[CABINET] My build process

[MNMax21]

I thought I would attempt to post a step by step (somewhat at least) detail of my cabinet build. Maybe people will see something in this that helps them with their future build. I've learned a bit more since my build and I've changed a few things too.

My first step was .... I knew I wanted to build an arcade cabinet.. But how. I turned to a book called "Project Arcade." The book helped me a out great deal and it helped me in avoiding my first mistake. DON'T BUILD A CABINET THAT YOU CANNOT GET THROUGH YOUR DOORWAYS! haha

http://www.amazon.com/Project-Arcade-Build-Machine-ExtremeTech/dp/0764556169

Ok, I knew I wanted a 4 player cabinet, because two of my favs were 4 players. TMNT and NBA JAM. I decided the best thing to do would be to build the control panel first and then build the rest of the cabinet around the panel. I made a cardboard design of the top of the panel first. I made the template and used the exact dimensions for each item, joystick, trackball, push button, etc.

[MNMax21]

I then made the panel out of a 3/4 inch plywood, thinking it would be easier to cut the holes... Not quite. If I did it again, it would be MDF. I completed the panel and put in the controls to make sure everything worked right. I then placed the artwork I got from www.gameongrafix.com. I really like the lightning bolt panel, as I could make it seem like the lightning was coming from the blue lit up trackball. Then came the wiring and I used an iPac 4 from ultimarc.com. The trackball is from Ultimarc too.

[MNMax21]

One of the things I later changed, was from the black joysticks I got from www.groovygamegear.com. I decided to go with MagStik Plus joysticks from Ulitmarc because I wanted to be able to switch from 4 way to 8 way. Once I was done with the control panel, it was hard to just not stop there and play games while just connecting it to the USB port. I then began to design the cabinet. I knew I wanted a 32" LCD TV inside the cabinet, so it had to be fairly wide. I decided to use 2 x 4 to make a box to hold the TV and then connect the sides to that box. I then made a box for the base and put a piece of cheap plywood on the top of the box. I knew that having the 2 x 4 boxes and TV being in inside, it was going to be heavy. I used 3" caster wheels on the bottom, because I wanted to be able to easily move it around. This was a little touchy, because the cabinet is very skinny, but also VERY wide. The balance was hard to get down, so I had to have the wheels only about a 1/2" out from the bottom, that way it wouldn't fall over on someone. I then began putting the back and front on and I also completed a drawer for the keyboard.

I made a hold in the side of the cabinet near the controls for the TV. I was worried I wouldn't be able to get the TV to auto power up withe the computer and wanted an easy way to turn it on if the remote wouldn't work. However, THE FRONT IS GLASS!! REMOTE WILL WORK. Don't make that hole! I later covered it with artwork, so no big deal.

Side note... I broke the 4th metacarpal in my right hand while trying to drill the starter holes for the coin door. Thus, you only see 2 holes in the picture! Haha, builds are never easy.

[MNMax21]

I then began working on some side projects, due to broken hand. My marquee came in and when I put it in, it wasn't very bright. My issue was, the light for the marquee was attached to the back of the cab and the light was going down into the cab and also not reflecting out. I fixed this by adding foil tape to the inside of the marquee area. It really helped and reflected out the light. The tape is very cheap too!

Then I found GameEx and started to get games working! This was awesome, but also bad. If I had to do it over again, I would not play it until it's totally done. Well, at least painted. You cannot help yourself, but play!

[MNMax21]

Here is the tape I was talking about.

[MNMax21]

I then wanted to make holes for my speakers, but I wasn't very confident with my routing skills and making straight lines for the speakers, ala Donkey Kong cabinet style. I found these speaker covers on the internet. They're more for the front of pinball cabinets, but I fell in love with them. I have four of them on my finished cabinet. Two near the kick plate and two above the bezel, below the marquee.

I then concentrated my time on sanding down the wood putty I had used to cover up the screw holes I made to secure the 2 x 4 box that held my TV and the base. The key for this was to countersink the screws, so you have a hole to fill and not just a screw sticking out.

I then moved on to routing the space for the t-molding to go on the side pieces. Once I was done with that and had it nice and smooth, I painted it. I used oil base and it stunk. But it was a beautiful black.

[MNMax21]

I knew I wanted the power supply to be inside the cabinet, obviously. I decided to use a blue extension cord to match my choice of t-molding. I spliced the cord and installed a power box inside the cabinet. That way the cord would be hanging out from the cabinet and that would be plugged into the wall for power. I also wanted everything to turn on at once, ala a cabinet. I didn't want to have to open up everything to turn it on, or leave it on all the time. I found a "smart strip" power supply. It's very cool. You plug the computer in the blue section and when the computer is turned on, it then turns on the other outlet plug ins that are not colored red in the link.

http://www.amazon.com/Smart-Strip-LCG4-Autoswitching-Technology/dp/B0006Q3B2W

I then added a bottle opener to the side of the control panel.

And finished the painting.

I wired the power switch from the computer to a push button on the side of the control panel. I also later added some push buttons to the side for pinball, when I learned about pinball emulation!

[MNMax21]

This was a part I was really happy with. I knew I wanted to have light guns and that would mean having to plug them into a USB. I did not want to have them constantly plugged in and I also did not want to have to open the cabinet to plug them in. I located these really cool items that allow you to basically extend your USB ports.

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/561202-REG/Neutrik_NAUSB_W_B_NAUSB_B_USB_Female_Type_A.html

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/689976-REG/Pearstone_USB_AB3_USB_2_0_Type_A.html

I mounted these on the outside of my control panel. I could then plug in my guns and also iPods, etc.

[MNMax21]

I added some artwork from www.whatisblik.com and then I added kick plates from www.tread-ware.com. Both were inexpensive. Then I was done... But, not quite. I changed the joysticks and added the light gun sensor.. Then I added plexi glass over the control panel. Wish I would've been ahead of the game on that one and done that in the beginning. I have about 1/4" of plexi sticking up on the edges of the panel now. It should've been 1/2" MDF and then the plexi over that.. making that 3/4"

[Draco1962]

Nice build, Max and thanks for sharing with us! I know of a friend of a friend that mentioned a problem with wieght and forward tipping potential. From what my friend told me, he went with my suggestion to put a sandbag or two in the back bottom of the cab and that worked. Low tech, but unseen and problem solved!

[imagamejunky]

Great job man. Thanks for sharing the build details. I really like the Mario artwork.

Do the exposed screw heads around the joysticks cause any issues for you?

Will you please tell us about your pc specs?

Junky

[MNMax21]

Draco,

Thankfully, the tipping aspect has never been a problem after completion. I think the wheels are far enough out to the corners of the base, that the issue never really arose. The cabinet is also low enough, that the MDF that jets out on the side would stop the cabinet too. If it ever becomes risky, I will steal the sang bag idea for sure!

Junky,

The exposed screws create no issue with the joysticks. Your hand is always high up on the handle. At least my hands are. The only issue I ever encounter is with the track ball. I have screws there and sometimes I hit them (mainly the front one), but the screws are very small and rarely ever get hit. This issue arose because of two problems I ran into. I had the joysticks mounted underneath originally. However, I put the artwork on prior to mounting the joysticks. The mounts wound up popping through the top of my Plywood control panel in about 4 places and dimpled the artwork. At that time, I decided to just leave the dimples, as it wasn't that bad. However, if I had to do it over again, I would have mounted the joystick braces prior to placing the artwork.

My second issue arose, when I later realized I really wanted to have plexiglass or acrylic over my panel to protect it and allow for beer and drink placement. I got 1/4" plexi and that threw everything off. I then ended up having to route out the 3/4" plywood underneath, because I wanted to have the joysticks set higher on the on panel. Once I did that, the under mounts were no longer an option, as I only had probably less than a 1/2" of material to work with and a 1/4" of that was plexi. Thus, the exposed screws. My t-molding is also off now too, as it sits about a 1/4" lower than the plexi.

I think I will end up redoing my panel top at some point. It wouldn't be a large expense. I would just need to buy the wood material, plexi and artwork. It's just devoting the time, when it's already done and works fine. Maybe $60..

Another thing I learned. When you have a large TV screen for your monitor.... You really don't need bezel artwork around it. I can run MAME with the bezel option on full screen and there is still more than enough space for the gameplay. It's still probably bigger than back in the arcade days and you get all the cool bezels for each specific game. The negative for me is that my current bezel kind of takes away from the bezels in the game. I've sometimes thought of just removing the bezel artwork I have and just going with the traditional black, but I paid like $30 bones for the artwork. It just looks a little messy with all the marquees along the sides and then the bezel artwork. I still like it though.

Specs,

I am not a big specs guy, so my knowledge is limited here and it was mostly what was an option in my price range at Micro Center. But, here goes.

AMD FX 4100 Quad-Core Processor

8GB running RAM

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 460 v2

I bought a really basic computer and then upgraded the processor and video card. I think if I did this over again, I would've just bought the hardware (motherboard, memory, hard drive, Video card, Sound card, DVDROM, etc.) and mounted it inside the cabinet. There was really no need for the tower and it was a waste of probably $40-50.

That pinball machine in your avatar looks awesome. Did you make that one? Any picks of the build or the machine in action? I'd love to make up one of those at some point. It'll be a long ways down the road for me though.

[Adultery]

I actually went with the hardware mounted inside the cabinet. I built a removable "shelf" for the mobo so I can yank it out and/or replace it if needed. The only caveat I hit doing it that way is the video card wasn't in as stable as I would have liked, so I had to fashion a riser out of a bic pen to secure that since there's nowhere to put it without a case and I didn't want it to be loose. Just some things to consider if you decide to go that route next time.

One thing I do want to borrow from your design is the network cable in the back. Adding a wall plate is a brilliant idea and I intend to do that this weekend so I can unplug that without having to worry about the extra cable when and if I decide to move it. Unplugging the extra cable is a stroke of genius. Kudos on that!

[MNMax21]

Yeah, I have a usb wireless hub inside the cabinet. I have that for my main Internet. But, there are times when I want the faster direct connection. It worked out great. I used a cable TV coaxial and Ethernet combo electrical plate. I just removed the coaxial part and used that to run the extension cord thru.

[MNMax21]

Also, would've never thought about the video card and the extra stability the case wall gives you. I wonder what other people have done with that?

[tthurman]

Probably something creative like Adultery did!

I had two super tower ATX cases that had removable motherboard trays, from back when that was a big thing. A-Open HX08 models that would have been great for inside a cab because of the way they retained the exterior slot mounting. I finally convinced myself I didn't need them, and they got scrapped.

Nice post dude!

[Draco1962]

Could just mount the case sans cover that way you retain the support features for the card but otherwise all is open. I would probably still recommend some sort of 120mm+ fan to draw air through the cabinet.

[MNMax21]

Yeah, that's my next project. I plan on adding some blue or red light fans to the back of the cab. I currently only use the fans in the tower, but the tower is mostly closed. I think it's slightly open, just for ease of access, meaning thumb screws aren't in. I'd like to get a little more air flow going. Currently, I open the back door after extended playing sessions. I also get quite a bit of sound distortion in my speakers without the door open. I'm hoping that if I cut a few more holes for fans, that'll allow more air movement.

[MNMax21]

I may end up having to route lines where the speakers are eventually though. Right now I just have drill out holes under the speaker cover things I found.

[Adultery]

I have six fans on the back: three on the top to push out and three on the bottom for intake. Heat rises and all.

I also have two in the front where the speakers would go pushing out for the red/green lighting mostly. All powered by a seperate modified power supply that handles all my lighting and fans.

Thats what works for me anyways.

[MNMax21]

Pics Adultery? Sounds cool

[Adultery]

There's pics around here somewhere.

[Adultery]

Here's a couple, I have some internal ones too but I'm not sure where.

Post link

[MNMax21]

That's awesome! Looks great. What's on top of the cab? A furbee? Ha. Nicely done with the rockstar too, good stuff. I had to slow down on those and have gone pretty much solely coffee. No more energy drinks and Mountain Dew. What's odd is, now that I've stopped drinking dew, when I go back to it, it's almost too much sugar.

[Adultery]

No rockstar for me, that's for keeping my beer cold.

That stuffed toy was my dog Laila's favorite before the heart attack. I keep it up there so my new dog Champ doesn't get to it when he's downstairs with me.