First MAME project - Budget upright Cabinet

[nordemoniac]

We did some more work last weekend. I got a college at work to use our fancy planer to get the control panel 3mm thinner. Tested out my new flush trim bit on the control panel plexi, and it worked great! We were so happy about the result, and the only thing remaining was trimming the edge around it.
Unfortunately this got messed up pretty bad...
First of all, the protection plastic was to thin, so the router pushed it up, and scratched it - we should've used tape around the corners.
I used a rounding bit on the edges, but I took too much, creating big dull edges, and a dig in one of the sides, as the bearing hit a notch on the control panel (it used to be a shelf) 
Also, my friend, whose house we're working at, didn't have a vacuum which fitted the router - and being the first time I've routed plexi this way, I didn't think about all the cutoffs which would spin around and melt on the plexi we were cutting.
All in all, the result is OK, it's a plexi over the control panel. It looks like  on the edges, but hey - at least I learned A LOT with the experience.
This is still the budget build, we're doing it to learn, and to know better what to think about in the future. It sucks, but there's no point in buying another one, if so, it will be later - we'll finish the actual cabinet first. If I'm ever to build another one, it'll probably be at work, where I have more tools (remember, I bought the router AFTER we started) and space to do it right. Also use better materials. We're atm. working in 6 sqm space.
I'm kinda embarrassed with the result, but at least we're having fun!

I also did a lot with the electronics, a full rewire of the control panel (pre-assembled) and got the coin acceptors working perfectly with an Arduino board! It recognizes three different coins at the moment, something I couldn't achieve before. We've tested it thoroughly with using multiple types of coins on both acceptors, at the same time - and all 100 credits in total we're registered 

I'll describe this in more detail later, maybe in a different thread, as this will probably be interesting for a lot of people (cheap CH-924 with pulse signals + cheap arduino)

I'll post pictures later.

[nordemoniac]

This thing is still not dead.
5 years later, and into multiple projects, we're still aiming to finish this thing. I guess it should be a big warning for all new members to NEVER mount electronics for other than measurements. Once it's up and working, you'll never get any work done... 

This is actually my friends cabinet which I'm helping to build. If we were to start NOW, it would probably be a whole lot different in terms of budget and quality.

Anyways, he's painted the whole thing, and done a pretty good job! We're gutting some older computers (3x 2009 Dell XPS 730x) and hopefully we'll be able to build something decent.

I've been busy the last couple of years. The first 6 months after my last post was spent in Los Angeles, and these last 18 months have involved moving back and getting settled home again, becoming a dad for the first time, and renovating our kitchen on top of everything. We're soon getting settled again in our apartment, so maybe I'll have more time to help my friend out with the cabinet again.

It's mostly details and electronics at the moment. We did cut out an acrylic plate for the bezel earlier, but it fell down while testing the cabinet, and cracked 

Photos of current progress:











Coin acceptors, CH-924. A coin door might be installed in the future. Still not decided on this one. (Currently accessed by opening control panel)




Control panel is painted from the back, we didn't bother with artwork, might stick some on top (with contact paper to make it durable)