Thin Arcade Cabinet Plans for CNC

[brained]

Hello!!! I've seen a couple of thin arcade machines here in the forum. I've just lost track of them; any chance anyone has links of drawing files in order to CNC cut them. I'd rather pay to cut instead of filling my house with dust.

[Mike A]

Draw some up.

[ark_ader]

You need to contact HARUMAN.  He has a CNC machine, I think or access to one.  He will be the one to contact.  He is a real nice chap.

You might have more joy in the woodworking sub forum, but this is what I found in 5 seconds of searching this site:

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,130522.msg1335870.html#msg1335870

Happy holidays!   

[barrymossel]

Find the cab you want, find the plans for it. Create a vector, create CNC plans. I can't imagine this being that hard actually (with some Google-fu). Just takes some time and willing to learn a bit.

[paigeoliver]

CNC cabinet plans tend to be the sort of information that people are incredibly reluctant to share. Most of them were developed by guys who actively cut cabinets for money, and they are not sharing, and have in the past wanted large amounts of money to sell their plans when they went out of business.

Also, related. It is super annoying when someone who cuts repro cabinets in high volume has an obvious mistake in their plans, which they never fix and just keep cranking out cabinets that are visually wrong. I see this most commonly with Midway cabinets, someone makes cabs in high volume that have a slight angle between the monitor bezel and control panel, while there seem to be a few variations on Midway cabinets that are a cross between the Pac-Man shape and the Ms. Pac-Man shape.

[RandyT]

CNC cabinet plans tend to be the sort of information that people are incredibly reluctant to share. Most of them were developed by guys who actively cut cabinets for money, and they are not sharing, and have in the past wanted large amounts of money to sell their plans when they went out of business.

Most things anyone goes to the trouble for which to make full blown CNC files, aren't just doing it for one-offs.  And any that are, you probably wouldn't want, as they undoubtedly have issues with parts the author just dealt with after the fact because it was his (voice of experience). 

To do them right, it takes a lot of time, materials and many revisions, all of which are costly.  And if people release them into the wild after all that, someone else would just profit from their investment.  Aside from that, there are technical reasons as well.  You can't just plug in files from one machine, and expect a different one to just cut them without issue.  Many machines use proprietary file formats, and even G-code isn't standardized from one to the next.

[ark_ader]

CNC cabinet plans tend to be the sort of information that people are incredibly reluctant to share. Most of them were developed by guys who actively cut cabinets for money, and they are not sharing, and have in the past wanted large amounts of money to sell their plans when they went out of business.

Most things anyone goes to the trouble for which to make full blown CNC files, aren't just doing it for one-offs.  And any that are, you probably wouldn't want, as they undoubtedly have issues with parts the author just dealt with after the fact because it was his (voice of experience). 

To do them right, it takes a lot of time, materials and many revisions, all of which are costly.  And if people release them into the wild after all that, someone else would just profit from their investment.  Aside from that, there are technical reasons as well.  You can't just plug in files from one machine, and expect a different one to just cut them without issue.  Many machines use proprietary file formats, and even G-code isn't standardized from one to the next.

Where's your sense of adventure?

Its only money, and you cannot take it with you when you die, so spend it on CNC cuts!  Live a little.   

[Zebidee]

I doing a cab right now. Based it on some PDF and JPG plans, modified them to suit larger CRT-TV screen/neck, drew it out with pencil on some plywood.

Cutting it right now with a power saw (circular) and a jigsaw for the curly bits. Finishing with some sandpaper.

When my slotting bit for my router comes in, will do T-molding slots as well.

Wood-Shops can do the cutting for you, and the T-molding slots, if you can simply draw out what you want to full-size on some thin plywood or cardboard first. They can probably cut to plans as well, but doing them to full-size makes it easier for them (and cheaper for you).

[chrisdfw]

You could modify these to meet your needs:

ClassicArcadeCabinets.com

[brained]

Thanks for your reply's. I'll draw my sketch up from scratch then..

[brained]

CNC cabinet plans tend to be the sort of information that people are incredibly reluctant to share. Most of them were developed by guys who actively cut cabinets for money, and they are not sharing, and have in the past wanted large amounts of money to sell their plans when they went out of business.

Most things anyone goes to the trouble for which to make full blown CNC files, aren't just doing it for one-offs.  And any that are, you probably wouldn't want, as they undoubtedly have issues with parts the author just dealt with after the fact because it was his (voice of experience). 

To do them right, it takes a lot of time, materials and many revisions, all of which are costly.  And if people release them into the wild after all that, someone else would just profit from their investment.  Aside from that, there are technical reasons as well.  You can't just plug in files from one machine, and expect a different one to just cut them without issue.  Many machines use proprietary file formats, and even G-code isn't standardized from one to the next.

Yeah... I didn't express myself correctly. I was looking for the plans (pdf, ai, or such) not actually the CNC file formats.

Anyways I found a local cab maker and bought a galaga type cab that will suit our purposes.

Thanks a lot for your suggestions...