Ok, a few questions: 1, what is MDF? 2, i still cant find any plans that seem to be adaptable to my situation. 3, i like the photoshop job done on my cab that was posted earlier, and i do want to box in the new control panel up like that, but i would also like the new panel to extend out away from the screen to allow for more room. Any suggestions on how i might do that even though there will be no cabinet underneath the extended portion of the panel to hold it up? Should i add on support beams underneath the new panel to keep it from breaking off?
Since what you are doing is pretty "custom" i don't think anyone can give you definitive plans on how to do it... You'll need to take off your current control panel and take some measurements and do some thunking as to how to best approach it.
Not that mine is the best example (it isn't, and i don't have documented terribly well the part you are most interested in...) but I took
an old taito cabinet and "T"d out the control panel to make room for a trackball... if you go through my gallery you may see better what I mean...
My control panel is just a sheet of plywood shaped like a "T" that originally was bolted onto some L brackets and rested on the original CP mounts. Later I built a "half a box" (i.e. no top) and used 2 super long carriage bolts w/washers (and theirs a 1 x 4 board squished between too, but that's due to constraints of my particular cabinet)... *shrug*
here's a
thread that might help a bit (snaaake used "L" brackets... I used the "fatter" "L" brackets as well)
You have the luxary of looking at an existing golden tee (modern style) to get a sense of what's involved... it's pretty easy once you wrap you mind around it.
MDF if medium density fiberboard... They have it at home depot...
*shrug* any other questions?
Rampy
EDIT 1: if you're having trouble making a wooden box, i'm a little worried about your chances when swapping out/wiring boards to make the swap from old skool golden tee to modern golden tee... is the old setup all Jamma-matized (i imagine it is... but you never know on a conversion like that)... did either your old golden tee or the new boards you'll be putting in come with manuals/pin outs etc?
*shrug* just a thought...
Since you'll most likely be swithching from what was probably a metal CP to a wooden one... you'll probably need a trackball mounting plate from happs (or bobroberts)... FWIW/heads up