World of Nintendo inspired display cabinet

[Howard_Casto]

Ok so let's start at the beginning.  Our local Sears went out of business this spring.  It's sad because it had been there longer than I've been alive.  Oh well, I guess we'll all eventually be shopping at either Amazon or Walmart. 

Anyway I bought several of their glass shelves along with a freestanding shelf unit to hold them.  I think it was less than $50 total.  The idea was to make a display cabinet to put all my junk in and keep the dust off.  I wanted to do a reproduction of a World of Nintendo "M" display, but since the shelves are a massive 4ftx20in, things had to be modified somewhat. 

I basically wanted to make it look like the cabinet in the first picture, only wider and with much deeper shelves on the top and completely enclosed.  I'm also thinking of using that spray-on glass etching to spray the ridged pattern on the side of the second pic on the sides of the glass.  I haven't gotten that far yet.  I haven't decided on the marquee signage yet, as I might use the one in the third pic instead of the basic Nintendo logo.  I'm also definitely going to do the black and red stripes on the bottom... but that's finish work. 

Anyway, build pics to follow. 

[Howard_Casto]

Doh!  I got the first pic mixed up.  I meant this one.  The cabinet in the middle.

[Howard_Casto]

So the plan was to make the drawer portion slightly wider than the free standing shelf unit and bolt the shelf unit to the drawers.  This not only made a firm connecting point, but reinforced the drawer unit, eliminating the need for a back.  I made the bottom out of mdf, which worked pretty well, but was a pain in the butt due to all the spackling of the edges. 

[Howard_Casto]

I made the top and remaining pieces out of scrap pressed board.  It is a terrible building material to work with, but I was on a budget and I had tons of it lying around that I wanted to get rid of.  None of the other stuff is structural anyway. 

Included are some shots of the top:

[Howard_Casto]

So anyway, the thing is 90% done now.  All the remains is trim work, assembly, and engineering a hinge for the glass on my 3d printer (I looked and nobody makes a gapless glass hinge that I'm aware of.)  Here is a shot of the bottom.  Note that the trim in the front you see in the pic is just lying in place atm.... the mdf warped a bit and I had to screw it down to a chrome bar (under the black trim) to fix it.  Normally the trim piece goes there but the bar threw that out the window and now I've got to reengineer it.  Also note the side shot of the drawer in the second pic.  I just wanted you to see the drawer pulls, which will be painted red tomorrow. 

[05SRT4]

Cool build.

Do you plan on doing just shelves on the top portion like the other picture?

[jdbailey1206]

Doh!  I got the first pic mixed up.  I meant this one.  The cabinet in the middle.

500x361?  What is this?  2003?  We need bigger pics of that beauty.

[pbj]

I've been wondering what the hell a "World of Nintendo" was for months.  I used to have one of those Nintendo signs.... poached it from a Woolworth's going out of business in the 90s.  Long gone, alas.

[Howard_Casto]

Doh!  I got the first pic mixed up.  I meant this one.  The cabinet in the middle.

500x361?  What is this?  2003?  We need bigger pics of that beauty.

Well I believe 2005 was the year of the thread I pulled the image from.    "M" style w.o.n. cabs aren't particularly rare, but the bottom with the drawer configuration is.  It was hard to find a pic at all.  I mostly remembered it from my youth.    There's another version with a gray plastic grid in the front but I couldn't even find a pic of it.  Gonna steal a few ideas from it as well. 

[Howard_Casto]

Cool build.

Do you plan on doing just shelves on the top portion like the other picture?

Well the shelves are going to be the 4ftx20in glass shelves.  I have one mounted in the last pic of the third post.  I think I'm doing 4 of them.  Yeah nothing fancy, although the pegboard will allow me to put sub-shelves for carts and such.  With a 2 foot depth there's plenty of room to display a console and it's controllers in the front with games and accessories behind it. 

[thomas_surles]

I made the top and remaining pieces out of scrap pressed board.  It is a terrible building material to work with, but I was on a budget and I had tons of it lying around that I wanted to get rid of.  None of the other stuff is structural anyway. 

Included are some shots of the top:

Alas a picture of Howard in the reflection

[yotsuya]

Look fun! Keep postin'!

[Howard_Casto]

Thanks man. 

Been a little under the weather the last couple of days, not sure why... got my flu shot a couple of weeks ago.  Anyway I didn't get a lot done.  I built a ceiling mount for my tv, which is related to this project because the TV's crappy stand had to go to make room for this monster.  That took a whole day unfortunately and I still might have to reposition it. 

The only thing I got done on the base was painting the drawer pulls.  Lowes had two reds in stock in the way of spray paint... one a bit too dark and one a bit too light.  I wanted a readily available color in case of scratches, so I just went with the darker color.  It isn't exactly Nintendo red, but I like it anyway.  All the striping and decorative emblems will get painted this color as well.  Also of note is the fact that the warped top seems to have self-corrected.  I haven't decided if I'll keep the chrome bar on there just in case, but ditching it sure would make mounting the trim easier. 

Next up is moving the dang thing in place (which will be hell) and assembly. 

[Howard_Casto]

Here it is in it's natural habitat with the top test-fitted and a shelf put in place to test square-ness.  Note that the top is a bit rough, but I'll be installing the signage so I don't care as it'll get covered with some vinyl or something.  Also ignore the tv.... I'm going to try and find another place for it. 

All that's left now is to adjust the glass a bit so that everything is square and true and print out some hinges.  Then it's on to the sign, which I might 3d print. 

[thomas_surles]

That came out really nice 

[gamepimp]

Good job Howard. Our local Sears went out of business and I never even thought to go over there to look for display cases like this. Definitely a nice score! 

[Howard_Casto]

Thanks guys. 

Actually this is scratch built.  Go up to the pic of the unpainted pegboard.... see the chrome?  I bought that and a bunch of shelves that hung on that.  It was actually one of those things they normally bolt to the wall or bolt to an identical unit back to back.  I bought another one in case I screwed this one up so I'll post pics when I have the time to pull it out.  Basically what you don't see are 6 inch legs that go through holes I cut in the top of the mdf bottom and I've carriage bolted them into the side of the base.  It's an odd use for it, but it works and it made the whole thing super strong.  If it weren't for all of that steel I'd never be able to get away with 2ftx4ft drawers in the bottom. 

Anyway, atm I'm trying to figure out how to deal with that trim piece in the front and the sign.  The trim is just going to be a pain in the butt with that bar in the way. 

So I'd like to do a raised sign but I'm unsure of how to go about it.  I can 3d print individual letters, but the loop that goes around the Nintendo logo would be something like 18 inches if scaled properly.  I can do it in pieces, but I don't know how well that's going to turn out.  I could go old school and cut it out of wood or foam.  There's always translite, but I'd rather do something a bit more 3 dimensional.  I'm open to suggestions. 

[Mike A]

I have a CNC router. The work area is 12x24 inches. I could probably do it. If I have the materials laying around, I would just charge for shipping. With indexing I could actually go 24x96 inches in one piece.

[Howard_Casto]

Thanks man, I appreciate the offer.  I think I've found a solution, but it's going to take a couple of days to test.  Stay tuned on that one. 

[wp34]

This is really cool Howard. Well done.

[Howard_Casto]

Thanks man. 

So I started to lay out the sign area this morning...... It looks too busy for me.... I think the Fuji from the Atari logo is scrunching things up too much.  So I'm probably just going to do a traditional World of Nintendo sign.... maybe the globe variant. 

[Howard_Casto]

Worked on some odd n ends today.  The solution to the trim piece in the front was easier than I thought.  The rubber I was going to attach is stiff enough on it's own, so I just scored it where it hits the chrome bar, bent it, and it looks fine as-is.  It's the ridged rubber from the side of an old treadmill btw.  I also threw a mini Nintendo logo on there and quickly brushed some gray paint so it'd show up.  That'll be painted red of course. 

I also started on the top.  Found some scrap light panel from a drop ceiling I put in ages ago and put it up there.  It looks pretty good so I think I'll just buy another for the other side and that'll do it. 

[Howard_Casto]

So the hinges have been a nightmare.  As I mentioned, the hinge I want doesn't seem to be available, so I had to print my own.  I went through 3 or 4 revisions.... I'd put them on only to have the pin snap under the weight.  I eventually got one that worked well, but the problem was slippage.  The glass would slip right out of the hinge.  I tried adhesive, putting tension screws in, nothing worked.  I've legitimately been working on the problem all week. 

I *think* I've finally got it.  You know what worked?  You know that extremely cheap double-sided tape that comes in window insulation kits?  Yup....  put two layers on the glass where the hinge goes on and used the tension screws.  It seems to finally be holding.  Adhesive can weaken under strain though, so I'll let it set overnight and check it in the morning.  Anyway, I'm behind schedule... I thought I would be done by now, but I'll print out the hinges for the left door tonight and bolt it on in the morning.  Then I have to engineer a sliding mechanism for the center panel, which I'm sure will also be a disaster getting to work right. 

Then I can work on the signage. 

[Howard_Casto]

Well the glass is in.  The center pane slides like crap, so I might have to re-engineer it a bit, but at least everything is finally together.  I scratched the crap out of the lower door frame getting everything in place and it appears that the paint just isn't going to cut it.  I'll glue some black vinyl or black plastic down so scratches won't remove the color. 

Anyway, I don't have panes of glass lying around anymore, so I think I'll shift gears and do a sign test tonight. 

[Howard_Casto]

Well I'm not quite done, but I'm sick of having all this stuff in the floor, so I started filling the shelves.  Man as huge as this cabinet is, I don't think I'll have enough room.  As you can see, the Nintendo shelf just has the consoles in it, and as you can imagine, I have quite a few games and accessories for those systems.  The top shelf will be for Sony stuff, handhelds, and misc stuff (haven't put anything there yet because I haven't installed the lights and sign.) Even with that extra shelf it's gonna be tight. 

Does anyone have a solution for cable management?  Wrapping them around the controller is bad.....and I'd like to be able to actually get these out and play them easily. 

[vwalbridge]

Does anyone have a solution for cable management? 

Maybe consider wrapping the cables in a circular pattern and using Reusable Velcro Cable Ties

- They are lightweight
- They are thin
- They are black so they blend in with the cords
- They have loops on them so they will stay attached to the cord when you un-loop the cord
- The velcro is low-profile so they don't snag much on other material
- They can be reused over and over again

[05SRT4]

3d print some peg board rings or something for the cables.

[Howard_Casto]

Thanks for the suggestions guys.  I've gotta think on this one... it'd be nice to just put them in something so it wouldn't be a pain in the butt to take controllers in and out.  I could just not display them, but that's going to take up a lot of drawer space. 

[Mike A]

Make them retractable like a vacuum cleaner cord.

[gamepimp]

Maybe consider wrapping the cables in a circular pattern and using Reusable Velcro Cable Ties

+1 on this. They’re the next best thing to black twist ties. Looks very clean when all the cords are wrapped up with these.

[Howard_Casto]

So I installed the light(s) for the top tonight.  Man it took way longer than it should have.  I got a string of smd 5050 rgb lights for a little bit of nothing with some leftover amazon credit.  They are fairly bright and I don't want anything harsh that could bleach the consoles so I only put a single 4 ft string in.  I'll post picks as soon as I can figure out how to take a good one without washing out the lights. 

Anyway I've got about 12ft left of the string and I'm unsure what to do with it.  I might light each individual shelf or I might just save them for another project. 

[Howard_Casto]

So I've been waiting for a fairly warm day where I don't feel like crap all winter.  I was finally "ok-ish" a couple of days ago so I cut out the back for the sign and I assembled the 3d-printed parts.  I've still got to cut the red plastic for the lighted portion of the sign and install the lights and straighten up the letters a bit, but at least you can get an idea of what it'll look like.  Oh I also finally got the hinges sorted and I'm printing other stuff like the sliders for the doors and ect. 

[vwalbridge]

Can you hold a banana next to it for scale?

[Howard_Casto]

Not on a first date. 

It's about 17" x 5"