Everything looks good from here!

Awesome! Your changes look great to me. Can't wait to get a set, thanks again for doing this for the community.

Cool, if all goes well I should be getting these out probably next week. This isn't the monster the Cobra Base is, so I should be able to crank these out fairly quick. I got 3 people that's signed up, so if anyone else wants to get a set, go ahead and sign up. I'll probably be making these over the weekend and ship out. I'll probably make 6 sets to start. So basically there's 3 more slots open that'll get you a set shipped next week. Any others will get shipped shortly afterwards.

_________________

Finally got to get the set cut out:



Took a little extra time to get all the colors correct and all that. This pingpong table has some glue that got on the surface around the net. The first time I glued it down it came off. The ones getting shipped will have some brads holding the net on inserted from underneath. Always requires a prototype to figure out everything.

The crates, I'm trying to run through them knocking out one after another. I've got lots of pieces for several but I didn't shoot any shots yet since I only half glued up 1 so far. Maybe tonight I'll shoot a picture.

_________________

These dang boxes are actually not that easy to make. Well the image on the box isn't easy to put on I should say. I want it to have a perfect line up and look really nice, but I can't exactly figure out doing that without making the image smaller than the outter edge. Or something to that idea. Gotta love these delays on these projects! Anybody have a suggestion to help speed it along? I thrown in an extra crate with your set you order if you can help me figure this out quicker.




The other parts are easy enough to do. Just a little time to actually cut them out is all. Here I thought the boxes would be easy and the hardest part would be the pingping table.

Oh and as you can see from the picture, the box with the images is on the left and the one on the right is a straight forward box. I used the 2 colors of plastic as my box that I'll be keeping for measurements and lineup.

_________________

are you able to bevel the inside edges of the box sides? If they're all at a 45* angle and cut to the right size the parts should all just fit together perfectly with little to no gap.

_________________

I tried going with the idea of putting a 45 degree router cut to "fold" the box, but that resulted in more time and lots of line up issues. For the box I'm just running strips on my band saw and then running those strips again to cut perfect squares. Then I bring the fence in a little to cut a touch more plastic off to get the right measurements allowing a perfect box. That part is actually not much of a problem.

What the real problem is, it's when I'm laying the image on the box. These images are a rather high quality thick material. I'm not saying that to sound like "yeah this is so great, the material is amazing". It's just that it is what it is and it makes it harder to perfectly lay it out on the box. Over lapping isn't something that can be done unless it's done so that a seam isn't showing.

They ideas I can come up with are:

* Make the images smaller than the actual size of the box so that the image doesn't go all the way to the edge.

* Figure out a way to overlap the images where no seam is showing and it perfectly is laid out. This could be done by having the front back and sides as a solid image it's self that wraps around, but then there still the top and bottom to worry about.

This doesn't even include the idea of having opening boxes. I was going to do that idea, but now I don't know. It may not be necessary anyway, but still it was a thought that would have been neat. I have 2 other cubes built that I'm testing ideas on. I figure one idea should work.

_________________

could you re-design the artwork in such a way that the exposed plastic/edge is just part of the design? that would eliminate having to wrap anything --

but, also figure this: at the very most, a person would be viewing three sides (actually, two sides & the top) -- so your thought of just getting three to work well, and fudging the last three, would be ok, too -

also, i just got my PITT today -- I'll be needing a set of all this stuff -

j

_________________

That was going to be my suggestion. Just use the black plastic for the boxes and maybe darken the outer edges of the art so it blends in better. But I think that just leaving a slight edge of plastic exposed wouldn't be too awful. The flat pieces will have some plastic showing and that doesn't seem to be bothering anyone. At least not me.

_________________

Well the options I have is what's suggested about having the image a little smaller than the box so that it doesn't have to overlap or go all the way to the edge. Or if I can figure a way to add a trim all the way around that'll cover all the corners. It's basically the same idea where the image is smaller than the box, but this would create a recessed image. I'm going to play with that idea because it would add depth to the box and might even look better. It's always good to improve on the idea when possible.

_________________

I think I got it looking good now:





I just don't want to do it and know it's not a good job. If I wouldn't want to display it, I would figure nobody else wood either. It works well now I think.

_________________

Looks good there man. I like it.

_________________

An update for the replacement pieces. I went to my plastic supply place today and found some better plastic. The plastic I was trying to use just wasn't going to work. It was too thick. I could have sanded down the peg slots, but it just wouldn't have looked good. This new plastic does look good and actually even better. It has a nice textured back which just seems to add to the look. It's not good for the Cobra Base or the crates, but it's perfect for these pieces:







The set can be closed up with the pieces in place too. Since they're plastic you don't have to worry about the parts messing up like you would the cardboard. None of the parts hit anything inside anyway. Here's some shots of the base closing up so you can see how well it works:





Finally here's a shot from the back. You can see the textured back on them as well. I think it looks pretty neat now. No where near what the cardboard made it look like:



So now I'll be progressing and making the sets for people. I just wanted to get everything looking good before I got to this step. I wanted to be sure to put up a fair amount of updates since this particular project is very much born from everyone's requests. I wanted to include everyone in on the bild every step of the way. Plus it give everyone a chance to see the process of trying to get it all just right. Be looking for the "heads up" emails about filling the orders!

Oh and as you can see I haven't even started to try and apply the stickers to the Pit. I haven't had time, but I will get to that eventually.

_________________

Looking awesome. Thank you for putting so much work into it. Can't wait to get my hands on them (of course then I'll have to put on my decals too).

Those interior pieces look incredible!

i'm going to be down for a set once august rolls by & we're into september --

another question, that i might have asked before -- those background display images -- can you print that to custom sizing, or are you limiting the dimensions? can you print them on cardboard (for a lesser price) as well as plastic ?

_________________