Major cabinet size problem

[shmokes]

I've got big plans for creating a PacMamea/1UP style arcade cabinet and I just realized that the 36" depth kills me  

It is physically impossible to get it around the corner and through the hallway into the room that will be it's final destination.  

Screw building it in that room.  I won't be living in this apartment more than a couple more years.  I don't want to pull a Snake and have to get rid of the thing when I move(sorry Snake, that must have been difficult).

[Amra]

Dood, why dont you make it on a frame, i.e. it can be semi-dissasembled.

Find out your max rotatable space, and build your frame under that spec, then make the casing detachable.

Its a bit more complicated, but it makes it mobile, and that is worth it, its not like your going to be dissasembling it every week you know

[shmokes]

I guess I'll have to.  It'll take a bunch more thought.  This is really the only construction I've ever done.  I'll have to figure out a design that will work, materials, etc.  Good idea.  

Would I still just screw the frame to the panels, etc. with woodscrews or is there something better for this?

The rotating control panels will have to still work, and I'm a bit worried about deviating from the original designs too much with no personal woodworking/engineering experience.

We'll see.  There's no turning back now.  I have everything.

[Amra]

If you are going to use screws, see if you can change to bolts,  have them sunken and covered with putty (carriage bolts would be best for this)then just have holes in your frame, and use wingnuts to attach the sides to the frame, then the top/marquee area, screws should be fine, as long as they arent too wide though I could show you a way to have bolts there too.

The whole thing could covievably be held together by wingnuts, making for quick disassembly.  Heres a quick sketch of what I mean... It shouldnt be too difficult...

[RubbrDug]

ehm, I don't want to offend anyone here (especially not you, shmokes) but with the above given description of your woodworking and engineering skills you should consider a simpler project first    

I also considered building a cabinet like this, but decided against. I wouldn't call myself an expert, but with my experience and an almost complete workshop (tablesaw, router, drill-stand ...) I decided to go for something easier.

RubbrDug

[Wienerdog]

Amra, the putty in your holes would pop and ruin your paint job.  I also think you would run into problems if you are countersinking into MDF (not enough meat left for good support).  Your concept is acactly what he needs though.

I've been incorporating the same thing into my design.  Look at it this way, your cabinet is really made up of a 2x4, 2x2, and 1x2 chassis.  The outer MDF is just the covering, and can be made to be taken off.  You do need to come up with a good way to do this, because it can't _look_ like that is how you built it.

Good suggestion though.

RubberDug, I partially agree that this is a hard project and not necessarily for someone who has done no woodworking.  However, if you have the time and money, then go for it.  Keep in mind though, if you don't have some woodworking skills, be prepared to have to redo every single piece of wood you cut.  If you can't afford to buy two extra sheets of MDF because you cut the first ones wrong, I'd be worried.  I like the "Family Handyman" magazine because they do a good job of detailing woodworking projects.  What I really like is that they include little "snippits" of what they do wrong.  The problem I have with Norm is that you never see him mess up.  EVERYONE will mess up at some time.  Hopefully you mess up on a 4x8 sheet of MDF and not on a 3'x3' panel of Cherry!

[shmokes]

Those are my feelings.  I don't want to build two cabinets.  I'll just build the one I want the first time.  If I screw something up I'll figure out what went wrong and redo it sans the wrong part.  It'll still be cheaper than building an entire cabinet first for experience and then building the one I want after that.  I expect the project to take months.  I'll go very slowly and measure a bunch and test techniques on scrap wood before attacking the real stuff.  I'll still make mistakes, but it'll all work out in the end.  

As far as the putty coming out...paint...etc. I don't think that would be a problem.  In fact I don't think I'd really need to even use putty since I'm planning to laminate.  If there are worries about the strength of MDF not being sufficient after countersinking those bolts, though, that might be something I'd need to consider as I'm using 3/4" Melamine (not sure about the core) so my wood isn't going to be quite as strong as MDF.

What about T-bolts?  They wouldn't have to be countersunk nearly as far.  I'll only be laminating the sides and front.  The back will remain black melamine prelaminated only, so I might have to consider some way to attach the back pieces without unsightly bolts showing.

[JustMichael]

Why not make the cabinet not as deep and have a detachable control panel hanging off of the front?  When it comes time to move just detach the control panel to get the extra clearance you'll need.

[shmokes]

Well, a combination of reason's really.  For one thing, I'm emotionally set on building a rotating control panel   .   I've just set my mind to it and I don't know if my self-esteem could take the blow of scrapping those plans   .

Also, my wife would never forgive me if I built something unsightly and displayed it in our place for people to see.   One nice thing about the PacMamea plans is the way everything is nicely incorporated into the footprint of the cabinet.  

It's really quite a fix.  I've got to shave six inches off the depth to manuever it into its room.  That's a hefty amount.   The hallway it has to go through will only allow something that's about 30 1/8" to rotate in.  The plans call for a 36 1/8" depth.  I could maybe permanently take three inches off the depth and still have room for my monitor, but beyond that the monitor would have to poke out the back (unacceptable).

[rampy]

Have you seen frosty's rotable one?  He's gone and chopped it (1ups design) in half to make it easier to transport...

*shrug*  just a thought.

rampy

[shmokes]

Hmm...it sounds like a thought I wouldn't mind you expounding on.  That's frostilicious right?  I suppose I'll track down a post of his or the Cab examples page and get more info about it.  

[Frostillicus]

yeah the link is under my avatar - it's like 1up's only 2 pieces ...i live in 4th floor apartment...so far i've only finished the bottom half

[shmokes]

Wow...that's really interesting.  I'm not sure that would help, though.  I'd need to figure out the new hight measurements, but it looks like it's still at least as high as it is deep so my problem would still exist.

By the way, those are the coolest control panel overlays ever made.  Especially the rotary stick panel (and maybe the tron panel, the pic isn't very close up or detailed).

[Frostillicus]

Wow...that's really interesting.  I'm not sure that would help, though.  I'd need to figure out the new hight measurements, but it looks like it's still at least as high as it is deep so my problem would still exist.

By the way, those are the coolest control panel overlays ever made.  Especially the rotary stick panel (and maybe the tron panel, the pic isn't very close up or detailed).

thanks I think they are cool too    anyways - a lot of people make the screw-together type of cabinet for easy disassembly, but it is a lot easier and sturdier to go with a permanently joined cab.  I'm talking the major corner joints, not a top/bottom like mine.  How about a showcase cab? Or just don't build it so deep - what is the max depth and width you can live with? Would it turn the corner if it was skinnier?  

[Cue-Ball]

I don't see any reason you can't build a "normal" cab and still be able to disassemble it.  If you use 1x1" or 2x2" boards to hold the MDF pieces together, you could easily remove the screws later on down the road.  If it weren't for the 1/2 ton of glue on my factory-built cabinet, i'm sure i could tear it down to easily movable component parts in a few hours tops.

[shmokes]

The problem is I need it to be at least that deep to accomodate the 27" TV I'm planning to use as the monitor.  I'd love to just use a WG d9200 instead, which would allow me to make it 6" shallower, but I already own the TV and I don't have $500 to lay down on a new monitor (especially when I already own a 27" TV I could use).

Unfortunately I'm just going to have to assemble it in the room, I think, and disassemble it when I leave    Oh well!  Such is life.  

I am a little bit worried about laminating.  My workspace is across town; I could never build this thing in my apartment.  Someone here told me that if you are only laminating one side of a board it needs to be fastened to a frame immediately or the laminate will start warping the board.  This someone is a professional cabinet maker and says that he has seen noticable warping within an hour or two.  Anyway, I don't want to laminate both sides.  Laminate is expensive and I'm already using black melamine so the cab will look nice inside and such.  It'd be a huge waste of the extra money I spent for melamine to laminate both sides of it.

Someone=I don't remember

[Wienerdog]

shmokes, I would use a different wood.

If you are laminating, I would go with plywood for it's strength.  Melamine has a particle board core, so it isn't the best wood to countersink a lag bolt into, and it is heavy.

I think my ideal wood is MDO.  I found it at my local Menards today, and I will be using it if I decide to paint my cab.  MDO is a plywood with a thin MDF face on each side.  It is as light and strong as plywood and has the smooth paintable surface of MDF.  However, if you do not have a need to paint one or both surfaces, then it is not _your_ ideal wood.

[shmokes]

Hah...too late.  Already got all the melamine.  Perhaps it would have been prudent to choose a different wood, but I only plan to build this once at least within the next five years.  I just want it to be as nice and professional looking as possible.  I guess I could have bought a different wood and painted the inside and laminated the outside for a similar, albeit less expensive result.  But the thought of my cab being all black and shiny on the inside and all nice and laminated on the outside makes sunshine flow through my heart.

Err....forget that stuff I said about the sunshine please.

I'll probably run an electric sander over the surface to rid it of sheen before I apply a second laminate.  As far as strength goes my understanding is that melamine board uses industrial strength particle board which has close to, if not the same strength rating as MDF.  And god yes, it was heavy.  95 lbs. per 4'x8' sheet.

[Wienerdog]

And god yes, it was heavy.  95 lbs. per 4'x8' sheet.

LOL, I have to be honest.  I have gone to Home Depot at least twice with the intention of buying 3/4 MDF.  Both times, I started to pick up a sheet and I thought "you have GOT to be kidding me".  I am 6'3", 230lbs, and I walked out because I couldn't imagine having a cab made out of three sheets of this stuff.  HA.  Then I decided to stain the cab so I was going with cabinet grade Birch plywood.  Now that I found the MDO, I may be leaning that direction again.