I really wasn't planning on building an arcade cabinet over the weekend. I wasn't planning on building anything. It is just the dream I had Friday night left me with no choice. Here is the back-story:
As I slept on Friday night, snoozing away, I had a revelation come to me in a dream. I dreamt that I was in a strolling in some sort of castle/apartment complex when I happened to see a guy with a crappy crooked arcade machine. Upset that he didn't have the time or money or skills to make something, he was about ready to give up. I then showed him a simple cabinet design by cutting a wedge shape cabinet and using the remainder of the wood as supports. I told him it was a "wedgecade" and went so far as to tell him it only needed one piece of plywood. I go on my merry way and notice that everyone in this castle was building one. That is, until Skeletor showed up. I don't know how it would help him stop Heman or take control of Eternia, but he hatched a plan to steal everyone's wedgecades and sell them on ebay. That evil, skull faced jerk. I am sure this next part was inspired by that foo fighters music video where Dave's hand gets huge and he slaps people...I had watched it before going to sleep. Well, I ended up getting into a face-slapping contest with Skeletor, which now thinking about it, he had an obvious advantage since he has no nerve endings on his face. No matter what, that is the point which I woke up, so I don't know who would have won.
My mind was no longer on Skeletor, but on this so called "wedgecade", which is a dumb name, but accurate enough that it is what I am still calling it. It wasn't the design that made me pay attention, it is the fact it was a super simple design on 1 sheet of plywood. Sure, you could make a mini cab on a 4X8, but the sheet isn't really relative to the cabinet size in that case. I had actually remembered pretty well what the cabinet looked like from my dream, and when I woke up I transferred it to paper. Within 5 minutes I had it all down on paper... at least a proof of concept.
I employed the best of my MS paint skills to render this replica of my design.
Now, I prefer classic looking machines, not so much the modern hibbity-jibbity that all the young hoodlums with their hula-hoops and rock-and-roll are dabbling in, and a doorstop shaped arcade cabinet is about as bad as an middle school art class ash try...Still, Being that I felt this was almost a "Field of Dreams" moment for me, I just had to build it. As a side note, my wife never saw Field of Dreams and when I was trying to explain why I had to built it, she didn't know I was movie referencing and thought for a minute I was going batty wanting to build an arcade machine for James Earl Jones and a bunch ghosts to play on. She is right that I am crazy, but for different reasons.
Nonetheless, I had to make a few aesthetic touches for me to swallow the design. I decided to round off the bottom and lop off a few inched from the top as well. The coupe de gras that made me like the design was a the trade make "Gauntlet jut" on the back of the machine. I love me some Gauntlet jut. I also decided to make a half size mini-cabinet instead of a full size because 1) I had a sheet of 2X4 plywood (1/2 inch thick), and not a 4X8, and 2) I was thinking of making an arcade machine for my son, and
my next machine is gonna have a lot more bells/whistles. I am sure this would translate well to a full size cab on a 4X8 though.
Off I went to start my project. Here is my progress from Saturday and Sunday:
On 2X4 1/2 thick plywood, I Draw a line down the middle lengthwise.
On one of the halves, draw a line corner to between corners to make two Triangles. Cut out both triangles.
Clamp the triangles together. You may flush them out with a router if they are slightly different in size. Now round off the bottom front and top corners.
Now Cut out some of that Gauntlet jut. I made mine 2 inches, and it is good that I did, because I needed that scrap wood for later in the project. Mmmmm, sexy Gauntlet jut.
On the untouched half of the plywood, cut it into 3 sections, each one is 16 inches. One of those panels is the control panel, so you can trim 2 inches off like shown in the diagram. That wood is needed for later.
When I said, only one sheet of plywood, I didn't quite say that I employed some help from some square and flat wood doweling I had lying around from unfinished projects of yesteryear. These I used for furring, crossbars and other misc doodats. I also used a old 16" section of a 1x4 board as the bottom of the cabinet.
OK, now it is time to start fitting the parts together. I put some brackets down, some firring, since I am bracket-aholic, but I still am clamping. I started priming my pieces. That's why some are black. Those two plywood rectangles, they are on the front. To keep the design simple, I just overlapped them like shingles. Easy and effective. Remember that spare 2 inches of wood from the Control Panel piece and the Gauntlet jut? Those went to make the arms that hold the control panel in place.
Because I am keeping measuring at a minimum, in the photo I am lining up and marking where to cut the arm pieces. Each arm is made of two pieces of wood. One to go on the outside of the cab, and the other to bring it back flush with the inside of the cabinet since my control panel is only 16" wide.
For the top of the cab, I just screwed a flat dowel to a square dowel, then shoved some clips on it for the marquee. I could do the same with the bar for the bottom of the marquee, but I was running out of doweling, so I just am using a piece of cap moulding.
I have assembled the control panel. I put a piece of flat dowel in front to hide any controls that would stick out from underneath, I then puttied in the gap. I also nailed in a couple of small square dowels on the top to hold the bezel in place.
Now I bolted drilled and fit everything together. drilled some control panel holes, and cut a piece of art board to size for a bezel, and tested the feel. I think it is going to look great!
That's my progress so far. I was going to start painting, but I bought a dud can of spray paint. Not bad progress for two days of work.