Ultimate Arcade II cabs - questions

[Inaba]

I'm currently building my own cab out of some of the designs out on the net with some tweaking.

I was wondering what peoples opinions are on the Ultimate Arcade II plans that are offered from Mameroom?  I searched the forum, but there doesn't appear to be a review or detailed information on how good the plans (and/or templates) are.

Has anyone ordered the plans (and templates)?  If so, can you give some information on it?

[meta87]

I ordered them. I ended up changing my cab some, but still used them alot at the beginning.

They are well done. The instructions are pretty indepth. Very useful!

[SpAwN]

I'm currently building a Cab with those plans. They are great. I ordered the plans with the templates. The plans are well thought out and take a lot of things into consideration.

I think using a set of plans with detailed instructions saves a lot of time and money.  You could figure everything out yourself, but its nice to build upon someone elses experiences so you don't make the same mistakes.

Scott at mameroom.com is very helpful when you have questions about the plans as well.

[dromos]

Scott at mameroom.com is very helpful when you have questions about the plans as well.

I'll second that.  I've bought the plans and with very little woodworking experience, Scott has been extremely helpful to me.  He responds in detail to my, sometimes lengthy e-mails, usually within 30 minutes.  I've yet to actually build the cabinet, but so far they definately have my recommendation.

[Inaba]

Are the templates really useful, or somewhat redundant?

I don't mind measuring and marking if the directions are clear.

[SpAwN]

You can get all the measurements from the plans. I liked the templates because it allowed me to just trace and cut. It also provides locations for all the bolts.

The plans provide more then enough measurements to get the job done. But remember there are lot of angles on that thing, the templates make it very easy to get the angles right.

[NatasNJ]

I ordered the templates.  They saved me a ton of time by using them.  Plus made my 1st woodworking experience that much more pleasant.  

I think they were worth the money.  Plus if I make a 2nd cabinet I can use them again.  

I changed the plans around and I think one of the templates I got was the wrong size.  (I had to cut it BIGTIME)  But overall a great starting point.

[MiKman]

I got the plans, no templates.  The plans are well thought out and detailed.  I made a lot of modifications along the way and assembled it differently than the plans said.  Basically I only used them for the measurements thats it. If you have done any kind of wood working at all. really all you need are the plans.  And even then all you really need are the measurements...

MiKman

[Inaba]

I went ahead and ordered the plans.  

All in all, they are ok... but there are a few problems with them.  The biggest issue I noticed was the control panel plans seem to be missing an entire page.  They are NOT missing a page, but it seems to me that an additional page of measurements for the top (and bottom) of the panel need to be included.  You can figure out the dimensions you need, but it's a little bit of convoluted work (or maybe I'm just dense *shrug*).  Nothing serious, just an annoyance.  The CP plans also have an incomplete parts list that you'll need to build it (I/L-brackets not listed come immediately to mind).  Additionally, I'm not alltogether comfortable with using *only* Liquid Nails as the base support connectors.  Just doesn't seem like a terribly good idea for the CP ... as it may or may not take abuse and torque, and Liquid Nails doesn't hold up well under torque.

Maybe it'll be ok... I should have my CP finished tonight and ready for play tomorrow.  I haven't started on the UA II cab yet, so I'm not sure if the parts list is complete for it.

My biggest complaint, though, is that when printed out, some of the measurements for the cab document are nearly unreadable, even when printed on a high quality laser printer.  This is an artifact of the document format, not the document itself... The way the information was imported into the PDF leaves a lot to be desired.

My last beef is that you apparently can't get the templates in electronic form, only in paper form.  This I am totally unthrilled with.  I will happily pay additional for the templates, as long as I can have an electronic version of them.

I contacted Scott Glazer about all of the above, he said he'd send me some clearer documentation first thing Monday morning... it's Tuesday and haven't heard a peep from him.  I also asked him if I bought the templates, could I get the electronic version as well or instead... no response to that either.

So take it with a grain of salt.  The plans are decent... better than anything "free" I've found on the net so far; I think $40 may be a *little* pricey, but not outrageously so, and I don't feel ripped off or anything.  And I've used templates for my last cab I built (not UAII) and it was more of a pain than doing the measurements.  I'd like to try the UAII templates, just to compare... but all in all, doing without the templates may give you a better product if you're careful.

[SpAwN]

I went ahead and ordered the plans.  

All in all, they are ok... but there are a few problems with them.  The biggest issue I noticed was the control panel plans seem to be missing an entire page.  They are NOT missing a page, but it seems to me that an additional page of measurements for the top (and bottom) of the panel need to be included.  You can figure out the dimensions you need, but it's a little bit of convoluted work (or maybe I'm just dense *shrug*).  Nothing serious, just an annoyance.  The CP plans also have an incomplete parts list that you'll need to build it (I/L-brackets not listed come immediately to mind).  Additionally, I'm not alltogether comfortable with using *only* Liquid Nails as the base support connectors.  Just doesn't seem like a terribly good idea for the CP ... as it may or may not take abuse and torque, and Liquid Nails doesn't hold up well under torque.

Maybe it'll be ok... I should have my CP finished tonight and ready for play tomorrow.  I haven't started on the UA II cab yet, so I'm not sure if the parts list is complete for it.

My biggest complaint, though, is that when printed out, some of the measurements for the cab document are nearly unreadable, even when printed on a high quality laser printer.  This is an artifact of the document format, not the document itself... The way the information was imported into the PDF leaves a lot to be desired.

My last beef is that you apparently can't get the templates in electronic form, only in paper form.  This I am totally unthrilled with.  I will happily pay additional for the templates, as long as I can have an electronic version of them.

I contacted Scott Glazer about all of the above, he said he'd send me some clearer documentation first thing Monday morning... it's Tuesday and haven't heard a peep from him.  I also asked him if I bought the templates, could I get the electronic version as well or instead... no response to that either.

So take it with a grain of salt.  The plans are decent... better than anything "free" I've found on the net so far; I think $40 may be a *little* pricey, but not outrageously so, and I don't feel ripped off or anything.  And I've used templates for my last cab I built (not UAII) and it was more of a pain than doing the measurements.  I'd like to try the UAII templates, just to compare... but all in all, doing without the templates may give you a better product if you're careful.

I got the word and the pdf formats for the plans. I printed out the word .doc version and they are much easier to read.

I was worried about the control panel as well, but by the time you are done putting it together, you have the bottom piece holding everything together.

[KevSteele]

Inaba,

I'm currently working on a review of the Ultimate Arcade plans, and I agree with your points, especially about the readability of the graphics in the PDF document. They seem to be bitmaps, not vector, which is a shame with CAD-style line drawings.

Other than that, the plans are very detailed, including a lot of information and little details that you wouldn't expect, such as how to wire up microswitches (in the Control Panel plans).

Kevin

[Aceldamor]

I spoke to Scott a while ago when the plans were being created, the 2 prototypes had "swappable" cp's. he had them wired up via db25 cables and was playing with the idea of having an additional section of the plans detailing that....did he decide to roll with it or did it not make the cut?