T-molding, laminate, half cabinet? OH NO!

[P-chan]

Just wanted to show you all this design and see what you think.  I haven't really started on it yet, just ordered the joysticks and buttons from Ultimarc.  At this phase anything can be changed.

My goal was to have a small, control-panel-height cabinet only, with an LCD TV mounted on the wall in front of the cabinet.  We will use the TV for normal TV watching in the basement (not watched very often), and I wanted the ability to move the cabinet out of the way if I wanted.

Here's what I have so far:

This is the side panel :



(with the outline of the interior "box" showing through and measurements)



My control panel (with potentially a backlit marquee of some sort to take up the dead space)



And some crappy photoshop interpretations of what it might look like:







Anyway, a couple things.  First, this is a pretty simple design, but what problems should I expect or do you forsee?

Also, where can I get bright red laminate?  I'd rather laminate than paint, but if I can get the color I want, I'm going with laminate.

I will be using black T-molding as well, I have a router secured but need to acquire a 1/8" slot cutting bit, is that correct?

Please, I'm way open to suggestions and criticism at this early stage!

Thanks in advance.

[Nephasth]

PBJ... 21st century Nostradamus.

[Le Chuck]

T-Molding.com has the slot cutter you need and is a good place to get your t-molding.  One stop shopping FTW. 

That's a lot of space.  I might play with a pedestal design but if you're going with that you should lose the back lit static marquee and drop in a monitor so you can display controls, game data, and a game specific marquee when you're playing.  That would be the cat's ass.  Check WP34's current TRON Legacy build for ideas.  Also, your coin door looks a bit low on the mock-up.

 

PBJ... 21st century Nostradamus.

It's scary but true.   

[Unstupid]

If you are going to build a pedestal you are not constrained by the monitor width and viewing angles... make it wider so you and your opponent are not rubbing shoulders!

[TopJimmyCooks]

+1 make it wider, good advice.  PBJ called it, flood of pedestals around the bend. 

[P-chan]

PBJ... 21st century Nostradamus.

I don't know what that means.  

//edit : after reading around, apparently the plummeting in price of flat panel TV's and associated mounts led pinballjim to foretell lots of pedestals being made?   

[P-chan]

T-Molding.com has the slot cutter you need and is a good place to get your t-molding.  One stop shopping FTW. 

That's a lot of space.  I might play with a pedestal design but if you're going with that you should lose the back lit static marquee and drop in a monitor so you can display controls, game data, and a game specific marquee when you're playing.  That would be the cat's ass.  Check WP34's current TRON Legacy build for ideas.  Also, your coin door looks a bit low on the mock-up.

 

PBJ... 21st century Nostradamus.

It's scary but true.   

I've thought about dropping in a monitor.  I wish I could (cheaply) rewire a gutted 10" laptop LCD that I have to accept a VGA signal and some sort of power input, but it'll cost me at least $30 for the VGA board and a few more bucks for a powersupply for it - might as well buy a used 15" instead.  If I can get someone to donate a small LCD monitor to me I'm going to certainly do that. I don't want to jack up the cost of this project any more.

Honestly I hadn't really thought about making it wider, but that makes complete sense.  The control panel is only 32" wide...I could easily go to 40" or larger without too much trouble.  I'm going to make a mockup CP with foam core and play with the width a bit.  I just got my u360s and buttons from Ultimarc.  Stupidly I forgot to add the wiring harness for the buttons, I didn't notice it was "optional"   

[mcseforsale]

Let us know if you start a project announcement.  I'm in for some readin!!

 

AJ