Wanted to share my Marvel Cab

[brlove]

I started this cabinet back in January of 2012 and I finally thought I would share it to get any feedback as I am getting ready to start a 2nd cabinet for a friend.  The design is somewhat based on a design from kd5's design posted on the Hyperspin forum.  (link http://www.hyperspin-fe.com/forum/showthread.php?12561-New-Cab-new-Design.)

I started with a 26" HDTV and designed the cabinet around that.

I have three small kids at home so this build took quite a while.

Joysticks and buttons are from x-arcade.
Trackball and encoder and the keywiz are from Groovy Game Gear.
Marquee from Game on Grafix.
Most of the hardware came from Lowe's or Home Depot.

I had a lot of fun building this.

[brlove]

Some big lesson's learned - a piano finish takes a lot of work and a lot of time, also not really worth it in the end.  I could have finished this cabinet in nearly a quarter of the time.

Also learned - building your own arcade is totally worth it, I spend a lot time playing and so do my kids (two 5 year old and my 3 year old)

[skjerk]

Nice work 

I like the slim look of this!

One thing that caught my eye immediately is that you can see the inside of the cab through the front glass/plexi.... I would definitely cover that somehow.... e.g. by painting the glass black on the backside (around the monitor), or by creating some kind of bezel. Is there any reason you didn't do this?

What are your thoughts for the next cab?

[emphatic]

Nice lines!

[brlove]

In case anyone was wondering about the hardware underneath:

Intel Core i5-3470 Ivy Bridge 3.2GHz
Radeon HD 7750 1GB Video Card
ASRock Z77 Extreme4 LGA 1155 Intel Motherboard
120GB SATA II MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)
1TB 7200 RPM 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive
all cased in a RAIDMAX Blade with a 500W power supply

[Le Chuck]

One thing that caught my eye immediately is that you can see the inside of the cab through the front glass/plexi.... I would definitely cover that somehow.... e.g. by painting the glass black on the backside (around the monitor), or by creating some kind of bezel.

+1000, use a sharpie from the front to mark some refrence points, pop the plexi/glass, tape, spray, put it back in and forget about it.  You'll be done in an hour. 

Other than that it looks great man!

[brlove]

-skjerk  I haven't cut a bezel or painted the inside because I can't decide which to do.  I haven't officially finished, there is no light behind the marquee (its still in the box) and the back side of the cab is wide open.  So I have a fair amount left to do.
I'm also getting ready to build a pedestal style cabinet for a friend.

[rablack97]

Nice first cab....

Needs a bezel, exposed monitors and tv's is a no no, you did such and awesome job, and slacked on the bezel which totally completes the machine.

I agree on painting, never again for me, my first cab i tried to do the same, end result not what i expected and its a magnet for finger prints.  Next build i suggest laminate, it's all i use now, durable, easy to work with and takes less less time to install vs. painting....

Love the design though, good job....

[brlove]

After a few discussions with my wife, I got cleared to upgrade my current monitor to a 32" and I just bought a couple of 49-way sticks off of ebay.  I am buying an interface from RandyT shortly.  I'll do the sharpie/spray paint thing for a bezel after I get a new monitor and get the 49 way stick installed.  I'll post how everything goes.