My Cab

[Reaper]

Well, where to start, I have been thinking about owning a cab for quite some time, since I was a kid actually, but since the nice ones are still rather expensive I decided that the best option would be to build one. After many weeks of searching I found several sites with information about cabs, MAME etc, then I found BYOAC & spent a few weeks reading threads, far too quickly as it turned out, as I still ended up asking the newbie type questions that deserved the "Use the search button" type responses (which in all fairness were few & far between). I then found some plans I liked and started to plan to buy the bits I needed, I bought a set of 2 sticks & 14 buttons from a user called print_studio on e-bay he is a friendly person very helpful and I would recommend him to anyone buying parts in the UK, I also bought an i-pac2 from ultimarc (this turned out to be a mistake as once all this arrived I built a temporary CP & spent the next month playing games whenever possible!).

[mozzer]

Holy Cow!

Good luck on your project.

i didn't make it too far into your post before my brain freezed. Try seperating some of your paragraphs

[Reaper]

LOL, will try & wort it out now

[edit] should be a bit better to read now I hope [/edit]

[Jabba]

Agreed mozzer.... Really needs to be separated into paragraphs. Very difficult to read. My head is still spinning

[mozzer]

I am going to try & put this all on a website (if anyone can suggest a good free hosting place I would appreciate it

[Reaper]

cheers for that mozzer, will look into that now

[elpresidente]

I am going to try & put this all on a website (if anyone can suggest a good free hosting place I would appreciate it

I can give you some space. I have the domain of mameprojects.com so you could use a prefix (reaper.mameprojects.com?). I can give this space for free as I plan on using the resources on this board greatly when I start building. PM me if you're interested (this goes for any others that need web space - as long as it's not huge or going to use a ton of bandwidth.)

[Wyluli]

Holy cow, sounds like you were busy.  It would take me months to build a cabinet (I'm figuring this based on the 5 million mistakes I made measuring my cp and trying to get IT built).
I opted to buy a cab instead.

Hope the project is proceeding well!!!

Cheers.

[Reaper]

Not much has happened on it since I did the CP - must remember to always wire up the CP LAST!!!! - that way I will finish the cab quicker

@ elpresidente - Cheers I will let you know, am still looking into the blog thing at the moment

[ras2a]

Know exactly what you mean regarding the time aspect.  Never ever 'bank' on certain tasks being done within a given time-frame.  I did this (I'm impatient and things invariably go over your alloted time.  This is due to all manner of things, such as not having all the bits you need, or forgetting to buy something and having to nip out to B&Q 'just one more time' (AGAIN...lol). 

Anyways, it sounds as if things are coming good for you.  Keep us up to date and good luck with everything!

Craig

[Reaper]

Yeah, we did that a few times - however dont think much else will happen until feb now as I have just gone from weekly pay to monthly pay which will be a bit of a strain for a while, just glad I got it built when I did as if I had waited any longer it might not have been made this year!! - Decorating it will also have to wait for a while as well for the same reason, at least I can play on it though & I do have a few more bits to do to it, like mount all the hardware (pc etc) as it is all sat on a stool in the cab at the moment! 

I will have to take more piccys while I do the rest as there are only about 8 for the whole cab build!!

[ras2a]

Look forward to it.  Keep us posted

[Reaper]

& here is a piccy of when it was ready to run

[Stingray]

You got quite a lot done for a couple days work.

-S

[Reaper]

cheers, need to borrow a router now so I can prepare for the t moulding & then decorate the cab & sort out a bezel

[lusid]

Since you flush mounted the panels, be very very careful when you router the edges for the t-moulding.  If you hit one of the screws with the slot cutting bit it could knock the router out of your hand.  You'll need all your fingers to enjoy the cab.

I love you look of a new cabinet coming together.
 

[Reaper]

Cheers for the advice (& the plans ) byt I hope it should be OK as there are no screws closer than 1" of the edge & I wont need to go that deep I hope

[Reaper]

OK so I bought an X-Box on Saturday so no progress this weekend - On the plus side Project Gotham Racing 2 ROCKS!

[Jabba]

I will echo what Lusid said.....Take the cabinet apart before you route the T-Molding slot. First, it will be A LOT easier to manouver with the router, second, hitting a wood screw at 10,000 RPM can be EXTREMELY hazardous to your health, and the router!!!

BTW: Thanks Lusid for the excellent plans. You have made a lot of people's lives a lot easier in this Hobby! Nice to see you frequent these boards from time to time.

Cheers!

[Bill Mote]

cheers, need to borrow a router now so I can prepare for the t moulding & then decorate the cab & sort out a bezel

I would recommend you get a 1/16" slot cutter and not the 3/32" slot cutter.  I did all the slot cutting before the final coating of paint.  The 1/16" slot worked out perfectly.  I was able to push (firmly!) the t-molding into place and it requires a firm pull to get it out.  In a couple of tough spots (where the paint was thicker in the cracks) I used a rubber mallet encourage the t-molding into place.

The 3/32" bit slots were easier to press the t-molding into, but it was also easier to pull it out of.  The 1/8" bits I've heard passed around as a suitable alternative should you find it hard to get the others is a farse.  Without glue or brads the t-molding falls out on it's own.

I built my CP last based on this very fear.

MAMEWAH is a great recommendation by-the-way.  I have *no* access to a keyboard and I never need it.  In the event that I need to do something on the cabinet I use VNC.  I installed a wireless NIC in the PC inside the cabinet so I could access it readily and still only have 1 power cord coming out of it!

dot

dot

[Bill Mote]

Oh yeah, I also mounted a happ pushbutton right on the side of the cabinet.  I cut the switch off of a PC power button and soldered it to the microswitch and mounted it on the button.  I drilled a hole and hot glued the PC's power LED through the cabinet as well.

Now, if it gets buggered up too badly the kids just tap the button and XP does an orderly shutdown.  When the LED goes out (PC is off) the kids just hit the button again and viola!  The arcade is back to life.

[Bill Mote]

Props to LuSiD on the design.  The one thing I really didn't care for was the use of L-brackets.  I completed the entire cabinet using 2"x2" boards glued and screwed to the left and right panels.  The L-brackets looked like an afterthought given the detail shown to the rest of the cabinet.

I didn't care for the open backed cabinet based on his 3-sheets of plywood and/or MDF so I wanted a few changes.

Jakobud has *very* detailed drawings with measurements that you'll find invaluable if you're building a cabinet!