Summer Project: Arcade Cabinet

[thehiflyer]

Hi guys,

After a months research and sourcing parts, I have started my summer project; building an arcade cabinet.

My aim was to build a slimline cabinet in two parts to allow ease of transportation (pedestal base and removeable shround) to retain the classic cabinet design and to keep its overall size to minimum.

Components so far:

- a bunch of MDF
- 2nd hand low spec PC
- 19 inch lcd monitor(need to upgrade to a 22 inch)
- joysticks & buttons from Trade Me
- t molding from Trade Me
- keyboard encoder from Australia

So far I've cut and assembled the pedestal sides,top,shelves and control panel bottom and sides as below:





Coming up next; control panel top.

Cheers
Hads

[MattG]

Very cool. Looking great so far. Are you going to base it around a computer running MAME? Always wanted to do something similar.

How are you going to decorate up the cabinet?

[fredstar]

Hey bro

PB Tech have some 23" LG LED's for $228.85

http://www.pbtech.co.nz/index.php?z=p&p ... DMI+DVI+VG

I was going to build one a while back. Thought about doing a mame box but the problem with mame is the resoultion and you'd be better off using something that does low res like a old CRT TV or a LCD that has a lower res.

Other option is building a steam based cabinet and run Steam big picture on it
http://store.steampowered.com/bigpicture/

Pretty much all the Street Fighter IV titles are now on steam and they would play in full 1080p

If you want if to boot fast as, chuck a SSD drive in it and it would boot Windows in 2 seconds flat!

Fred.

[oota goota]

awesome project hads! I'd love to do one of these!

[thehiflyer]

Hi guys,

Thanks for the feedback!

I am planning on running a MAME setup - think of it as a childhood preservation unit (along with the room it will eventually end up in) so ill be doing a retro only build. I considered going for an all out modern unit but I didnt have a pc grunty enough to handle anything made in the last 5 or so years

Thanks for the heads up about the LG, looks pretty sweet - I'm not big on PC gaming at the moment (my consoles take care of that) so I hadn't heard of the steam big picture stuff, very cool!

To be honest guys, I'm not at all skilled at wood work at all, it this is much easier than putting together TK, so anyone interested should really give it a go - gimme a yell if you need more info

Made some great progress today:

Drilled out the button and joystick holes in the control panel with a spade bit & a control panel layout template from http://www.slagcoin.com/joystick/layout.html







Cut out & trimmed the top side "shrouds" with a makeshift shelf & clamps holding everything together & test fitted the marquee light - from the side angle you can see the slim profile I'm going for





Sorted out my buttons & joysticks & test fitted them





One issue I came across one today - 18 mm MDF board I'm using for the control panel is too thick for the joystick so I need to route out the under side of the panel to accommodate the joystick housing and give the joystick more length.

Oh and an easy tip - don't use the spade bit all the way through one side, turn the board over halfway and drill through the other side for a clean cut ... Or you get ripping around the exit:



Decorating the cabinet has been the hardest thing to decide on - so much so Im gonna go for an all white side art option to start with and make up a marquee, bezel and front panel images or else I'd never get it done.

I'm thinking of using vinyl for the side art so it's not too hard to replace at a future time.

Next up: Finish the top.

Cheers
Hads

[oota goota]

looks great Hads. Are you going to seal the mdf or use a plastic trim round the edges?

[thehiflyer]

looks great Hads. Are you going to seal the mdf or use a plastic trim round the edges?

Thanks bro, its been a fun and surprisingly smooth build

Ill be using black T molding on the side/forward facing edges from the top of the marquee down to hte control panel and and then on to the ground.

Cheers
Hads

[fredstar]

Here's some marquee art I was working on last year.

[thehiflyer]

looks great Hads. Are you going to seal the mdf or use a plastic trim round the edges?

Hey Oota,

I just realised last night what you meant about sealing the MDF - sealing was something I had no idea about!

So yeah Ill seal & paint the ends and then use t-molding

Here's some marquee art I was working on last year.

Thats some great art there Fredstar, you should build a Street Fighter cab!

[oota goota]

looks great Hads. Are you going to seal the mdf or use a plastic trim round the edges?

Hey Oota,

I just realised last night what you meant about sealing the MDF - sealing was something I had no idea about!

So yeah Ill seal & paint the ends and then use t-molding

Here's some marquee art I was working on last year.

Thats some great art there Fredstar, you should build a Street Fighter cab!

yeah it's something to do with the way mdf is made, its harder on the outsides and softer and fluffier on the inside so it's a good idea to seal/ harden the edges with something before painting. You can buy this stuff called, not surprisingly, mdf sealer