Introduction and gauging of interest

[eforer]

Hi Everyone,

Long time lurker finally making an account and posting.  It's kind of pitiful that at this point I haven't built myself a cabinet.  I own a display fabrication company which has a huge millwork shop with 5 CNC machining centers, laser cutting and a large format print shop.  As I pondered this fact looking at other peoples projects, it occurred to me that if I'm going to make one, I might as well try to develop a real, good quality cheap kit.    I guess I'm looking to the builder and enthusiast community to figure out what makes sense.  I'm thinking more long term to do a kickstarter for a more main stream / casual enthusiast but to try to develop the project open source with the builder community.  My thought is that if I could get a group of folks that wanted to help contribute ideas and develop the concept I could offer the parts at basically cost for forum members as a way to balance the scales so to speak.

Let me start with the goals I have outlined so far:

1) Affordable: Less than $200.00 for a complete kit
2) Flat pack:  Needs to be the Ikea of arcade cabinets
3) Flexible:  The design should give people the bits of the project that are annoying/difficult to do without a big shop resource, but allow them to customize the things that are important to them

Point 1 is pretty easy.  I think by virtue of the fact that my shop buys big volumes of the raw materials we get good economies of scale there.  So even if this project is small in scope, I can pull from larger inventory.  Also, I already have the infrastructure which is paid for by my core business, so it's not like I have to amortize huge amounts of infrastructure in to these things.

Point 2 I also think is relatively trivial.  A lot of what we already design and make is flat pack.  We use Hettich hardware which is really awesome, it's nearly identical in specification to the family of hardware used by Ikea, but is much higher quality.  Basically everything we make can be assembled with a #2 phillips already. 

Point 3 is where I feel like I need a lot of help from the community in determining what is wanted.  Here are my coarse guesses as to what I think people would want to be responsible for themselves (ie not included in the kit):

1) Screens
2) Controls
3) Coin Mechs (if desired)
4) Audio

My thought on all of the above is that unless there was staggering volume of demand, end users could source these items and save a lot of money over someone marking them up and reselling them as part of the kit.  Also, these areas seem easy for a DIYer to handle and fun to pick out/spec to make it "your own."  Does this thought process make sense?

Graphics are the last area.  We are an all digital shop and have UV flatbed printers as well as solvent, latex and aqueous roll to roll machines.  Because the tech is all inkjet and not offset/screen doesn't really cost anything to print 1 design over another, so we could look at just having an illustrator template with bleeds marked on it so that people could design their own artwork.  Is this desirable? 

I think this could be a lot of fun.  If people are interested, post / pm me.

If you are interested in seeing some of the cool stuff at our shop you can check out my companies http://www.bsgcreative.com

[PL1]

Welcome aboard, Eforer.   

Long time lurker finally making an account and posting.  It's kind of pitiful that at this point I haven't built myself a cabinet.

As a long time lurker, I'm sure you're already familiar with the others already offering CNC-cut kits here.

Designing and building a cab for yourself might be a good way to demonstrate what you can do and encourage community feedback.   


Scott

[Generic Eric]

Designing and building a cab for yourself might be a good way to demonstrate what you can do and encourage community feedback.   
Scott

:eleventy:

Lets see it Eforer!

[yotsuya]

I'm more interested in the graphics part. Are you able to print onto plexiglass?

[HanoiBoi]

So, what exactly are you thinking you'd be offering for under $200?  Is it just basically the cabinet pieces and hardware to build it?  Sounds like graphics would be an extra cost.

If so, not sure how many DIYers would go for it.  Most of the cost of builds is not the cabinet, but all the things that it seems you would not offer.

At that price point, I would think that many might prefer to find a friend to help build, hire someone local, or even purchase an existing cabinet and go from there  (and may even get some additional parts, like coin doors, CP, marquee, t-molding, speakers, etc.)

[eds1275]

A 2-piece design - like the base and the top separate to reduce shipping size and cost, for example the ultimate arcade 2 has this design. Plenty of pre-drilled control panels and of course the option of a blank.

[eforer]

Well, this is why I'm glad I posted.  It sounds like people don't struggle with the cabinet as much as I would have thought.  My concept was to build sort of an open source frame work using standard furniture RTA components (think Ikea), make the plans available and sell the component parts if there was a demand.  It sounds like the electronics, controls etc. are the bigger concern.  Se la vie!  To answer yotsuya's question, yes we can print direct to Plexiglass or mount digital prints.  The direct prints are uv cure prints so the quality isn't as good as say a latex print to vinyl. 

As an aside, you definitely could build the side panels in 2 parts so the whole box could be fairly easy to UPS.

[pbj]

Please make sure you aren't some lackey that's going to run stuff while the boss is on vacation.  He'll never understand and it never works.

Price point is nice. 

Just do a hinged access panel rather than a coin door.  Make it a size compatible with a Happs door and leave it to the buyer to 'upgrade.'

Screen, audio, and controls I'd rather get elsewhere.

It'd be nice if you could provide the cut plexi, particularly for the control panel.

[yotsuya]

To answer yotsuya's question, yes we can print direct to Plexiglass or mount digital prints.  The direct prints are uv cure prints so the quality isn't as good as say a latex print to vinyl. 

Cool! I'd love to see a sample of the print onto plexi. Any idea of costs?