Sephicade

Here's a project I've always wanted to make. A little bartop arcade. Retrostyle. The core will be a Raspberry Pi 3 running an emulator, Retropie. 2 players!

It starts out with plywood.

A simple design for the cabinet. Just the basics. 

Sourced the arcade buttons and joystick from Amazon. I went with Sanwa style. Old school Japanese arcade setup.

Hooked it all up for the first time. Programmed the Raspberry Pi was super easy.

For lights, I went with some cheap IKEA LED lights. For sound, I took apart cheap computer speakers. 

Took apart an old computer monitor. Giving it a second life.

Photoshopped some artwork onto the deck.

and... SephiCade is finished

And now, it's loaded with 5000+ craptacular 70s, 80s and 90s games! Consoles ranging from Atari 2600 to Sega Genesis to NES/SNES. Someday, I'll probably finish off some more artwork for the sides of the cabinet. For now, I can just get pissed off never being able to beat any of these games.

Adidas Shoe Box box

This project is of an ADIDAS shoe box made of wood. And oversized and holds 16 pairs of shoes. 

quick sketches. Cut/parts list. A simple build

First 2 walls cut. Man, it’s big.

The main box. Glue up

The drawer. Glue up

Lid all assembled

Mocked up all the elements. It is BIG. And heavy.

Box, lid, and drawers painted.

Installed a set of full extension slides with pull-close. Also 100lbs capacity! Though the drawer is 39lbs. haha

European hinges. Ugh... needs very specific sized holes made. 

Feet

Logos painted in. And pistons installed. The pistons allow for a safe soft open. The lid is heavy and needed this to control the speed and weight while it settles into the fully open position. Also tried to put in a few soft close. The full weight of the lid proves they do very little to slow the close. 

And the finish product:

Mailbox

My mailbox is a disappointment to my mailman. For years. And it’s embarrassing. This is the year to fix that. Got some extra leftover wood from my last project. Enough to make a quick box.

The lid is stuck in the open position. The slightest push on it, will break it off. It’s really lame.

Here is the new design. A rough sketch in Sketchup.

Always starts out with cutting lumber to approximate dimensions.

Measuring twice, cutting once to final dimensions.

Lots of measuring. Lots of cutting.

The glue-up. The fun part...

Another wooden hinge for the lid.

The actual mail slot wasn’t in the original design. I kind of made it up on the fly.

Using Tung Oil for the finish. I really like how easy it is to apply. And love the feel of this final touch. This should last a long time since it is a penetrating finish.

Clamp rack

My clamps are out of control. I just dump them all on the floor or where ever there is space. My workspace is ridiculous. So, they need to be organized. A couple of scrap plywood pieces were all that’s needed. A quick build

Wedding keepsake boxes

A couple weddings came up and I wanted gifts for them. Thought a handmade wooden keepsake box would be fun to make. Designed it in a 3D program, Sketchup. Inspired by an old timey leather travel box with some rivets. Made with some good figured maple wood. Real hardwoods and easy to work with. Accented with Walnut, another good hardwood. Featuring all wooden hinge and locking latch.

Even though the joinery won’t be seen, I still chose to use finger joints (aka box joints). It’s super strong. It’s too bad, because they look nice.

Lots of clamps to hold the walls together while the wood glue sets.

All trim and accents are made from walnut.

For the lid, I chose a ‘jail’ type. Just for laughs. haha Guess this was too easy a metaphor.

Holes drilled for the wooden dowels.

All accent trim cut. Making 2 boxes at the same time sure does save time.

Cutting/separating the lid from the box on the table saw.

more glue ups.

These blocks of walnut will eventually be cut into smaller pieces of corner trim

It’s a subtle detail, but all the corner details have a slight angle. Each are custom cut to the corners to match mating sides. A lot of work, but worth it.

Each and every piece of trim accent was custom cut with a hand saw. To ensure a seamless fitting. Measure. Cut. Glue. Clamp. Repeat. ~50x. For each box.

Hinges made from wood. At the start, it seems like a really hard thing to do. But, once you break it down, it’s pretty simple. Starts out with cutting out ‘fingers’. The same type as the finger joints.

I was able to get 4 sets from a small chunk of walnut.

Rounded the ‘fingers’ on my belt sander. Drilled through with a long 1/8” drill bit.

Used a 1/8” brass bar as a temp pin.

This was mostly decorative.

Ready to mount

With a brad point drill bit in the hole, I hit it lightly with a hammer. this gave me a centre punch to drill into the maple... 

For the locking latch on the front of the box, it’s the same technique as the hinges. only difference is that i cut off some thickness for a thinner profile. Used a table saw for this.

Again, I used a brass bar to hold the hinge together while I sanded the fingers to a nice round shape.

(back side)... coming along....

(front side)

more details on the front latch. 

For a “riveted” look, i chose to just use a 1/8” wooden dowel in drilled holes. Simple and cool looking.

Made a whole bunch of the dowels. Hand cut. and glued in. Here i decided to try 1 box that’s flush cut (with a flush cut hand saw) and one that I let the ‘rivets’ protrude slightly. Spaced it out with a washer.

I cut a small piece of dowel, threw it into my cordless chuck. Found a rock and just ground the tip until i had a small concave end. And just used the wooden dowel to burnish all the little wooden rivets. To give it a nice rounded edge. The process gave it a nice polish too! BONUS! haha

This looks hardcore.

Here are some simple feet for the box. beveled the sides on the belt sander.

For the finish, I decided to try 2 different finishes. One box, I used Circa 1850 Antique Paste Varnish and the second box, I used Tung ’N Teak oil. Both applies easily.

I need some hardware to keep the lid from rotating too far back. It will break the wooden hinge. This and the brass pins are the only things that weren’t wood on this project.

The Finish: