Look what I found!

[80sArcadeFan]

Hi folks, I'm new here so I might be asking some questions soon.

I've always wanted to build a MAME system and thought I'd get to it eventually. Well, the other night my wife and I were driving home and I screeched the car to a halt when I saw this on the side of the road...

Built with high-quality 3/4" maple plywood. Just about all the parts are there. I have the console top/front/back (not shown). I'll have to make the console sides and the speaker panel but the front panel, keyboard tray and plinths are all here.  This saves me a huge amount of time!!

I'll have to order the controls but I have a 22" PC CRT to go in there and I'll get some PC donation for the guts.

I'm in Ontario Canada, does anyone know where I can order T-Moulding locally or is the only place from Happ?

Comments...?

[Mysterioii]

"Found it by the side of the road" wasn't "in some guy's driveway where he may have been working and took a piss break" is it?   

Good find but makes me wonder what the rest of the story is.  Some guy's wife make him throw it out?  It looks like the build was going fine.

[80sArcadeFan]

Sorry about the confusion. The picture was taken in my driveway after I got it home.  It was on the side of the road in a construction area by my house. There were garbage bags in it along with a bunch of other trash beside it. I reckon someone moved into the area and thew it out as part of the house cleaning one invariably does when you go through your stuff

I'm planning on going with a black/orange theme this like cabinet build:

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,30403.0.html

I have a question though...

How do you mount the control panel plexi when you have a printed underlay without screws?  The cabinet I linked to above doesn't show any screws at all. Wonder how he did this?

[Well Fed Games]

Heh, nice find! Certainly nice to get a head start on the project, and I bet whoever started it would be happy to know it will get used for happy arcade fun rather than firewood.

[Le Chuck]

Free wood!  You could make like 40 minis with that.  Start cutting it up!

nah, nice find.  Finish it up for the guy, maybe he'll see it when he's lurking here one day pining about what could have been. 

[80sArcadeFan]

Hi folks. Just an update. I spent most of the day getting things in order to complete the build.

I build the control panel box, finished the cabinet carpentry and drilled all the holes for the control panel. I designed my control panel using a slightly modified Japanese layout. Button placement feels natural due to the curved placement. I found the joystick placement a bit too close so I moved that out a bit.

I'm using a 22" Lacie PC monitor with a Sony Trinitron tube. Should be decent I hope. Going on vacation in a couple of days so I'll be finishing up the build in a couple of weeks.

Cheers

[Tumerboy]

Hey! That's my cabinet!  I've been working on that for weeks! I got home today, and was like, "WTF?! Where'd my cab and bags of garbage go!?"


er. . . uh. . . Congratulations!

[dzorbas]

That's a great find and it looks pretty good so far. A cabinet made out of 3/4 inch plywood must be pretty heavy but I'm sure it's solid. I used a 21" LCD rather than the monster CRT I had sitting around just to try and keep the weight down a bit.

Depending on where you are in Ontario, the Playdium Store (www.theplaydiumstore.com) in Etobicoke is a good place for parts if you want to pick stuff up. If you go there you can kill some time by playing the various multi-cabs and pinball machines that they have for sale on the showroom floor. The only problem is that the parts department is not open on the weekends except for when they are having an auction on old cabs and pinball machines. I've never tried ordering online from them but I believe you can. If you are picking up, prices are reasonable compared to other online stores once you factor in shipping. I've purchased stuff online from groovygamegear.com and www.ultimarc.com without issue. Both are great vendors (Randy - Groovy, Andy - Ultimarc) and both respond to posts on these forums regularly.

Good luck.

Dino Z.