Hello all. I've been a lurker at this site for a few months; this is my first post. I've been working on a project and I must say this site has been an invaluable resource.
I can't believe how much time I have spent on this project. I started it on a whim and honestly I had no idea it would take me this long. Oh well, I'm having fun so that's all that matters.
There was an arcade in my hometown (where I still live) when I was growing up called "Fast Eddy's", and it was the go-to place if you wanted to play games. It had 2 floors, and lots of games old and new. I was probably 5 the first time I went there around 1983 or so, and it lasted up until about 2000 when the building was bought and torn down to put up an office building. So, in tribute to that little piece of local history, I decided to call my project "Fast Eddy".
Anyway, this is the concept:
A few details have changed since I made the model, but that's pretty much it.
I'm really inexperienced using most of the tools I've had to use for this project, but luckily I've been able to stumble through OK so far. For the side panels I mostly used a circular saw. To keep the cuts straight I used the excellent saw board idea that was posted in the woodworking forum on this site, and it was a life saver.
Here's a picture the day I first stood her up, right after I installed the keyboard drawer. Ignore my goofball buddy:
It doesn't look like everybody does this but I really wanted to put some kind of ventilation fan on the cabinet for peace of mind. I found this sucker on Newegg.com and liked it right away. It flows nicely and is very quiet. There are blue LED's that light up when it's powered on.
I started building before even figuring out all the details (dumb, I know, but too late now), so I've had to do a lot "on the fly". I was thinking about how to install the access door on the front of the cabinet and I just didn't like the idea of hinges. Not that they are a bad solution if you have the skills to install them correctly, but with my novice-level skills I could just see myself running into trouble (door sagging, scraping on the bottom, crooked gaps, screws pulling out of MDF, blah blah). So, I decided to make a removable access panel instead of a door. I just installed some L-brackets on the panel and hung it on a cross member. It works surprisingly well; the weight of the MDF is plenty to hold it there snugly. I've got some magnets as well just to give it a bit extra.
For speakers I'm using a simple set of Altec-Lansing computer speakers with sub. They actually sound pretty good for what they are. Certainly good enough for Frogger. The speaker holes are a bit ugly; to hide that mess I'll be making cloth grilles that I will attach with magnets.
This next picture is pretty much where things stand right now. The speaker panel and plexiglass are just "dry fit". Obviously those ugly 2x4's under the plastic will be hidden when I spray paint the underside of the plexi to make a bezel.
After looking at hundreds of control panels I noticed that I tend to prefer the artwork that isn't really "busy", so I set out to come up with something basic but functional. I was an Atari kid in the 80's, so I went for the Fuji. This is what it looks like:
It has 2 players, 6 buttons each, a trackball and a dedicated 4-way (I know there are those that don't like this idea but after trying one out on some classic games I decided to go with it). The coin-in buttons will be on the front of the box on each player's side. The two crosshairs at the top are for the two start buttons. The admin buttons will be little red buttons I got at Radio Shack.
Question: anybody have experience getting a CP overlay printed that has this much black? I'm a bit concerned about seeing "printer lines".
The things I've got in the works for the marquee and side panel art are similarly simple. I'll probably post some pics when I'm done.
Anyway, thanks for reading!
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Topic: First post, my cabinet project (Read 3314 times)
