Pac Mac Cocktail on a budget II - Electric Boogaloo

[wp34]

Here's the story.  A friend of mine wanted to surprise his wife with a Pac Mac cocktail cabinet for her birthday.  I offered to build it if he would pay for the parts. I tried to keep the cost at "around $500".  I ordered two of everything so I could build a second one.   The original  plan was that I would build both at once but it quickly became clear I would not meet the due date by making two.  Therefore I'll be building another one in the spring once I get my Tron cabinet finished. 

I just barely made it by finishing this morning.   My wife and I dropped it off at his house with a couple of hours to spare.  There are not a lot of build pictures since I was in a hurry.  In a few days I'll post what I have along with the parts list in case others are interested.

I should also note that I leaned heavily on the projects from Unstupid  and CWorley.  I highly suggest you checkout their threads as well.

[Slippyblade]

Well, it looks great!  Hope your friend appreciates it.

[cmoses]

Yeah it looks great. I am working on a cocktail project so very interested in your parts list, what you used, etc.


Sent from my iPad Mini using Tapatalk HD

[404]

looks amazing. Literally looks like one of those cnc kits that are sold online. May i ask you where you got the coin door?

[pbj]

$500 cash in hand

[mgb]

I gotta tell you, I saw the word budget in the description and I wasn't
expecting it to look as good as it does.
You did a great job. That looks great.

[Le Chuck]

$500 cash in hand

That's high praise from PBJ

Looks great!!!

[emphatic]

Very nice work!

[wp34]

Thanks guys.  I appreciate the feedback.

$500 cash in hand

That's high praise from PBJ

Looks great!!!

Yeah well I said "around $500".   

[swaffar]

looks amazing. Literally looks like one of those cnc kits that are sold online. May i ask you where you got the coin door?

http://www.ultimarc.com/store/section.php?xSec=9

[wp34]

looks amazing. Literally looks like one of those cnc kits that are sold online. May i ask you where you got the coin door?

http://www.ultimarc.com/store/section.php?xSec=9

I bought it through Divemaster but Ultimarc sells them.  That was one of several screw-ups I made trying to keep the price down.  I thought I was buying a $20 coin door with no coin mech not realizing that this left a huge hole in the coin door.  I ended up having to order a coin mech from Ultimarc which made the "coin door" overpriced for what I was trying to accomplish.  I made several dumb mistakes like this because I was under a time-frame and budget.  Great learning experience though.

[BAMBOO]

wp34 that is awesome.  It looks incredibly authentic.  Any chance you have any pics of the inside?

[wp34]

wp34 that is awesome.  It looks incredibly authentic.  Any chance you have any pics of the inside?

Thanks BAMBOO.  I've got some pics I'll post soon.  I just have not had time with the holidays.

[404]

looks amazing. Literally looks like one of those cnc kits that are sold online. May i ask you where you got the coin door?

http://www.ultimarc.com/store/section.php?xSec=9

Ah, that's the one. Thanks!

I bought it through Divemaster but Ultimarc sells them.  That was one of several screw-ups I made trying to keep the price down.  I thought I was buying a $20 coin door with no coin mech not realizing that this left a huge hole in the coin door.  I ended up having to order a coin mech from Ultimarc which made the "coin door" overpriced for what I was trying to accomplish.  I made several dumb mistakes like this because I was under a time-frame and budget.  Great learning experience though.

thanks for the heads up. I'm still sort of on the shelf on whether i want to actually add a coin door to my project but that coin door setup looks nice.

[wp34]

Originally I was going to make this using oak plywood from our local big-box Menards.  I had a 2x4 sheet from them I used to do some initially testing with my new table saw.  The veneer on the Menards (or Lowes or Home Depot for that matter) was paper thin.  I ended up buying a sheet from the Woodsmith store.  It was $20 more but you can see from the picture below the sheet on the top has a much thicker veneer.



I decided to make several templates knowing that I would be making at least one more cocktail cabinet.  To make the speaker cut-out I used one of the 6x9 mounting brackets as a routing template.





To make the template for the power inlet I used a forstner bit the width of the opening to cut out most of the material.



Then I used a chisel to clean it up.  Not pretty but it does the job.

[wp34]

I made a template for the top first. 

Making sure it is about the same size as the glass. 


I made a trace of the artwork as well.


I screwed blocks to the template and used a flush trim bit to cutout the control panel section.


I was hoping that the curve of the bit would leave me with enough of a curve to match the artwork and handle the T-molding.




The angle ended up being a little too severe and I had a lot of trouble getting the T-molding to fit.  This is something I intend to fix before I build my next one.

[wp34]

Turns out a toilet flange has exactly the same radius as the corners of the artwork--or close enough anyway.    I screwed one to the corner and again used a flush trim bit to route it.








This PVC fitting worked for the CP corner.


It was very tricky to route though.

[BAMBOO]

Sweet.  Gives me some ideas.  Thanks for posting.

[wp34]

Sweet.  Gives me some ideas.  Thanks for posting.

No problem.  I hope this helps someone out.

[wp34]

I used the bezel from the de-cased monitor to determine how big to make my opening.  I didn't take pictures but I screwed wood blocks to the top in a square and used a flush-trim bit to route the opening.  Similar to what I did with the top.






All done and ready for copying.

[cmoses]

Very nice  I like the idea of using the monitor bezel to cut out the opening for the monitor. Holding it in place with wood blocks. I need to create a bezel for mine and think I will try this idea out. Did you leave the corners rounded? Do they cover much of the corner of the LCD display?

Thanks


Sent from my iPad Mini using Tapatalk HD

[wp34]

Very nice  I like the idea of using the monitor bezel to cut out the opening for the monitor. Holding it in place with wood blocks. I need to create a bezel for mine and think I will try this idea out. Did you leave the corners rounded? Do they cover much of the corner of the LCD display?

Thanks


Sent from my iPad Mini using Tapatalk HD

I did leave the corners rounded.  I like that look and it didn't cover any of the display.   

[wp34]

I didn't take a lot of photos of putting the main cabinet together.  Here is what I do have.  To put the cabinet together I used a Kreg Pocket Hole jig.  I'm not sure if I would use this on an upright but for a cocktail cabinet it is perfect.  It really makes putting the cabinet together fun and easy.
 






I installed the CP sides first with pocket holes.  If I installed the sides first I would not have been able to get the screws in for the CP sides.

[wp34]

Here is a completed shot ready for staining.  The friend I'm building this for refinishes furniture as a hobby so he wanted to stain it himself.
 


Here it is stained.  I think it looks fantastic and I'm going to have him stain mine when I build it as well.

[CraftyMech]

Full of awesomeness! 

I've been dreaming of an authentic Ms. Pac cocktail build to stick my Namco Galaga/Ms Pac/Pacman board into.

[wp34]

Full of awesomeness! 

I've been dreaming of an authentic Ms. Pac cocktail build to stick my Namco Galaga/Ms Pac/Pacman board into.

Thanks.  I put a 60-1 in this one.  I like your idea better.   

[cmoses]

Looks amazing. Very professional looking. Curious about the control panels, are they wood, metal? Looked like a joystick with 1 button. Hope you have some pictures of that process.


Sent from my iPad Mini using Tapatalk HD

[pbj]

My god, I am amazed.  From my initial glance, I thought this was another one of those damned IKEA CNC cabinets that win "forum awards" these days.  Nice work.

 

[danny_galaga]

Excellent work. Not just for the price, but just because (",)

[ark_ader]

Excellent job.

[Louis Tully]

.

[wp34]

Thanks guys.  I very much appreciate the comments.  When I look at it I just see the things I messed up.

Looks amazing. Very professional looking. Curious about the control panels, are they wood, metal? Looked like a joystick with 1 button. Hope you have some pictures of that process.

They are wood.  I do have pictures of that process and will post them later.

[wp34]

I didn't document the making of the top very well so I'll try to explain what I did.  Home Depot sells 1/4 MDF.  Since the top needs to be 1" I glued the 1/4 MDF to 3/4 oak plywood.  The 1/4 MDF basically served as the bezel as I cut the opening in it to match the monitor.  The opening in the 3/4 oak was cut to be slightly larger than the monitor.  That way the monitor fit right against the 1/4 MDF.
 
The inside line is an outline of the monitor.  The outside is with an 1" added so there would be room to move the monitor around.


I need to find a better place to glue up. 


Then routed around the outside of the 3/4 with a pattern bit using the 1/4 as a guide.


Painted with flat black to match the artwork.


I used the back of the de-cased monitor shell to as a pattern to drill holes that lined up with the VESA mounts on the monitor in a scrap of 3/4 plywood.  The screws were metric and I had a little difficulty finding a match.  It didn't help that I was looking for them the night before this was to be delivered.




I to align the monitor I took a couple of end tables and set the top between them.  That way I could lie underneath and move the monitor around until it was lined up properly.  Then I just screwed it down.

[ChanceKJ]

I really like this build. Not gonna lie, when i first saw the beginning of this thread i also thought it came from a kit. That's so awesome, and i think it says something about the level of quality of your work. (well, that which we can discern from the pictures anyways. )

Good job, looks like something i'd see sitting in the corner of the bar adjacent to the bowling alley of a small rural Alberta town. You fooled us all. 

[wp34]

I really like this build. Not gonna lie, when i first saw the beginning of this thread i also thought it came from a kit. That's so awesome, and i think it says something about the level of quality of your work. (well, that which we can discern from the pictures anyways. )

Good job, looks like something i'd see sitting in the corner of the bar adjacent to the bowling alley of a small rural Alberta town. You fooled us all. 

Thanks.  I think one of the things that really sets this cabinet off is the stain.  My friend really nailed making it look modern and retro at the same time. 

[yotsuya]

Great job there. Looks awesome.

[yotsuya]

My god, I am amazed.  From my initial glance, I thought this was another one of those damned IKEA CNC cabinets that win "forum awards" these days.  Nice work.

                    HATED IT!

[wp34]

Here are some pics of the control panel.  One of my rules with this particular project was no custom artwork or lighting.  That is what has slowed me down the most on other projects.   Because we were working with a budget I was also trying to stay away from the metal control panels that are typically used on cocktail cabinets.  Also I wanted to use the MS Pac Man reunion sticks and did not want to have bolts showing through.  In the end I came up with a process that was money-wise and labor foolish. 

First I took a scrap piece of 5/8" MDF left over from my Tron project to create the base CP. 




The mounting plate for the joystick will be recessed into the MDF.






Then I glued a 1/8" piece of hardboard to the top of the CP.  This will give the laminate a nice flat base.

[wp34]

It actually took me two tries to get this right.  These pictures are from my first try.  The second time I drilled the hole for the joystick in both the 1/8" hardboard and the laminate prior to gluing.  I just lined up the holes with the hole in the mounting plate.

I had to drill holes for the mounting plate bolts so that the hardboard would lay flush.


A little bondo to fill the holes.


There will be T-molding on the front of the CP.  Because of the laminate the T-molding does not quite cover the entire front so I used an 1/8" roundover bit on the bottom.  I also applied a little black spray paint ahead of time to cover any areas the T-molding misses.


Here is a shot of the front portion of the CP.  They were made with scrap pieces of plywood.


Here is the finished product. 



These turned out well but have a number of drawbacks.  For one I used regular size start buttons because they were labeled and I was trying to avoid artwork.  Because of this I was unable to fit a second action button which made a few games unplayable.  Also the whole assembly ended up being very tight for space.  I'm not sure I can easily remove the joystick if it needs replaced.

When I build mine I'm considering using metal control panels.   For this project these worked well because I had extra laminate and could save my friend a few dollars.

[wp34]

I wired up the power inlet exactly as described here. 





Testing the jamma wiring.  This was probably my favorite part of the project.


I used some extra micro-switches for the "Test" and "Service" buttons.


Not my best wiring but I'm happy with it considering the deadline I was on.


Here are some random construction photos.