My slim cabinet build

[johnd23]

I did this project last year but never got around to doing a write up, so here it is. When i started this project i thought i was going to finish in a week.. it ended up taking me quite a bit longer considering i only had a little bit to work on it each weekend. I couldnt find any 5/8 furniture grade plywood in my area so i ended up having to use 19/32 plywood that I found at home depot. I wouldnt use it again for my next cabinet.

Here is the model I ended up designing in sketchup..


I drew one side of the cabinet onto a sheet of plywood using the dimensions from sketchup and then used a straight piece of wood and a pattern bit on the router to cut it out. Once i had that, i used the completed side and the pattern bit again to create the other side.


I decided to go with white laminate.


On the control panel what i did was draw it out in sketchup and create ruler lines at various points. Then i drew the same lines on the plywood control panel. When when i cut out each section of controls i was able to line them up exactly as i had them in sketchup.




Got the speaker slots cut using a plunge router following the pattern i created in sketchup.



Got the wood batons glued/screwed and the blue tmolding installed. I did a test with wood glue and it would not adhere well to the laminate(ideally you would want to screw from the plywood into the baton, but i did it backwards) so i used epoxy and screws.


Getting there.. I used epoxy and screws to attach the batons to the sides and just used wood glue to attach the top, speaker shelf, base, coin door.



Here i got the screen and coin door pieces cut out and laminated. I have the screen piece attached with this velcro i found at radio shack, its very strong but can be removed if needed.




I was going to use 5% tint on my plexi and cut out the area for the screen. I did a test using a piece of 5% covering the screen and I liked the way it looked, so i covered the whole plexi with it and it came out great. It hides everything perfect and my 24" lcd at its default brightness looks great.



My control panel wiring, the wires going into the ipac are a little messy and i probably could have spent a little longer cleaning them up, but whatever. Being as i used each pair of wires per button as oppsed to wiring the grounds in series.. i used terminal blocks so all the ground wires could connect to it.


I installed 2 fans on the back of the cab to help keep everything cool. The back has 3 sections and I installed T-nuts into the wood batons behind it so I can easily remove a section if needed.


And here is the completed unit. Well almost completed... i dont think it will ever be done. Im using one of my old dell computers right now. Its not powerful enough for hyperspin at the highest  setting so i plan on upgrading it soon. It does play all my roms just fine though.


In the last couple of weeks i had a MAME marquee printed. I had been using a umk3 marquee that i printed on my laserjet just to have something there. I also added 2 aimtrack guns. I used 2 yobo guncon2 guns that i gutted and installed the aimtrack modules into. I also added the led bar behind the tint above the monitor. I was worried that the tint would affect the performance but it works great without any changes from the default settings.



It was a lot of fun building and i still have a few things i'd like to do... like add side and control panel art, maybe even add a trackball. I know i missed a lot of the details of this project, so if you have any questions please let me know and i'll explain what i did.

[BobA]

Looks great.  I am sure that alot of people would be interested in your sketchup drawing. 

[Erik]

Very nice!  Why didn't you like the 19/32 plywood?

[Nimbus]

Magnificent work! 

I really like the look of this cabinet. It is very clean looking and well thought out. The plexi covering the entire bezel really looks spot on. These are the kinds of builds that get people excited to make their own cabinet!

[eds1275]

Veeeerry clean looking. The white is a refreshing change of pace.

I would suggest adding some sort of artwork or instruction cards or perhaps even gun holsters under the screen, above the control panel. It's just a little too white right there for my liking.

[johnd23]

thanks for the compliments!

@BobA - if there is interest in it, i would probably give it to anyone that requests it. I would just need to give it a quick look over to make sure its accurate.

@Erik - It just wasnt as nice as birch plywood. I needed 5/8 and thats all I could find so i used it. I had to pull off the top 10 sheets on the pallet to try and get the straightest pieces and they were still a little warped. Luckily i was able to straighten everything out when I put it together. Next time i would go to a lumber yard and order 5/8 birch plywood if i had to. Or maybe even try mdf.

@eds1275 - thanks, i thought the white definitely had a clean look to it, plus it matches my game room. I do a have bit of empty space below my screen but the whole screen area is covered in 5% tinted plexiglass so everything is black. That last picture i added was just to show where i mounted my aimtrack led bar and i didnt have the plexi on. I kinda like the minimal look so ill probably just leave it as is unless i can come up with something clever that has a clean look to it.

I have a bunch of pictures I still have to add, i just have to find the time. Im hoping in the next couple days i can get them up.

[extendedplayarcade]

Great Build and awesome job on the wiring.

 

[ghettodish]

Great job. I've never used a widescreen monitor but I may on my next project. Can you post a picture of your cab with a vertical game loaded on it?

Also, great job on the speaker cutouts and smoked glass.

[segalee]

would loke the sketck up drawing for this very nice slim cab

[alfonzotan]

Very nice job!  Those speaker slots look like they were machined-out... if I'd tried to do that, they'd look like a plate of spaghetti.

I needed 5/8 and thats all I could find so i used it. I had to pull off the top 10 sheets on the pallet to try and get the straightest pieces and they were still a little warped. Luckily i was able to straighten everything out when I put it together.

Been there, done that.  I spent entirely too much time and energy peeling one sheet of plywood after another off the pile looking for a straight board without a million knotholes.  Ditto again for a straight 2X4.

[johnd23]

Sorry guys, i know originally i had a few emails looking for the sketchup drawing.. between remodeling parts of my house and a baby coming any day now its been kind of crazy. I will pull the drawing off my server tonight and post it here. I dont have time to go over it and make sure everything is correct but if there is any questions ill be glad to answer them.

@ghettodish - i will try and get that pic for you this weekend

[derep]

Nice , looks a lot like the slim cabinet i just picked up & now working on.
Also looks like we're both using the same Asus 24" lcd too 

[johnd23]

Here is my sketchup drawing, sorry it took so long to put up here. Hope it helps someone.

@derep - I am happy with my Asus lcd, had no dead pixels... i actually just bought a 27" asus led monitor for my main computer.

[notroubleclubber]

Hi.

I love the clean look of this cab and looking to build something very similar using u360s for joysticks and a trackball.

However looking at your control panel it seems player 1 is very much to the left and nowhere near the centre of the screen. Is this not off putting as though im making a 2p cab id predominately use it 1p and not sure if the 1p controls are too far to the left?

[notroubleclubber]

Also do u have any measurements?
Thanks

[johnd23]

thanks notroubleclubber!

When i laid out the controls i wanted everything to be evenly spaced, so the gap at the right is the same as on the left. Im pretty sure most control panels are setup the same way. I left the space in the center for the addition of a trackball if i ever decided to add one. If you plan on moving player one closer to the center you might want to make a template on like cardboard or something to make sure if it would comfortable for 2 people to actually play. As for the measurements, if you download sketchup (its free) and use the file i attached a couple posts up you can take all the measurements you need with its built in ruler. Unless you mean the measurements for the spacing of buttons  on my control panel? I do have a separate file for that i can include if your interested in a similar layout.

[notroubleclubber]

Thanks for the reply
Ive never used sketchup before though i have downloaded to see your file I didnt really know what i was doing.

I will have a play and see what i can find.

Thanks

[stefano]

Very nice model on sketchup!