Another ultimate arcade II, but its mine :)

[metalnwood]

    Hi All,  I started lurking here about a month ago when my friend started to talk about building an arcade machine.  He got me thinking...

    Years ago I built one based on the lusid plans but I didn't put too much effort in to it.  The worst part was I painted it around midnight under a single incandescent  bulb - and I know thats not how to do it..   When I came out the next morning it looked like a horror show.  Even so it stuck around for a while until it got thrown over the second story balcony to satisfy my wife.. 

    I thought if I was going to do it again I needed to do a better job cosmetically.  It took me about 1 day to decide to do another,  I wanted to try something other than the lusid cabinet but time is an issue so I bought the UAII plans rather than design something myself and take up building time..

    After seeing all the frankenpanels around here I thought I should do one too, no point in limiting myself 

    I wanted to make it look really pretty so I went with some glowing buttons too..  All in all there are two u360's, an ultimarc spinner, happ trackball, wedwiz, a bunch of ice buttons, ice trackball upgrade, ipcs, ipac optical.

   I am a mac guy and I only have one pc, for games, so it went in along with a 24 inch dell monitor.  Its a bit more than required for mame being a core2duo with an 8800 gtx but I have it set up to play fps's as well.   To play keyboard and mouse I take out the drawer and insert another drawer without the front panel.  Not sure if I described this well but essentially you can sit in front of it with a chair and the other drawer and use it like a computer, pretty good ergonomically as well.


    Only issue is I am 6"2 and I think the panel is too low, I get a sore neck if I play it too long.  This wasn't the case with my lusid cabinet.  I may have to put it on blocks.

   Heres the gallery of some shots.  I plan to document it on my website when I get a chance.

http://gallery.mac.com/jason.jane#100023

Theres also a picture of the artwork I ordered in ther.  I got it from mamemarquees and its in the post

  Yes, the buttons are blue for now, like all the cabinets before it hehe.

[superbigjay]

Looking good metalnwood 

I love the design of UAII cabs, building one myself.
In my case the CP height is perfect (I'm 5'10").

The artwork seems terrific.
I hope you won't have to much trouble installing it.

keep us posted.

PS: if you want more feedback, you should post pic and document in this forum,
people, including myself, are usually lazy and won't bother going to other sites...



Jay 

[metalnwood]

Yes, you may be right.  So for the non link clickers here are a few taken on the way..
   Here is my CNC router on the first day.  Oops,  Cnc is broken, have to push by hand



   I preferred this method rather than the jigsaw, it doesn't take too long to setup the straight edge and gives you a perfect edge.


   After one is done change to a flush trim bit and we have two

 

   A number of steps on and we have the base done.   I used ados f2 to apply the formica to the mdf,  its too expensive to buy 8x4 sheets of pre laminated mdf.  Coin slot is also in..   I don't know if I will actually use it but it makes it look nice.



   jumping ahead again I have started to put the top on..   I didnt measure the sides well and attached ones the wrong size!!! First thoughts were the UAII looks a bit of a stupid design..  It annoyed me enough to remeasure and find I had made a misatake.  I am really lucky I only used screws because I was thinking about using contact cement as well.   As i didn't do that I just unscrewed them and put the newly cut ones on as below.   They have been primed so the artwork can be attached.

   the dell 24" is in there..


moved on and installed the acrylic and bezel..

 

 Drilling the control panel.  I have a big drill press so it was easier then a powerdrill




  Done, waiting for artwork...  yes its blue neon lights, done a lot but none of my friends know that



artwork in the mail..



Thanks for looking..

[superbigjay]

I think if I would have to do it again, I would use the router like you did.
(except for my stainless steel sides...)
It gives better cuts...

Jay 

[metalnwood]

  Yes the router is the way to go I think.  It doesn't take as long as you may think.

   I cut a length of wood on the tablesaw which was the same width  as the outside of the routerbit to the edge of the router base.  This meant it only took 15 seconds to alighn the straight edge knowing that it followed the marked out line exactly.

   My picture below is not the correct way to do it though.  What you should do is make sure your straight edge is on the same side as your work.  This way if you deviate from the straight edge you will be going in to scrap, not in to your piece. 

   I would say all in all its quicker with the router because the jigsaw isnt really quick with 3/4" and you go slowly trying to follow the line. 

  A future project of mine is to build a cnc router for an 8x4 sheet.  Then projects will get quick

[FunWithFire]

Looks great. It seems as if you have quite a bit of room between the bottom of the monitor and your control panel. Why don't you re make the sides and front of the cp to raise it up a good 6-8 inches? That might help with your neck strain.

[metalnwood]

fyi, the artwork arrived and I put it on

   It makes a huge difference when you are next to it.  If I do another machine, I wouldn't hesitate to pay  for some more.

    The marquee looks great with the backlight on, its not on in the pic because it just overexposes..

[bent98]

CAn you tell me how you put artwork on. What is self adhesive?

[metalnwood]

Yes it was self adhesive.   After it was lined up i clamped it so that I could lift up a large section knowing it wouldnt go out of alignment.  I pulled off about a foot of the backing and cut it off with a razor blade.   I then lay it down flat to stick on the top, the part I had just peeled off.

    Once that was on I removed the clamp because it was secured by the sticky part.  I then just used my hand to make sure it went down smoothly while my wife peeled off the rest of the backing.  was pretty easy really.  I was a bit nervous at first because if you get it wrong you could be screwed.  No need to be nervous in the end, just do it carefully.

[Brumaz]

how does the widescreen 24" go? is it utilised fully in games? wouldnt they be all out of proportion?

[metalnwood]

Hi Brumaz,   when playing horiz games you dont notice at all.   When playing vert games  you wish it as a little higher but its still not a problem.

    When playing pc games like lego starwars, tiger woods 08 etc then you get the full widescreen with lots of resolution.

   The pc inside is a core2 duo with a 8800gtx so the monitor is always run 1920x1200 on the pc games.  This is where it looks really cool.

   All in all, not a problem.

T

[blueznl]

8800GTX?!?!?  For mame? 

Are you, well, at least somewhat, nuts? 

[PrizLucky]

8800GTX?!?!?  For mame? 

Are you, well, at least somewhat, nuts? 

Not for mame.. for the PC games he's got on there..   At that resolution that card will do nicely to keep the FPS up! 

nice machine!

[metalnwood]

  Hi blueznl.   PrizLucky is right, its for the pc games.   They all run at 1920x1200 so the card keep them going.

   The 8800 wasn't bought for this project but because I only had one pc and it had that card it had to go in

[blueznl]

I know, but the 8800GTX is about the walhalla for gaming these days. And totally unaffordable (which is why I have one in my Dell XPS710  )

But if it's just resolution you're after a regular (hear hear) 8800GTS will do the job more than adequate (and will cost less then half).

Just a bit shocking   

[bent98]

What about mounting speakers? What kind did you use. Do you have pics?