Making a cheap, yet efficient, cartridge storage rack.

[AntiX]

MEASUREMENTS FIXED... Pictures will be added as I finish the steps.

 

Home made Atari 2600 cartridge storage. When complete this shelf will hold about 60-80 game carts depending how many shelves you build into it.

 

You will need:

 

5 20" x 30" x 3/16" Elmer's or Gost Line foam boards

 

1 Yard stick (or you can use a simple 12" ruler for measuring and the edge of another foam board for your straight-edge)

 

1 Bottle of glue (Elmer's works great)

 

1 Marking tool

 

1 Sharp blade

 

28 Sewing pins

 

1 Piece of medium grit sandpaper (not pictured, you know what it looks like)

 

 

Got it all? Then Lets get started!

 

 

Step one-

 

On one sheet of foam board mark a dot along the bottom every 3.5 inches starting from the left. Repeat at the top and connect all coresponding dots with your yard stick or straight-edge.

When it's finished it should look like this:

 

Step two-

 

Use your blade to remove excess 2 inch strip at right end. You can dispose of this. Now cut off the next two sections at the right, these will serve as the right and left walls of the shelf and the remaining uncust sections will serve as the back. DO NOT CUT OFF ANY OF THE REMAINING SIX SECTIONS! Lightly sand all edges that you just cut, just enough to make them smoothe enogh to glue without leaving gaps.

 

Step three-

 

From a seperate foam board, mark and cut two pieces measuring 21 3/8" x 3.5", these will be your top and bottom. Save the rest of this board for shelves Now you are ready to construct the shell for your game storage.

 

Step four-

 

Assemble shell.

A) First we will start with one short wall and one longer wall. glue these together at the ends in a right angle with the longer piece overlapping the short piece (see pictures) use two sewing pins to hold it in place as the glue dries. The pins can later be removed or left in for added support.

 

B) Repeat step A with remaining two boards.

 

C) Attach back. The back board should now fit snuggly into this frame, it is ok to loosen the walls momentarily as we will be adding more glue later. Lightly add glue to edges of back board, use pins about 1 inch from each corner and one in the middle on all four sides to keep in place. MAKE SURE YOU PUT THE BACK IN WITH THE LINES FACING UP!

 

D) add a generous bead of glue inside along all joints and set aside to dry.

Now you should have this:

 

 

 

Step five-

 

On your new piece of board, mark a dot along the bottom every 2.5 inches starting from the left until you have five equal sections measuring 2.5" x 20". Repeat t the top and connect all coresponding dots with your yard stick or straight edge.

Now we have this:

 

Step six-

 

Cut marked portion of the board, along the lines, into five equal pieces. Remove larger unmarked portion of the board and set aside for future use.

Now it should look like this:

 

Step seven-

 

Glue your five pieces into your frame, one on each line of the back board. Use pins if necessary. Let dry.

Should look like this:

 

Step eight-

 

Decide if you want to leave your rack shelfless (not recommended as it makes it more difficult to remove games, not to mention the nightmare of stacking M Network or Avalon Hill games), if you want to have one shelf for every six games (recommended if you don't have many M Network or Avalon Hill games) or if you want one shelf for every game (recommended if you are like me and have lots of those pesky odd shaped games). If you decided on no shelves you're done. If you want shelves, continue reading.

 

Step nine-

 

On your remaining scraps from earlier as well as Your fresh whole boards, mark lots of rectangles measuring 2.5" x whatever space you wind up with between your partitions. These are your shelves. It is a good idea to measure all partitions seperately as the length of your shelves may vary for section to section, depending on how evenly you spaced your upright partitions...

 

Step ten-

 

Cut out all your shelves and glue them into the already constructed frame using a standard atari cart to assure proper spacing (may I recommend one of those eighty or so copies of combat you surely have?) You want it to NOT be too snug.

This is how mine looks so far (gluing the shelves in is a long process since you don't want them to move around much and using pins to hold them in place is extremely tricky, so I don't do it). I have opted for a shelf for every game, except on the far right section where i decided to leave a couple large sections shelfless so I can store my double ender games and commavid games upright so they don't stick out all funky like.

 

Step eleven-

 

Reinforce every joint you can reach with more glue, let dry and decorate or paint as desired.

You should have something like this:

 

Now you can use simple drywall screws and washers (for added support) to hang it on your wall. Use at least four, atari games are heavy when you put them all together.

 

 

GO PLAY!

Edited December 4, 2008 by AntiX

[[d2f]Iggy*SJB]

I think you are missing a couple of pictures.

[AntiX]

I think you are missing a couple of pictures.

 

 

Yes I am, I'm posting them as I build it. They'll be up by monday.

[EarthQuake]

What type of foam material did you use? I can't really tell from the photos...

Certainly it's not expanded polystyrene, is it? That stuff is really brittle.

[AntiX]

What type of foam material did you use? I can't really tell from the photos...

Certainly it's not expanded polystyrene, is it? That stuff is really brittle.

 

 

Elmer's foam board. found at most art supply stores as well as most supermarkets by the school supplies. ranges from store to store from 1-3 dollars a board, approximately. Funny, seems to be most expensive at Walmart "always low prices Always"

Edited November 30, 2008 by AntiX

[Happy_Dude]

Is Elmer's a PVA glue?

[Mirage]

This looks great, and well within the range of my skills. I'm not meaning to doubt you, but ... how can I put this... When you're finished and it's completely dry, I'd like to see yours full of carts and hanging on a wall. or even just full of carts sitting on a table or whatever (if it will stand up?). I'd like to see it before I put all the effort into it. I'm just not 100% convinced that foam board full of carts will stay together or not sag. That stuff isn't exactly as strong as plywood or any other wood. It may very well work as you say. Even if it doesn't, using this same method to make smaller racks would be cool.

 

In any case, thanks for sharing! This looks like a fantastic project! The sides could be decorated with a few depictions of Atari catalog characters or game characters too.

[AntiX]

Is Elmer's a PVA glue?

 

 

typical white school glue. very strong unless you get it wet, which considering you will have carts in it, you wouldn't want to do anyway.

[AntiX]

This looks great, and well within the range of my skills. I'm not meaning to doubt you, but ... how can I put this... When you're finished and it's completely dry, I'd like to see yours full of carts and hanging on a wall. or even just full of carts sitting on a table or whatever (if it will stand up?). I'd like to see it before I put all the effort into it. I'm just not 100% convinced that foam board full of carts will stay together or not sag. That stuff isn't exactly as strong as plywood or any other wood. It may very well work as you say. Even if it doesn't, using this same method to make smaller racks would be cool.

 

In any case, thanks for sharing! This looks like a fantastic project! The sides could be decorated with a few depictions of Atari catalog characters or game characters too.

 

i will be posting the pics when it's done, dry and hanging full of carts, but I have made one out of this material before. It worked fine. Unfortunately, though it was strong enough to hold the carts, it was not strong enough to withstand the weight of whatever it was I threw on it while I had it off my wall (thankfully empty at the time) However, if you still don't trust ot even after you've seen my complete version, You can get yourself some sewing pins, and push through the back into each shelf. I'd think 2 per shelf would give it quite a bit of extra strength. If you're worried about the frame busting up there's a solution for that too, duct tape wrapped all the way around it. It comes in all sorts of colours nowadays so you could get a color the same as the boards you use.

 

Pics of completed project with games in it should be up by wednesday.

[Mirage]

However, if you still don't trust ot even after you've seen my complete version, You can get yourself some sewing pins, and push through the back into each shelf. I'd think 2 per shelf would give it quite a bit of extra strength. If you're worried about the frame busting up there's a solution for that too, duct tape wrapped all the way around it. It comes in all sorts of colours nowadays so you could get a color the same as the boards you use.

 

Pics of completed project with games in it should be up by wednesday.

 

No, once I see the pics of it full and not sagging, that will be enough proof for me to try it. Again, not that I'm not trusting you, but you know how it is -- a picture is worth a 1000 words.

 

Thanks again, looking forward to the finished product!

[AntiX]

However, if you still don't trust ot even after you've seen my complete version, You can get yourself some sewing pins, and push through the back into each shelf. I'd think 2 per shelf would give it quite a bit of extra strength. If you're worried about the frame busting up there's a solution for that too, duct tape wrapped all the way around it. It comes in all sorts of colours nowadays so you could get a color the same as the boards you use.

 

Pics of completed project with games in it should be up by wednesday.

 

No, once I see the pics of it full and not sagging, that will be enough proof for me to try it. Again, not that I'm not trusting you, but you know how it is -- a picture is worth a 1000 words.

 

Thanks again, looking forward to the finished product!

 

 

Ok, I posted a pic of the rack standing holding games. Haven't hung it yet, as I still need to glue in a couple more shelves in the far right column

Edited December 4, 2008 by AntiX

[Mirage]

Okay, cool! That's pretty slick and affordable. Can't wait to make time to make some of these! Thanks for the pic

[AntiX]

Okay, cool! That's pretty slick and affordable. Can't wait to make time to make some of these! Thanks for the pic

 

 

It'll look even better once I paint it.

[Godzilla]

thats sweet. one day id like to have time to make a custom corrugated printed cartridge holder with art/names/slots for every us production 2600 cart... (i work at a large format digital printer. can make print/cut/dies stuff like that.)

[ProperRogue]

If it's the same material I'm thinking of , Staples has these in black , for anyone interested.

 

Black Foamboard