Cabinet building mistakes or bad choices. Please only post your own stuff.

[Mike A]

In the spirit of taking criticism, lets post some mistakes or bad choices we made. Somebody might learn something or at least have a good laugh. This thread is voluntary so fire away.

I don't know if my side art came in the wrong size or if I measured wrong when I cut the sides. I didn't notice until I got to the top.

I decided to live with it.

The air pockets have been smoothed out since I took this pic.

I tell myself that eventually I will pull it off and stencil it, but I know that will probably never happen.

[CCM]

The only cab I have is the original one I built back in 2002.   Over the years I have built several for friends and each one was better than the last.

Now, my original cab is by far the worst of the lot, it still has marble contact paper on the CP.   My wood working skills sucked back then so the joints and edges are all pretty rough.  I'm at work and don't have a picture handy, I'll take one when I get home and post it so you can all have a laugh.

At the end of the day, the cab works fine and does what I need it to do... I always meant to go back and build a new CP, but at this point I am convinced that will never happen.

[SNAAKE]

installed sideart on the wrong side. cost me $60 for another print 

[Titchgamer]

I made many mistakes on my first build, but I learnt from those and consecutive builds have only improved from them.

Some of my best mistakes though:

Not future proofing my CP by not allowing room to fit a trackball at a later date (which was down to a lack of planing and understanding as to my own requirements)

Painting the cab in matt black paint - it marks far to easily!

Not properly researching what I needed in terms of a amplifier. I ordered a car amp which did the job a little to well and damn near burst my ear drums the first time I started the machine!
I also discovered having it in close proximity to a PC is bad as it gives out interference.

 Think thats about it really, though ime sure there were other cock ups along the way!

[BadMouth]

I spent a few years on here looking at the builds before attempting my own.
When I discovered the forum, I thought I'd knock out a cabinet the following weekend.
I could have, and it would have taken a fraction of the time and cost and been 80% as good.
But while browsing the forum for ideas I realized how high the bar was here and I decided to wait until I had learned enough to build a more polished and interesting cab.  I bought an X-arcade tankstick and used that for a few years while I learned the ropes.

On my current cab, the only major mistake was cutting the hole for the D button in the correct spot, thinking it was wrong, then filling it in and redrilling it in the wrong spot.    
It's still like this.



As far as what is half assed on my cab, my joysticks are attached to the CP using half inch screws straight into the mdf rather than doing them properly.  Originally it was only the 2 mounting points of the Sanwa JLF S plate, but that got loose.  So I drilled 4 more holes in each plate so 6 screws are holding each now.  I wouldn't trust it for public use.

There are a few spots where the slot for the t-molding was wider than it should have been for whatever reason and I hot glued the t-molding in place, but I don't think that's all that uncommon.

I didn't make any noob mistakes because I read the threads on this board for a few years before building it.
Link to the cab is in my sig.

[Mike A]

I used stick on T molding. It is not as good as the actual stuff, but you can't tell from 3 feet away. I will upload a picture when I get home.

[Titchgamer]

I used stick on T molding. It is not as good as the actual stuff, but you can't tell from 3 feet away. I will upload a picture when I get home.

I didnt even know that was a thing LOL

[Malenko]

I'll just copy pasta this from the last "mistakes thread"
I present (again) my first MAME cab:

Ok so mistakes Ive made:
Had control panel at a terrible angle. Controls were at like 30* (as in fingers almost an inch higher than palms) unpossible to play for more than 10 minutes at a time.
Used cheap knock off parts , spend the money on the right sticks and buttons, its WORTH IT
Marble contact shelf paper, `nuff said
I once wrapped all my wiring in electrical tape.

Marble contact shelf paper, `nuff said

I just laughed and everyone in the office looked at me.

Remember when pretty much every single MAME cab had that marquee?

[Howard_Casto]

Don't use screws on the outside, don't use glue.  Either buy some 2x2's and screw the panels to them on the inside, or buy yourself a kregg jig and be done with it.  Also if you are going to use screws on the outside, at least put them back far enough so you don't run into them with your t-molding bit.  I killed a 30 dollar bit that way.

Oh and here is the most important one that absolutely nobody listens to.  Do you want to build a 4p cabinet?  No, the correct answer is no you don't.  Remember for players 3 and 4 to actually get some use you need to actually have three friends that actually enjoy playing retro games on an arcade cabinet on a regular basis and can manage to all come and play on the same day.  Kids don't count as most of the little scamps have the attention span of a gnat with a.d.d.  For that matter you probably don't need a trackball, spinner, random arcade widget #12, ect.  either.  A simple 2p control panel is all you need and unless you like fighters you might only need 3 or 4 buttons each.  This spring I'm overhauling the cab again and I'll be reducing the panel size yet again... removing what I don't need.   I *might*  leave a small area in the middle for a removable trackball/spinner, but I doubt it. 

[Titchgamer]

I use my spinner regularly!
Rather fond of Arkanoid and the Ms loves Puzz Loop lol

Malenko, in a weird kinda way I like the marble effect but its not exactly fitting for most living/games rooms lol

And I rather like that Marquee

[Howard_Casto]

I'm migrating stuff like arkanoid to my pacman cab.  I'll 3d-print a little spinner box that will hang on the control panel.  For spinners it's not really a space thing and more an all the good games are vertical thing.

[yotsuya]

There's no such thing as a cabinet mistake when you build what you dig.

[Howard_Casto]

The thing you have to understand is what people think they want and what they actually end up wanting are two entirely different things.  People have to be protected from themselves and that includes me and all the byoac veterans as well.  We all make mistakes and we all have things on projects we would like to do differently.  The less experience you have, the more mistakes you will make.  All of that is just common sense so there isn't any point to argue the inverse. 

[wp34]

The thing you have to understand is what people think they want and what they actually end up wanting are two entirely different things.  People have to be protected from themselves and that includes me and all the byoac veterans as well.  We all make mistakes and we all have things on projects we would like to do differently.  The less experience you have, the more mistakes you will make.  All of that is just common sense so there isn't any point to argue the inverse.

That's fine but it sounds suspiciously like helicopter parenting. 

[Howard_Casto]

Except we are gown ass men and part of being an adult is admitting when you need help. 

[BadMouth]

Malenko, in a weird kinda way I like the marble effect but its not exactly fitting for most living/games rooms lol

And I rather like that Marquee

You're 15 years late to the hobby. 

Circa 1995 I marbleized a bunch of the plastic interior pieces of my car thinking it looked classy.
sigh.

[CCM]

Leave it to Howard to come into a thread where we are supposed to be poking some fun at ourselves and having a laugh and get all preachy with us....   

[leapinlew]

In the spirit of taking criticism, lets post some mistakes or bad choices we made. Somebody might learn something or at least have a good laugh. This thread is voluntary so fire away.

I don't know if my side art came in the wrong size or if I measured wrong when I cut the sides. I didn't notice until I got to the top.

I decided to live with it.

The air pockets have been smoothed out since I took this pic.

I tell myself that eventually I will pull it off and stencil it, but I know that will probably never happen.

I had a burgertime cab once, and I may have made the worst mistake here. It was gutted already and I was lucky to have it. I really wanted a Galaga so I had an idea - I would take the cabinet apart, so I could cut the sides to match the Galaga profile. I've never taken a midway cab apart before, but the coin door area is held in with some glue and staples (maybe just staples). it wasn't easily coming apart and in a fit of 'frustraging' I forced the wood apart and it splintered, split and was pretty now going to be much more work than it was worth to repair. This was my first shot at acquiring a grail, I was sick to my stomach. I rolled it to the dumpster and got rid of it.

I didn't recover until I finally got my Galaga cabinet.

[Titchgamer]

Malenko, in a weird kinda way I like the marble effect but its not exactly fitting for most living/games rooms lol

And I rather like that Marquee

You're 15 years late to the hobby. 

Circa 1995 I marbleized a bunch of the plastic interior pieces of my car thinking it looked classy.
sigh.

Thats never been a thing over here lol

Except kitchen sideboards, that was pretty popular 15 years ago lol