A little more progress on the Nintendo PC.

This post once again is pretty late on going up since I did this work almost 2 weeks ago but like always time is my worst enemy lol. Anyhoo on to the nitty gritty. Here you will see my current work area IE the dining room table lol.

For my first task I had to cut out all the unnecessary materiel on the bottom portion of the Nintendo. The middle had this raised area that had to be dremeled out. The big hole in the middle wont matter much since I will be covering it with some aluminum sheeting when I install the motherboard.

The next step was squaring out the port holes where the controllers plug in. I had to do this due to the fact that the retro usb plugs I had ordered were square and not with a angled notch on one side like the original ports were.

Next up was modifying the retro usb ports so that they fit through the holes I just squared out. Once again my best friend the dremel came to the rescue

If you notice I had to dremel out the top of the port, this served two purposes, one was because it wouldn't pass through the hole, and second, its a stop preventing the port sticking out anymore than it should. This part almost marked the first time I got to use my Dial calipers in order to measure out how much material I had to grind away.
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I had to do something similar to the bottom, only difference was there was nothing to grind off. Instead I had to glue a piece of thick sturdy cardboard.

Next thing to work on is something to mount the ports to the bottom of the Nintendo and hopefully install the motherboard. Alas all that will have to wait though, because hopefully this week I will finally have the lathe moved into the shed. Till next post!

My own Nintendo PC.

Like I didn't have enough on my plate already I decided to start another project lol. This was a project that I started over 10 years and really didn't do much with it. Recently though I was roaming the internet and was feeling nostalgic and the itch began. At first I really didn't want to start something new again but then I decided why not, I had almost all the parts already. I booted the thing up the other day and was surprised it still worked, which was a good thing because one of my goals on this project was to not throw anymore money at it.

Currently all the parts are in a spare PC case I had from a long time ago, this way its alot easier to install everything I need program wise. Upon booting up I forgot that I installed windows 98 on it and it had all sorts of problems, so after a nice reformat and clean install of a updated windows XP thing ran like a champ.
After that  I had to figure out the controller problem that stumped me all those years ago. After a while of looking up how to wire a Nes Controller to play through a USB port I was saddened that I would have to buy a special chip in order for the NES controller to work. So after deciding I didnt really want to spend alot of time and money into soldering (which I totally intend to learn how to do...eventually). I found these little bad boys

RetroPort from RetroZone

Basically for the money I would of spent on buying all the mats for modding the controller Ill get these instead, plus I dont have to destroy a perfectly good Nes controller. Next came trying to get 2 working Nes controllers, which at first I had 2 choices 1 was seeing if anyone I knew had any to either give or sell me, 2 was ordering some online. Then later that week it totally dawned on my that under my mess in my art room there was a perfectly good Nes with 3 controllers, so after some rummaging I finally found it. So that was some money saved there. Shortly after I found the controllers the Retro ports came in the mail, so I anxiously had to try them out, and let me tell you they work phenomenally, just like the real deal I was really happy on how responsive they were. So now the next step which hopefully Ill be able to juggle with the work Iam doing in the shed this week is to mod and fit everything in the empty Nes Shell I have.
Till next post!

Fixing my Sketch pad.

Well heres something out of the norm I thought Id never do. For a long while now I had been taking my sketch pad to work with me everyday, and as time has gone by its been wearing down untill finally sometime last month the spine had completely fallen off.

Distraught on how I didn't get to fill the book up with my random artwork and doodles, well mostly doodles lol. So after alot of thought I decided that I would attempt to fix it. The trick here was I didnt want to spend to much money on fixing it since I believe I didn't spend anymore than $15 on it. So after some research I found this nifty video/tutorial on how to repair the spine.

Helpful Vid link here!

To my excitement from what I saw on the video it looked like it wouldnt be that hard or that expensive to do, until I got to the part of what materials I needed. There were 2 little hurdles I had to jump,  1 the type of glue used in the vid and 2 the actual book cloth. The first one was solved with some digging around at my local Michaels. The video explained that I needed a mixture of PVA glue and Methyl Cellulose, problem is I couldnt find the Methyl Cellulose and the PVA glue that I found was really expensive, so the solution I found was a glue called Aleen's Acid free tacky glue, pretty much what the name implies its a acid free glue made for paper products and projects. The best part it was only like 4 bucks, more than half of what the PVA would of cost. The next hurdle was trying to find book cloth which wherever I looked I could not find. Again I didn't want to order it online since I didn't want to wait or the cost was alot more than what I had spent on the sketch pad. The solution was alot easier than I thought, browsing around doing research I stumbled upon yet again a youtube vid, gotta love youtube!

Helpful Vid link 2!

So from what the video explained there was this stuff that Walmart sells called Heat n Stick, which basically is used for iron on's for clothing and such. For another 5 bucks between the Heat n Stick and some tissue paper I finally had the means to make the book cloth. I really didn't take any in progress pics of process since it only really took me like 45mins to complete it. The first video I linked above pretty much explained the process on how I did it, about the only difference was that my sketchpad had this foe leather texture that I had to cut and scrape off to make room for the new spine, as you can see from the first pic. Thus finally after sitting overnight drying my sketch pad was reborn!

Theres a couple little flaws here and there like where I miscalculated the length of the cloth. Theres a small little gap where the cloth and the old foe leather meet, oh well tack that up as a learning experience. I would like to thank youtube authors Aranmade for the spine repair vid and Hoffbright for the book cloth vid, with out you guys I wouldn't be able to save my sketch pad. Till next post!

Proton Pack Finished........finally!

Well after a long hiatus, Ive been back to full swing working on and off again. Here is the final product the finished pack....well sorta. Iam still working on the gun or wand as its called, but hey I got the main pack down and out of the way.

Iam always finding new things about the pack every time I do research on a part. Recently I discovered that the blue prints are in fact not that accurate at all. Seeing that alot of the pieces as I was putting it all together didn't really fit, which led into some clipping issues(You will notice them in some of the views). This little project was supposed to be a little distraction that was supposed to be only a weeks worth of work lol. Boy was I wrong, Ive been working on this thing on and off for probably around 3 to 4 months and technically Iam still not 100% finished. For now Iam happy and it will serve its purpose as a reference for when I physically make it.

Another thing I stumbled upon last night was that the Cyclotron, the middle cake pan with the 4 washers on it, was to tall. So I had to make a new one. Luckily it wasn't one of the harder parts so I was able to whip up another one in about a hour.

Chalk up another project under the belt, and heres to many more. Stay tuned for more updates on the gun/wand. Till next time.

Various parts finished.

What can I say its been a while since my last update. Like I thought I spent my whole vacation gutting and renovating my shed to be converted into a workshop, while still not a 100% completed I have very little to go. I wish I had another week off lol. Anyhoos back on track here, I spent this week working on the proton pack after spending a couple days of much needed "Not Doing anything". I was able to finish 4 parts, first part was PPD, fairly simple part pretty much just a cylinder with a angle cut on one end.

Next part was another easy one, its the decorative corner plate that goes on the top right corner of the pack just to give it some "fat". This part had a couple odd angles that at first stumped me but once I sat down and thought about it they ended up being fairly easy.

Onto the following part is the shock mount, which all it is really is a cylinder with a bunch of ribs cut into to it. This was another part that threw me for a loop in the beginning but then was easily overcomed.

When it comes time Iam still on the fence on whether I will lathe this piece out or just use the one I have, made of a bolt and different size washers.

Finally I made the Clippard valve. I like the way this piece came out because I wasn't sure how accurate the blue prints were since it was stated on the print that I needed to take some liberty's on certain dimensions. Lucky for me though I stumbled onto clippards site where they actually had some sketchup files already made of the part. Boy was I happy to see how pretty much dead on I was with the one I downloaded, the only differences besides the lack of certain details, was the dimensions around the neck of the top of the valve. I had to make up my own dimensions. This is definitely a part I will be lathing, so I will need to come up with some more accurate dimensions. Iam excited because this will be my first part ever I will be making on how to learn how to use the lathe.

Can you guess which ones the one I made lol.

Thats all for now, next post Ill have some progress pics on the wand.

Sides are up.

Well this post took forever, as usual work and life got in the way. Anyways, back on track. Progress has been a little slow as of late due to lack of time and materials but I did manage to finish building and erecting the walls on the house.

I kept in mind that I wanted to keep the house ventilated, so Iam going to put lattice as a 1 foot "window" opening starting from the top supporting beam. That way it should stay ventilated but at the same time keep most of the weather out.

Then after some time in sketchup Ive come up with a final cosmetic design for the 2 sides, still ironing out what I want the front to look like though. Not a 100% sure yet on the color scheme though, I was going to go with some reds on the wall, but with the roof being red it was to much. So more than likely Ill be experimenting with browns.

While I have vacation time coming up at the end of this week, sadly I wont be able to work on this due to me buying my new toy, a metal lathe (Pics of that are on the Facebook page "Here" ). I have it currently sitting in a open air garage and I need to bring into my shed in the back, but I have to gut it and fix it up before that. So thats gonna be my vacation in a nutshell. Till next post.

Booster Frame Done.

Work on the pond has picked up so I haven't had much time to work on the sketchup proton pack, so luckily I was able to work on it a bit today. After alot of back and forth I finally finished the booster frame.

There was alot of back and forth on trying to figure out the placement of the ribs on the sides since the blue prints never specified, so thus again it was left to my interpretation.

I can gratefully say that Iam glad I got another part done, Iam at the home stretch pretty much all thats left is the wand and a couple little cosmetic things. Iam hoping Ill be able to finish it with in the next 2 months. Tune in soon for some pond updates, till next time.

Shingles and Ridgecap complete.

Been a while since Ive worked on the pond, and thanks to daylight savings time Ive been able to work on it this week. Alot has been done and for the most part the roof is done just some minor cosmetic things are left to be done.

Also Iam sooo glad that me and my dad, well mostly my dad dont have to climb and teeter totter on the roof anymore. This thing has a pretty steep pitch, and our make shift scaffolding could only do so much, luckily we managed and prevailed. Next thing that was added and unfortunately I was only able to do the left side, was the outer truss wall's that will cosmetically cover the holes on the trusses.

Friday is a semi early work day for me so Iam hoping to finish plugging up the other side of the roof and then it will truly be complete. The next step will be to run some electricity to here so I can start erecting walls and make the deck around the pond, I cant wait! Till next post.

Bumper Finished....finally.

Well finally back from the con I went to, didnt really do to hot there as I only sold 1 piece of perler art but honestly not bad for being my first time lol. Between yesterday and today I was finally able to finish the bumper and I can definitely say that this was the hardest piece and most annoying piece to work on thus far.

Once again the limitations of Sketchup reared its ugly head again and I spent a good chunk of the evening yesterday trying to figure a way around it. Sketchup apparently has a limit on how small a radius it can handle, as in it just wont make one. So I just left where it makes the rounds in the corners essentially blank spaces.

After that nightmare was over it was just basic clean up of the model and then adding the holes at the bottom of the Bumper where it attaches to the main Pack body.

Honestly I dont know if Iam going to work on this much this work due too Iam pretty burned out and plain tired from coming home from work, and then working till the wee hours of the morning making the Perler art. for the con. So I believe a much needed R and R break is needed this week. Till next post!

Progress on the Bumper.

Managed to squeeze some time in this week to work on the bumper some more, its still a pain in the butt though.

Its finally taken shape, and Iam currently ironing out the final details in the thing. Ran into a bunch of hurdles in the curved parts on the to sides which was the majority of the hassle of this thing, but like all hurdles Ive been over coming them little by little.

The next headache was to figure out how the part contours at the bottom to the side parts. As seen in the above and bottom pics. The right side was fairly simple since it was a pretty easy fillet, but the left side was not so.. Luckily after a lot, and I mean alot of trial and error I was finally able to figure it out. The problem since I had free handed it it required alot of improvising until the final pic happened, Iam satisfied for the most part on how it came out though. Ill more than likley do something a bit different when the time comes to make the thing for real.

Currently Iam fighting on the right side, and it took me pretty much the most of yesterday to finally figure out how to get the groove on the right side to go from square to a round.

Again stuff like this always hits me when Iam not working on the thing, turned out to be something rather simple to do. After some searching on the "google", I found a pretty nice explanation on how go from a square to a round. Link here!

Iam really getting the hang of this, so when ever I tackle something Ive made up Iam glad Ill be able to put what Ive learned so far on this project towards it. So till next post.