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Author Topic: "Vortex"- Scratch built Upright with lots of pictures - COMPLETED  (Read 55881 times)

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miles2912

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Re: "Vortex"- Scratch built Upright with lots of pictures - COMPLETED
« Reply #80 on: April 06, 2006, 06:33:51 pm »
Looking from the back into the cab.  Sub woofer, PC and back of coin door


« Last Edit: March 30, 2011, 07:55:44 pm by miles2912 »
  Scratch built upright MAME Cab

miles2912

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Re: "Vortex"- Scratch built Upright with lots of pictures - COMPLETED
« Reply #81 on: April 06, 2006, 10:11:56 pm »
Here is the cost breakdown of the cab.

... about $1500

I spread the cost over 7 months so it wasn't too bad.  I am sure that most cabs are in the same ballpark.


Don
« Last Edit: March 30, 2011, 07:56:18 pm by miles2912 »
  Scratch built upright MAME Cab

mj147

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Re: "Vortex"- Scratch built Upright with lots of pictures - COMPLETED
« Reply #82 on: April 07, 2006, 11:37:48 am »
This cab is sweet looking, Im a big fan of the black/blue themed ones

Dang the price breakdown is insane, just make sure the "finance dept" doesnt get ahold of it.  ;)

I love that blue t-molding, maybe its not too late for mine.....



mj147

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Re: "Vortex"- Scratch built Upright with lots of pictures - COMPLETED
« Reply #83 on: April 07, 2006, 07:17:45 pm »
nice cabinets congrats !

can you link to the paint sprayer for $15 from ?? I was looking for one of those at home depot but the cheapest one I found was like $100 ???

miles2912

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Re: "Vortex"- Scratch built Upright with lots of pictures - COMPLETED
« Reply #84 on: April 08, 2006, 02:46:22 pm »
nice cabinets congrats !

can you link to the paint sprayer for $15 from ?? I was looking for one of those at home depot but the cheapest one I found was like $100 ???


Worked like a champ..

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=47016

Don
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Re: "Vortex"- Scratch built Upright with lots of pictures - COMPLETED
« Reply #85 on: April 08, 2006, 09:34:39 pm »
I like how the computer is mounted and not just sitting on the bottom.  That's slick.

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Re: "Vortex"- Scratch built Upright with lots of pictures - COMPLETED
« Reply #86 on: April 10, 2006, 12:25:38 pm »
Congrats!
Very nice and clean work!
Great molding color, and I think you should consider some blue oriented sideart.
It would look great

AMDman13

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Re: "Vortex"- Scratch built Upright with lots of pictures - COMPLETED
« Reply #87 on: April 18, 2006, 09:26:09 pm »
miles,

Sorry to keep bugging you, but I can't get over how clean your monitor, plexi, and bezel look! From the pictures it appears that your bezel and plexi slide up behind your speaker shelf. Is this in fact the case or does it just butt up against the bottom of the speaker shelf?
Thanks for all of your help..
Love your cab!
My old user name was marlborroman13, but I kicked the habit many years ago!

miles2912

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Re: "Vortex"- Scratch built Upright with lots of pictures - COMPLETED
« Reply #88 on: April 18, 2006, 11:25:27 pm »
miles,

Sorry to keep bugging you, but I can't get over how clean your monitor, plexi, and bezel look! From the pictures it appears that your bezel and plexi slide up behind your speaker shelf. Is this in fact the case or does it just butt up against the bottom of the speaker shelf?
Thanks for all of your help..
Love your cab!

It butts up against the bottom.  Once I had the monitor mounted I cut the bezel to fit.  Placing the bezel where I wanted it I traced the perimeter.  Using the guide lines I mouned all the ledgers ( 1x2 white wood ) that the bezel and plexi would attach to.  So the speaker panel actually has a ledger attached to it.  Once you paint it all black it covers up any small mis-alignments and looks pretty clean.

Don
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AMDman13

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Re: "Vortex"- Scratch built Upright with lots of pictures - COMPLETED
« Reply #89 on: April 18, 2006, 11:42:21 pm »
miles2912, Thanks again. I may attempt to slide the plexi behind my speaker shelf. Time will tell. Depends how well I manage to position the monitor I suppose. One more question and I swear I'll quit bugging you ;D. What did you do with the area behind the CP. Is there a gap from the back of the CP to the glass?

My old user name was marlborroman13, but I kicked the habit many years ago!

motorfish

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Re: "Vortex"- Scratch built Upright with lots of pictures - COMPLETED
« Reply #90 on: April 19, 2006, 03:44:06 am »
Black and blue always looks good! ^_~

- Dan
Have you paid your dues Jack?......Yessir, the check is in the mail!

miles2912

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Re: "Vortex"- Scratch built Upright with lots of pictures - COMPLETED
« Reply #91 on: April 19, 2006, 03:46:55 pm »
miles2912, Thanks again. I may attempt to slide the plexi behind my speaker shelf. Time will tell. Depends how well I manage to position the monitor I suppose. One more question and I swear I'll quit bugging you ;D. What did you do with the area behind the CP. Is there a gap from the back of the CP to the glass?



I have a temporary solution that might just turn into a permanent one.  There is a 2 1/2" or so gap between the CP and plexi.  I had some leftover bezel material that just about fits in the gap.  I attached it to a piece of wood and it just sits in there.  The nice thing about this is that if I need to take the CP off it is easy to get to the bolts by just removing the piece of wood.  I snapped a few pictures to show you what I mean.

Here is what it looks like in place.  You hardly notice it unless you built the cab  :)

CP BACK

Here is the piece removed

CP HIDE

Don
« Last Edit: March 30, 2011, 07:57:05 pm by miles2912 »
  Scratch built upright MAME Cab

AMDman13

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Re: "Vortex"- Scratch built Upright with lots of pictures - COMPLETED
« Reply #92 on: April 19, 2006, 08:40:35 pm »
miles2912

Actually that looks pretty darn sweet if you ask me! Afterwork today I stopped by an arcade to see what other cabinets have done to accomplish this. I found that many of the CP box based Cabs use some type of L metal material. One for the bottom of the glass and on that sits on the back top of the CP. It looks a lot like marque holder material except it is smooth with a black finish.

Thanks for taking that pic I might do the same thing. Seems logical as I know I will have plenty of left over bezel available.

Thanks again!
My old user name was marlborroman13, but I kicked the habit many years ago!

miles2912

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Re: "Vortex"- Scratch built Upright with lots of pictures - COMPLETED
« Reply #93 on: April 21, 2006, 03:00:58 pm »
Picked up a new 10 MegaPixel Camera and took a few shots of the cab outside.  I used the 5 megapixels setting for the pics.. the 10 is just too big of an image.  Here are the links in case you want to check out the final pics.  I am seriously considering some side art...

« Last Edit: March 30, 2011, 07:57:34 pm by miles2912 »
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AMDman13

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Re: "Vortex"- Scratch built Upright with lots of pictures - COMPLETED
« Reply #94 on: April 22, 2006, 11:40:24 am »
Looks sweet! How happy are you with the smoked plexi? Did you have to increase the brightness of the Kortek to compensate?
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dpz147

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Re: "Vortex"- Scratch built Upright with lots of pictures - COMPLETED
« Reply #95 on: April 23, 2006, 12:24:03 pm »
Wow...loks awesome!!  Congrats!!

miles2912

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Re: "Vortex"- Scratch built Upright with lots of pictures - COMPLETED
« Reply #96 on: April 24, 2006, 09:05:35 pm »
Looks sweet! How happy are you with the smoked plexi? Did you have to increase the brightness of the Kortek to compensate?

When the cab is up and running you really can't tell.  The games look great and I didn't adjust the brightness.

Don
  Scratch built upright MAME Cab

miles2912

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Re: "Vortex"- Scratch built Upright with lots of pictures - COMPLETED
« Reply #97 on: April 25, 2006, 08:58:42 pm »
OK so maybe the cab will never be 100% done because there is always some mod that will need to be done.  I wanted to turn my cab on from inside the CP so I didn't have to bend down and reach in the coin door. So... first thing is to make sure the PC can turn on when it detects power.  It is a BIOS setting under power options.  Sure enough it worked like a champ.  Next step is to hack a power strip.

Here the power strip is opened and you can see the set of "deans plugs" that will connect the power strip to the CP.  I want to remove the CP so the switch, like everything else in the CP, has to have a plug.  

POWER STRIP

New switch is soldered in and ready to be installed.

MODIFIED STRIP

Here is a shot of the open CP with the new switch installed.



Don



« Last Edit: March 30, 2011, 07:58:17 pm by miles2912 »
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AMDman13

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Re: "Vortex"- Scratch built Upright with lots of pictures - COMPLETED
« Reply #98 on: May 13, 2006, 12:31:30 am »
miles2912 I gotta ask where did you get those speaker grilles? Are they 120mm fan guards? They look fantastic! BTW I finally have my Betson mounted! Thanks for your help on that!
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miles2912

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Re: "Vortex"- Scratch built Upright with lots of pictures - COMPLETED
« Reply #99 on: May 16, 2006, 02:58:52 pm »
miles2912 I gotta ask where did you get those speaker grilles? Are they 120mm fan guards? They look fantastic! BTW I finally have my Betson mounted! Thanks for your help on that!

They are just 120mm fan guards from newegg.  I wanted some silver on the cab so I used these, diamond kick plating around the bottom and sivler carrage bolts to hold the joysticks.  Gratz on the monitor...

D-
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AMDman13

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Re: "Vortex"- Scratch built Upright with lots of pictures - COMPLETED
« Reply #100 on: May 18, 2006, 09:10:59 pm »
miles, how did you get your Betson's mounting holes to line up with the angle iron? I had to cut my angle iron into pieces in order to get them to line up. So, now at the bottom and top I have 3 seperate pieces that are 2" long. One at the left, one at center, and one at right. I drew a template and took that to both lowes and HD to no avail. Not even the corners would line up with the holes.  :(
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miles2912

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Re: "Vortex"- Scratch built Upright with lots of pictures - COMPLETED
« Reply #101 on: June 22, 2006, 10:58:46 pm »
More mods to the cab.   My friends wanted a place to put their adult beverage so I ordered some cup holders from PonyBoy.  Talk about a life saver on shipping costs and slashing the original price compared to what Happs wants.  Sheez.  Thanks Pony!

First off I had to make a buffer to move the cup holders away from the cab.  They would be too close with the top overhang.  So, I grabbed some spare MDF measured, cut and painted it black.



After that it was a simple matter of placing then where I wanted on the CP and drill a few more holes. 



D-

« Last Edit: March 24, 2014, 08:20:42 pm by miles2912 »
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miles2912

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Re: "Vortex"- Scratch built Upright with lots of pictures - COMPLETED
« Reply #102 on: August 30, 2006, 03:36:01 pm »
Just an update.

Friends and family love it.  We are having a great time playing with the cab.  The fighting games and galaga are the big favorites.  If you want to play the fighting games build the cab sturdy.  My friends (big boys) play hard and the CP takes a beating but no probs so far.

I wiped the plexi covering the monitor with a shop rag that was wet then dry and was a little crusty?  Think dried out shammy.  Anyway it scratched the plexi to the point where I removed it.  I could not get the scratch out.  It still looks fine without it and the games are a little brighter.  No big deal really.. I could have made it without or I might replace it with a smoked glass.

D-
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Re: "Vortex"- Scratch built Upright with lots of pictures - COMPLETED
« Reply #103 on: August 31, 2006, 08:12:46 pm »
very nice mame cabinet.  that thing looks awesome.  i have one quick question.  where did you find that diamond plate kickplate thingie at?  was it at a home depot, lowes, osh, etc.?  or did you go somewhere to have it cut at a steel place or what not.  thanks for your help
this bozo thinks, so therefore he definitely is a bozo

miles2912

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Re: "Vortex"- Scratch built Upright with lots of pictures - COMPLETED
« Reply #104 on: September 04, 2006, 08:07:14 pm »
It came from  http://www.cutsmetal.com/index.htm .  $30 shipped.  They were great to deal with.

Don
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miles2912

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Re: "Vortex"- Scratch built Upright with lots of pictures - COMPLETED
« Reply #105 on: May 22, 2007, 08:04:43 pm »
Just wanted to say a big thanks to Andy over at Ultimarc.com .  I  was swapping out a cherry switch and hooked up the wire backwards causing my programming not to work properly.  Andy replied back to me promptly and knew exactly what I had done and the best way to fix it.  For the record if your shift key stops working something is wired wrong.

The mini-pac is a great deal if you just need a solid 2 person CP with TB and a spinner.  After over a year of constant use it is still going strong.  Thanks again Andy!

Don
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miles2912

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Re: "Vortex"- Scratch built Upright with lots of pictures - COMPLETED
« Reply #106 on: March 25, 2008, 05:18:50 pm »
Well almost 2 years later and the cab is going strong.  It gets used just about every week.   Talk about a gift that keeps on giving. 
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Re: "Vortex"- Scratch built Upright with lots of pictures - COMPLETED
« Reply #107 on: November 08, 2008, 03:03:02 pm »
Sweet cabinet dude.

Ryan
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miles2912

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Re: "Vortex"- Scratch built Upright with lots of pictures - COMPLETED
« Reply #108 on: June 13, 2009, 06:46:10 pm »
Hey an update.  The cabinet is still up and working like a champ.  Needs a little cleaning every now and then but still runs like the day it was made.  It seems to pull duty as a juke box a lot but the games still get their fair share of play.
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miles2912

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Re: "Vortex"- Scratch built Upright with lots of pictures - COMPLETED
« Reply #109 on: June 06, 2010, 11:18:51 pm »
Yearly Update.  Cab is still up and working like a champ.  It gets played at least once a week.
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miles2912

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Re: "Vortex"- Scratch built Upright with lots of pictures - COMPLETED
« Reply #110 on: March 30, 2011, 08:03:30 pm »
All of the pictures were stored at an old ISP.  I found a back up and uploaded all of the pictures.  They should be here for good now.

Keep in mind that this is a 5 year old cab that still plays like new.  I am out there at least once a week and friends and family have a blast.
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Re: "Vortex"- Scratch built Upright with lots of pictures - COMPLETED
« Reply #111 on: April 07, 2011, 11:22:39 am »
Hey I have a question. Im using 2x4's to build my cabinets frame too, what kind of wood screws did you use?

And what kind of joints are in these places? I cant see what you are screwing into.  :lol




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Re: "Vortex"- Scratch built Upright with lots of pictures - COMPLETED
« Reply #112 on: August 21, 2011, 02:43:16 am »
6 YEAR update.  Cab works like new still.  Just amazing that I have had this for 6 years now.  We still play  a lot of arcade games on it and it gets used as as juke box.  It is solid and built like a tank.  I designed it to move around if need be, but so far it has stayed put.

To answer DataWests question, those are lap joints made with a dado blade.  Just google all that to find the answers.  I have no regrets about overbuilding the cab and a heavy cab was the right choice for me.

To everyone who is building or on the fence about building, do it!  You will not regret it!  
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miles2912

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Re: "Vortex"- Scratch built Upright with lots of pictures - COMPLETED
« Reply #113 on: March 24, 2014, 08:24:43 pm »
9 Year update.  The PC went out.  So I picked up a used computer cheap and am in the process of setting up new ini files so the games show up properly on a real arcade monitor.  Kind of a pain but you need to do it to get the correct resolution.

We are still playing games on it, but it does a lot of juke box duty.  If you build it right they last a LONG time.  This cab is still solid as a rock.
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miles2912

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Re: "Vortex"- Scratch built Upright with lots of pictures - COMPLETED
« Reply #114 on: August 08, 2018, 05:51:53 pm »
13 Year update.  Cab is still going.  Needs a new PC, but the monitor and all controls are working great.
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Re: "Vortex"- Scratch built Upright with lots of pictures - COMPLETED
« Reply #115 on: August 08, 2018, 08:07:30 pm »
Nice.