Schoolboy Error!

Officially Day 1 of the Arcade Project and it doesnt go as well as exepected!

Ok, todays plan was to go into town, buy the MDF, buy the tools and get to work starting the cabinet.

But, being a DIY novice, I have already made my first mistake. Nobody told me how big 8ft x 4ft MDF is! Ok, that sounds ridiculous, I've just told you how big it is... point is, up until when we arrived at Wickes in town, I was happy to believe I could just slide 3 of those bad boys into the back of my Ford Escort and away I go...

Its fine, error 1 over and done with. Nobody got hurt.

So quick change of plan and dash over to the woodmill DIY store and order 3 sheets of MDF which will be delivered Monday. No problem, just a bit of a delay - though whilst I was in the store, I picked up some tools for the job - a jigsaw, a palm sander and some other odds and sods. Didnt bother getting a drill as I am sure I have one at home... (oops! I dont...)

I made such an amateur arse of myself in the shop that one of the assistants asked if I would be 'ok plugging the jigsaw into the wall' - I rose above the snide comment and wiping away my tears, made my excuses and left.

Once back home we started other prep work. The dining room has been emptied to become a temporary workshop for the next few weeks and my little room where the cab will reside is being shuffled around to make room for it.

On cabinet news, I have now settled on a design for the cab that I will be basing mine on.

Something like this anyway - certainly with a bigger control panel (where the joysticks and buttons are).

As I am really keen to have a trackball control (the black ball in the middle of the panel opposite), I am going to need a bit of 'swinging' room once you get rolling those.

Anyway, thats the plan - could all change again pretty quick!

I've just about blown this months budget on the project and I still have some bits to get, either tomorrow from Wickes or via Screwfix Direct online - so I can start cutting sometime early next week.


I've also been wondering what monitor to put into the cabinet, but I've now settled on using my 21" TV which is in my room. Claire has kindly donated me her PC/TV Monitor so I can continue having a TV in the room.

Thats about it for today - the only other good news of note is that "We Love Katamari" has turned up for Claire. So we are gonna go stick a Pizza in and fire the PS3 up.

Looking forward to seeing Metallica and the Foo's shortly on Live Earth too. Its been pretty good so far suprisingly...