Lowboy Cabaret

[jan25th]

Thanks for the kind words all, am really feeling the love.

@markc74 I am not overly artistic so thought I was planning to modify the Dig Dug sideart to fit my profile. I am not in love with the Dig Dug control panel art though so I may take some artistic license there - I know it's sacrilege. I never really thought about Taito but I do see some resemblance, but I am not smitten with that design either.

I had never seen a lowboy until a few years and in this forum. I think it suits me better because it looks less imposing and I am hoping to sneak a second horizontal monitor cab down the road. Shhh, don't tell my wife.

[jan25th]

Test fitting the speaker grills in the speaker panel

[jan25th]

For marquee retainers I am using 3/4” x 1/2” aluminum 90 degree angles that I picked up from Home Depot. I actually thought both legs were 3/4” but this should be fine as well.

In my original plans the angles for the marquee retainers would be <90 for the top and >90 for the bottom.



I don’t have a metal brake so played with clamping one leg of my al retainers and bending using a hardwood block. That was a fail. I eventually gave up trying to bend it and ended up modifying the cabinet top to make that a 90 degree angle but Ihe bottom remains about 102 degrees.

To make the bottom retainer fit squarely I have cut a bevel in the speaker panel



Now the bottom retainer  will sit squarely:

[jan25th]

I have been experimenting with the speaker panel. I am not certain how good the speakers are (yes I could hook them up and test them), the speaker board is actually around 3/16” to narrow, and I wasn’t certain how the bottom marquee retainer would fit. Because of this I have chosen to not permanently attach the panel to the cab. For now I have used 4 metal braces that will allow me easily replace it later.



Speaker panel mounted with one speaker grill. I had removed the grills from my earlier picture wanted to get a picture of the panel installed with a grill so I reinserted one. As the grills are a pretty tight fit, each time I insert and remove them it damages the plywood edge, so I won’t be fitting the grills again until I finish this panel and paint it.

[jan25th]

For the marquee lighting I picked up an Ikea Dioder a while ago.



seemed like a good idea at the time, although now I wish I patronized one of the the forum vendors that supplies purpose built lighting.

I have cut a piece of 1/2” plywood and mounted the lights to it.



And with it placed in the marquee area



It is blindingly bright and doesn’t photograph well.
With my laser printed marquee and lit.

[lettuce]

Great Project....reminds me i need to get back to my lowboy at some pont  ....

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=128309.msg1316724#msg1316724

or though i think i might go for a Jaleco Pony III shape now

[tomstewdevine]

Really cool project, thanks for the good pictures.

[jan25th]

Am getting back to this after a few weeks vacation. Spent July 1 in Vancouver BC and saw 20 minutes of fireworks. Then went to Portland for a wedding on July 4 and saw more fireworks, but this time I stopped watching after 30 minutes while the fireworks went on for at least 3 more hours - could have been longer but I eventually fell asleep. Crazy yanks.

Am priming the cabinet now. I purchased Sherwin Williams alkyd paint with a good roller and so far am very happy with the results. Not too much to see at this point except my messy basement, but here is something for you.

[jan25th]

I have created a post in Artwork re my -- artwork --.  Please see http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,151557.0.html