Donkey Kong scratch build, my first cabinet!

[jdbailey1206]

Stupid onion slicing ninjas.     I wish I could tell you it gets better.  As a dog person I can completely understand.  We had to put or pitty down last year due to seizures.  I know Momo would want you to continue on.  Just throwing out ideas but it would be cool to dedicate the cab to him with a serial plate.  Sorry for your loss Paul. 

[PixelPaul]

Time for the front speaker panel. This is probably one of the most distinct features of a Nintendo cabinet, a one of the things I wasn't really looking forward to doing. There are a number of ways that one could go about making the cutouts, the easiest probably being to drill holes at the ends and then cut the straights with a jigsaw. Very doable this way, but in my quest to avoid as much sanding as possible, I decided to use the plunge router.

First draw out the dimensions onto the MDF panel. Just need the centerlines and stop marks on both ends (sorry, crappy pic).



The router needs a spiral upcut bit, this one is 1/4" diameter - the same width as the cutouts.



Set-up the plunge router for the first cut. The silver guide attached to the router references the straight edge of the board to keep the cut nice and straight. The wood strips clamped to either end keep the router from going beyond the correct length for the cut-out. The router bit is lowered an additional 1/8" per pass until the cut goes all the way through the board.



Need to reposition the router edge guide and stop blocks for each of the 7 cuts. It takes a bit of doing, but the finished result looked great!



Finally attached the speaker panel to the cabinet with some yellow glue and screws. Finally starting to look like something!

[jdbailey1206]

---steaming pile of meadow muffin--- a brick!  That's pretty.   

[PixelPaul]

Stupid onion slicing ninjas.     I wish I could tell you it gets better.  As a dog person I can completely understand.  We had to put or pitty down last year due to seizures.  I know Momo would want you to continue on.  Just throwing out ideas but it would be cool to dedicate the cab to him with a serial plate.  Sorry for your loss Paul.

Thanks for the kind words, and yes the cabinet will be dedicated to him. As it turns out seizures are what did our dog in also. He had a bad one at home one evening, and before we could get him to the animal hospital he had two more in the car. Was just hanging on when we arrived, and we had to put him down.

[jmike]

Great job on the speaker holes Paul. 
That's one of the things I'm dreading, when I start my Nintendo cab.

Also sorry to hear about your dog.   

[PixelPaul]

Next, on to the piece that holds the bottom of the bezel and contacts the control panel. Needed some material that is thicker than 3/4" stock for this piece. Thought about laminating two pieces of MDF, but the edge surface would not be very smooth for painting. Could have used a 2x4 or 2x6 but might be susceptible to twisting or warping. Had some extra 1x6 poplar laying around so I decided to use that.

Cut two pieces to rough length and laminate with lots of yellow glue and clamps.



Allowed 24 hours for glue to dry, then ripped both sides on the table saw for a nice smooth edge and crosscut to length. Now on to the router table to cut the dado for the bezel. Used a 1/4" spiral router bit, made multiple passes until it reached a depth of 1/4". The groove needs to be 5/16", so had to offset the fence a bit and take an extra pass to get the required width.



Decided to cut a slot for the control panel, which contacts this piece. This is not really necessary, but I thought that it would look better if the CP slides into a recess for a nice clean fit. Back to the router table, this time using a 3/4" mortising bit. The fence on my router table would not slide back far enough to accommodate the position I needed, so I just clamped a straight-edged board to use as a fence.



Decided to knock off a bit of the front edge, so used the router with a 45 degree chamfer bit. An original DK cabinet does not have this, but thought it would look better.



Position the piece in the cabinet, and attach with some dry wall screws through the side panels.

[jdbailey1206]

It could be me Paul but the control panel retainer looks to be sitting too high.  Take your mockup bezel and make sure it fits.  But like I said it could be me.  My iPhone tends to bend perspective when I take pictures in low lights. 

[PixelPaul]

The control panel held in place by some latches on the underside. These latches will attach at the sides. Wanted to make a surface with better holding strength that the MDF side panels, so once again used some scrap 1x6 poplar. Cut an angle on the chop saw to match the slope of the control panel and attached to cabinet sides with some yellow glue and drywall screws. Also added an additional piece below the CP slot to provide some additional contact area for some extra support. Ripped a bevel to to once again match the angle of the CP and attached with drywall screws and yellow glue.



Next cut the piece of MDF for the control panel. Need to cut a bevel on the edge that slides into the groove, did that on the table saw. Also need to cut a slot for the T-molding on the opposite side. Should have done this when I routed the T-slots on the cabinet sides, but forgot about this piece.



Current state of cabinet, with cardboard mockup bezel & marquee.

[jdbailey1206]

[PixelPaul]

It could be me Paul but the control panel retainer looks to be sitting too high.  Take your mockup bezel and make sure it fits.  But like I said it could be me.  My iPhone tends to bend perspective when I take pictures in low lights.

Good eye, the jackobud plans I'm using are off a bit. But I cut a mockup bezel and marquee (on backorder from mikesarcade.com) to known dimensions to be certain everything fits in relationship to these two pieces. So while it's a bit off, it's close enough for me! 

[talkgeek]

Looking really good 

[urbanledge]

Looking ace!
I'll be starting on mine soon enough,
just waiting on a few more bits to be delivered!
Could you take a look at the cad drawing I did and see what you think?
I believe the jackobud ones to be off in height,width and depth 

https://www.dropbox.com/s/ldwhsealvkdv9yb/Full%20Plans%20no%20dimensions.dxf

[PixelPaul]

Could you take a look at the cad drawing I did and see what you think?
I believe the jackobud ones to be off in height,width and depth 

It appears your file upload is in some kind of CAD format, which would require CAD software (which I don't have). I think the Jackobud plans are pretty close, enough so that you would likely not be able to tell unless you had an authentic DK cabinet next to it. I'm guessing some of the "die-hards" on this forum can note the minute differences, but I sure can't. I don't think any family or friends are going to either. The one issue I noticed is the dimensions by the top marquee were a bit off. The key for me was to know the dimensions of the marquee and bezel, and to work around those. Those two pieces *must* fit. I ordered from mikesarcade.com, which indicate the dimensions as:

bezel: 20-1/4" H x 22-7/16" W
marquee: 5-7/8" H x 22-3/8" W

If you are going with the custom print sandwiched between plexiglass for the marquee and bezel, than even this wouldn't matter. You could make them any size you wanted and customize the size to fit. I'm sure others more knowledgeable can chime in here. Also do a forum search, before I started my build I found several posts where people requested certain dimensions from an authentic cabinet.

[urbanledge]

Check out the free cad software draftsight,
very handy!
Im making a 100% scale template of mine on a laser cutter in work at  the moment.
unfortunately the laser wont cut wood!
so just out of cardboard at the moment!

Yours is looking sweet.Ive never seen a nintendo cab in real life .....

[jdbailey1206]

Could you take a look at the cad drawing I did and see what you think?
I believe the jackobud ones to be off in height,width and depth 

It appears your file upload is in some kind of CAD format, which would require CAD software (which I don't have). I think the Jackobud plans are pretty close, enough so that you would likely not be able to tell unless you had an authentic DK cabinet next to it. I'm guessing some of the "die-hards" on this forum can note the minute differences, but I sure can't. I don't think any family or friends are going to either. The one issue I noticed is the dimensions by the top marquee were a bit off. The key for me was to know the dimensions of the marquee and bezel, and to work around those. Those two pieces *must* fit. I ordered from mikesarcade.com, which indicate the dimensions as:

bezel: 20-1/4" H x 22-7/16" W
marquee: 5-7/8" H x 22-3/8" W

If you are going with the custom print sandwiched between plexiglass for the marquee and bezel, than even this wouldn't matter. You could make them any size you wanted and customize the size to fit. I'm sure others more knowledgeable can chime in here. Also do a forum search, before I started my build I found several posts where people requested certain dimensions from an authentic cabinet.

Check out the free cad software draftsight,
very handy!
Im making a 100% scale template of mine on a laser cutter in work at  the moment.
unfortunately the laser wont cut wood!
so just out of cardboard at the moment!

Yours is looking sweet.Ive never seen a nintendo cab in real life .....

[jdbailey1206]

 

[urbanledge]

Finished mine over the weekend 

[DarakuTenshi]

You guys are making me want to build a Nintendo cab. My Hyperspin cab originally was going to be in this style until I changed my mind. Now... I'm wanting to go back and do it. My thoughts are to create a "Nintendo Classics" cab that will play only the old Nintendo games from the 80's.

[SORHP]

You guys are making me want to build a Nintendo cab. My Hyperspin cab originally was going to be in this style until I changed my mind. Now... I'm wanting to go back and do it. My thoughts are to create a "Nintendo Classics" cab that will play only the old Nintendo games from the 80's.

I had that same thought !
But there are too many horizontal games, so you'd need 2 nintendo cabs, one for vertical games, and one for horizontal games
Which is what I did... A super punchout, and a fifjr, and also in the near future a dk will be finished

[chopperthedog]

Finished mine over the weekend 

Odd choice for the monitor angle.


good day.

[skjerk]

Why is that angle odd?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[PixelPaul]

The weather here in the midwest is turning crappy, so it's time to abandon outdoor projects and resume my cabinet build! I should have started it earlier last winter, once the weather turned nicer it was time to do outside work and I haven't touched to cabinet in since May. Next step will be to work on the back. A Google image search has turned up empty, can anyone help with some pictures of what the back of a Donkey Kong cabinet looks like?

[jdbailey1206]

Glad to see youre back Paul.

[DaOld Man]

Good job! Love Donkey Kong and love to see people restore them or replicate them.
 

[wp34]

The weather here in the midwest is turning crappy, so it's time to abandon outdoor projects and resume my cabinet build! I should have started it earlier last winter, once the weather turned nicer it was time to do outside work and I haven't touched to cabinet in since May. Next step will be to work on the back. A Google image search has turned up empty, can anyone help with some pictures of what the back of a Donkey Kong cabinet looks like?

Glad to see you are back.  I love this build.

I've got a DK Jr that was converted to RBI Baseball.  If that will do I'll take some pictures tomorrow.  I can take measurements as well if you need them.

[ChanceKJ]

Yeah, glad to see you back at this. I'm really jealous of this project and want to build one myself. One day. Soon. 

[PixelPaul]

I've got a DK Jr that was converted to RBI Baseball.  If that will do I'll take some pictures tomorrow.  I can take measurements as well if you need them.

Thanks. That would be great and most appreciated!

[jdbailey1206]

I've got a DK Jr that was converted to RBI Baseball.  If that will do I'll take some pictures tomorrow.  I can take measurements as well if you need them.

Thanks. That would be great and most appreciated!

You could check out my FFJR build Paul.  Should have pics of the back.

[javeryh]

Just seeing this for the first time.  Nice job so far.  DK is my favorite cab!