Can't Save Them All

jeffsgames

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Donor 2011, 2015
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Well, not every cabinet is a candidate for restoration. Atari, why did you use such cheap MDF? Soaks mouse piss faster than a sponge! I had this cab in my garage for over two years and still stinks bad. Why can't they make car air fresheners that can hold a smell this long?

I tried to give this away several times. It finally met my circular saw.

Thankfully Centipede cabs are pretty common. Here's a cool pic of three of them in my garage right before I cut this one down. The cabinet had it's family at his side when he passed.
 

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Too bad you ended up giving up. There are many ways to get rid of or neutralize that smell. Just letting it air out isn't enough.
 
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It wasn't in good shape either. ALL of the edges were swollen, and the marquee area was dropped on it's face. The smell was just one of many issues.

No one else wanted it either. I couldn't give it away here for free.
 
Right city, wrong state. Oh well. Another Atari Cab bites the dust.

I lost a Centipede cab last winter when I couldn't get it out of the St Paul home where it was (apparently constructed) sitting there.
 
Don't worry man. I set out my outrun mini cab for heavy trash this morning. I tried to give it away on klov and craigslist. Oh well it was a good donor machine
 
I don't see a problem with trashing a cab that is seriously beyond all hope. It's called culling the herd. Soon, there will only be nice solid cabs left. I think Joust had it right 30 years ago. Survival of the fittest.
 
It is true that you can't save them all. Sorry you had to go that route with the centipede cabinet :(

Never great to see this have to happen, but the atari cabs soak up EVERYTHING like a sponge. Of all the cabinets that got wet in our basement, the Space Duel was by far the worst.

Sometimes you do what you need to do.

Chris
 
I've got a baby pac cab that will be suffering the same fate, just way too much moisture damage.
 
Didnt know it had water damage too. Thats different. Things tend to look better in pictures than they do in person sometimes. What you should have done was kept the sides intact and use them as kick ass wall art :)
 
Didnt know it had water damage too. Thats different. Things tend to look better in pictures than they do in person sometimes. What you should have done was kept the sides intact and use them as kick ass wall art :)

I wanted to, but the mouse smell just didn't make it worth the effort. I finally found the donor cab to transplant all the guts, so it's internals are going to live beyond the cabinet. Already rebuilt the trackball and controls. The bummer is my new cab has while laminate over the sideart. I'm going to have to buy some sideart sometime soon. Wish sideart was transplant-able!
 
Ever heard of hantavirus? Very nasty...

•Hantavirus - pulmonary syndrome, a type of virus carried by rodents causing severe respiratory infections in humans, and in some cases, hemorrhaging, kidney disease, and death. Hantavirus is another danger becoming more common. Recently there have been numerous outbreaks of Hantavirus in the United States carried and spread by the house mouse. The virus is contracted by humans through inhalation of dust in contaminated rodent areas, usually where droppings and contaminated food tend to collect. If you have or have had a mouse infestation, always wear a respirator when cleaning the area. Symptoms of Hantavirus are similar to the flu including fever of 101 +, chills, body ache, and troubled breathing. It can be fatal, so if suspected see your doctor IMMEDIATELY.


Not even worth the risk of bringing a cab like that into the home, as it can be easily become airborne. If I have a cab that stinks of rodent excrement, I burn it.
 
I think you made a decent call. I deal in odor removal products (see sig) and there are just some things that cannot be saved with a spray, no matter how good it is. Particle board and mouse urine is a textbook example. Little soakings over years of time will penetrate very deeply into the wood fibers, much deeper than you can get with a spray application over a few days. And to soak the board deeply enough to reach the urine over a short period of time will damage the substrate severely. We sell a solvent based product to help prevent water damage in solid woods, but composite materials like MDF don't like any type of fluid because the fibers swell, create air spaces, and become weak/spongy.

To Drewster; Bleach is a poor urine cleaner. Especially for wood because bleach dissolves the lignin (binder) in the wood, reducing it's strength. You would be better off to use a cheap pet store enzymatic than bleach. As for the clear sealer, *NEVER* seal urine until the odor is 100% gone. If you do, the odors will still leach out through and around the coating, but the material causing the odor will be protected by the coating. i.e. You just made the stink permanent. Once you have removed the smell 100% then you can seal with a quality sandable sealer like Kilz

To test for odor removal, place the panel in a plastic bag, trunk, or closet where it's warm and has poor ventilation. Leave undisturbed for 3-4 days, then open and smell. If you have been successful, there will be no urine odor. If urine odor remains, keep working on it until it is gone.
 
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It wasn't in good shape either. ALL of the edges were swollen, and the marquee area was dropped on it's face. The smell was just one of many issues.

No one else wanted it either. I couldn't give it away here for free.

I find that if you put it on a street corner with 'Free' written on it that it will never get taken. Put $25.00 on it and it will be gone before you get back home. Funny how that works.
 
Ya when the wood is swollen everywhere and it was an obvious mouse house. It's time to let go.

I recently found a mouse house in an Outrun cab I saved from a barn. Lucky for me only the back piece holding the marquee light is swollen and I was able to completely remove it and will just cut a new piece. The rest of the cab is solid.

Except the bottom base i also removed that and will cut a new piece for it.

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I know how you feel. My Centipede has a mouse nest in the marquee area and that whole area was pretty strong with the scent of piss. I tried to get rid of the smell in many ways and ended up using Kilz primer to at least cover it up a bit. It seems to have worked, but the cab is still in rough condition overall. Most recently my Star Wars had the remains of a long dead mouse in, but luckily I'm not getting that same nasty smell that was in Centipede. I've done some cleaning as I did find a few of turds near the body and the board cage looks like it might have been pissed on, but the pcb was spared any damage. Oddly enough the marquee area is clean which is where I was expecting a next to be found like my Centipede. I hate dealing with stuff like this and wore a respirator, goggles, and gloves in cleaning my Star Wars.
 
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