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Wife- / Living-Room-Friendly Cocktail Cab
piecesof8:
Needs more power! I went with the common Smart Strip hack to power the cab. I wired it up to a power entry module for a clean look from the outside.
SNIP!!
I used insulated disconnects, then shrink-wrapped them, then wrapped the whole shebang in some electrical tape for good measure. Overkill? Maybe. I have no idea. I figured better safe than sorry.
Ta-da! I probably should have used black screws to please the perfectionist in me, but I figured I'd be able to avoid those looks from my wife if I didn't have to tell her that I needed go to the hardware store yet again.
piecesof8:
Here's my solution for my third CP latching conundrum. I cut a small piece of spare ply and glued it into the opening in the front panel. Then I picked up a heavy-duty magnetic catch and used that tiny bit of free real estate on the underside of the CP to install it. It holds pretty well - should prevent the CP from opening during normal use (no cats have caused it to open yet :)), but still easy enough to pop it open if I need to.
piecesof8:
Time to give this thing some guts!
My old Lian Li case, which sacrificed itself for the cause:
The great thing about this case is that it was so modular, so I could swipe its removable motherboard tray, hd cage, etc, to provide easy ways of mounting the hardware inside the cab. Once I pillaged the poor old dragon case, it was just a matter of finding an arrangement for everything to fit comfortably and then securing it all in place. How you guys ever fit arcade monitors in cocktail cabs is beyond me!
The Logitech S220 speaker system I'm using has a nice volume control that I was able to velcro away under a corner of the top panel for easy volume adjustments:
piecesof8:
The monitor goes in! My only complaint about the HP LP2065 is that damn silver bezel - you can see just a tiny bit of it around the edge of the routed opening (not as noticeable in real life as it looks in the pictures - the flash reflects off of it and makes it stand out more in the pics). I guess I could've taken a sharpie to it or something before install, but too late now. Other than that, the thing is gorgeous!
piecesof8:
And for the last step (really? it's finally done??), the glass goes on. I can highly recommend xtremegameroom as a great place to pick up your cocktail glass at a great price.
And finally, this is what it's all about, right here:
I just finished the monitor/glass last night, and then my daughter and I had a blast playing this thing together. Now I just need to find some nice stools to use with it - my daughter can play at standing height, but playing on my knees is killing me! ;D