Final tally on arcade cab with some details and notes

[dkersten]

If this is against the forum rules, I apologize.  I won't detail any specific product or vendor, but I just finished totaling up my costs for my 4 player mame cabinet and figured it might be a good piece of current information for anyone looking to jump into this, or at the least for others to compare their own projects to.

I broke this down into three parts, the cabinet, the control panel, and the computer.  I also mention labor even though that didn't cost me anything.  Things aren't perfect because some of the costs I couldn't split up without digging out receipts and breaking individual costs down (ie t-molding was purchased with electronics for the CP and used in both the CP and cabinet, with 50% of it left over for other projects).

Cabinet:
features 27" LCD monitor, red t-molding, backlit marquee with custom art, functioning single player coin door, keyboard tray and door, painted at this point (no side art yet).

Material costs: Approximately $430
This includes every purchase made at hardware stores (some hardware was used in CP).  almost $200 of this was in random hardware store runs.  I had the 4 casters that would have cost around $40, and some other materials were on hand (some screws, brad nails, glue, etc).  There were a couple minor tool purchases in this not amounting to much, and about $30 of the cost was in wood used for the template.
Electronics costs:  Approximately $220
Monitor, speakers, and a few other wiring tidbits specific to the cabinet.

Control Panel:
4 player CP with a total of 34 buttons, 30 of which are translucent with full RGB lighting control, translucent RGB lit trackball, spinner with both knob and mini steering wheel, artwork printing, interface controller and LED controller, 2 extension USB cables for external devices, all wiring and accessories, 2 j-stik joysticks and 2 Ultrastik360 analog joysticks. Replacement ball tops for all 4 joysticks, top mount restrictors for u360's, longer shafts for j-stiks.  LEDBlinky software

Approximate costs: $1075
There is about $75 in misc tools, wires, and other items that I only used some of and still have some (or a lot) left over.  There are also a few parts I didn't use, and shipping was at least $100 of this total cost. 

Computer:
Core i7 (1st gen) with 8 gb ram, 250gb raptor hdd, 250gb ssd, Geforce GTX285 graphics card, 400w psu.  Windows 7 64 bit.

Approximate cost: zero, I had this lying around.  The equivalent would be around $400 used, but less computer could easily be used, I wanted to run more recent stuff that takes the higher power GPU (ie Naomi games running Demul). 

Labor:
I would guess I spent some 50 hours in the shop total on this, give or take 5 or 6 hours.  It is tough to say exactly because once you get to paint you have drying times and while you might be out there for 15 minutes spraying every couple hours, you can burn 8 hours just going out to check things every once in a while, and then filling the time with cleanup and other tasks not directly related to the project.  Plus much of the time was spent making design decisions.  My next build will easily have 15 hours less time into it just based on familiarity with various techniques, mistakes I learned from, and knowing what hardware and tools to have on hand. 

Software time is easily over 100 hours total, including graphical arts.  But if I did this again, 95% of that time wouldn't need to be reproduced.  Much of that time was spent figuring out how to do things, and the LED's alone took at least 5 or 6 hours of fiddling to get to where I wanted it, if not more. 

If you figured your time in the shop was worth 15 dollars per hour, realistically I could "bill" 35 hours here, so the "labor" cost would equate to something around $500.  Sort of a moot point, but when it comes down to it, if someone asked how much it would cost to have one built, that helps you come up with a complete figure.


My thoughts on the results of the price:
The "nickel and diming" costs are always higher than you expect.  I easily spent over $200 in random, unplanned trips to the hardware store or in Amazon costs.  I rushed this project from start to finish, so I could have saved another $50-100 or more if I had taken more time to source some items and order them from overseas.  The LED buttons added the most single cost to the project, adding well over $300 in controller, wiring, and other costs.  Without that one feature alone I could have saved some 25% on the overall costs and time would have shortened quite a bit as well.  I am so happy with that feature though that I wouldn't change it if I could...

Future costs:
I do plan to add light guns to this eventually.  The labor is pretty minimal as all I have to do is modify the bezel to mount the sensors and plug in the guns and configure (I have external USB ports already installed).  But I am looking at $200 or more depending on what options I choose here. 
I purchased a set if pedals off a sit down arcade with the intent of modifying them to work in my cab for the racing games I can play with the 360 spinner, but in the end they weren't going to work well so I scrapped it.  I am into those pedals for some $120 with controller and shipping, and might use them in my sit down racing project.  I am tempted to buy a set of pedals that would work with my cab, but frankly the racing experience with the spinner and mini wheel is not that great, so I don't see it as a good investment. 
I am about 95% convinced not to add pedals, so I will likely add a kick plate to the front of the base of the cab.  Black diamond plate, about $40.
Finally I do eventually plan to do side graphics, that is something like $220 to print if I cover the whole sides.  I still have to design the art and since things are still not finalized, I have not even started on this.

Heck, the cab might be going away soon anyway with a new cab coming to replace it, one with a vertically mounted 40" lcd to replace the 27" horizontal widescreen.  So until I know for sure, art is on hold.  My CP stays with me either way, the benefit of keeping it modular from the cab.

Hope this is some good info for others, and I would love to hear what kind of costs others ended up incurring on their projects.

[yotsuya]

Damn... I've built whole cabinets for less than the cost of the control panel alone... 

Granted, those were "specialty" cabinets and not "SuperMAME" ones, so I can see how the costs on that would add up.

[dkersten]

Yeah, my first purchase of just the joysticks, track ball, spinner, buttons, and controller were over $850.. the rest was just the little costs in between.  It is a far cry from a $50 ebay kit, lol. 

You look at a u360 that costs around $60 and think "that isn't bad", but then you buy 2, pay shipping, and then get the heavier springs, longer shafts, different ball tops, and top mount restrictors and suddenly you are into each stick for around $100, and you have two of them, lol.  And by the time all was said and done, ~$7 per button.. it adds up FAST.

And every time I hit the hardware store was another $40 or more, and every time I opened Amazon I ended up spending $30-80..

The upside is I started this by selling my old tankstick and x-tension cabinet for a $600 profit, so realistically I am into this for around $1250 total out of pocket.  Considering some people are out there selling similar setups for $3000 or more, I am pretty happy with the overall budget.  More than I expected, but well worth it to me..

[BadMouth]

After ending up with $700 in the $50 driving cab I picked up, I learned to quit keeping track.

On my new builds I just spend what I'm comfortable spending until it's done.  I don't want to know the grand total.
I enjoy working on stuff and it's an entertainment expense as far as I'm concerned.

[dkersten]

I agree with you and the only reason I even tallied it up was because I was working on my budget and paying off my credit card for the month, and I had to see what kind of cost I really had here because I have already agreed to build two more cabinets for people, and needed to know what to charge them, lol.  Once I tallied it up I figured there might be some people who would be interested in how much it can cost, and where the money went..

In my case, the beauty here is that by the time I am done, I will have paid for everything by doing what I enjoy the most - building things.  My net is already 30% less than what I spent, and I might even end up with a couple dollars in my pocket when the MDF dust finally settles.  What more could a man ask for?

Of course, by the time I am done with the racing cab I am starting to plan, I will be into this for another big chunk of money.  But hey, I don't have a wife to complain and it isn't getting in the way of putting food on the table for me or my kids, so it doesn't really matter if I spend $50 or $5000, if I get enjoyment out of it, it is worth it.