Build Your Own Arcade Controls Forum
Main => Woodworking => Topic started by: KevNets on February 28, 2012, 12:46:52 pm
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Hi Folks - I'm a long time lurker, first time poster :)
After about a year of going back-and-forth, I decided to build my own upright cabinet. I'm using 3/4" birch plywood with a blind dado in the sides for the base. I've assembled the cabinet (I'm using the plans on arcadecab.com - Cabinet Plan 2) but the cabinet is fairly wobbly. I do have casters on the bottom, which I think is contributing to the wobble factor, so I might take them off... but I'm looking for other suggestions for bracing.
Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated!
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Take the wheels off and replace them with some of those little adjustable furniture feet from the hardware store and adjust until it stops wobbling.
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Just had a look at the plans. It mentions choosing your own size for the back panel. I think that piece will be key for bracing the whole design. Make it as long as possible and pop extra screws in. I've made flat pack bookcases that barely stood up until the ( sometimes cardboard!) back panel is put in, and then they are rock solid
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Is your floor level?
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On a properly build arcade cabinet it SHOULDN'T matter if the door is on or off. Most games had back doors that were not tight enough to matter structurally.
I am really betting the problem is with the wheels.
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Thanks for the feedback everyone - my floor is level, and I now have the cabinet on a carpeted floor. I'm going to remove the casters and see how that works - I'll try the furniture legs if the cab is still wobbly... I'm also thinking about an internal brace, since there is so much empty space in the cabinet.
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Did you fix it?
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It's kind of tough for me to imagine the wobble. Did you glue your furring strips/screw them in tight on the bottom?
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Yes I glued it and screwed it tightly
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Yes I glued it and screwed it tightly
What thickness MDF/Plywood did you use?
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3/4 inch plywood.
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So which kind of wobble is it?
1. Structure is solid, but it rocks like a chair with one leg shorter than the other
2. Structure is compromised, the base is solid against the floor but the entire structure leans like a slanty shanty
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The first one.
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That's good, much better of the two. I'll echo the previous suggestion of leveling feet, they work wonders.
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Definitely some heavy duty leg levelers would be the best thing, as long as the structure itself isn't the issue.
Check out a place like twistedquarter and get some good levelers along with the bases to screw them into.
I wouldn't go messing around with the cheapie little legs you can get at places like home depot
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The first one.
I made a cabinet that did this also and it was because the sides weren't the same. This was before I knew the clamp together/flush trim router bit to make the sides identical.
As has been said above, you need to get levelers so you can fix the off balance level in your cab.
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Thank You for the help. I will try the levelers.