When I made my side table, this little bugger was ridiculously helpful. I won't go into a ton of detail on the build, because there are plenty of great examples on YouTube. Here's one that I used.
Of note, my Skil 3410-02 table saw has tabbed miter slots. That complicated things when it came to the runners for my crosscut sled. I used this video for pointers on how to make the maple runners T-shaped to fit into the slots.
Once I got everything assembled and finished the sled with lacquer from a spraycan, the sled didn't glide worth a crap on my table saw. This is because, for whatever reason, Skil made their tabletop with a grippy, sandpapery, surface. To fix this, I got out my palm sander, and sanded the top flat (or at least as flat as I could).
That helped some, but it still wasn't great. So, I applied paste wax to both the underside of the sled, and to the table saw's tabletop. Then, after letting it dry for a few minutes, I wiped it off (wax on, wax off... kind of like waxing a car).
Having recently finished my basement, I've been using my arcade cabinet quite a bit more. In doing so, I've been wanting a place to put drinks & snacks while I play, or to put a mouse & keyboard when I need to fiddle with the software in the cab.
So, I decided to see if I could build a side table from scratch using nothing but 1-inch (actual ≈ 3/4" thick) dimensional lumber from a big box hardware store. This is my first "real" piece of furniture.
That software had changed quite a bit since I used it to build my arcade cabinet, so I had to hit YouTube to retrain myself a bit on the new web interface.
Once the plans were complete, I made a shopping list so I could pick up the lumber.
My lumber shopping list
With the lumber in hand, I cut everything to length just slightly longer than I anticipated for the final product (with the intention of trimming it to true length once everything was squared up). To do this cutting, I used the handy cross-cut sled that I built for my new table saw. I'll write up another post detailing some of the stuff on that.
Poplar lumber for the table's base, ripped & cut to length
After all of the lumber was cut, it was time to start gluing everything up, starting with the tabletop. I lucked out, and Menards had some surprisingly straight & square oak lumber, so it took exactly zero extra work to shape these pieces to fit seamlessly together. No fancy biscuits or anything here; these boards are just glued end-to-end.
Tabletop glue-up, using red oak 1x4s
And then the legs (using 1x4s ripped in half) and lower support spans (using 1x2s) had to be glued together, essentially making them all into 2x2s.
Everything laminated to its appropriate width
Now that I had everything at glued up to its appropriate widths, I used my hand plane to get everything nice and square. Once that was done, the legs ended up being slightly thicker than I'd originally planned. Rather than re-do my plans, I just winged it, and adjusted the lengths of all of my horizontal pieces so the distance from the outside of each leg remained at 20" like I'd planned.
To join everything together, I decided to use mortise & tenon joinery, because hours of watching YouTube woodworking videos without actually building anything had made me into an anti-pocket-screw snob.
Mortises & tenons cut for the majority of the pieces
I did the mortises (the "holes") first, using a 3/8" up-cut router bit on my plunge router. I then squared up the rounded ends of the mortises with a 3/8" chisel. Like this:
I made plenty of mistakes, but luckily I could then cut my tenons (the "sticky-outy parts" that go into the holes) on my crosscut-sled to match up with those mistakes. Here's the general idea:
To help with these cuts (and to give smoother cuts on everything, in general), I replaced the stock sawblade on my table saw with a TCG grinding blade with more teeth. This creates a mostly flat surface at the end of the blade, rather than the extremely jagged surface from a typical cheap blade. I cut all of the tenons just slightly thicker than I needed, then shaved them down by hand with chisels so they fit the mortises nice and snug (but not so tight that they couldn't be separated by hand).
And here are (almost) all of the pieces dry-fitted together using just those mortises & tenons.
Side table dry-fit test
The table sat like this for a week while I waited for the next weekend to roll around when I could next work on it. And then I made everything permanent and glued it all in place. No screws or nails were used for any of this.
Final glue-up on my side table
Now that everything was assembled, it was time to try and make the color match my basement.
Testing my stain choices on scrap wood
I attempted to make the table top match the "weathered oak" vinyl floor planks we have in our basement, and I was marginally successful (my test piece seemed a lot greyer than the final piece). The base is black to match my arcade cabinet (and partly to hide the poplar).
Table top stain, on red oak: 75% Minwax Classic Grey / 25% Minwax Jacobean (note the black-stained scrap on the left with the test cut I made for attaching the bottom of the hidden compartment)
Base/legs stain, on poplar: Minwax True Black; no pre-stain conditioner used (compartment bottom is 1/4" oak plywood, slotted into a groove that I cut into the apron with my table saw)
After wiping everything clean and letting the oil-based stain dry & fully cure for about 5 days, I then applied water-based polyurethane. The reason I chose this instead of easier-to-work-with oil-based poly is that I didn't want it to yellow with age, given my grey/black color scheme.
For the legs, I thinned the poly to a 1 part water : 1 part polyurethane solution, and then I wiped it on with old T-shirt rags. I put on 4 coats this way, lightly sanding with 220-grit after the second coat (not lightly enough, because in the finished photos, you can see some spots where I sanded some of the color from the corners of the legs -- I guess it's a good thing that "distressed" wood is in style).
For the tabletop, I thinned the poly with 1 part water : 3 parts polyurethane, and brushed it on with a foam brush. I used this (long) video to help me with technique:
Unfortunately, I still got bubbles after the second coat, possibly because I didn't use a fancy $200 brush. So, I lightly sanded out the bubbles with 220-grit sandpaper, and applied 2 more coats using the wipe-on solution/technique. It wasn't perfect, but it was definitely better.
Once the polyurethane had dried for a good 24hrs, all that was left was to attach the tabletop to the legs. I did this with a piano hinge. This video, which I used as inspiration, gives a good idea of how that worked (info on the hinge starts around 6:30):
On my table, the legs stick out 1/4" from the apron between them. This was a perfect distance for everything to have all the necessary clearance using a 1-1/16" width piano hinge.
Even with pilot holes drilled, it's tough driving screws into oak by hand. I had to lay the table down like this to get enough leverage to get the screws in for the hinge.
And here's the final product. Not too bad for my first piece of furniture. Now I'll just cross my fingers and hope that it doesn't spontaneously explode due to poor workmanship.
I enjoy putzing around with homebrew / homemade handheld gaming devices. I've built Raspberry Pi Zero systems inside a classic Gameboy shell. I've pieced together a Freeplay Zero in a Gameboy Advance shell. And I've purchased a premade Anbernic RG-350 straight from China. They all have their pros & cons. I just wanted to summarize some of my experiences here.
Classic Gameboy DMG-01 powered by Raspberry Pi Zero
Pros:
Good chance to learn some basic electronics skills
With enough imagination & Google-fu, you can include just about any features you want
Robust community around this type of project
Cons:
With any version of RetroPie released since about 2017, the Raspberry Pi Zero isn't quite powerful enough to run many Super Nintendo & Gameboy Advance games at full speed. A Raspberry Pi3-based handheld can run nearly all of these games at full speed (in addition to many N64 or Playstation games), but they typically cost over $200, and require big batteries & some sort of cooling solution
Can be more expensive than you expect (my first Pi Zero cost about $250 to build; my last around $125)
Stuff like this that you make from scratch has a tendency to fall apart with extended usage
This was my first foray into handheld emulator devices; and really my first experience with soldering using bare resistors, capacitors, and the like. The Sudomod forums, run by wermy, were vital in this entire process. I got to learn some extremely basic electronics skills while the homebrew Gameboy emulator community grew and matured into what it is now.
The basic idea behind these is: you take an aftermarket Gameboy shell, Dremel away some pieces so you can fit a 3.5-inch LCD & more buttons, and power the whole thing with a Raspberry Pi running RetroPie & various electronic components for sound, power, etc. Then you can use it to play any of the classic Super Nintendo, Gameboy Advance, and older games you can get your hands on. (For games that you legally own. Of course.)
When I built my first two systems, everything was pieced together with individual wires, resistors, and capacitors.
The final products were a tangled rat's nest that I could barely squeeze the shell around, and the rear trigger buttons weren't terribly reliable. The first of these systems no longer actually functions, and I should probably dismantle it before the battery explodes or something. The second was gifted to friend, as as far as I know, is still playable.
By the time I built my third system, there were cheap & efficient premade boards that I could basically just solder onto a Raspberry Pi Zero, slap into a modded Gameboy shell, and call it good. A lot of design issues like flaky trigger buttons had already been worked out by this time. I used a GPIO Assist Ultra kit from Pocket Adventures. This has a USB hub, USB soundcard/amp, battery monitoring, and safe power-off switch all built-in. These were all components that I previously had to cobble together with varying levels of success.
Despite requiring very little hacking to assemble, I still managed to screw this kit up quite a bit before finally getting it working. I had some bad solder joints between the GPIO Assist & the Pi Zero which caused odd, intermittent sound & power issues. Once that was worked out (and after repairing the physical damage I did to the board with my bad soldering), I was able to add a few custom touches, like a separate hotkey button for administrative functions and a PWM screen dimmer using an ATTiny chip running Arduino.
In the early days of RetroPie handhelds, there weren't many good themes that were viewable on a 3.5-inch screen. So, I made the GBZ35 themes, which seem to be fairly well-used on RetroPie handhelds, so that's kinda cool (though, with user-friendly options like the Retroflag RPi making this hobby more popular, there are now much fancier options becoming available).
Freeplay Zero by FreeplayTech
Pros:
You can build these with ZERO soldering (you'll still need to do some modifications on an aftermarket Gameboy Advance shell)
Many people prefer the Gameboy Advance form-factor, particularly with its less fiddly solutions for the L & R shoulder buttons (vs. the traditional Gameboy)
The GPIO-based screen (instead of composite-based like my Gameboy builds) is very crisp & clear
A prebuilt SD card image from the manufacturer saves you from some of the more fiddly configuration you'd have to do on more-DIY kits
Cons:
The Pi Zero still suffers from slowdown on SNES and newer; and with the more CPU-intensive type of screen used, you can also see screen diagonal tearing. (Buying the Freeplay CM3 fixes most of these issues, but costs an additional $100)
Smaller screen than the 3.5" LCD you can fit in an original Gameboy
Setting up a Freeplay handheld is fairly straightforward. Buy the kit and a Gameboy Advance shell, cut away some pieces from the shell, and put it all together. No soldering necessary (provided you use a Raspberry Pi Zero WH and not a Pi Zero W).
It's a really nice unit that's fun to play; and newer iterations have made the buttons a lot nicer to use than the original clunky X & Y buttons were. However, it still runs RetroPie, and suffers some of the performance issues inherent with that platform (if you're using a Pi Zero instead of the Pi CM3, SNES & Gameboy Advance games struggle to keep up).
Anbernic RG-350
Pros:
Plays almost all SNES & Gameboy Advance games at full speed. Can even play most PlayStation games at full speed
Really well-designed device with great controls and a great screen
Potential to see even better performance & more features with software updates (which may or may not actually come to fruition)
Cheaper & faster than most Raspberry Pi options (similar price as the Retroflag RPi, but better performance, features & build quality)
Cons:
Buying from Anbernic's AliExpress storefront in China takes a couple weeks or more to ship, though you can pay a hefty premium to quickly get one from Amazon.
Cheap Chinese ElectronicsTM like this can be a bit of a crapshoot. Some advertised features simply aren't here (e.g. HDMI audio/video output), and hardware longevity may not be the best (too early to know for sure, though I've seen occasional funkiness with my unit's display).
Still a fairly techy device, and is not particularly user-friendly if you're just expecting to take it out of the box and play.
The development community is a bit disorganized, and is split into multiple groups unwilling to work with each other. It's hard to find the newest & best software you should use on these units.
I've been using the RG-350 (Xbox One controller shown for scale) for a couple weeks now, and it's really a joy to play games on. It's technically based on a several-years-old device (the GCW-Zero), but software development has recently gotten a jumpstart due to the RG-350 & similar devices released around the same timeframe.
Unlike the Pi Zero, it plays SNES & Gameboy Advance games almost universally at full speed (in part because older, faster, but technically less "accurate" emulators still work on this device). It even plays most PlayStation games at full speed; and even has all the features of a DualShock controller (including rumble).
Software development is a bit fractured, with some people separately developing on the Dingoonity Forums and others on Discord. However, there is hope that further software development could someday bring things like improved performance and actual delivery of some of the advertised features like HDMI output.
Here's a wiki to help with some of the setup & configuration on the RG-350.
To stay somewhat-not-chubby, I run. When I run, I sweat. When I sweat, I sweat A LOT. And as a result of all this, I apparently straight-up murder Bluetooth earbuds.
So, to keep track of my disgusting attempt to find Bluetooth earbuds that can survive my workouts, here's an ever-updating list of "sweatproof" earphones that have suffered an untimely death due to my body excretions.
UPDATE: August 23, 2021 - Almost two-and-a-half years later, the left earpiece on the Mpow Flames has finally started to short out. The cheapest and longest-lasting earbuds I'd tried had a good run.
Jaybird X [Dead after just over 1 year]
I got these back in 2016 for $58. That's a sweet deal for anything from the Jaybird X line of earphones. After struggling to get these earbuds to stay put in my ears, I finally found that Comply tips (or their equivalent knock-offs) kept them stuck in my head. They had decent sound, but nothing special. They had no problems connecting to my phone; they're just some okay earbuds that died a sweaty death. Luckily, they came with a lifetime warranty, which I used to get my next earbuds:
Jaybird X2 [Dead after 9 months]
In 2017 when my OG Jaybird Xs died, the "X" line was no longer being manufactured. As a result, Jaybird sent me the newer X2s as warranty replacements for the X. For all intents & purposes, they seemed identical to the original X earbuds. Unfortunately, they didn't live quite as long.
These were Warranty Replacement Rounds Two & Three for my original Jaybird Bluebud X earbuds. The Jaybird X3 looked more streamlined than the prior generations. They also used an annoying proprietary charging adapter, now. Audio quality seemed better due to fancy EQ software you can install on your phone. Connection quality took a huge nosedive (if using them outdoors, Jaybird says you need to keep the earbuds within 2 feet of your phone to keep the connection from dropping). After using my first pair for a couple weeks, I noticed that overnight the battery would drain completely while they were powered off. Then, eventually, they died like all of my previous Jaybirds. After my second pair of X3s died in similar fashion, Jaybird (now owned by Logitech) said that I'd exhausted the limits of my original "lifetime warranty", and I was on my own.
So, after killing a fleet of "expensive" Jaybird earbuds, I moved on to the assortment of budget earbuds from Amazon. Given my propensity to ruin more expensive earbuds, I decided to go easy on my wallet and ruin some cheaper ones. An extremely annoying thing I've noticed when wading through the selection of budget Bluetooth earbuds on Amazon is that every single product is absolutely bombed with fake positive "reviews", which makes it difficult to find the real gems.
For a year, I'd actually been using a pair of these for non-workout purposes, and I was pretty happy with them. They had nice sound; a nice, secure fit; and much longer battery life than any of the Jaybirds. They had no connectivity problems with my phone when using them outdoors, and they had easy-to-use button controls. Since they're supposed to be IPX6-waterproofed, I decided to buy a second pair to use while running. They bit the dust after less than a month. On the bright side, that quick death meant that I could just ship them back to Amazon for a refund.
I bought these on the advice of a Reddit post, where some dude claimed that he used them in the shower, and had no problems. These are marketed as IPX7-waterproofed -- even more waterproofing than the Taotronics TT-BH024 that apparently weren't actually waterproof. Unfortunately, these died even quicker than the Taotronics, and wouldn't power on or charge after using them for eight one-hour workouts. These had nice, clear sound; but not a lot of bass. The springy rubber earhooks provided a good fit; and there were also some extra ear-shaped doodads by the eartips to keep them extra-secured. I'm not sure how well they worked outdoors, since they only survived long enough to use indoors on my treadmill. But, again, their lifespan was short enough for an easy refund from Amazon.
Mpow Flame [Received Feb 27, 2019 - Died Aug 23, 2021]
These ones are my most recent purchase. At $17, they're the cheapest set of earbuds I've tried, and that price is appropriate when compared to the alternatives. They aren't bad per se; they just aren't great. Like the Taotronics TT-BH024, the buttons are easy to find -- but the volume up/down button functions on mine are reversed from what they should be (the + button in front lowers the volume, and the - button in back raises it). There are no fancy HD codecs like aptX in play, and it shows. The sound is completely average, and also a bit muddy. The earhooks are non-adjustable, springy, molded rubber like the Anker Soundcore Spirit X, though the eartips don't give quite as good of a fit as the Ankers. The included cable retention clip is nice, though; and they also include a pair of memory foam eartips along with the usual rubber ones. The flat cable tends to stick to the back of my sweaty neck and try to pull the left earbud out of my ear. After two-and-a-half years, these die-hard earbuds have finally started to die on me. And unfortunately, Mpow recently got all of their products delisted from Amazon due to the same review manipulation that started me on this hunt.
I'll preface this part with a warning. If I did it again, I don't think I'd do it this way. The first thing I did was stack the frame, control panel, and the sides together, then I glued & screwed them together. Then I attached each individual panel I'd previously built, along with furring strips to secure them in place
My badly-planned initial assembly step
If I do it again, my first step would be to attach the furring strips to both side pieces, and ensure that they are placed symmetrically on both sides. The problem I ran into was that it was difficult to perfectly line up the furring strips on both sides. On my final assembly, I have some panels that are slightly crooked. I'd guess that I might be the only person to notice it, but it's annoying nonetheless.
For my assembly, I countersunk and screwed each piece into its respective furring strip from the outside. Then I had to fill & sand each screw hole. I'm sure other people could find more intelligent ways to do this without needing to fill dozens of screw holes.
Rear view. I used the button-hole drill bit to add ventilation holes.
There's a computer living inside the cabinet, and computers create heat. So, I also made sure to provide a bit of ventilation.
Front view. Assembled and prepped for painting.
Once everything was assembled, I also routed the slot for the T-Molding. I used a 1/16" width & 9/16" depth bit. Because my router was old & rickety, I had to constantly keep an eye on where the slot was being routed, since my bit wanted to keep walking out of the collet.
Routing the T-Molding Slot
I had previously attached the artwork to the admin panel, so I made sure to tape this off before painting the entire cabinet. I also previously painted the base. I don't know why I previously painted the base. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
With everything prepped & assembled, I first primed the entire cabinet with Kilz primer...
...and then I painted it with two coats of Rustoleum black satin paint. I chose Rustoleum because it's enamel & not a latex paint, which means it's more durable once it dries. Also of note: when painting & priming, I used foam rollers for the easy-to-paint areas, and a spray can for the not-so-easy areas with lots of edges & corners.
Below is a grab-bag of random features I included in my design:
The control panel is removable and can be placed on top of the cabinet.
I included a plain flat version of the control panel to allow mouse & keyboard gaming. This also fits on top of the cabinet, and is swapped with the button-and-joystick panel.
The back access door has a bottom-hinge which is a pair of 12-inch piano hinges. Note the power button. More on that later...
A window sash latch is used to keep the back access door closed.
The front access door is hinged on a pair of Euro hinges, so the door can be inset from the front of the side panels.
The PC inside the cabinet is powered on/off with a regular arcade button. To do this, I cut male/female patch panel wire in half, and soldered both halves to a single wire. The other end of the wire has a connector for the arcade button. The patch panel wires plug directly into the motherboard/case connections for the PC's power button. This allows me to power on the PC with the button on the back of the cabinet, or the PC case's power button.
