The Penney Arcade

[karlpenney]

The Penney Arcade was completed in the fall of 2007.  The design is largely based on Knievel's Dynamo style cabinets.  I made the depth a bit shallower to conserve space.  I must first say a big thank you to Knievel for all of his help, without which this project would surely not have turned out as well as it did.



Here is a partial design that was done in Sketchup.



3/4" MDF was used for all panels (with the exception of the control panel top).



Wooden strips were attached to sides to provide extra gluing surface.







The cabinet was assembled using only wood glue.  Seems to be very sturdy.











I made a panel to hold the 19" LCD monitor that I am using.  The monitor is secured to the panel using the VESA mounting holes.







I left a gap for a sheet of 1/4" plexi (or glass) to fit between the monitor panel and the admin panel.



I'm using Creative Labs T3030 speakers.  I routed a recess in the back side of the speaker panel to hold them.





I thought about using grilles on the front side.  But in the end I decided to just cut holes in the panel to expose the drivers.



I used roundover bit on the edge of the holes to give a cleaner look.



Time for priming and painting.  A gray tinted water-based primer was used on all outside surfaces.









The control panel consists of 5/8" MDF with a 1/8" sheet of plexi over the top to give a 3/4" thickness.



Here you can see the wiring of the Happ buttons, joysticks (Supers) and trackball to an I-PAC2.





I liked the color and the graphics of the fusion artwork, so I used that on my CP top.



Finished cabinet, painted with black semi-gloss latex and 3/4" light blue t-molding.





The marquee was printed on photo paper at the local Staples and is sandwiched between two sheets of 1/8" plexi.  For the retainers I used some clear 3/4" corner protectors painted black on the inside.  These are held to the cabinet with screws covered with black plastic caps.



A shot of the Happ coin door. I also have P1 and P2 coin buttons on the CP.  I added a switch inside the coin door that can be used to disable the CP coin buttons.  You can also see the face of the keyboard drawer above the coin door panel.



There are still a couple things left to do on this project.  I need to add an on/off button in the back for shutting down the PC and then cutting the power.  There is currently just power strip in the back and I have to shut the PC down manually first.  I also need to make some labels for the CP buttons.  Have been looking for a clear stick-on material that I can print on myself, but no luck so far.

[IG-88]

Very Nice 

Avery makes "Clear Full Sheet Labels" (#8665) that might work for you. I got them at the local Office depot I think.

[Cero21]

May I ask what font you used for your lettering?

[Franco B]

Very nice job 

Some nice router work going on there. Im loving routers more and more all the time, there such a versitile tool.

[Games001]

It's an excellent machine.  Clean, neat, looks like it was CNC'd and then laminated to perfection.  That's just paint on MDF? 

[javeryh]

Very nice!  Any chance you can post the plans for your CP top?   

[karlpenney]

It's an excellent machine.  Clean, neat, looks like it was CNC'd and then laminated to perfection.  That's just paint on MDF? 

Yep, that's just black latex paint on the MDF.  I primed with grey tinted Zinsser 1-2-3 first.

[karlpenney]

May I ask what font you used for your lettering?

The main font is called Whoopass, and the "C" is Pacmania, I think.  Borders and gradients were added in Photoshop.

[Games001]

The speaker holes, using the round over bit, is that a 1/4 or 1/2 inch bit?

[karlpenney]

The speaker holes, using the round over bit, is that a 1/4 or 1/2 inch bit?

It was a 1/4 inch round over bit.

[Games001]

TY 

I have been 'affraid' of my router as I have not yet had the chance to use it for the first time.

I want to be sure I use the right tool for the right job on my second, upcoming cab project.

[Cero21]

What did you use for your marquee retainers?  Is that the happs retainer or something else?  I'm trying to figure out what I can use since it looks like the happ's retainer is going to be $$$ to ship to Canada.

[karlpenney]

The retainers are made from 3/4" clear corner protector that I found at Home Depot.  It's perfect for this.  I spray painted them black on just the inside and attached them with wood screws.  The screw heads are covered with black plastic screw caps (also from HD).  I think I would rather have used just plain black screws, but they are hard to find.

[BORIStheBLADE]

Nice work and  very clean.

[greyhound35]

That's a great cab you got there.  Congrats!

[lrtsenar]

Hi,

What a wonderfull cabinet !
This is the most beautiful i have ever seen !

Could you give me the measurement in inches (marked in yellow and red on the attached picture)
Is it possible to have the measurement in inches of the modification (in green) too ?

Thanks for the sharing of your ARTWORK !

Lrt

[Malenko]

this thread is almost 2 years old and the OP hasnt logged in for about 6 months.

[karlpenney]

I'm still here! The red line from the bottom of the side panel to the cp shelf is 34 inches. The yellow line between the two side panels is 24 inches measured from the INSIDE of the panels, or 25.5 inches from the OUTSIDE. Not sure about your modifications in green. Hope this helps. Let me know if you need anything else.

Karl

[lrtsenar]

Hi,

The green painted area on the following picture doesn't exist on your sketchup sheet.
I just want to know what's the value of the blue measurement of your cab (the red measurement is 12 inches on your sketchup sheet)

Thank you very much...

[lrtsenar]

Analysis of pictures think me that blue measurement is equal to 6 3/4 ".

[FlatEarth]

This is a great cabinet!  I think I may have found the plan I will go with for my first cab!
I do have a couple of questions:

Is the speaker panel parallel with the ground, or at an angle?  What is the height of the glass area (admin panel to speaker panel?)

What radius (radii?) did you use for your corners on the side panels?  They don't look as sharp as the "Woody" cab, but not too rounded either.  I like that.

What are the functions of your admin buttons?  You have black ones I assume are some type of admin next to the start buttons on the CP, and 4 below the monitor.

Thanks for your help!!

[karlpenney]

Actually the blue measurement is 8". I've attached a better image showing the dimensions.

[karlpenney]

Is the speaker panel parallel with the ground, or at an angle?  What is the height of the glass area (admin panel to speaker panel?)

What radius (radii?) did you use for your corners on the side panels?  They don't look as sharp as the "Woody" cab, but not too rounded either.  I like that.

What are the functions of your admin buttons?  You have black ones I assume are some type of admin next to the start buttons on the CP, and 4 below the monitor.

The speaker panel is at a slight angle. The height of the glass area is 21". 

I can't remember off hand the radius for the corners, I'll have to check.

The black buttons on the CP beside the start buttons are mouse buttons. The blue ones next to the start buttons are coin buttons (they can be disabled by a switch inside the coin panel). On the admin panel the 4 buttons are Lists, Exit, Menu and Pause used in mamewah. I need to put labels on these someday.

Hope this helps, let me know if you need anything else.

Karl

[FlatEarth]

Karl,
You are the man!  Thank you so much for that last sketch-up drawing, it has all the dimensions I will need.
I really, really appreciate the help.

So, you have had the cab for a couple years now, is it still working out for you?  Anything you would do different?

- Darin

[karlpenney]

So, you have had the cab for a couple years now, is it still working out for you?  Anything you would do different?

It's worked out great, couldn't be happier. I did make one small screw up though. If you look at the build pictures, you can see two holes on each side of the cp box. These were for virtual pinball, one for flippers and one for bumping. However, the bump buttons wouldn't fit due to interference from the top buttons, so I only have the flipper buttons installed.

[FlatEarth]

For labels, I ordered button stickers from Uberstickers.com.  I got a sheet of MAME button stickers for $4 shipped a few weeks ago, but I see they have bumped up their price a dollar or so now.  I have not tried them yet since I have not started my build, so I cannot vouch for the quality yet.  Prices are reasonable, however.

Pongo here on the forums also sells button labels, just do a forum search for "stickers" by user "pongo".  Lots of people seem to be pleased with his stickers, they are typically bigger sets and they cost a couple dollars more.