My version of the Knievel "Woody" slim LCD...

[mcseforsale]

Knievel said in my build thread that on his Woody/Evolution, he has the monitor time out in 30 min and the PC sleep after 30 min.  That way, it's basically off until you give it input (wiggle joystick, button, etc).

Answers from the master himself:

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,122362.msg1302705.html#msg1302705

AJ

[Hockeyboy]

I didn't get time this past weekend to do much work on my cabinet as last Thursday there was a mishap at my work -- someone was cleaning a tile hallway, complete with caution signs, and I slipped in a puddle of water, both feet up, and landed hard on my arse.    I ended up going to an Urgent Care clinic where they took x-rays and said my spine looks fine, but a follow-up inspection by the radiologist said I might have an L1 vertebrae fracture. I went to an Occupational Health doctor, that works with workman's comp cases (since I hurt myself at work), who sent me over for a CT scan, and confirmed that I do indeed have an L1 vertabrae fracture - it's only a small chip, about 2mm long, but there's nothing to be done to repair or fix it except time and let it heal itself. Of course, in the meantime, I'm suffering from constant low back pain and I can't bend over or lift more than a couple of pounds...

...anyway, I did get some time to do a couple small things. I had ordered a black acrylic test bench to mount my computer parts on: http://www.amazon.com/DIYPC-Alpha-DB6-Acrylic-Computer-motherboard/dp/B00D3Y7P44  I was able to assemble it but trying to make the motherboard line up with the stand-off holes proved to be impossible as I couldn't get more than 2 holes anywhere to line up. I ended up drilling carefully through the acrylic and installed the stand-offs and the motherboard, but I don't have any pictures of that assembly yet.

I am still trying to decide on what theme or name I want for this cabinet. I've got a good sense of humor, so I am intrigued by a couple ideas: Rainy Day Games and In the Doghouse. My daughter hand-drew a picture of a woman's arm and hand, with the index finger shaking back and forth, on the left-hand side of the picture, and there is a stake in the grass, a long chain that travels from left to right, and a doghouse with a man crouched in the doorway with the chain attached to a collar around his neck. The words In the Doghouse run across the middle. I saw that and immedately  . My wife says it gives off the wrong idea...yeah...you fellow married guys can understand and appreciate this humor, right?

The other idea is Rainy Day Games. A buddy whipped up some background and lettering (see the pictures below). I think if I went this route I'd like to add some arcade characters along the bottom so you would know it's arcade-based and not just one game. Thoughts? Ideas?

This weekend, if my back feels better, I want to put the computer mount into the cabinet and wire up the 12VDC lights to a HDD plug (that I already modified), wire up the speakers & amplifier, and work on the computer a little more, but I'm still trying to decide which front end I want to go with?  I've heard great things about both Mala and Hyperspin, and even Mamewah, but since I'm not going with a top-of-the-line CPU (I am running an Intel Q9450 Quad Core with 3G of RAM on a Gigabyte GA-EP45-DS3L motherboard with a nVidia GTX9800 video card) I'm betting I'll have to take a more careful look at my front end options. I'm not going to run several different emulators, just MAME and Daphne, so I think I'll have plenty of horsepower to run, and I'm only planning on putting Windows XP (I don't have any extra copies of Windows 7 32-bit). Anyone have any inputs on which front end will work fine for my needs?

I still need to rought cut the CP top pieces - in my case, this means my 1/2" MDF, 1/4" birch plywood, and 1/8" plexiglass top pieces that I have waiting. Much like Knievel in his Woody, I'd route a bevel or round the bottom piece so the thickness measures 3/4" total to allow for the slot for the t-molding. Man, did I cut it close...I ordered 40 feet, and I have just enough to go around the CP top plus a couple extra feet. I also need to cut out the holes for buttons, joysticks, spinner, and trackball, glue it all together, and wire everything up. So I've still got a long ways to go it seems.

Again, check out the sample pics, and I'm open to suggestions.

[TopJimmyCooks]

Suggestion: Adjust the kerning (space between the letters) so the I doesn't disappear into the N and so the text takes up a little more of the open area.  It will be more readable. 

Sorry to hear about your back, that's a drag.  take it easy and recover quickly. 

[Hockeyboy]

Well, it's been a month, but I've finally been able to do more work. Little things here and there, mostly. The doctor is telling me I can use my back again, but don't overdo.

The computer is put together and I loaded Windows XP onto it, but I found out very recently that Microsoft has stopped XP support all together but the computer is saying I have to register/validate the software or it won't boot up. Well, damn. Maybe I need to go with Windows 7? I put the computer parts onto an acrylic test bench instead of mounting them directly onto the wood.

I installed the CCL panel and fired it up and it has a nice cool glow to it - not overly harsh and bright. I like it.

The amplifier for the speakers was mounted into the side of the cabinet.

The control panel top is now in progress. I used the template provided to me (thanks mcse!), and cut it out, painted the back black, and even installed the trackball mounting plate. Then when I set it down onto the control panel box I found out I shouldn't have rounded all the corners because it didn't sit right and didn't fully cover the box. Okay...well, damn, now what?    So, I cut out another piece of MDF, no rounding of corners, set it down, and...dammit! It's too short! I check my dimensions and realized that the CP template shouldn't have gone from outside edge to outside edge, but rather inside edge to inside edge of the paper outline. So, I cut out one more, and it's too short! By about half an inch! What the --??    Thankfully I had a huge piece of 1/2" MDF so I could cut out one final CP top. I added 3/4" and cut one last piece. Marked where all the holes would be, drew the area where the trackball mounts, drilled holes, routed out 1/16" for the plate...etc. Place it on the control panel box and the trackball sits just 1/2" too low - the holes for the trackball mounting plate are sitting on the edge of the control panel box. Man...am I ever going to make this work? Luckily, I just extended the trackball mounting area, re-routed, re-drilled, and stuck the mounting plate in and it all fits. So, despite the fact I measured more than once, I made 3 mistakes. Now that everything looks okay, I cut out my 1/4" birch panel to match the 1/2" MDF, clamped it to the MDF and clone routed, then stained. 

Okay, so some pic updates...

#1 - is a close-up of the 1/4" birch sitting on top of the 1/2" MDF, cloned and stained.
#2 - another shot, this time of the corners.
#3 - top view of the 1/4" birch panel, stained.
#4 - 1/2" MDF panel, marked and ready to be drilled for all the controls.

Big question: I know the holes for the buttons are supposed to be 1 1/8" and I have my spade drill bit for those, but what size do I drill the holes for the joystick shafts? Obviously I'm going to be doing an under-mount setup, but I'm not sure what size to drill for these. 3/4"?  1"? 1 1/8", to match the button holes?

[mcseforsale]

I'd use 1 1/8 for those too.  1" in mine seem to  be just a skosh too small...using bat tops.  Just remember the sequence for trackball mounting plate, plexi, etc.

AJ

[Hockeyboy]

And, some other pics:

#1 - CCL light panel installed. I am glad I bought two as these aren't super bright. Just one would have been very dim.

#2 - computer parts installed on the acrylic test bench - I did this to keep the components out in the open so they can have airflow. I was going to mount them to a wood plate but I like this better. Plus, I can take out the computer anytime to move components around, change them out, etc. Yes, it looks like a jumble of cords and wires as I haven't done cable management yet. The red box on the right side is the speaker amplifier. I actually hooked up an iPod to the amplifier and powered it up -- good sound without overdriving the speakers. Decent bass. I could have gone with computer speakers and an included subwoofer, but, honestly, this is an arcade and I don't recall that many games needing, or using, subwoofers.

#3 - wire routing for the CCL lighting. It's tapped into the 12VDC line on the computer power supply using a spare Molex connector.

#4 - the acrylic/Plexi from tapplastics.com. I used the camera flash so you could see through it and see the transparent grey. I'm not sure if I'll add a paper bezel to close off all but the screen itself because I can see the silver trim of the monitor...we'll see once I get things up and running. The Plexi is easily removed if needed.


I still need the iPac2 -- I don't think I'll go KeyWiz. I also need a spinner, but I'm not sure which one to go with - both Ultimarc and GGG have spinners. Opinions? Is there one that feels better than the other? Also, I want just a normal black knob on top - no bright colors. I read in some other threads that you can't interchange knobs and spinners so I better choose wisely.

Oh, and going back to the control panel top...now that I have some, err, ahem, *examples*, I can try drilling from both the front and back and see how things turn out. I'm a little leery about drilling through both the MDF and birch panel separately because if I don't line them up perfectly, well, you know. Have some of you glued the pieces together and drilled as one piece?

[mcseforsale]

That's purdy, right there.

My woody/evolution has a 2.1 PC speaker system and the bass add a lot of fun to things like World Class Bowling and GoldenTee. 

AJ

[EvilNuff]

Nice progress, I love what I see so far!

[Hockeyboy]

Thanks for the encouragement guys!!   

Okay, so 1 1/8" for the joystick shaft holes...good to know. I had already bought an extra set of 3 spade bits: 1/2", 3/4", and 1", just in case, but it looks like I'll be okay. And, yes, I'm using the Happ bat-topped joysticks so I am hoping this will all work out with the under-mount that I will be doing. I'm planning on using #8-32 threaded inserts screwed into the bottom of the control panel piece of MDF and screw the joystick mounts right into those so they should be very sturdy and not want to rip out. Since I've got so many "test pieces" (translation: mistakes), maybe I should drill a hole through and mount a joystick to see if the shafts are long enough. I'd hate to get this thing together and then find that out. I did do test drills through both the MDF and the MDF/1/4" panel pieces glued together and found that the spade bit doesn't rip huge chunks of MDF out when it finally breaks through so that's one concern I no longer have.

I spray painted the bottom of the MDF piece in a satin black because some of that will hang over the edges of the control panel box and I want it to have a 'finished' look. I'm pretty sure I've got the order correct, but, just in case...  on the very bottom I've got my 1/2" thick MDF. I mount the trackball plate to that and then glue the 1/4" birch panel on top, giving me a total of 3/4". I have a 1/"8 thick piece of plexiglass that I'll put on top and I'll wrap the entire control panel top in the 3/4" textured leather t-molding, just like I did to the edges of the cabinet. I believe Knievel said many years ago that he beveled the bottom piece of his control panel top assembly to keep the thickness right at 3/4" -- I'm hoping to do the same thing because I don't want to catch anything on the edges of the Plexi.  I haven't thought exactly how this will all work out...yet...hints or advice would be greatly appreciated. 

So, not much of an update today, but some. And I really do appreciate the kind words. 

[mcseforsale]

Yeah, you'll want to chamfer the bottom edge of the CP so that the mean dimension is 3/4". 

I also routed out about 1/4" from the bottom of my joy mounts.  You probably can't do this because of your sandwich:



Here's a pic of the 1/8" chamfer that I routed around the bottom of my CP to make the dimension 3/4 for the t-molding.  It's hard to see, but that's 1/8" off the bottom edge and 1/8" plexi on top.:



You can't notice it's like that even a foot away from the arcade because the edge matches the t-molding.  Also, it feels good in the hand.

AJ

Thanks for the encouragement guys!!   

Okay, so 1 1/8" for the joystick shaft holes...good to know. I had already bought an extra set of 3 spade bits: 1/2", 3/4", and 1", just in case, but it looks like I'll be okay. And, yes, I'm using the Happ bat-topped joysticks so I am hoping this will all work out with the under-mount that I will be doing. I'm planning on using #8-32 threaded inserts screwed into the bottom of the control panel piece of MDF and screw the joystick mounts right into those so they should be very sturdy and not want to rip out. Since I've got so many "test pieces" (translation: mistakes), maybe I should drill a hole through and mount a joystick to see if the shafts are long enough. I'd hate to get this thing together and then find that out. I did do test drills through both the MDF and the MDF/1/4" panel pieces glued together and found that the spade bit doesn't rip huge chunks of MDF out when it finally breaks through so that's one concern I no longer have.

I spray painted the bottom of the MDF piece in a satin black because some of that will hang over the edges of the control panel box and I want it to have a 'finished' look. I'm pretty sure I've got the order correct, but, just in case...  on the very bottom I've got my 1/2" thick MDF. I mount the trackball plate to that and then glue the 1/4" birch panel on top, giving me a total of 3/4". I have a 1/"8 thick piece of plexiglass that I'll put on top and I'll wrap the entire control panel top in the 3/4" textured leather t-molding, just like I did to the edges of the cabinet. I believe Knievel said many years ago that he beveled the bottom piece of his control panel top assembly to keep the thickness right at 3/4" -- I'm hoping to do the same thing because I don't want to catch anything on the edges of the Plexi.  I haven't thought exactly how this will all work out...yet...hints or advice would be greatly appreciated. 

So, not much of an update today, but some. And I really do appreciate the kind words. 

[Hockeyboy]

Yeah, you'll want to chamfer the bottom edge of the CP so that the mean dimension is 3/4". 

1. I also routed out about 1/4" from the bottom of my joy mounts.  You probably can't do this because of your sandwich.

2. Here's a pic of the 1/8" chamfer that I routed around the bottom of my CP to make the dimension 3/4 for the t-molding.  It's hard to see, but that's 1/8" off the bottom edge and 1/8" plexi on top.:

You can't notice it's like that even a foot away from the arcade because the edge matches the t-molding.  Also, it feels good in the hand.

AJ

1. If I'm planning on using the threaded inserts, they have to have a certain amount of material still available so they can "hold". With you routing out 1/4" of material, what did you use to hold your joysticks in place? I'm wondering now if I can route off 1/8" and still use the inserts??

2. Okay, I'm missing something obvious here...I quickly looked up chamfer bits and am not seeing how you would run the router to shave off the 1/8" of material you were referring to. What type/style of chamfer bit did you use and how did you run it? It looks like you are basically making a little bevel so the edge of the control panel pieces all total 3/4" to allow the t-molding to cover everything, including that plexi. Sorry if this all sounds confusing...I'm at work and trying to get my head wrapped around this concept.

[mcseforsale]

1.) My joys are bolted through with carriage bolts.  Then, art, then plexi. 

2.) it's just one of these:

http://www.amazon.com/Kempston-98006-Miniature-Chamfer-Diameter/dp/B001A0Y9HE/ref=sr_1_55?ie=UTF8&qid=1381423829&sr=8-55&keywords=router+chamfer

So, it's just a 45 degree chamfer that's 1/8" thick. 



AJ

Yeah, you'll want to chamfer the bottom edge of the CP so that the mean dimension is 3/4". 

1. I also routed out about 1/4" from the bottom of my joy mounts.  You probably can't do this because of your sandwich.

2. Here's a pic of the 1/8" chamfer that I routed around the bottom of my CP to make the dimension 3/4 for the t-molding.  It's hard to see, but that's 1/8" off the bottom edge and 1/8" plexi on top.:

You can't notice it's like that even a foot away from the arcade because the edge matches the t-molding.  Also, it feels good in the hand.

AJ

1. If I'm planning on using the threaded inserts, they have to have a certain amount of material still available so they can "hold". With you routing out 1/4" of material, what did you use to hold your joysticks in place? I'm wondering now if I can route off 1/8" and still use the inserts??

2. Okay, I'm missing something obvious here...I quickly looked up chamfer bits and am not seeing how you would run the router to shave off the 1/8" of material you were referring to. What type/style of chamfer bit did you use and how did you run it? It looks like you are basically making a little bevel so the edge of the control panel pieces all total 3/4" to allow the t-molding to cover everything, including that plexi. Sorry if this all sounds confusing...I'm at work and trying to get my head wrapped around this concept.

[Hockeyboy]

I see it now...wow...what was I on at work last night?      I stared at that picture and those bits for a while wondering how you did it? Now I see a small bevel on the very bottom of your CP top. Whew...I feel better.

Yeah, I can't do carriage bolts - the "sandwiching" you mentioned for my pieces won't allow for it. I bet I could still take away 1/"8 on the underside and still use my threaded inserts. I still have test pieces - I'll give it a try.

The 1/4" birch panel now has three coats of urethane - man, it sure looks nice! I don't have a pic to share as I still had to head in to work tonight. Can't wait to glue it onto the MDF piece and start drilling holes for joysticks, buttons, the spinner, and the trackball. We got a small bonus at work ($1000 for meeting certain production goals, a little over $600 after taxes) and I'm getting my spinner and iPac2. That should finish up everything I need to buy at this point. Well, unless I decide I need to go with Windows 7 as my OS -- I'm spending hundreds of dollars on hardware and such but don't want to shell out $100 for a copy of Windows 7. I mean, I have 2 copies at the house, but if I install them on the MAME computer it's going to ask me to validate/verify the product key and those are being used by the desktops my wife and I use. We'll see.

[Hockeyboy]

It's been a while since I've been able to do some work on my cabinet, but things have been getting better so I've been able to do some work. Lots of stuff in the background, little things here and there. I've also gone through 3 separate control panel tops -- yes, 3!!  The first one I cut my 1/4" birch plywood panel, stained and varnished it, then cut my 1/2" MDF and drilled all the holes and the cut-out area for the trackball. I lay it on top of the control panel box and find out it's just too short. So I start over on my second one - cut everything out, NO staining or drilling yet, round off the corners on the bottom edge, lay it on top of the control panel box...and you can see the corners of the box underneath my rounded corners. Third one - make it longer by an inch, NO rounding of corners on the bottom edge, cut, drill, glue together, stain, varnish...everything is looking great...and then I try to install a joystick and realize they won't fit! Wow...so much work...wasted. How did I not see that? The only thing I can figure is that the control panel top dimensions I got were not the exact same dimensions as the control panel box that I made based on Knievel's plans. I'm not upset with anyone but myself because some double- and triple-checks would have caught these before I spent extra time and money buying new pieces of 1/4" birch ply. They are only $10 at Home Depot, but it's the time spent staining and varnishing and waiting for each layer to dry...   There's some lessons to be learned here...

Well, I now have a control panel top that fits, it's stained, varnished, drilled...and it is ready. I had my Plexi ready and used my router cloning bit to copy the curves and straight edges of the wood sandwich. Gotta say, that router bit goes through that plexi so easily, but it does throw plastic shavings everywhere. So I started drilling holes, and, I don't know what I was thinking, but I still had a spade bit in my drill and started with that. Big mistake. Spade bits crack Plexi. I ran to Home Depot, picked up another sheet ($25!) and a Forstner bit ($7). I just had to keep switching out between drilling holes through the plexi sheet and taking the router cloning bit to make the holes match up and everything went fine. I got into a little routine and all went well. I had a flat-tip screwdriver handy to chip the melted plastic off the tip of the Forstner bit and break off the melted stuff from the edges of the drill hole so the router bit could fit in and then widen out the hole.

Pic updates!!

#1: Bottom side of the control panel top, spray painted satin black, holes drilled, and joysticks mounted.
#2: Close-up of the dedicated 4-way joystick mounted above the trackball area.
#3: Close-up of joystick mounted on left side of control panel top.
#4: Holes drilled and ready for the threaded screw inserts to mount 3rd joystick.
#5: Two inserts threaded into the MDF - they screw in flush to the MDF...perfect!
#6: All 3 joystick mounts in place!
#7: Top side of control panel top with Plexiglass in place, all holes drilled for buttons, joysticks, and trackball.
#8: Close-up of edge showing 1/2" MDF, 1/4" birch plywood, .093" Plexi sandwich. If you look close you can see the slot for the t-molding (not installed yet).

[Hockeyboy]

More updates! After getting the plexi cut and drilled, I cleaned up the plexi using a micro-fiber towel and some water and then did a quick assembly of the control panel top.  I had also picked up a 1/8" roundover bit (with bearing) and ran it around all the edges, the trackball hole, and the three joystick holes. I no longer have an edge to have worry about scraping fingers and hands on and it sure looks nice. I placed it on top of the control panel box and it fits all around. I'm loving it...excuse me for a second as I think I have a tear or two forming in my eye...

Pic #1: Overhead shot of the control panel with 3 joysticks, spinner, trackball, and all buttons mounted.
Pic #2: Another shot, zoomed in. If you look you can see the edge of the trackball area is rounded. I also put a circle of the Happ pica vinyl around it to dress it up a little. If you recall when Knievel did his "Woody" he put large and long ovals around his controls but I am going "minimalist" for right now. I can always take it apart and slip some vinyl in there...Ideas/thoughts/opinions on leaving it as it or putting vinyl 'rings' around some (or all) of the controls?
Pic #3: Angled shot so you can see the rounding of the edges around the edges, joysticks, and trackball. And yes, that trackball does have a slight recess to it. It does stick above the metal mounting plate, but not above, or flush, with the surface of the 1/4" ply. I think I wanted it to sit flush with the wood surface when I first dry-fit things, but it doesn't, so I must have figured it's not enough to worry about. You can still easily put 2-4 fingers or your palm on the trackball and have plenty of surface to grip so I am hoping it won't become a problem. If I remember, on games such as Golden Tee you want to have a lot of ball action to drive the golf ball really far, but...yeah...again, we'll see.
Pic #4: Side view to show the t-molding in place and the height of the joysticks above the surface. I tried grabbing the sticks and working them a little to see if they would be too short (yeah, yeah, insert several "...that's what SHE said!..." jokes in here  ) and everything seems to be fine for me. Again, I'll have to play some games and then decide, but for now, that's what they look like and that's where they sit (not to mention that I can't re-mount them so that's definitely where they will sit!   ).

[Slippyblade]

Knievel mentioned that the reason he did the ovals on his Woody CP was to ground the controls.  Without the ovals, the controls seemed kind of floaty visually.  I agree with him, there needs to be something there to visually solidify the controls.

[mcseforsale]

Agreed.  On his woody, he used some textured black vinyl just under the plexi that he cut with some sharp shears....I bet they were them HUGE upholstery shears.

I don't think any of us believed that he actually cut them with scissors. 

Otherwise, this build is par excellence!  MON DIEU! 

AJ

[Hockeyboy]

Knievel mentioned that the reason he did the ovals on his Woody CP was to ground the controls.  Without the ovals, the controls seemed kind of floaty visually.  I agree with him, there needs to be something there to visually solidify the controls.

Agreed.  On his woody, he used some textured black vinyl just under the plexi that he cut with some sharp shears....I bet they were them HUGE upholstery shears.

I don't think any of us believed that he actually cut them with scissors. 

Otherwise, this build is par excellence!  MON DIEU! 

AJ

I've still got plenty of the Happ pica vinyl...I ordered something like 3 or 4 ft and it comes 40" or 48" wide. I'm just not sure how easy it would be to undo all of the plastic nuts underneath the control panel so I can get to the wood. I do appreciate the feedback and thoughts -- I'll have to see how easy this will be. Cutting that vinyl with some sharp scissors isn't exactly easy, but my wife does have this cutting board thing with a roller-style cutter...hmmm...

I'm so close, too...I got the computer loaded up with Windows XP, MAME, and even got MaLa loaded and running. I need to wire up the admin buttons to the control panel, mount the control panel box to the cabinet, and get a marquee, and that should be about it.

[Hockeyboy]

UPDATE: I am so close to being done...I've got the control panel mounted onto the cabinet, an LED strip of lights mounted to the underside of the control panel (they are side-emitting LEDs that shine onto the angled piece that runs from the bottom of the control panel to the bottom of the cabinet), the back door is mounted, and I have a temporary marquee sign that I am creating using opaque window film until I get the real sign printed and mounted.

My youngest daughter and her friends have played with it - I still have some work to do when it comes to software tweaking and I can't get some controls figured out in some games (Xenophobe for one, but I did get Robotron to work with P1 & P2 joysticks - yay!!). I played some Joust, Bubble Bobble, Robotron, Smash TV, and Tempest, just to get an idea of some gameplay. All the friends think it's super cool to be able to play old school arcade games on a real arcade-style cabinet, so it's a hit so far! The only downside is that I haven't created a smaller playlist so the 5,993 games that I are loaded take far too long to scroll through...I am going to use ROMLister to create a playlist or two.

I am including some recent pics - they are pretty much just the front of the cabinet with the control panel mounted. There's a button missing on the admin panel (that is now in place) in the pictures, and the marquee is still waiting for some help, but it's really looking very nice.

[mcseforsale]

Wow!  THAT is nice ^^

AJ

[Hockeyboy]

Well, I was able to get a few more little things taken care of. Because I don't have the actual marquee print that I want installed yet, my wife suggested that I get something that will work temporarily. I went to Home Depot and got some of their opaque "stained glass" film, cut it to size and put it in front of the CCL lights that I installed before. Well, those 2 CCL bars were just far too bright -- too bright to the point that you could plainly see them right behind the film. After some thought and messing around, I finally went back to the flourescent fixture and put it behind the monitor board. Now I could see the shadows of the speakers. Hmmm...I finally was struck with an idea that I could cut another piece of plexiglass, just big enough to go right where the CCL's were mounted, and put some translucent "white rice paper" film onto that. Put my marquee piece in front of that and everything lights up, nice and soft, and you can't see any shadows.

The back door is mounted via a piano hinge. The pass-thru socket/switch has been wired up and I didn't blow a breaker or anything! Yay! To keep everyone protected from the electricity, I put some RTV silicone all over the exposed terminals.

Lastly, the cabinet is in the house! The wife said now that it's all put together, and is looking good, she found a spot where we can put it in the house. Sure looks better inside rather than in the garage! I still need to do some more software work, but other than that, it's pretty much done. Not sure what else I need to do.

Pic 1: Back of the cabinet, with back door attached. Still need to do some wire management, but everything is hooked up. The power cord is hooked up and has the RTV silicone on the terminals of the socket switch.
Pic 2: Back door piano hinge
Pic 3: Smart Power Strip, plus a whole bunch of wires.
Pic 4: Lights out, marquee light on - if you look carefully, you can see the shadows of the speakers, but you really have to look. This is the stained glass film that is temporary.
Pic 5: Cabinet sitting in the room, with the bar stool, and marquee light on.

[TopJimmyCooks]

The stained glass and wood finish gives it an ecclesiastical feel.  You should drop it off in the lobby of a church and see who plays it.  Probably get some kids to want to get out of bed on sunday for a change.

Looks nice and anything's better than being blinded by your exposed marquee light while trying to play. 

[yotsuya]

Good point, TJC. That reminds me of the rectory of the Catholic school I went to as a kid. Throw Satan's Hollow on it and you are set!

[Hockeyboy]

Uhhh...thanks guys...I think...