The American Ace Kit on Kickstarter

[Generic Eric]

Get this on reddit

[yotsuya]

To his credit, Jim's right about mentioning what's not included. For example, you might want to explicitly state that a monitor isn't included at any level. Little things like that will prevent headaches later.

[Woodshop Flunky]

Seems pricey for some cut wood and a 10 dollar Vesa mount

Seemed pricey to me also... until I started adding it all up. 

Truth is, the material and hardware cost alone is about $150, before anything is cut.  Next, despite how charming I try to be, the CNC shop insists on getting paid to cut all the parts.  This sort of thing can't be cut with a single setup, so I'll have to decide if I want to pay for multiple operation setups, or if I want to handle the t-molding slots, and horizontal boring on my own.  Either way I go, I just added more to the total.  Since I'm not just doing this for a buddy that can juggle all the pieces in the back of his Toyota, I need to have custom boxes made that can handle the weight of all these parts as they move around the country.  Once all this comes together my wife and I will devote time to gathering, transporting, packing, weighing out hardware, and handling the administrative paperwork.  She's sweet, but she still likes getting paid for her time too.

Also, every time the wind blows, the price of fuel goes up   The $50 I'm asking for shipping doesn't cover the entire cost for a package this size and weight.

And it still isn't over... Kickstarter and Amazon take up to 10% right off the top.  Finally, I'm pretty sure my Uncle Sam is going to want some of this as well.

Dang!  Did I just talk myself out of this? 

[Le Chuck]

It is rather daunting.  Have you thought about just selling the art, hardware package, and blue prints on Amazon?  Hell, you could even add the T-molding and the slot cutter with arbor to a hardware package so that it's one stop shopping.  I would think you would make more that way than going through the trouble to sell the wood.  If somebody wants to have it made they can buy your plans for 24.99 and take them to a local cabinet maker, or just DIY it off your plans.  Either way you get paid for your design.  If you do that you could have one standard CP available on amazon that is complete with art -n- parts ready to plug and play as an add on.  You'd have to front some stock but you could make 5 in advance on a saturday morning and set your amazon storefront to display the number available, ditto the hardware kits, start with five and restock as necessary to keep upfront costs down.  Art kits could be printed third party as required and direct shipped.  Seems like less work with a similar profit margin compared to the kit using my armchair quarterback napkin math.       

[yotsuya]

I didn't realize Kickstarter took a cut. Makes sense, though.

[Donkbaca]

Gotta make money some how. 

How on earth are you spending 150 bucks on wood and screws?

[Unstupid]

3/4" 2 sided laminated plywood is about $80/sheet here in Hawaii... Probably a few bucks cheaper in Texas.  How many sheets does one of these cabs take?  Looks like about 1 1/2 if you can get both sides on 1 sheet.  Add $ for screws, hinges, leg levelers, and transportation I can see $150...

[yotsuya]

I think you guys are overthinking this. You're not really the target audience.

[dextercf]

I think you guys are overthinking this. You're not really the target audience.

+1
There are very few here being the target audience.

[macattack]

i guess what i am not getting from the kickstart page is what is the funding for? The project needs 18k before it gets started? Yet nothing explains what the 18k goal is in aid of?

To aquire the materials and place an order and get the parts cut for 100 kits etc?
To fund the equipment you need to be able to build and sell the kits yourself?

kinda tough to get a sense of why you need 18k up front to get this going.

great idea btw, would be great to see it fly


over the years i have had several back room business like this. You are correct you always under estimate the actual effort thats involved and all the things you need. One business i had was making vaccum formed RC car bodies, sure vac forming the shell was a 5 minute thing, but in addition to that you had cutting the window masks,buying plastic bags, printing card headers, boxes, tape, printing people's address, trips to the post office, dealing with orders that never got there... all adds up. Fine if its your only thing to do, difficult when you have a day job also.

[kahlid74]

i guess what i am not getting from the kickstart page is what is the funding for? The project needs 18k before it gets started? Yet nothing explains what the 18k goal is in aid of?

To aquire the materials and place an order and get the parts cut for 100 kits etc?
To fund the equipment you need to be able to build and sell the kits yourself?

kinda tough to get a sense of why you need 18k up front to get this going.

I had the same above question but I backed ya anyways.  I like your design but in the end of the day I just like funding stuff.  Kickstarter has brought out a weird side of me I never knew I had.

To be honest, if you were going to actually make a run at this I would push towards building/buying your own CNC machine.  They can be made for 500-3000 depending on detailed you want the design and how new you want the parts.

[stu33]

Not sure if it will help (it probably won't), but I pimped out your project on my little blog thing.

http://cheeseisalifestyle.blogspot.com

[ChrisK]

True, I guess i just think all kits are a ripoff. 

That's because you can do it yourself.  For someone just starting out, $300 for a HUGE shortcut towards a working cabinet is a good deal.

There are a lot of people out there with the know-how to do the software side of it, but who aren't skilled at carpentry or don't posses the tools to do the work themselves.  Consider the cost buying materials AND tools, then add the chance that as a new cabinet builder might screw something up and need more materials, and then add in the time it would take to learn what makes a good design (angle of the monitor, balancing the weight of the cab, how to fasten the pieces, ventilation, etc).  $300 to take all that out of the equation is a good deal for many.  The only real tricky part remaining is building a control panel and setting up the machine.

[opt2not]

I for one have called it quits when it comes to building cabs from scratch. No time, lack of skills for a perfectionist like me, and not enough space to build one from the ground up.

I'll either renovate/restore an existing cabinet (without ruining a classic of course), or buy a kit like this one.  American Ace is a beautifully designed cabinet, a much nicer one than A LOT of cabinets I see here. Flunky's cab is very nicely built, and $300 for a professionally built well designed cabinet is a decent price in my books.

If shipping wasn't a punch-in-the-face, I'd get one. Would look really nice beside my desk at work

[selfie]

$300 seems a very good price to me. I'm in Australia so costing for these sorts of things vary greatly but the price of "Kits" scare me.

What got me into building an arcade machine was seeing a knockdown 2player lowboy kit like this for $795.

I have a CNC router so it would only cost me material. I figured I could sell one of these kits and make a tidy profit at $300.

I cut $90 worth of material to make 2 driving cabs like this



I charged my client for the material plus a carton of beer, he is a good client...

I jumped online and found the kit he copied. 695 euro for raw router cut MDF.

So yeah $300 is a good price for a kit

[Woodshop Flunky]

Thanks everyone for all the comments (positive or otherwise).   

Regardless of how this project turns out... it certainly has been interesting working with Kickstarter.

One of the things they provide is a "Dashboard": basically just a report of your project's activity.  One of the categories on the dashboard that's kind of neat is the "Referrers" section.  It lets you see how the backers have come about the project... and from such different areas of the country.

Also, if anyone has any direct questions about the rewards (and has a Kickstarter profile), then send me a message through the Kickstarter project rather than a PM on this forum.  The more activity I have on my project the more visibility it ends up getting.

Thanks again everyone! 

[dislecksea]

Wired has an article on the project.

http://www.wired.com/geekdad/2012/04/an-arcade-cabinet-in-every-home/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+wired%2Findex+%28Wired%3A+Index+3+%28Top+Stories+2%29%29&utm_content=Google+Feedfetcher

[GregD]

Wired has an article on the project.

http://www.wired.com/geekdad/2012/04/an-arcade-cabinet-in-every-home/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+wired%2Findex+%28Wired%3A+Index+3+%28Top+Stories+2%29%29&utm_content=Google+Feedfetcher

Sweet.  Go Archie.

[wp34]

Wired has an article on the project.

http://www.wired.com/geekdad/2012/04/an-arcade-cabinet-in-every-home/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+wired%2Findex+%28Wired%3A+Index+3+%28Top+Stories+2%29%29&utm_content=Google+Feedfetcher

 

[Woodshop Flunky]

Thanks everyone!  I was pleasantly surprised this morning. 

Retro Thing did a post also.  If you guys aren't familiar with James' website, take a look!  It retro and really cool... like most of us right? 
http://www.retrothing.com/2012/04/kickstarter-a-brilliant-34-scale-arcade-machine.html

[TopJimmyCooks]

Congratulations on the nice exposure.    Couldn't of happened to a better design for this type of projects.  The Ace ticks off a lot of boxes for civilians and newcomers/returnees to the hobby. 

[Woodshop Flunky]

Well, this Kickstarter project is about wrapped up, and it didn't reach the funding goal.

Since I know there are others interested in Kickstarter... I'll run down a few things I learned from this experience.  (These may seem obvious )

1. Kickstarter states that most of the pledges received are in the $25 range.  I think this is a valuable point.  Backers are really rolling the dice when they pledge, so the higher the price... you get it.
2. Publicity is rough!  Getting noticed is much more challenging than I would have imagined.  I told a friend that it was like trying to strike a match in a hurricane.  If you have any social network... use it.  The attention span on the internet is BRIEF.
3. Have others you trust examine your site before you launch.  I got a lot of questions that seemed to be covered in my project body.  It was interesting the lack of knowledge surrounding a project like this one.  Anyhow, have some (brutal) friends review your project before you launch to help make sure things are a clear as possible.
4. Make sure you have others that can help our with something like this.  I only had a little over 20 backers, but there was more email traffic with related questions than I expected.  I can't imagine how some projects with hundreds or thousands of backer handle that sort of thing.  Anyhow, if you're successful... be ready for it.

Okay... a little peak under the hood for those that haven't seen this sort of thing before...

Kickstarter provides a "Dashboard" view of your project.  It provides analysis data.  In my case it wasn't that useful, but with a project that has a large number of backers, I can imagine it would help communicating with backers in mass, and staying aware of what's working with regards to driving backers to your project.

Anyhow, this was a very interesting process, and I still think Kickstarter is a great idea for the right kind of project.

The whole thing was educational, and I also made several contacts that I wouldn't have otherwise, so I'm happy I tried.   

[Well Fed Games]

Hmm, very interesting. Thanks for the "postmortem" thoughts!

The whole thing was educational, and I also made several contacts that I wouldn't have otherwise, so I'm happy I tried.   

Awesome! 

[Mental]

Thanks for posting the summary. I was very curious about how this would go for you. It was a great idea, and maybe can live on in a new direction.

[Vigo]

Sorry your kickstarter didn't quite fly. I am glad you take it in stride because your cabinet is amazing and I can tell you put in a ton of work trying to bring it to the world. Also, thanks for the insight into your experience, I am glad you still received some benefit from your effort. 

[Le Chuck]

Sorry your kickstarter didn't quite fly. I am glad you take it in stride because your cabinet is amazing and I can tell you put in a ton of work trying to bring it to the world. Also, thanks for the insight into your experience, I am glad you still received some benefit from your effort. 

 

Any thought to just opening up an Amazon storefront for plans and parts?

[stu33]

Any thought to just opening up an Amazon storefront for plans and parts?

Seconded, this would be a great idea, I think.  Also, thanks for the kickstarter review, much appreciated.