Control Panel Overhang

[DaveMMR]

This is kind of a weird question...

How much of a difference does it make how much a control panel box hangs over the front of the cab?  It wouldn't be a big deal but I figured the rotation of my control panel allows for 1-1/2 inches of overhang (1-3/4 if you count the panel itself) from the front.

I've seen examples where the panel boxes were about 2 to 3 inches deeper than the front of the cabinet.   So my question is, does it really make any difference with regards to comfort, convience, accessability, etc.?  

I added a picture of the plans if that helps explain it (though it probably won't).  I circled where the panel box ends and the cabinet begins -- and I rotated the paper for the way it's supposed to be oriented.

[hyiu]

sorry.... maybe I'm the only 1... but I really dont understand your pic.....

are you building a rotating panel cab ??... stand up cab ??...

can you explain more what is in that pic ??...

maybe some label which part is cp ?? which is the cab ??....

[DaveMMR]

I just realized the picture is kinda abstract -- I drew it up to figure out space limitations and didn't design it to be seen by anyone by me.   I attached it because I wasn't confident with the wording of my question - but it probably made it worse.  I can tell you the circled part is my concern -- the overhang.  

At any rate, the pic if a partial side view of the control panel (missing back and bottom of panel).  The box with the dotted lines going from the bottom is the rotating center (the dotted lines represent the direction of rotation).  

It's going on a standard cabinet (like Lucid's -- as so many others have drawn inspiration from) but the cp itself has a rotating center.  Because of this, I'm limited on how much the control panel box actually overhangs the front of the cab.  My original question was if this made a diffence in playability.

[tmasman]

The only thing that overhang really effects is the amount of foot space you have when standing REALLY close to the cabinet...

So you really have nothing to worry about... Classics had 0 overhang... And some newer cabs have a few inches... It doesn't really matter...

[crsdawg]

  i think the amount of overhang is more a matter of comfort than playability. when i'm playing i tend to rest my waist against the cp(or pretty close). the overhang allows my feet and lower body(bent knees) to sit under it without hitting against the cabinet. what i'd do in this case is mock up your design with some cardboard, then test it out. if you feel it's comfortable, go with it.
  i'll also mention, i have a tron and galaga that i've got in my room here,  both have little or no overhang at all. i think we all can agree, these games play pretty well.

[Chris]

My Konami cabinet has about 1-1/4" overhang.  When I'm done with the new CP, though, I'll end up with about an 8" overhang!  The biggest problem with larger overhangs is convenient coin slot access.

Nice thing about having at least a slight overhang: the bottom of the overhang is where I put my volume control, lightgun ports, USB ports, etc.

--Chris

[DaveMMR]

Thanks for the help guys.  I have the control panel itself about half built so I'm just going to stand it up on a table to test it out a bit.  But after reading the posts I don't see there being any problems.

The biggest problem with rotating control panels is that you really have to second guess things that would be easily modified on a regular panel (the coin box was another thing I had to make sure I had room for when it would normally fit without problem).   Oh well... I pay for my control greed.