Anyone have any ideas on how to make easily Interchangable metal CP's?

[Hoagie_one]

The original Cab had a hinged metal CP which is bolted on bottom with 3 screws and on top with two or three screws.  It has three bends in it, so its not a flat cp.  Any ideas?

[Minwah]

I can thing of 2 possibles...either make more control panels exactly the same, and figure a way to make them quick release.  Or make the 'bent' parts of the control panel permanently fixed to the cab, with the flat part of the control panel being removable.

Not sure if that makes sense (or even if it is possible without seeing it), but I did something like the second idea on my cab.

[locash]

As Minwah suggested you are going to need to be swapping identical panels.  If you have that you could try cutting keyhole slots in the hinge where the bottom 3 screws go.  Then those three screws can be left in place on the cabinet.  When changing panels, you slip the keyholes over the screws, pull it up into postition and then close the panel.  The top 2 screws can be replaced by thumb screws so that no tools are required to swap. 

[Hoagie_one]

both are good ideas...ill have to think about this some more

[mmmPeanutButter]

As Minwah suggested you are going to need to be swapping identical panels.  If you have that you could try cutting keyhole slots in the hinge where the bottom 3 screws go.  Then those three screws can be left in place on the cabinet.  When changing panels, you slip the keyholes over the screws, pull it up into postition and then close the panel.  The top 2 screws can be replaced by thumb screws so that no tools are required to swap. 

Amazing.  I have metal control panels which will be swapped.  I was going to use those wing nuts (see pic) so I didn't have to use tools.  The key hole idea is awesome.  Now I don't need to loosten the nut all the way.  It seems like everytime I unscrew it now, at least one of the three nuts falls into the cab.

Thanks for the tip.  I love this place.

[Stingray]

My cab has interchangable metal CPs. Mine also have three bends so they aren't flat either. I just use the same kind of panel clamps that folks who have flat wood CPs use. These are what the cab used to hold on it's original metal CP by the way.

Here's a picture of the inside of my CP before I assembled it so you can see how it clamps:



Here's another angle on the clamp tabs and the clamps themselves:



-S

[Hoagie_one]

how do you gain access to the clamps?

[Stingray]

Through the coin door.

-S

[Minwah]

I use similar clamps to Stingray, but I have a large front door which is easier for me to use for access than the coin door.

To explain a little better my 2nd idea ealier: if my cab were a real System 1 it would have a metal control panel with a curved bend in the front...I basically made the curved part out of wood and permanently fixed it in place so I can just make flat removable control panels (wood or metal).

[telengard]

I had swappable metal control panels at one point.  what I did was made a big hole in the center and trhen bought sheet metal blank panels to screw down.  Here's a pic of what I did:

http://users.adelphia.net/~bsturk/mame/pics/bare_panel_w_rivets.jpg

I have since switched to a modular setup which is much better IMO.

~telengard

[Stingray]

I use similar clamps to Stingray, but I have a large front door which is easier for me to use for access than the coin door.

Mine has the wide Midway coin door, so it's actually not a problem accessing the clamps through it. Plenty of room. I could see how it might be difficult if you had a smaller coin door, especially if it were offset to one side like the coin door in the cab you pictured.



-S

[NIVO]

i too am using thumbscrews hoagie. 5 to be exact. All i did was use threaded inserts into the wood behind the control panel(and like said above, all panels will have the same size). Works well so far.

[Hoagie_one]

got any pics of that for reference?

[Minwah]

Mine has the wide Midway coin door, so it's actually not a problem accessing the clamps through it. Plenty of room. I could see how it might be difficult if you had a smaller coin door, especially if it were offset to one side like the coin door in the cab you pictured.

Exactly...my door is quite small and as you say the offset doesn't help!

[NIVO]

ok hoagie, here are pics of the insert in the wood, and the 2nd pic shows the actual part #, I picked these up at menards, but you could probably get them elsewhere as well

last pic shows my panel, notice the 5 small holes(1 on either corner up top, 3 across the bottom) pc thumb screws are a perfect fit. Will take about 15 seconds to change a panel. About as simple as you can get and works really really well.