Knievel's NEON Sideart

[Knievel]

As with the lighted button idea I'm getting a fair amount of e-mail on this so I'm just putting up a quick post on it. Basically I lit my sideart by mounting 12" blue neon car subwoofer rings inside holes on either side of my cabinet.
If you haven't seen my NEON MAME project thread here's what I've done...







My first step was to cut a hole in one side of the cab after determining a location that will be hidden behind the front bezel. I made the hole the same diameter as the inside of the neon ring but if you wanted the ring to be more hidden you could make the hole smaller.
I used a circle cutting jig in my router for this for a perfectly round hole. I then laid the finished cab side onto of the other one and traced the hole onto it so it would be in the exact location on both sides.
I also put t-mold around the inside of the holes for a real polished look. I cut the slots for that at this point as well.



Mounting the rings is really just a matter of screwing them to the inside of the cab. There are standoffs on the ring for screws to go though, there were 4 on mine...



Of course you won't want just a ring in there, you want some sideart to light up. To do that I made a 'sideart sandwich' consisting of: a piece of 1/8"plexi to protect the sideart/the sideart itself/and a wood backer(1/2" MDF).
Unfortunately I didn't take any pics of this part but I think it's self-explanitory...I hope anyway.
Once you've made your sideart sandwich place the neon ring on top of it and drill holes down through the sandwich where the 4 mounting holes are.



Once that's done just screw the whole thing in place on the inside of the cab and wire the inverter to a 12v supply. I used my computer PS as I did with my LED buttons. You can tap the yellow+black wires of an unused molex connector to get 12v.

[jfunk]

That's just..  beautiful...

I'm very jealous 

[Hoagie_one]

STUNNING

[Bloinkxp]

Amazing.

[j123vt_99]

wow...

[megashock5]

Holy cow, Knievel...

what a cab, incredible!

[Gunstar Hero]

Sharp!

[Knievel]

Not sure if some of these comments are for cab the or the ring idea but thanks.
Nice to see the old Black+Blue scheme can still turn heads.

[Gunstar Hero]

The B'n'B cab looks great, no problems there, teh ol' standby never fails, but that "neon ring" sideart idea really makes the cab.

[GameOver]

Very nice work.  You've raised the bar with this one.  It's cabs like this that get people interested.  Just like Flinky's Metal-Slug 'proto' cab.  Got any more tricks up your sleeve?  Thanks for sharing all your great information with fellow enthusiasts.   

[SystemError]

Thats a very unique idea - I love it - Great Work.

[LeedsFan]

Not sure if some of these comments are for cab the or the ring idea but thanks.
Nice to see the old Black+Blue scheme can still turn heads.

The black and blue cabs are my favourite..... the colour scheme works so well. It was a b'n'b cab that inspired me to do my own and was built by a member here called PedroSilva in Portugal.  This is my personal favourite now though.  When a cab is done right and the design is to your liking, it can only inspire.

[Stingray]

Okay, I admit that I saw this thread yesterday and the word "neon" made me skip over it. I opened it today and was just blown away by what I saw. Very nicely done, not what I expected at all.

-S

[coasternuts]

That's funny, that's the color scheme I am planning....I bet a lot of us REALLY liked Tron. 

I hope mine is half as sweet as yours!  Great job all around, panel, artwork, and nifty port hole.

[Knievel]

Thanks guys, appreciate all the compliments.

Cab's by Stingray, PedroSilva and Stuzza were all inspirations for this one.

Yes I've got lots of more ideas in my head...happy to share the ones that work

[Chris]

That's funny, that's the color scheme I am planning....I bet a lot of us REALLY liked Tron.

[Minwah]

I hadn't seen this before but *very* cool!!

[Knievel]

Hey thanks Minwah, and thanks again for the great front-end. The new version is just so tweaked...love it.
If you haven't seen my 2 Project threads there's screenshots of my skins to check out.

[Apollo]

Awesome, one of the best cabs I've ever seen and I've seen a lot. That's a future "Hall of Famer"for sure. Incredible job well done.

[ALeX K]

Knievel, thats simply stunning mate... really good stuff. I considered something similar a while back, using a window to reveal graphics inside the cab lit with neon, but quickly gave up the idea due to complexity... you've got me inspired and thinking of it again though.

I wondered if you could tell us a bit more about the rest of the cab construction?

[Magnet_Eye]

Cool! It's like a porthole! I wanna make a pirate ship-themed cab, with crazy sideart and a porthole! maybe looking out on a seascape or some mermaids!

 

[apeekaboo]

This cab simply rocks! It's one of the best I've seen!
Great job Knievel!

Magnet_Eye: nice avatar

[Stingray]

Thanks guys, appreciate all the compliments.

Cab's by Stingray, PedroSilva and Stuzza were all inspirations for this one.

Yes I've got lots of more ideas in my head...happy to share the ones that work

Thanks, I'm flattered, but yours is on a whole other level from mine. You did really fantastic work there.

-S