does seem to idle much better, but only time will tell if this really fixes the occasional stalling that she's been suffering.

(10-06-2012) Steam engine

Today Flash and I looked at this Hack A Day article and decided to give it a try.  The video is an example of our results.  We used a piece of a plastic ball point pen as a push rod to open the valve and it didn't last too long, but otherwise it works very well.  Not very efficient, but a whole lot of fun and easy to make.  We probably had it running in less than 30 minutes, and most of that time was hunting for adapters to connect the air hose to the engine.

(10-06-2012) Games!

The past week has been a lot of fun playing Viruta Racing with Jody when he comes over.  The only bad part is that it's a two-player cabinet and one of the sides died a while back.  This weekend I finally figured out what's "dead" (one of the three power supplies had died for that side) and ordered a new one to fix the second player.  I can't wait to get it operational and have some good head-to-head racing action again.

Also, I started working on a MAME cabinet and have an awesome configuration set up now using a piece of software called Hyperspin.  The PC that will be used in the cabinet has a fully functional MAME, Daphne, Sega Genesis and Atari 2600 install currently and hopefully I'll add a few more systems in the next week or so.  It's great and it will only get better once it's installed in the cabinet.