The Machine Shop and my VCI -100 Mod

[MrM]

After having received the DXF files in the arcade mod kit, I took the faceplate to the largest machine shop in my major city www.denvermachineshop.com they've been around for a hundred years so I had some faith. Boy oh boy was that faith misplaced.

Their CAD guy says the holes would be in different places depending on which DXF file he used that they aren't exact. In addition to that he says my faceplate isn't the same size as the file says it should be and rambled on about how its meteric and a pain in his ass.. wtf is going on here..

Is he incompitent? Are their slight variations in the size of the faceplate? Does it matter? I told him to cut it using the small hole above the jog wheel reference point and not to modify the design at all. And now im sweating bullets that its gonna end up incorrectly cut and a paperweight, I can't afford to replace my 100. This is terrible.

Those DXF files in the kit are 1000000000% correct right?

Anyone have any issues at all with milling and or the provided files in the kit???

[Bodega Brad]

Yikes...I'm trying to find a machine shop to do mine for me. I'll let you know what I find. Do you have the silver or black?

[MrM]

Newer silver one, came with 1.2 firmware.

[DJMOO]

Has anyone in Los Angeles found a good machine shop to get this done. I've been all over the net and can't find a place. Thanks for the help.

[Bodega Brad]

Maybe this will help any who need to find a shop. On the left top there is a spot that says find shops by area. Hope it helps.

http://www.machineshopweb.com/

[sarasin]

SHOOOOO!

Man.....I am thinking that I am gonna file my one holes.



SHIT scared of taking it to the cutting shop.

[Fiffi]

I filed my own holes using the arcade edition overlay as a template. It was easy once I got a proper file. I went for a completely round file made for metal work with a diameter as close as possible to fit the square holes. It took about an hour to do all eight holes. Keep in mind that if you use the arcade overlay as a template that the holes required for your buttons are probably smaller than the arcade overlay holes. Check out this thread, where you can see how I did it: http://djtechtools.com/forum/showthread.php?t=6323

I spoke to my local machine shop and they said that there are two ways they would recommend doing the holes, water cut or manually using a file.

[MrM]

So I got my faceplate back from www.denvermachineshop.com and let me say SCREW THOSE HOES. Their CAD guy obliterated my faceplate. They got paid by the hour ($90 per hour) they milked it out. They wouldn't just load the file and cut the plate. He had to first argue with me about the DFX file, and "measure everything by hand just to make sure its 100% correct". (because its their mission NOT to screw up my part! cool huh?) The purpose of which was obviously to run up the labor times. Not only did denver machine take my faceplate hostage for $135 after a $60 quote! THEY SCREWED IT UP.

The machinist ran the machine way way to fast for the soft alumnium so when the bit made a little metal burr off one of the factory holes it caught and ripped the plate out of the jig. So... I have 7 holes and a oval, a huge deep scratch in the EQ section where the bit ran over it AND a popped out stamped support pegs on the far upper right of the case.

Being pissed off unpleasant and demanding satisfaction only got me: "we will call the cops,full invoiced price or it gets scrapped."

Pics coming up soon.

Please learn from this experience..

[Fiffi]

Ouch! I don't know what to say... I feel for you. Your post made me cringe... It's an outrage that they would charge you anything at all. My recommendation is to try to reach an agreement with the machine shop. I would try to reason with them and offer them the $60 based on their initial estimate and ask if they can repair the post and the scratch and if possible fix the oval. Maybe a new overlay would cover the scratch?

My machinist recommended water cutting (which they don't do) or manually filing the holes. They said drilling would probably damage or distort the plate. I went for doing it myself - am I happy I have a friendly machinist.

I think we need a separate forum section for the DIY Arcade Edition.

[EanGolden]

I 2nd the motion to create section dedicated to the arcade mod. Sorry to hear about your machine shop problems but thats the one part of the mod thats really hard to predictably reproduce.

There are really only 2 reliable ways to cut the plate that we know of:

waterjet or CNC

laser wont work and using a bit is not going to produce consistent results.