Best way to restore stand up arcade .. (?)

[JoeB]

I recently purchased a pretty beat up arcade stand up machine.  The monitor is excellent, but the body needs work.  It looks like it used to be a 4 player machine converted to a 2 player fighting game over its time.

I've sanded down a lot of the "paint" from the sides and front.  (It looks like plywood with a black coat on it) the coating is now rough, so anything can stick to it.

I was thinking of buying laminate sheets from home depot (the ones that have a thing wood backing to it, yet still flex a bit), laminating the box, and then sticking printed stickers to it.  (rather than painting the box).

Is this the best thing I can do, or is there something "easier" ??

Thanks,

JoeB

[AGarv]

Hey Joe, I've never heard of anyone online who regretted laminating their cab in the manner you described.  A lot less mess and time than painting too.

[SNAAAKE]

laminate is the way to go.i just built a brand new cabinet with laminate that cost ($75=4x8) but if you look around locallly,you might mind heavyweight matt laminate for only $14 a 4x8 sheet.its that cheap for regular colors like black,orange,purple and such.mine cost me $75 because i choose the wood looking style(i love those wood looking cabinet but i have no clue how to stain or make it look cool so laminate was the only choice).
Here is a pic by the way.




Also,since your cabinet is sorta beatup.paint wont do you any good to cover up the beatupness.black laminate would be great as any home depot carrys it.

[lightspeed]

The laminate that most cabinet builders use is known as "melamime".   You should be able to find it at Home Depot, Lowe's, etc.

[Chris]

Forgive the ignorance, but how does one apply this stuff?  Do you just laminate the sides and leave the back and front panels painted, or do you laminate every last surface?

Do you need any special tools to apply laminate?

Do I need to sand to bare wood to apply laminate, or can you apply laminate over paint?

I like the way the front panels of my cabinet look, but I've never been happy with the sides...

--Chris

[SNAAAKE]

EDIT:
JOEB explained better.

[Chris]

Sounds like it may be worth doing next time I upgrade.  In a month or two, I'll probably be replacing pretty much all of the innards of the cabinet: new PC (an all-in-one motherboard that I can just mount to the wood like a real arcade board), new monitor (an arcade-style monitor I can bolt down instead of a PC monitor on a shelf), new keyboard hack, possibly even new control panel.... at that point, the cabinet will be practically empty, so I could do the sides then... gawd, I'm not looking forward to sanding that bastard again!  Remind me to wear the mask this time....

--Chris

[JoeB]

the proper way to laminate, from what I hear is:

- Put machine onto side, with surface to laminate pointing up
- Make sure surface is pretty clean.  If it has laminate or paint on it, you don't need to sand down to the wood, you must have to sand down enough to make sure surface is rough, and not shiny.
- Apply contact cement onto surface
- Apply contact cement to laminate sheet
- Wait till both surfaces are dry to the touch
- Place small wooden sticks about a foot apart on surface
- Place laminate on top.

- IMPORTANT: Contact cement will bond like CEMENT the instant it touches! There is nothing that can free it up! You'll rip it to shreds before it gives!!!!  But it only bonds contact cement surface to contact cement surface.. anything else, it doesn't stick!

- Slowly, remove one stick at a time, while using presure / roller
- Continue till it's all done
- Use a laminate cutter (or really carefully with a dremel) to cut contact laminate

Good luck!

JoeB

[Xphile]

Everything JoeB said is correct, but instead of using a .99 paintbrush (snaake's suggestion:-), I *strongly* recommend getting a $0.99 - 3 inch paint roller (the little general purpose poly ones you use to paint trim).  We use them at our shop, and they make the process *much* easier than a brush..it'll push it around so much quicker and easier... quick is the key here, if you make too many passes with the roller over too long a time period while spreading, contact cement tends to bead up on itself (little drying balls of CC do not make for a nice flat joining surface..:-) so put lots of it on (a nice steadly pour out of the can -top to bottom of the cab) and work quickly, spreading it out to all edges..

also not mentioned was the need to apply pressure to the laminate after application to create a good solid bond..they sell special hard rubber rollers for this purpose(looks like a small paint roller, made with a rubber roller instead of a fuzzy stuff roller:-), but if this is a one-off thing, just use your hands (one on top of the other and lean into it..) to apply as much pressure as you can to each square inch of cabinet side...especially around the edges, and especially if you had little contact cement balls  develop during the application process..  (you don't have to press and hold either, it's not like glue..as long as you apply enough pressure to make the laminate cement contact the cab cement, that'll do it almost instantly)

a router with a flush trim bit, or a laminate trimer all around the edges and that sides done.. you can flip it over and do the other side :-)

[ripzone]

See this site also, i hope this helps.

Here is the site: http://alsnetbiz.com/homeimprovement/formica.html

[spidermonkey]

When using a laminate trimmer or router you must work in a counter clockwise direction. Look underneath and all the way around the panel that you are about to trim and make sure that your saw horses aren't  blocking the cutting path. If the trimmer bit comes in contact with anything other then the excess laminate it could grab it and cause it to jump off course. Laminate trimmers and routers spin VERY fast and can get out of control fairly quickly so hold on to it tight and work slowly. Always keep pressure on the trimmer against the the board that you are laminating so that you are assured of a nice flush edge. Some people go around the edge with sandpaper afterwards just to take off any sharp edges but if you find yourself sanding down spots of laminate that are overlapping the edge of the board then you aren't keeping even pressure on the trimmer against the the edge of the board. When finished you'll be happy that you decided to laminate your cab instead of painting as their is just no comparison when it comes down to a professional look.