14. Padding the playfield was easy enough. First place the foam sheet on the table, flip half of it over, glue, then do the other half.
View attachment 1231498After I cut the foam to size I stapled a ring of 2mm balsa wood to the side.
View attachment 1231499This serves two purposes. 1. when the cloth is installed, the wooden ring creates a very neat edge of the playfield which is impossible to achieve when there is just rubber foam which is compressed by the cloth. 2. The gap between parts B2 and B3 is 6mm. The acrylic diffuser which goes in there is 3mm strong. The rest of the space is occupied by the 2mm wooden ring and the cloth. That means I do not need to screw or glue the acrylic in place because it’s already a tight fit.
15. Cloth installation. The cloth came folded and sat in the closet for a few weeks before installation. My first attempt at ironing did not work. I had the feeling the wrinkles always reappeared 10 seconds after I moved along with the iron. I consulted Tony and then repeated the whole procedure with more heat (tried it on the edge first) and steam. Wrinkles were still visible but the tension during installation did the rest.
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16. Edge banding for sheet A. Unfortunately I did not take pics.
17. Time to put the pieces together. I still had to cut the acrylic strips. Did that with the table saw and a very fine blade. In some places there was still room between the acrylic and B2 so I just pushed some more balsa wood in the gaps. Now the diffuser sits absolutely tight.
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18. I installed some strong magnets to attach the battery.
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19. Carried it into the living room and enjoyed my work.
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And that’s it. I hope this is of use to anyone. And if it’s just to motivate you to do this yourself. I tried to be as detailed as possible but there is always room for improvement. I’m happy to answer any questions.
Cheers