Wait... that's my normal play style for Palimax's events...

Ok, not quite done tonight, but I'm between coats of varnish and all the flat surfaces are in use...



Table finally standing on its legs -- you can see the CNC work.



The aforementioned legs, which I took photos of the assembly of without the memory card in. Pure win! They're passable legs. This table is worth of REAL legs.



Cutting the foam padding for under the antennas.



Antennas in their cubbies and USB cables run.



A closeup.



Antenna wires connected. No point in having seated the antennas. They all need to come back out. These braided cables need looped gently, and you need to start at the receiver end and trace them into place, loop them, turn the antennas over a few times to work out any kinks, and then put them in place. Next time (HA!) I'd put all the receiver end connectors in first, then run them out to the antennas, and then put them in place. At least one of the receivers was in a bad place to not quite be able to loop the antenna cable, and it's not crimped, but it's looped tighter than I'd like.




Closeup again with the connected antenna wires. Perhaps you can see my point above.




Wires routed from the center, and painters tape to do a little crowd wrangling.



Internal electronics assembled. It looks like a lot of tape, but it's just a big "X" over each of the places where they loop, and a small piece at the beginning and end of each run. I'll probably run a strip over the trough for each run, just so nothing escapes before the playing surface comes down.

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The racetrack is on coat 3 of poly, so it might get done tonight. It's almost time for sanding and coat 4. Coat 4 might do it. I might break out the sprayer for coat 4. I might not.

I've been avoiding doing the railing. Railings suck, air compressor staple-gun or not. I did, however, buy a nice electric carving knife for it today, deciding that foam cutters were either too expensive, too flimsy, or too taxing on my general laziness to build myself with a guitar string and a battery.

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Perhaps another update tonight, else probably Saturday before anything big.

The felt is still at the artist, although we're close.

Varnish finished, and I've moved the racetrack to the table. I have not screwed it in place yet.



And another shot with the uncompleted railing laying on it, just to give an idea where we're going with this:



Bad news though, I'm officially at my first semi-catastrophe in the build.

If I read the AutoCAD files right, the inside of the racetrack is supposed to be 694mm in size, and the insert is supposed to be 692mm wide. It's also supposed to have an 1894mm length, and the insert is supposed to be 1892mm. Even without the felt, my insert is already, apparently, exactly the same size as the hole, with no tolerance to fit.

While I think 2mm is pushing it on tolerances once the felt is in, I'm going to assume this is a charlie-foxtrot issue on my CNC guy's part.

The bad news for me is that I discovered this AFTER putting on the volara padding, and now I've got to get 2+mm of clearance on my insert. Sucks to be me. I could have another insert crafted and order more volara, but that'd be at least another c-note. I'm not sure it's possible to easily 1mm off the outside of this piece, especially after I foamed it.

FML

The computer I had targeted to be the main machine is running setup - slowly. I might have to pick a new target. Another frownie face.

More updates tomorrow and through the weekend. I won't have my final felt for a week, so it's just rail padding and vinyl, computer setup, and fixing the insert 2mm problem until then.

...mailed the woodworker, going to see if he has any brilliant suggestions.

I'm sure if we can get it on a large enough table saw, we can rip a 1/16th of an inch all around the insert...

you can get a flush trim/pattern bit for a router. it will take off a precise amount off the top half of the edge with the ball bearing guide on the bottom half, then you flip the bearing to the finished top half and it will trim off the same amount on the bottom edge. or vice versa.

Dang, this sort of thing is not encouraging to us non-woodworking wannabes.

But that won't stop me from making a potentially asinine suggestion: what about using a router to take off a mm or so?

I have a router. I've got three people telling me to use it. I guess I'm going to have to learn how to take off an even amount with it...

I don't have a route, and I don't know how you'd do this without a guide of some sort. You wouldn't want to freehand it, that's for sure.

No. I don't want to freehand it. I either lay a template -- which isn't hard on the straight portions -- or there's a few fancy bits and guides for ripping edges... ...or so ye olde internet tells me.

My woodworking guy says he can fix it. He can cnc a smaller piece and the use that as the template. Costs me another piece of MDF, of course.

With a template, I could do it, so that is the safest. But I would think a guiding bit would be possible, as well.

Lookin' good, though. I'm not a racetrack fan, but they sure look nice.

Reading that more, it seems a fantastic idea. A pattern bit for beveling, and then erase my lip...

if you're a true gambler, then you would blindfold yourself and attempt to freehand it

I've been away from the forum for a few weeks now and I come back to THIS thread??? My god man. You are a sick, sick individual with way too much money, way too much time on your hands, and way too cool of wife. And because of that...I think I may love you. Ok, maybe I don't love you, but I AM very jealous. Sweet setup you have going there.

Sardu, I missed that as well. I see where the bottom half is a guide for the first cut. But what guides it when you flip it over? The bottom half is gone. What am I missing?

I would use a straight or spiral bit for this reason with a template or guide.