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Been A Year! Back at It and Almost Done!

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draculawithglasses:
Man, its been a rough year... I've only had time and money to tinker with my cab for the last year, but I am back at it and determined to finish up within the next month (Thanks to Uncle Sam being ever so generous this season!). I actually took a semester off school and scheduled a vacation from work mid February to finish this thing up (As a C.S. major I am really going to enjoy playing with software that isn't business related... I really need the break!). Although I don't post a lot, I've checked these forums almost everyday, (kinda like checking WOOT! everyday) especially the project announcements, and I must say  that I have learned a ton and also a lot of you have rolled out some amazing cabs this year!

This is my first cab. I originally designed it taking inspiration from Taz's Mame Marvel cab. His slim cab design is genius. I really didn't have a choice as far as the cab width...the only room in my house that has room for a cab has a brutally small doorway and weird hallway angles before you even hit the door. I wanted something that would easily come apart in three or more pieces so I could easily move it. I designed it so I can easily remove the control panel and TV box, which accomplishes this quite well.

Well, I think last year I stopped about here...






And a few months later I was about here...


As you can see, I decided to go Green and I also grinded out some diamond plate to glue on the sides. I was thinking Vegas when I ordered the chrome t-molding. I am very happy with the way it came out! Like a fish, I like shiny things.

In case you are wondering why I have a giant circular hole in the front of the cab, I am going to put a 10' subwoofer in there. I am a music junkie, so I had to throw in some good tunage for when I'm woopin my friends in Killer Instinct. I built a full box for the subwoofer as you can see here...



What else??? I added a RJ-45 module so I can just plug directly into my router and do maintenance through remote desktop. Easier than opening up the control panel and pulling out a keyboard in my opinion...

The other hole in the front is for a Wii. This was something I agreed to do for my girlfriend to make up for all the sawing (in the house during winter haha).

The last few weeks I have been working a lot on the control panel and also boxing in the 32" LCD I bought for this cab. Here's where I am currently at....



Awhile back during the cheap Ebay ELO touchscreen craze I picked one up as well. I wanted a dedicated monitor to run a jukebox. I mounted it at angle below the monitor box and it couldn't have fit better. I am going to case it in with plexi at some point.

I thought a ton over the last year about what I wanted to do with the artwork on the control panel. I actually bought area 51 artwork from MameMarquees.com (As you can see in the background) but decided It wasn't right for this cab. I will use that on a full sized cab when I get a bigger house! The quality of the vinyl from MameMaquees is perfect those guys really do some amazing work. I plan to have them do the artwork surrounding the monitor once I get to it. So, I decided to keep it flashy. I wanted plexi to cover the top of the control panel but I also wanted diamond plate underneath. Trying to fabricate diamond plate for this would have been a nightmare and also it wouldn't look right under the plexi, but I found a way to satisfy my wishes. I found a guy on Ebay that makes diamond plate decals that are actually made out of paper thin aluminum and look exactly like real diamond plate...I was amazed when I got it. Being paper thin though it was wavy under the plexi and that is a no go. What I decided to do was to get a thin mill aluminum sheet and just adhere the decal to it, then just cut the aluminum. It turned out perfect and looks like real diamond plate. Here's a couple pics...



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As you can see in the pic above my hole saw went crazy on the decal on the cup holder hole nearest the bottom. No big deal though because I plan to etch around the cup holder anyway. I have a blog out their somewhere on the internet that I started last year, once I find it and my project is done I will go into details and give my 2 cents on cab fabrication do's and dont's!

To dress it up a bit more, I decided to go with etching the plexi. I did this with a Dremel and hours of time staring straight down and then hours more painting and I am only 25% complete. I used a florescent green airbrush paint from Dick Blick because it has the perfect consistency and it is also real florescent paint. The reason I chose to go florescent is because I ordered some UV LED's to light this baby up! Here's a closer pic...



Well that's about it for now... Again, I plan to go crazy on this cab within the next month and hopefully finish her up. I wanted to wait to post until I was done but truth be told I am too damn excited!

Real quick here's a rundown of the hardware features of my cab:

- 32" Westinghouse 1080p LCD
- 15" ELO touchscreen for Jukebox software
- 10" Eclipse sub woofer
- 6x9" Eclipse car speakers
- Pyle 1400 Watt amplifier
- ASUS P5K PRO Motherboard
- RAM?? Haven't bought yet
- Graphics??? Haven't bought yet
- Intel Wolfdale E8400
- 2 Ultrastick 360's
- Ultimarc Ultralux LED Chrome push buttons
- HAPP backlit 3" USB Trackball
- 2 LCD TopGun Light guns
- Nintendo Wii

Hope you enjoy my project, I appreciate any comments or criticism that anyone has! Still am trying to decide on a name...any suggestions? (It's almost like naming your baby!) I will try to keep updating over the next month with progress. :burgerking:

draculawithglasses:
Woops...Edit, it's a 27" LCD not a 32". That's a different TV I have in the house. Didn't think much as I wrote that. Sorry.

beastathon:
Very cool and unique cab. I don't normally like any skinny cabs, but this one actually appeals to me. Good work, and keep us posted.

bgspot:
Thats a very interesting design. I like seeing cabs that break away from traditional design. Can't wait to see it in its completed form

draculawithglasses:
Hey thanks for the comments on my design guys!

Once again I must give props to Taz's awesome skinny Mame Marvel cab, once I saw his cab the ideas just started flowing for me. I was shooting for a big showcase 'feel' but at the same time keep it semi easily portable and in proportion to the skinny body. I added some odd angles to give it kind of rugged look. You don't even want to know what I was thinking originally when I designed this haha - Ok, I'll let the cat out of the bag for just for fun... Originally I wanted to add tank treads over the two sides on the base. However I couldn't locate anything the correct size that would actually work and skinny wheels to go with them. Those things are friggin' expensive too!

I also knew I wanted to add a car sub woofer to this thing. So I designed the base to where I was able to build a full 10" subwoofer box for my Eclipse sub and mount an amp on the back. This helped me stretch the control panel out to achieve the showcase style. Then I just kind of balanced weight distribution and style for the rest.

I am still  planning and designing the monitor box face and the marquee...I have been tossing around a few ideas. I think I am going try and do something original on these.

I will post more pictures with my progress soon. Thanks again for your interest.  :burgerking:

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