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| Lexiq:
--- Quote from: emphatic on July 23, 2023, 09:04:44 am ---Beautiful. :cheers: --- End quote --- Thanks emphatic! :cheers: |
| Lexiq:
Building the Drawer It was finally time to revisit the drawer and I decided that I was overthinking the design. The drawer will contain the mouse and keyboard, and anything else that might require easy access, but is not directly related to game play. Having a permanently connected keyboard and mouse is not strictly necessary, but I've found it to be very convenient. A traditional arcade machine doesn't have a drawer, so it was important that it just looks like another panel when closed. The design I settled on was much the same as in the original arcadecab plans - a simple panel of 18mm plywood connected to the sides by runners, with a panel on the front and another on the back to prevent the contents from falling off into the cabinet. The Main Panel There's plenty of room inside the cabinet so the drawer can be quite deep. More important is the width, which must be the internal width of the cabinet (600mm in this case) minus the width of the runners when attached. I chose 3 piece stainless steel runners with bearings for smooth movement, and a detent at the end of travel so the drawer stays closed. The smallest section of the runner that attaches to the drawer panel is slightly wider than the 18mm plywood, so I mounted it so the overhang was on the bottom of the drawer. In the first photo, the drawer is shown upside down so the overhang is visible. The Front Panel The front of the drawer is another simple panel, with the addition of a slot to attach it to the main panel. The drawer will be opened by pulling the lower edge of the front panel, so no handle is required. I found that after I tested the drawer in the cabinet that I had made a mistake with the position of the slot relative to the base of the panel, so the photos shown here aren't exactly what ended up in the finished product. I ended up reusing this panel for the back of the drawer where the location of the slot didn't matter. Lower Panel This panel is not part of the drawer, but it's position is important because the drawer sits directly above it, so it makes sense to include it here. For a cabinet without a door on the front, this panel could extend all the way to the ground, but I was planning to include a door, so for my cabinet it's quite short. It's mounted to the cabinet sides like any other panel - ledger boards and threaded inserts, with one small difference. The ledger board on the right needs to be longer to provide a stop for the door and a mounting point for the door locking mechanism, which will be covered later. The top of this board is close to the base of the drawer, but there is a narrow gap. This gap isn't visible from most angles outside the cabinet, and may provide some additional airflow inside the cabinet as I don't have any ventilation on the front. Attaching the Runners The runners fit closely between the top of the lower panel, and the ledger boards attaching the control box base, with just a few millimeters above and below. The horizontal position needs to be chosen such that the front drawer panel sits 12mm inset from the edge of the cabinet sides, the same as all the other panels. As with everything else attached to the cabinet sides, the runners are mounted with M6 bolts to threaded inserts. In this case, the bolts are round head rather than countersunk. These are the same bolts as used to connects the castors and have just enough clearance that the runners can move without touching. Test Assembly It was necessary to disassemble the cabinet in order to measure and mount the runners. Now that that is complete, it's time to check that everything fits. I attached the drawer front to the main panel, but without glueing it for now. I had to trim the top of the front panel slightly so that it would clear the control box base, but otherwise everything fit well. |
| Lexiq:
Cupboard Door While the rear panels are removable, they don't provide convenient access to the lower part of the cabinet that contains the PC. Having a cupboard style door on the front provides this access, and the remaining space inside can also be used for storage. I've seen many other cabinet designs take this approach and wanted to do something similar. Hinges I used concealed cabinet hinges that open to just over 90 degrees. They are invisible from the outside of the cabinet and allow the door to be positioned such that it looks like any other panel. They are also relatively strong and adjustable. I chose to use 4 hinges for my cupboard, which is possibly more than is really needed, but the plywood is fairly heavy and I planned to add a coin door as well. Over-engineering is usually better than under-engineering. The hinges are mounted with a recess in the inner surface of the door. This requires the use of an appropriately sized Forstner bit that can cut a hole part way through the door, leaving a flat surface for the hinge to sit against. Attaching the hinges to the cabinet side is simpler - the hinges sit flat against the surface and are mounted with threaded inserts for easy disassembly. Locking Mechanism Because the door will be mounted flush with the other panels, there's no easy way to open it. I didn't want to draw attention to it by adding a handle, but a lock is fairly subtle and serves two purposes. It can be used to pull the door open, and ensures the door stays securely closed and won't rattle. I chose a lock with a sliding mechanism, mounted in the top right corner. As mentioned in the post above, the strike plate is mounted to the extended ledger board on the panel above, which also acts as a stop for the door. This plate should be mounted such that when the lock is engaged, the door is firmly secured with no movement. I used a spade bit to drill the hole for the lock cylinder, which cut very easily and cleanly. I made the hole just big enough to fit the lock cylinder, which meant I needed to sand it slightly wider at the front to fit the metal collar that sits over the front of the lock. It would be easier to just make the hole slightly bigger and avoid this step. Magnetic Catch The lock secures the top right corner of the door, but the bottom right has nothing to keep it in place, or to prevent vibration. For this, I decided to mount a small magnet in the front of the cabinet base ledger board, and another in the inner surface of the bottom right corner of the door. It's strong enough to hold the door in place, but doesn't make the door difficult to open. Mounting The type of hinges I used can be separated into two halves that easily clip together. The easiest way to mount the door is to separate the hinges and attach the door halves and the cabinet halves separately. The cabinet halves shouldn't be fully tightened so they are able to move while finding the correct alignment. With the hinges in the open position, align the clipping mechanisms and push the two halves together to engage. Working from bottom to top worked well for me. Once the hinges are all clipped together, tighten the mounts on the cabinet side and adjust the hinges as required. It can be useful to place some cardboard under the door during this process to ensure there is enough clearance. The door should open cleanly, but leave a minimal surrounding gap when closed, and the magnetic catch should also engage securely when closed. Because the door needs to open and close freely, it needs to be slightly smaller than the other panels. Deciding exactly how much smaller can be an iterative process. Even with 4 hinges, I notice some sag caused by the weight of the door that is difficult to counter with adjustments. This means I have to lift slightly as I open the door, but it's not too bad. Another consideration is that plywood can often be slightly warped. This was true in my case, and made getting everything adjusted correct more difficult. For example, I could align the left and top edges correctly, but the magnetic catch wouldn't engage. It is possible to correct warped plywood to some extent by bending it in the opposite direction, clamping it in place and then wetting the convex surface slightly. Leave it clamped for a couple of days and the warping should be reduced. This did work, but wasn't a perfect solution and I still ended up having to compromise slightly on the door alignment, although in reality it's very hard to notice. Coin Door The last step was to mount the coin door. I chose a simple 2 player door with a custom mechanism that would allow for coins or tokens to be used, mounted in the middle of the door. Cutting the hole for the coin door was fairly straight forward. I used a hole saw matching the radius of the coin door corners at each corner, then cut the sides with the jig saw. Mounting the coin door is a simple process of engaging and tightening the clips on the inside. Kickboard This is a small panel located at the front of the cabinet below the cupboard and fills the space between the bottom edge of the cupboard and the floor. The top of the kickboard is level with the top surface of the cabinet base, and it is attached to the base using a ledger board and screws. |
| Zebidee:
Neat work! |
| Lexiq:
Speaker Panel For the speaker panel, I wanted a classic, understated design. The speakers should fit easily within the panel - not too large or too small, and with reasonable separation for stereo. I wanted the speakers to look balanced with respect to the rest of the cabinet, but I didn't want them to stand out too much either, so a simple black grille was preferable. Before cutting any holes, I had to decide which type of speaker to use. Choosing a Speaker I was originally planning to use a set of Logitech Z623 2.1 speakers mounted behind the panel, with some form of grill in front to obscure them. The benefit of this approach is that these types of speaker, designed for use with a PC are simple to connect and don't require an external amplifier. Ideally, the cabinet will be able to function as a jukebox or karaoke machine, so audio quality is important. These speakers are well reviewed and have been used successfully in other cabinets. I ultimately decided that mounting these speakers securely, without dismantling them was going to be difficult, and adequately disguising them was going to be a problem too. Instead I chose the other popular method of using car speakers. The benefit of using car speakers is that there are a lot to choose from, they can be mounted cleanly to a panel, and they are available with tasteful grilles. After a lot of research, I settled on a set of Focal Access 130-AC 5.25" coaxial speakers. They're a bit more expensive that some other options, but they're high quality and good value for money. They are exactly the right size and also meet the aesthetic requirements. Cutting the Speaker Holes With that decision made, I now needed to cut some holes. The speakers will be mounted to the front of the panel and the holes need to be big enough to fit the speaker bodies. I decided to use a large hole saw for this purpose and a diameter of 121mm turned out to be the best size based on what was available. I have found with hole saws, that the quality (and therefore usually price) makes a big difference to the quality of the cut. A good hole saw will cut quickly, smoothly and cleanly, and a lower quality one will be much slower with a much greater risk of burning due to friction. Fortunately, the larger diameter saws tend to be higher quality anyway, and the one I chose cut very well. I started with a test cut on a piece of scrap wood, and found that it is very important to securely clamp the drill stand and the material being cut. The large diameter saw applies a lot of torque to the surface, and without adequate clamping, things will move and the cut won't be clean. Mounting the Speakers The simplest way to mount the speakers is to use supplied screws and mount them directly to the panel. As it turned out, the screws were slightly too long and would have come through the back of the panel. I wanted a solution that was more in-keeping with my approach of easy disassembly anyway, so I decided to use M5 bolts and tee nuts on the back of the panel. I first drilled holes matching the bolt pattern of the speakers, then enlarged the holes on the back to fit the tee nuts. Cutting the Marquee Bracket Slot This step actually came later in the build, but it makes sense to include it here. I had decided that I wanted to use 90 degree angle aluminium to hold the marquee in place. The top piece can be easily attached using screws, but attaching the bottom piece to the speaker panel is more difficult. In the end, I decided that I would have to cut a slot in the leading edge of the speaker panel. This slot needs to be perpendicular to the marquee when the speaker panel is mounted, which turns out to be a particularly difficult angle for a router mounted slot cutter. I found that by using an off-cut from cutting the marquee facing angle of the speaker panel itself, I was able to create a (small) flat surface that could be used to support the router at exactly the right angle. Actually cutting the slot was a very delicate process, working slowly, and taking care to keep the router base firmly seated. Fortunately, the slot cutter that I purchased for cutting the T-molding slots was also the perfect size to fit the angle aluminium. It also turned out that with everything assembled, the pressure fit of the aluminium in the slot was adequate and I didn't need to use any other type of fastening. |
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