Vigo, I am thinking about building up a cabinet based on your design. I'm worried that the size is too small for me. I'm a big boy at 6'3" and I'm not sure I want to sit to play. I'd like the idea of using a stool or standing and was thinking of scaling up 50%.
72" high, 24" wide and 18" deep.
I'd like to use a 19" LCD vertical and put the CP at approx 36"
Any thoughts on that? Do you think it would scale up enough? I've read through Slappyhooper's build and I've looked at all of the pics, it's really hard to get a feel for the size. Even Slappy's thread says its more "kid sized".
This will be my first arcade build and ownership ever. So I may *think* I know what I want...but I'm guessing I might be off the mark. I would really appreciate any feedback in any regard on this.
Thanks - Mike
Mann0mann,
I'm about to hit the gym so I'll make this hopefully quick and informative. Things that I ran into during the build....
First, regarding your questions about size.
I'm 6'6. The cabinet I built was a bit on the smallish size for me. This was deliberate. That being said, the 24" width is just about perfect. If I were you, what I would do is buy (2) sheets of Plywood or MDF/MDO and build. Here's why.
1. The shape of the vigolix build makes it very easy to cut with minimal skill/tools, but it tapers very quickly when you get to the top portion of the build. You notice how I rounded over the top portion like Vigo did. What I would recommend is that if you're thinking you'd like a build that's 72 inches high, you should cut the side panels about 78-80 inches in height. This will enable you to size the cabinet to your body height, and trim the top pointy portion down as far as you want to accomidate the "perfect height" cabinet. If I could do it all over again, I'd probably scale just a touch higher, to perhaps something like
20" deep
78" tall
24" wide.
This departs from Vigo's awesome economical plans and requires an additional piece of MDF or PLY, but it makes fitting everything together a bit easier if you're putting a back or base on your build.
2. You'll probably notice if you scale exactly 50% up from vigo's original build that the monitor when mounted is a bit below eye level for you. Not a big deal for me, because I was building for my sister's kids, but this is where the extra few inches you gave yourself at the beginning of the build comes in handy. You can put the monitor up a bit higher than you would have been able to otherwise.
3. The CP height I went with was actually not bad, although it's not as forgiving for taller players as a sloped CP is. Sitting at barstool height, it plays perfectly for me, and if I spread my legs wide while standing it's "ok" for me.
4. 24" is just about perfect for width. You might be able to justify going slightly wider if you installed a trackball, but for a simple 2 player setup I would stick with 24". There's plenty of room to play.
5. I also used a 19" monitor, and it felt about the right size for the build. Keep in mind I made a bezel and installed tinted glass in front of it. The pictures I took really don't glass justice. It looks very, very nice with tinted glass.
6. As you can see from my build, I essentially created a 2 piece CP. The first portion is the controls, the second is the coin/start pause and exit buttons located directly under the monitor glass. If i could do this all over again, I'd nix that portion and fit everything onto the main CP.
You have a lot of space to play around with on this particular style cabinet. My advice to you would be to install the joystick and buttons a bit closer to the front edge of the CP, and that will allow you plenty of room to install start/coin buttons on the CP without going the route I went. It turned out "OK" but added a layer of complexity to an otherwise simple build.
7. I built a base and a back on mine. I feel like it worked out pretty well, but it was something I decided I needed as I was building, and it wasn't planned as well as it could have been. Everything came together, but when you're building in close to zero weather in the middle of December, it's nice to have a plan before you cut or build. I would recommend a back panel for a scaled up cab like this. It just makes it that much nicer.
Hope this helps.....
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Topic: Vigolix, a super easy mini cab on 1 sheet of 2X4 plywood (Read 93647 times)
