First Arcade Project - MAME Cab

[Don]

Hello,

I've been thinking of building my own arcade cabinet ever since i got into MAME and other emulators awhile back. Since i have zero woodworking skills and almost no tools, i came to the conclusion that building a cabinet from scratch would just not be a possibility. After searching online i found a relatively local guy selling a cabinet with a non-working monitor for €50 which i managed to go down and collect. Seeing as the wood materials alone would cost me €60+ i figured this was a good deal (and probably a once off where i live).

I am planning on putting an old tv in the cabinet and changing the control panel to a 6-button per player scheme with player 1 and 2 buttons and maybe a few extras on the front like exit, pause etc.

Here are the pictures of the cabinet from the seller:

[saleem]

i got one exactly same,good cabs,the cp flips forward and it will be metal.jpac will convert it to mame for you as that will be jamma.

[Don]

General progress:
Ok so i've done a bit more work clearing out the cabinet etc. Tried removing old paint from bezel and marquee (design is painted on) using nail polish remover and it works great, however some of the artwork is a very robust paint/acrylic and finding it hard to get off.

Control panel:
I had an idea to fill old holes with wood filler and and drill the new ones, that way i'd be able to keep the original panel with its precisely cut edges etc. However i gave up on this idea as i would need to fill joystick holes also and i do not trust wood filler to be strong enough to successfully mount the controls.
So instead i cut a similar sized piece of wood from an old desk (using a hand saw! ) and measured out my buttons. I used the astro city layout for the buttons but increased slightly the distance from the joystick. I made a slight error on the placement of the player one middle buttons but it isnt that big a deal  .
I will be adding a black overlay from Ozstick soon and am also hoping to get the illuminated coin buttons to put on the two new holes on the front panel.

Will update again soon!

[saleem]

so it looks like your cabinet had a fixed cp,ie:it did not flip forward?i got exact same cabinet but,i think they rolled out of the factory in different control panel configurations and mine had the metal fold forward type.

[Don]

so it looks like your cabinet had a fixed cp,ie:it did not flip forward?i got exact same cabinet but,i think they rololed out of the factory in different control panel configurations and mine had the metal fold forward type.

It did indeed flip forward only mine was not metal - was wood and a sheet of plexi on top. I removed the top panel from the front panel by simply pulling out the nails, then removed the front panel by unscrewing from hinge 

[Don]

Been awhile but have done a good bit more!

After a lot of scraping with a razor and soapy water... clean glass!! 
 

In order to make the bezel sit snugly behind the control panel, I had to add an extra 1cm to the back of the top panel and trim it to an angle. I did this with wood filler, a knife and a lot of sanding!

I then applied the vinyl overlay to the control panel and cut out holes for the buttons and joystick bolts.

The cabinet is now finally inside, cleaned (it was verrry dirty) and paited! 

Next... installing control panel, bezel, marquee and t-moulding!

[falcon NL]

Looks almost brandnew! Im looking forward to see what kind of artwork you going to use!

[Don]

Already have my artwork done out, just need to print it!

Posted it in this thread:
http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=102695.0

[Don]

Fitted in monitor shelf, measured to rest the TV at the correct angle.




Control panel all wired up and installed!




Looking good!

[Don]

Bezel and marquee installed! Masked off tv behind bezel using card painted with black gloss.




Next: T-moulding and coin lights!

[Malenko]

looks really good!