Insomniac 19" upright

[JoyMonkey]

I'm having trouble sleeping so I got out of bed at 4:30am and started doodling. Here's the result of my sleep deprived night...
Basically, it's an Ultimate Arcade II inspired upright with a 19" rotating monitor. I've never been a fan of big cabinets, so I tried to keep the size down but leave enough room that the control panel doesn't feel crowded (and of course, be large enough to allow a 19" monitor to rotate).
The cabinet is 72 3/8" tall, 25 1/2" wide
The control panel is 29 1/2" wide and it's surface is at 40" from ground level.

I'm not sure if this will actually get off the drawing board (like so many of my projects), but I thought I'd share this design anyway.

[JoyMonkey]

Here's a revised drawing. I decided to simplify the construcion a bit, so the sides are all one piece each and the finagley curved back  is gone (what was I thinking?). I discovered a few 26" x 96" ultralight MDF off-cuts at work, just sitting there waiting to be made into a bautiful arcade cabinet. I'll need to alter the design so the sides will fit in these off-cuts.
I'm planning on making the cabinet first and figuring out a nice monitor rotating scheme once it's built.

[dmsuchy]

Lookin good, have you thought of using a LCD monitor and making it even skinner? Tiger has them now for around 230 bucks cheap, and would really make rotation easy!

[JoyMonkey]

I don't have the cash for an LCD monitor (this is one of the shoe-string ideas) and I prefer the look of standard res arcade monitors anyway. Not that I have enough cash for another arcade monitor right now either!

[paigeoliver]

Normally I dislike the cutout back, but I actually liked your first drawing better.

[JoyMonkey]

Normally I dislike the cutout back, but I actually liked your first drawing better.

Yeah, but then I tried to visualize how the back would be put together. It looks nice from a side elevation, but it probably won't be quite as purdy in reality. I think it'll be more hassle than it's worth; especially since I'm trying to keep this thing cheap and chearful.

[JoyMonkey]

Here's another revision. This is a little shorter and the side panels are narrower, this way I can use lots of the ultralight scrap material that I've got lying around. The side panels no longer extend under the control panel; insteal I've put two curved brackets on the front of the cabinet to support the CP.
I angled the control panel 4 degrees here too, just enough so a beer won't slide off so easily 

I know this design is getting less and less creative with each revision, but *shrug*

[AmericanDemon]

Here's another revision. This is a little shorter and the side panels are narrower, this way I can use lots of the ultralight scrap material that I've got lying around. The side panels no longer extend under the control panel; insteal I've put two curved brackets on the front of the cabinet to support the CP.
I angled the control panel 4 degrees here too, just enough so a beer won't slide off so easily 

I know this design is getting less and less creative with each revision, but *shrug*

I like it.  It may not be as creative, but its becoming more of a practical project. 

[JoyMonkey]

Here's another small revision to the CP. Originally I had sketched it to allow for 49-way sticks which need a little more room that most sticks, but I doubt I'll end up using 49-ways because of the $$.
The P1 joystick looked a little too far left of the monitor, so I moved it 1/2" closer to the buttons and moved P2's buttons closer to the stick. I took 2" off the overall CP width. My only worry now is that P2's buttons are a little too close to the right edge. The CP surface should be completely level, so this shouldn't be too much of a problem.

[JoyMonkey]

Well I just ordered some ultralight MDF for this and some other projects, so it looks like this one might actually happen sometime this year! I ordered a few sheets, but I'm going to keep this design 'skinny' so maybe I can sneak it into the house without the wife noticing (shhhh!!).

[Flinkly]

what do you mean by skinny?  cheap, or small width?  if your talking about size, your cabinet is actually kinda normal sized.  when i clicked into the thread, i was expecting to be confronted by a 19 inch wide cabinet for classics or something, not a cab almost 30 inches wide.  i mean, my cab is smaller than that, and i was making it big.

other than my confusion, the cab looks great, although it is losing it's character with every revision.  in the end it'll still play games though, and that is what really matters.

[danny_galaga]

Normally I dislike the cutout back, but I actually liked your first drawing better.

i agree

[Pixelhugger]

Heh- another Mcmaster customer! Whoo HAH!

Looks really cool. I also agree on the cutout back.

[JoyMonkey]

Yeah, I'm thinking of adding a curve to the back but I'm having difficulty getting one to look right...

[Minwah]

I like it how it is.

Is the control panel a seperate box?  It looks like it, but my only suggestion would be to have the control panel the same width as the cabinet...ie so that the CP sits within the side panels (not as a box).

[JoyMonkey]

The control panel is seperate, I've made it as narrow as the 7 button layout will allow without too much crowding- it's still 1 1/2" wider than the cabinet, so the sides of the CP attach directly onto the cabinet sides.

Here's that curvey back again, it does look better. Becasue the cabinet isn't made up of a top section and lower section anymore, the red/grey sides are just paint; not seperate pieces.

[RecycledPast]

Well I just ordered some ultralight MDF for this and some other projects, so it looks like this one might actually happen sometime this year! I ordered a few sheets, but I'm going to keep this design 'skinny' so maybe I can sneak it into the house without the wife noticing (shhhh!!).

Where did you order ultralight MDF from?

[BioFreak]

Here's that curvey back again, it does look better.

Yep I like the curvey back much better. It almost reminds me of a chexx dome hockey  base. Nice design.

[Apodysophilia]

I like how your CP is layed out. Mind posting a bigger picture of the layout?

[JoyMonkey]

Where did you order ultralight MDF from?  Do HD/Lowes carry it?  I've never noticed it before.   What's the price difference over reg MDF?

I use ultralight MDF at work to surface the vacuum bed of the CNC machine. I looked at a bunch of different lumber places to get it, in the end I ordered from Atlantic Plywood because everybody else would have to special order it and couldn't give me a definite price, Atlantic have it in stock. The prices at Atlantic fluctuate a lot, right now it's $29.83 per sheet for 10 or more sheets or about $34 for less than 10 sheets plus a $15 fuel charge. They have a minimum order of $200 for delivery.

[JoyMonkey]

I like how your CP is layed out. Mind posting a bigger picture of the layout?

Here's a close up. I posted a PDF too.

[JoyMonkey]

I was going to cut some cabinet parts today, then I realized that I really should finalize the design of the rotating monitor mount before I do anything. Good thing too, I'll probably have to change the overall design of the cab to accomodate this a little.
Still not final, but this is probably how I'll do it for now. There's always the option of adding a motor in place of one of the ball casters if I ever get time to figure out some automatic rotation.

[dema]

I like the curvy design a lot. The other one doesn't do anything for me.

[ltk202]

That curvy design is sexy.  Me likes it.