I finally finished my OND designed cab and wanted to post my experience so others could learn from it, just like I learned a ton from reading hours and hours from various threads. This was my first build and I chose to go with my favorite arcade game growing up, Street Fighter (specifically II). From initially thinking about making the cab to completing it took me about 4 months but most of that waiting was due to the winter/cold. It was too cold to work in my garage (or even paint) so I spent Jan/Feb designing my graphics and setting up MAME/Hyperspin/Emulators. Below I detail the parts and process of my building experience. Since I learned so much from others on here, I'm just trying to give back a little. Hopefully it will help someone with their build.
Thank You's- OND - A huge thanks to OND and everyone who tweaked his cabinet plans. Without these I probably would not have even attempted to build an arcade cabinet.
- timhisu - Had you not blazed the trail with your own cab, I wouldn't have followed. Thanks for answering my never-ending questions.
- fr_303 - Your SF cab was obviously my inspiration. I hope you look at mine and think "Imitation is the greatest form of flattery". I loved your designs and while I tried to use different characters, I quickly found only 3-4 worked well.
- ChanceKJ - Your flickr album from your Flynn build was invaluable. You have a lot of hidden treasure (details) in those pictures that I found very useful. Spent hours studying them.
- dalio - Ideas from your OND build. Your cab made me decide to go with a 4:3 LCD. I loved your Nintendo theme.
- Martijn - Your SF cab was also an inspiration for my design. A mish-mash of yours and fr_303's cab.
Flickr Album - I've added descriptions where I thought more detail was needed. I didn't get many MDF-build pictures since I was trying to bang it out in a 3-day weekend with my brother.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/21400288@N05/sets/72157651964841131/Youtube Videos Graphics - I made all the graphics myself. Having background in web design I was no stranger to Photoshop but had never created print graphics before (300 dpi). I got all images online. Some were already in vector/print format, most were not. The SF logo I was able to find in eps format already and I made minor tweaks to it. The character art can be found through google images in JPG format. They are from "Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix" which was a download-only release for PS3 and Xbox 360. I had to convert all of these into vector format using Illustrator. I probably spent more time on the graphics (during the cold months) than I did on the actual cabinet. The website slagcoin.com was invaluable for the button layouts. The site provides all layouts already in 300dpi. I made many test prints of just the layout and eventually the entire CP (pictures of cardboard mockup). By the time I printed the final version, I was on a first-name basis with the guy at OfficeMax. When I first started out, I contacted a couple of graphic artists from this website but none responded. I knew that asking to use someone else's graphics wasn't the right solution so I just made them myself. In the end, they really make the cabinet and I'm glad I did it myself. The sides are sticky-back vinyl I had done locally through
FastSigns. Putting the sides on wasn't as bad as I anticipated. I watched the videos on this forum and took my time. I had no help beyond painters tape and paper-weights. Note that I do NOT recommend using clamps. I tried these and they damaged my paint a little. I made sure to leave excess and fold it over the edges into the T-molding slot. This will help prevent the edges from coming-up.
Control Panel - Dimensions are 14" x 29 1/2". This gives two inches of overhang on each side of the OND cab. The button layout I used was "Hori" standard spacing 300 ppi
Link. I used 5/8" MDF and found 0.100 thick acrylic from Home Depot. It's not quite .125 that is 1/8" but it's the closest I could find. The height of the CP was calculated to have the CP top align with the angular cut for the bezel. This may vary a little on your build so do the math when you get there.
Monitor - Samsung 214T 21.3" 4:3 LCD, got lucky and found one on ebay used for $107 shipped to my door. Took a chance and am very happy with it. I really didn't want black bars on the side with a 16:9 monitor and most of the games I planned on playing were Gamecube or earlier. With that said, I do have SF4 on Steam and it scales correctly. Good response time (8ms) and the second largest 4:3 LCD I've heard of (behind the 22.6" Planar WS231).
Speakers - Logitech Z213, basic 2.1 system. The speakers are barely 2" in diameter but they put out decent sound. Didn't want to mess with an amplifier. If I did it all over again, I would probably go with a littler nicer/louder speakers but have no regrets here.
Speaker Grills - These were the best/cheapest grills I could find that didn't show screws. They were much bigger in diameter than my speakers but they look great. ChanceKJ used the same ones on his build. If you use these, plan on using epoxy like we did to keep the covers on.
Computer - Used a Core i3 4370 since no emulator currently uses more than 4 threads (Dolphin is the most taxing one I use). Cheap B85 motherboard and 2x 2GB DDR3 1600 RAM. Got a new nVidia 750 Ti for $100 for Steam (and future) games (SF4, Mortal Kombat Komplete, Injustice, King of Fighters 13). Used a 240GB SSD I had from another build. Used an old 120mm computer fan I had for the single exhaust fan. You can buy a 3-pin, 4-foot extension from
Amazon.
Power Strip - This is a master/slave power strip. A Rocketfish branded one from Best Buy (on sale for $20). It allows me to use the computer as master and 4 plugs for slaves (LEDs, speakers, monitor, one extra). If you set Windows to shutdown on power button press, you have one button to rule them all!
Power button - Got this from performance-pcs.com. It was NOT cheap ($30 some bucks just for this) but it's such an important and visible part I didn't have much choice. The price included a 3.5 foot, braided cable they soldered for me.
LEDs - Just a cheap Chinese kit from Amazon. I had never used LED strips before this project so I watched a lot of Youtube videos on how to cut/connect/solder them, etc. Spent a lot of time with my soldering iron getting these just right on the bottom (90 degree angles) and in the decorative panel slots. I had plenty of Cat6 wiring laying around so I stripped them down to 4 wires and soldered them very carefully over many nights. I ended up with 3 strips for orange (bottom + 2 front strips) and one strip for the marquee. I order a power splitter, a second control box (to get white for the marquee) and an LED splitter for the orange control box. Total cost of all LED parts was about $40. I took off the waterproof covering since I've heard they can become brittle over a long period of time from the heat the LEDs produce. Plus, it made them easier to work with. It peels off, you just need to take your time (took me 20 minutes to do the entire roll).
Piano Hinge - I couldn't find black piano hinges anywhere (ebay had some, not big enough) so I decided to buy a 4' silver/nickel hinge at Lowes and spray paint it flat black. I had never worked with spray paint before so I didn't get my hopes up but it turned out really well. You can't even tell it's painted. I sanded the hinge before painting and scuffed it up pretty good. I put the screws in the end of a cardboard piece to hold them while I sprayed. The only difficulty here was ensuring the paint didn't scrape off the screws as I screwed them in. Use the correct size screw driver and do not let it slip. If you scratch one, just re-spray it. Take your time putting them in. It took me a good hour just to put the finished hinge on. Made a pilot hole and screwed in/out a regular, similar sized screw to lessen resistance when screwing in the painted screws.
USB/3.5mm Mount Extension - I found this on ebay. I wanted easy access to plug in headphones and controllers. I'm still working out an issue with plugging in headphones since the computer thinks the extension itself is headphones and turns off the main speakers.
Thick-door Cabinet Hinges - I used these for the control panel. Since I used 5/8" MDF I needed thick-door hinges. These Blum hinges from Lowe's are designed for 5/8" or 3/4" thickness. Another big reason to use these, apart from being completely hidden, is their adjustability. I was able to perfectly line up the CP top with the vertical sides of the cabinet so it just barely touches the T-molding.
T-molding - Nothing special, ordered 40' of 3/4" orange. Check ebay and the seller's actual websites (most have them) for lower prices. I did notice that T-molding does not like 90-degree corners, even if you cut out the corner. The rounder, the better. Had I known this, I would have rounded off my angles a little more but it's barely noticeable.
AC Power Entry Module - You can find these on ebay but Amazon had one pretty cheap and reviews explained how to hook it up to 1/4" spade connectors. I triple-checked I had the connections correct by opening up the power strip and making sure the white/black/green wires were indeed neutral/hot/ground respectively.
Glass Bezel brackets - If you look closely in some of the pictures, you'll see the glass over the monitor is actually held in by some brackets (U channel). I found these in Walmart by the posters (not the poster frames) and they are just $3 plastic poster holders. They are cut to exactly 24" so you shouldn't need to alter them much. The glass thickness was 3/32" and it was a tight fit. I had to use a rubber hammer and very lightly tapped it onto the glass. Finally I used some 3M double-sided,
thin foam tape to attach to the monitor bezel. Only downside to this is, it's not coming off. It took me nearly an hour to get the glass completely clean and lint free because once it's on, the one side is impossible to clean without taking out the monitor.
Marquee Brackets - I was going for a no-screws-showing look and didn't like any of the normal options nor did I want to use fancy magnets (looking at you ChanceKJ). I made sure the marquee MDF ends were vertically leveled and I ended up ordering some J-channel from displayproductsonline.com. Their website gave exact dimensions and I ordered 3 different sizes to be sure. If you go this route, be warned it's not cheap. Display Products usually deals with bulk purchases so they charge $10 for any order under $25. I reluctantly ordered from them after exhausting all other options. Thankfully they worked well. I devised a couple brackets to slip the top piece on and off. The marquee graphic is translucent vinyl sandwiched in two pieces of 0.08" thick acrylic (Optix brand from Lowes). I found the 1/4" J-channel to work the best (out of the 3mm, 6mm and 1/4" versions).
Cabinet Build - I don't have many pictures from the actual building of the cabinet since I was trying to bang it out in a 3-day weekend with the help of my brother. We used his basement shop and carried the assembled cab up the stairs when it was done (wasn't bad). I had all of the drill/router bits, plans and everything in-between ready to go. We used 1/2", 5/8" and 3/4" MDF. The 1/2" was the for the back access door, bezel and inside shelf. The 5/8" was for the entire control panel (plus 1/8" acrylic for the top = 3/4" for the T-molding). I went through probably 100 pine 1x2 boards for the stripping needed at Lowes to find six straight ones. We used the two straightest ones for the long back runs. We improvised OND's plans in some areas and of course ran into some unanticipated problems (my CP top buttons were too far out to the edge, the box underneath went right through them). It took us 3 tries on the control panel to get it just right. The first try we mis-measured and it wasn't tall enough. The second try we found the button/edge problem. The third try we got it. Figuring out the angles for all of the top pieces took the most time. We made multiple test cuts on scrap wood for each angle. In total, it took the two of us about 25 hours to complete the cabinet build over 3 days and another day of me sanding before painting on the fourth day.
Painting - My painting skills peaked in 5th grade. This was the most difficult part of the build for me mainly because I was going for an ultra-smooth finish. I used Kilz solvent-based primer for the first time and ended up using too much so it pooled together in some areas. You can't really sand it off either, it's basically like sanding soft rubber. I used flat black paint to lessen the glare (specifically on the bezel). I used a 4" roller with a 3/8" nap. The rollers were supposed to be lint-free but they weren't. I ended up with some hairs in my paint. Doing it again, I would wash the rollers out and let them dry before using them. Actually, I might just invest in a paint sprayer to get a smoother finish. In the end, the paint came out to a light orange-peel texture. If I built another cabinet, I would probably just use a solvent-based paint/primer in one.
Miscellaneous Parts - I got most of my parts from ebay since they were usually the cheapest.
Joysticks (Happ Competition),
buttons (Happ), wiring/spade connectors, 1 1/8" forstner bit, 3/32" slot cutter bit, IPAC 2 controller, PCB mounting feet for IPAC 2, LED splitters, LED control box, etc. I used 2" rubber casters for the base each rated at 90 lbs. The front two are
swivel/locking and the back two are
non-swivel, non-locking. I was worried about the cabinet moving during heavy gameplay but it's so heavy once completed, combined with the front locking (enough clearance to get your fingers under there) that it's a non-issue, even on a cement basement floor.
Hyperspin - Another project I did during the cold months. I setup the MAME front-end and configured all emulators. Even as a programmer, the learning curve was a little steep but with enough tinkering I got the results I wanted. Lots of reading on the Hyperspin forums. You can see some of Hyperspin in my walk-around video (lots of youtube videos as well).
Cost - I created an Excel spreadsheet and kept track of every single purchase, including tool purchases (power miter, palm sander, jig-saw, etc) that I will use on other projects. After everything was all said and done, my total, with the tools was just under $1500. If you take out the various tool purchases, it comes to about $1000. You can easily get away with a $500 cabinet, it just depends on how finished you want it to be. Take away the vinyl graphics and that's a $250 savings. Use an older Penitum 4 or Core 2 Duo computer and save another $200-300. Have all the tools already? That's an easy $300.
Link to OND thread:
http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,118612.0.htmlEdit 12/5/16 - Attached original OND plans in metric.
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Topic: OND Build - Hyperspin/MAME/Street Fighter Theme - Completed (Read 25259 times)
