Custom double-Detolfs

[FreedomGundam]

Originally Posted by Nomad

Do you have a Jysk anywhere near? I'm asking couse they have something similar called a Seja Cabinet.

There actually is a JYSK around. I've had a look before, but maybe it was just the demo unit in the store, but I really didn't feel that the quality of their cabinets were up to (at least) Ikea standards.
Plus, I already had 2 Detolfs from years ago (bought another 2 for this project), and I'm always leaning towards consistency.

The two I got for this conversion project were actually used and bought on Craigslist; all I needed were the metal and glass parts, so I didn't need a brand-new factory-fresh unit, and could afford to get one where the wood panels were dinged up. Which is actually kinda ironic, since the Ikea Montreal is essentially down the street (about 5 minutes car) from me, but I drove 20-25 minutes to pick up each of the used ones...

[JLvatron]

Great job!

Originally Posted by FreedomGundam

and I'm always leaning towards consistency.

UltraMagnus would be proud!

[sachiel_ca]

Originally Posted by Commandoclone87

That might be a great idea you've got there. I'm really, kinda kicking myself for not trying to pickup some of the glass shelving units that Zellers was selling before they closed. Especially the ones from the electronics section.

Ya, personal opinion. You wouldn't have wanted them. We got them for GZ and I put them back together. Stuff was busted and missing, and they were overpriced. You want front loading anyway, makes life alot easier. When greeting card stores reno or go under thier shelves are great because they take care of them so it's worth the money.

[sachiel_ca]

How far do you think you could extend one custom unit. I'm thinking max three Detolfs. Guessing it would just become unstable and unwieldy after that?

Love the final product though. Makes me want to bust out the power tools and get myself in trouble with the misses.

[Big Filipino]

Nicely done.

[FreedomGundam]

Originally Posted by sachiel_ca

How far do you think you could extend one custom unit. I'm thinking max three Detolfs. Guessing it would just become unstable and unwieldy after that?

Love the final product though. Makes me want to bust out the power tools and get myself in trouble with the misses.

I was actually thinking of stretching it out to all 4 Detolfs, but after building them in doubles, I'm leaning to think that things might even be too wobbly at 3.

Anyhow, thanks for the kind words guys.

Finally 100% done now:


You'll notice there's now spiral wire-wraps around certain of the vertical rods. That's to hide the wiring so that I can now do this:



Each shelf has a row of LEDs on the front edge, so that there's very little that's obscured. The wiring is hidden as much as possible, probably stemming from my OCD in cleaning up wiring inside arcade sticks.

The two Detolf's cabling is actually daisy-chained together, so one switch underneath the right set turns everything on and off (though I can turn off the left one independently)

NOW I can finally start cracking out some new toys to populate the shelves.

[ConvoyGTR]

Omg that's sexy!

[face]

What's a setup like that cost?

[FreedomGundam]

Originally Posted by face

What's a setup like that cost?

Here's the approximate tally of the costs I paid to build these, not counting the 4 Detolfs:

- 30"x72" 1"-thick melamine particle board [local hardware store] = ~$45
- LEDs [ebay] = $7
- switches [ebay] = $5
- DC jacks and plugs [ebay] = $6
- power supply [ebay] = $3
- JST connectors [ebay] = $4
- 2x Dremel 3/16" straight router bit [ebay] = 2x $14 = $28
TOTAL = $98

This is not counting the small strips of plexiglass I used to stick the LEDs onto, nor additional wiring, wire-wraps, heat-shrink, adhesives, melamine trim, etc, that I already had lying around from other projects (mostly arcade-stick and arcade-cabinet related).

Not to mention that I put in probably upwards of 10 hours of work into all of it (cutting, drilling, routing, soldering, assembling and cleaning up wiring).

Overall, the end result is amazing, but I can feel that it may not be worthwhile for many people to put in THAT much money and effort into it. Hell, for the price of the materials, I could've bought myself yet another Detolf at retail (or two used off of Craigslist/Kijiji), and my 10+ hours of work into it "costs" quite a bit too.

[FreedomGundam]

On a side note, here's a low shot pointing upwards, so you can see where the LED strips are: