Author Topic: Aussie Lowboy Cabinet - Completed! (Read 32547 times)

holdennut · « **on:** June 08, 2006, 05:26:54 am »

Work has begun on my second cab modeled on the Aussie Lowboy design.
The last cab I built was a MS Pacman Cocktail which took me about 6 months to complete, hopefully this one will be a little quicker. $:-\$ http://www.modnet.com.au/pacman
The plan is to use this cab as a template for the one I'm building. Hopefully I'll get time to post some pics and plans as it progress's.

All comments (good or bad) are welcome...

Cheers

IG-88 · « **Reply #1 on:** June 08, 2006, 07:36:59 am »

I'd be interested in some measurements for one of these.

jcroach · « **Reply #2 on:** June 08, 2006, 08:25:24 am »

Quote from: IG-88 on June 08, 2006, 07:36:59 am

I'd be interested in some measurements for one of these.

Ditto

hbm*rais · « **Reply #3 on:** June 08, 2006, 09:16:18 am »

I built myself one of those and I'm very happy with it. It's a nice compact design.

What king of control panel do you intend to use (1 player, 2 players, how many buttons)?

BTW, I loved your cocktail. Nice work with the painting and wiring. I hope this one comes as good as that.

Kangum · « **Reply #4 on:** June 08, 2006, 02:12:50 pm »

really nice work on the coctail. One thing i noticed though is from the pics it looks like if someone said cool it even has a coin door and dropped a quarter in, it would plop right on the motherboard causing it to short out.

stuzza · « **Reply #5 on:** June 08, 2006, 11:53:08 pm »

Aussie Lowboys are cool!

Me and a friend have done 3 of em. I like em cos they are small enough to easily move from room to room.

Here is how one of mine was done up:

I ended up adding a larger control panel as it was too cramped for 2 players 6 buttons each. Can't wait to see how yours turns out!!

deadkenndys1105 · « **Reply #6 on:** June 09, 2006, 12:00:47 am »

I could see people that live in a small apartment building one of these.

Crafty · « **Reply #7 on:** June 09, 2006, 01:47:58 am »

It's good to see a fellow Aussie's cabinet.

Keep up the posts and photo's

holdennut · « **Reply #8 on:** June 09, 2006, 05:33:12 am »

Thanks guys for all the positive feedback

The parts from Ultimarc arrived today, hopefully I'll get the control panel together over the weekend and have some pics for next week.

IG-88 & jcroach: I have all the dimensions on paper. I'm still confirming all my measurements and transferring them to the PC, when done I'll post them here.

hbm*rais: I'm planning on a 2-player panel with 6 buttons each (it's a bit tight at 530mm x 120mm)

stuzza: Your cabinet actually inspired me to start the hobby again. I was considering replacing the original control panel to something like yours but decided to keep it as original as possable. (I may change my mind yet as 2 players with 6 buttons each is going to be a tight fit.)

Kangum: I have since squeezed in a coin box and modded the mech's to take the BYOAC tokens. Works a treat!

Kangum · « **Reply #9 on:** June 10, 2006, 05:16:22 pm »

it looks great too. the wiring inside your coctail is some of the best ive seen. really clean design and an inspiration. I can only hope mine will look half as good inside when im through.

now if i can only stop playing horizontal games withe top open

Ghoward · « **Reply #10 on:** June 11, 2006, 12:40:36 pm »

Looks really good...

Gary

loadman · « **Reply #11 on:** June 11, 2006, 08:39:54 pm »

Quote from: Crafty on June 09, 2006, 01:47:58 am

It's good to see a fellow Aussie's cabinet.

Ditto

holdennut · « **Reply #12 on:** June 17, 2006, 05:59:53 am »

OK, finally some news...

What a busy couple of weeks, but hey the control panel and bezel are almost finished.
Measured and cut the bezel to fit the 21" HP PC monitor I picked up on EBay.
The controls arrived from Ultimarc in record time, arrived in under 2 weeks! I was originally going to use the ball top sticks but they proved to be too short to mount in the MDF.
Also put together 2 mock panels to try-out the layout before I drilled holes in the real panel. I'm still not 100% happy with the layout, feels a little tight on the sides.

IG-88 · « **Reply #13 on:** June 17, 2006, 01:29:47 pm »

What the hell kinda monitor is that?

holdennut · « **Reply #14 on:** June 18, 2006, 01:12:17 am »

It's a 21" HP p1130 CRT computer monitor with it's cover off. The metal frame is to protect the tube and boards.

I'm actually glad it has the frame, it's made it a hell of a lot easier to handle.

Crafty · « **Reply #15 on:** June 18, 2006, 09:39:03 pm »

Have you got ideas for art (Marquee / CP / Sideart)

Looking good so far..

Love the partially decased 21" monitor...

Keep the photos coming...

Crafty · « **Reply #16 on:** June 18, 2006, 09:43:25 pm »

Quote from: stuzza on June 08, 2006, 11:53:08 pm

Aussie Lowboys are cool!
I ended up adding a larger control panel as it was too cramped for 2 players 6 buttons each.

The only way to tell if your CP will work for you is to assemble and play for a while..
As per quote above others find the layout with 6 buttons per player a bit tight..

holdennut · « **Reply #17 on:** June 19, 2006, 05:41:38 am »

Finally things are starting to come together.

Applied the control panel overlay, installed the Magsticks & buttons, wired up the iPac.

It honestly took about 4 hours to complete. I soldered all the connectors so hopefully I'll never have to touch it again...

Crafty: I'm not sure what to to about artwork at this stage. Probably just a marquee (something along the lines of streetfighter) but I'm not too good and Photoshop so will probably use someone like classicarcadegrafix.com or mamemarquees.com

zzsprade · « **Reply #18 on:** June 19, 2006, 06:42:01 am »

Quote from: Crafty on June 18, 2006, 09:43:25 pm

Quote from: stuzza on June 08, 2006, 11:53:08 pm
Aussie Lowboys are cool!
I ended up adding a larger control panel as it was too cramped for 2 players 6 buttons each.

The only way to tell if your CP will work for you is to assemble and play for a while..
As per quote above others find the layout with 6 buttons per player a bit tight..

I am really curious as well, as I have a lowboy that I have had laying there unfinished for some time, with 6 buttons for 2 players.

Have you noticed if it feels cramped, as I am considering before finishing it going back to 3 or 4 buttons.

holdennut, I am also very curious about your monitor jig. It is something that I am going to have to eventually work on soon... any tips or suggestions?

-Alex

Crafty · « **Reply #19 on:** June 20, 2006, 02:41:57 am »

Quote from: holdennut on June 19, 2006, 05:41:38 am

Crafty: I'm not sure what to to about artwork at this stage. Probably just a marquee (something along the lines of streetfighter) but I'm not too good and Photoshop so will probably use someone like classicarcadegrafix.com or mamemarquees.com

May I suggest you try for suggestions on the artwork forum..
I am also useless at graphics but realise that these often make the end product just that little bit special/unique...

When and If my project gets off the ground this is where I will be seeking help from others around here...

holdennut · « **Reply #20 on:** June 20, 2006, 09:53:34 am »

Hey zzsprade, the control panel doesn't seem too tight but I haven't actually tried it out for real yet. I think it'll be worth it just to be able to play the streetfighter series. As for the monitor, measure ~~twice~~ three times, cut once! Make a template with cardboard first to ensure your monitor fits well. I've also used wooden blocks in the corners to actually mount the four corners of the monitor to, should give a bit more strength.

Crafty, thanks for the advise, I actually have a few ideas that I like but could never put them all together and make it look any good. I should probably post and see if anyone can help me out.

Thanks for your comments guys.

holdennut · « **Reply #21 on:** July 01, 2006, 08:42:33 pm »

Just a quick update to say that the painting has begun.
I've decided to go with the same black & blue colour scheme as before. I applied three coats with a roller not bothering with a primer as MDF doesn't really soak up paint that bad anyway.

Hoping to finish putting the cabinet together this weekend, more pics during the week.

holdennut · « **Reply #22 on:** July 04, 2006, 09:57:58 am »

The time has finally come to start putting it all together

I must say it all came together a lot easier than I thought. At first I was a little concerned that it would be a bit wobbly with only the 30x30 bracing, but it turned out to be as solid as a rock!

holdennut · « **Reply #23 on:** July 04, 2006, 10:01:38 am »

Just looking through my photo's and came across these...

Crafty · « **Reply #24 on:** July 05, 2006, 09:45:15 pm »

Looking very neat, you will be finished in no time...

holdennut · « **Reply #25 on:** July 10, 2006, 06:02:09 am »

Things are really starting to come together now, I've installed the monitor and computer and can finally play a few games and test out the control panel.
Unfortunately, as I suspected it is very tight with two players and 6 buttons each. (makes the fighting games fun!)

The Bezel and marquee are next. I'm going to use the $2.00 bezel as posted here previously as it worked well on my cocktail. As for the marquee I've decided to go with the Mortal Kombat vector from AAL. I've printed it on my inkjet with photo paper and it came out a treat.

I've also put together all the measurements I used in a PDF which I'll post here shortly if anyone is interested.

danny_galaga · « **Reply #26 on:** July 10, 2006, 06:49:31 am »

looking very nice. nice tidy wiring (close to my heart

) and straight forward control panel- the cab is very homogenous. or as us aussies say- looks just like a bought one (",)

RXII · « **Reply #27 on:** July 11, 2006, 04:23:58 pm »

Quote from: holdennut on July 10, 2006, 06:02:09 am

I've also put together all the measurements I used in a PDF which I'll post here shortly if anyone is interested.

Very interested, looks great! The 21" monitor looks like a great choice size wise

Go the Aussie cabs!

javeryh · « **Reply #28 on:** July 11, 2006, 05:07:53 pm »

Awesome work. You are very detail oriented and it definitely shows in the super clean appearance of both of your cabs. Your cocktail was actually the inspiration for mine. I used the same exact color scheme except I stained the wood blue instead of painting it!

theCoder · « **Reply #29 on:** July 12, 2006, 11:10:01 am »

Nice job so far. Is the front edge of your CP rounded? It looks nice.
What is the black material?

holdennut · « **Reply #30 on:** July 13, 2006, 06:44:09 am »

The front edge is indeed rounded, I think the router bit I used was an R7 from memory.
The black material is like contact paper but really heavy duty, I still had some left over from my last project, got it from OzStick.

http://www.ozstick.com.au/prod_tmould.html

Crafty · « **Reply #31 on:** July 16, 2006, 10:27:09 pm »

Quote from: holdennut on July 10, 2006, 06:02:09 am

I've also put together all the measurements I used in a PDF which I'll post here shortly if anyone is interested.

Yes please...

But don't let this interrupt you completing the cabinet..

Looking good

holdennut · « **Reply #32 on:** July 19, 2006, 06:22:15 am »

I've taken a bit of a break from the cabinet this week to finish off the measurements for my cab.

I'm absolutely useless with AutoCad and Illustrator so their all hand drawn, scanned and then exported to PDF.

If anyone is interested go ahead and grab them, no guarantees that everything is 100%, but it should be pretty close.

http://users.on.net/~holdennut/Lowboy_Cabinet_Plans_v3.pdf

holdennut · « **Reply #33 on:** July 21, 2006, 05:43:43 am »

Before putting the bezel together I decided to move the OSD controls so that adjustments to the display could still be done down the track.

It was quite painfull so I thought I should show a few pics of how it was done!

holdennut · « **Reply #34 on:** July 21, 2006, 05:53:04 am »

The bezel went together without too much trouble using Tailgunners $2 Bezel instructions. The CRT is dead flat which made things a lot simpler. Just a small amount of wood glue was used in the corners to hold it all together.

holdennut · « **Reply #35 on:** July 21, 2006, 06:09:53 am »

The marquee also came together quite nicely.

The marquee was printed on photo paper using my Canon Pixma iP-4200 bubble jet printer. Apart from the join in the A4 paper the quality of the print was exceptional.

The marquee is held in place by two pieces of 19mm aluminum angle sprayed with black acrylic paint.

I have no plans to put a light in behind the marquee at this stage as I'm very happy with the result I have.

Just the back door and glass to go and I can finally move it indoors and start gaming.

Crafty · « **Reply #36 on:** July 23, 2006, 10:42:00 pm »

Top Effort ..

It's heartwarming to see an Aussie cabinet built and constructed so well..

holdennut · « **Reply #37 on:** September 09, 2006, 03:19:35 am »

Well, believe it or not but I finally got off my butt and got some glass.

I used a piece of 6mm standard clear glass and had it tinted with some 27% window tint.

I'm very happy with the result (excuse all those fingerprints!). As you can see the tint looks so much better than clear.

holdennut · « **Reply #38 on:** September 09, 2006, 03:29:34 am »

And finally the finished cabinet!

It's amazing how as soon as the cabinet is playable all work stops! Well I decided that while I was putting the glass in I should finish off all the small things... and here she is!

Oh and just in case anyone missed them, you can get my plans here...

http://users.on.net/~holdennut/Lowboy_Cabinet_Plans_v3.pdf

Finally a BIG thanks to everyone here who helped me along the way.

loadman · « **Reply #39 on:** September 09, 2006, 06:34:55 am »

Nice!!!


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