34" CRT TV Showcase Cabinet (my 1st) Build

[Newgeta]

I am a long time creeper and have recently started work on a modified Dynamo showcase cab from scratch.

I am using 3/4 in Birch rather than MDF as I wanted something a little more "finished" and the closed grain birch has a very smooth primary face and also is much easier to work with, though about 2 times the price =(

I plan on updating this thread with pictures and posts as I go.

Following the primary wood working I plan on picking up an ultimate Quad Control Panel Shell from North Coast Customs.

I will be hacking 4 Xbox 360 Wired PCBs for the controls and would like some input on buttons and joysticks from this awesome community.

I have an old PC assembled from spare parts of my old Gaming rigs, specs as follows.

AMD X4 640 3.6 GHZ (OC) Quad Core
Gigabyte GA-M57-SLI-S4
Western Digital 500 GB HDD @ 7200 RPM
3 GB Crucial Ram @ 533 MHZ
2X Nvidia 9600 GTs (SLI)

It man handles Mame and all other emulators up to and including the Wii system Dolphin.

I am posting this Thread for a couple reasons, Feedback from this amazing community and to help others who are starting out like I am.

Just starting out!


Primary Pedastool External Edges Cut!



Pedastool Structure Completed (still needs fins on bottom for Finishing)


TV Stand Structure Completed




I'd appreciate any feed back or input on things you think should change or look out for guys!

[DCsegaDH]

Looks nice!

[Green Giant]

Can that TV stand hold up the TV?

I have moved more than enough of those 30+ inch CRTs to know they are hernia making machines.

[Newgeta]

Can that TV stand hold up the TV?

I have moved more than enough of those 30+ inch CRTs to know they are hernia making machines.

Great question, I asked myself the same thing, lucky for me I have hired a life long Master Carpenter as a consult for this project (child hood friend's father) and he has given me some great tips on frames and load.

The shear rating on the birch puts me at a maximum load around 250 lbs as is.

The TV I'm using is 175 lb as per spec, and yes, moving it out of the home of the guy who parted with it was an adventure to put it mildly...

[Newgeta]

Got a lot done on the cabinet today, its rather large and in charge; I would say I am about 80% done with the actual wood working part of this project and I am VERY excited to start on the electronic part! (the part i'm good at)

Completed TV case and the marquee and got a great start on finishing the holes up with putty.

I also made the access panel today, opted to use magnets rather than hinges, makes a nice seamless look.

The 3 parts joined yet and tbh I kinda like it being sectional; I think I might put some 1 inch bolts and finger nuts on the inside to make disassembling it easy for movement around the house.


Here are some nice pictures of the set up thus far.

TV Case on TV Stand with Marquee (open access panel)


Full setup thus far Minus Access Panel Cover


Same as above but with the Cover on the front of the stand

[Dawgz Rule]

Nice!  Can't wait to see the finished cabinet.

[BobA]

Good looking build.  It will be great with a 34 inch CRT.  Will be looking forward to seeing your progress. 

[Newgeta]

Another Update; mostly for my buddies on Face Book.

Took a couple days off work to recharge and got some reinforcement and finishing done on the cabinet.

Ultimate Quad Kit From Ohio's Own North Coast Customs http://mameroom.com/home.asp came in today; looks nice, minor damage in shipping, simple enough to fix with some braces and wood glue.

The whole thing is now ready for primer now.
I am thinking a High Gloss White W/Black T-mold or High Gloss Black with Nintendo White T-mold.

Wired Xbox360 Controllers to cannibalize, Buttons and Joysticks.

The cost of the primer/paint and the various other electronic pieces that I need to finish up will slow me down now.

I'll get some pictures up once the base coat is on and I am figuring out how I wanna decorate the Control Panel Overlay and the Cab.

Sanding Completed, Finishing Completed.


CP Ready For Assembly

[RacerX135]

I am going to build one as well,  Was great to see this and I will follow your progress.  I got a 36" RCA VGA/TV  for $75 and have it all set up.  So I just have to build the cabinet and your pics are very helpful.   

[Lucky S.O.B.]

Any updates??? I am about to start building my showcase, but using an LCD TV on the wall for my monitor...

What measurements/templates are you using for the build?

-Derrick

[BurgerKingDiamond]

I am going to build one as well,  Was great to see this and I will follow your progress.  I got a 36" RCA VGA/TV  for $75 and have it all set up.  So I just have to build the cabinet and your pics are very helpful.   

SWEET!!!! CRT's FTW!!

[Newgeta]

Its Been a Slow Week, no picture, here's whats been goin on.

Tried a XB360 controller hack last weekend, pulled off the contact on one button...

Primer will have to wait another weekend because all my bills just hit.

An answer for the question about the scale, I added 1 inch to the vertical size of all dimensions of the Dynamo Cab and 2 to the horizontal.

[kahlid74]

Its Been a Slow Week, no picture, here's whats been goin on.

Tried a XB360 controller hack last weekend, pulled off the contact on one button...

Primer will have to wait another weekend because all my bills just hit.

An answer for the question about the scale, I added 1 inch to the vertical size of all dimensions of the Dynamo Cab and 2 to the horizontal.

I'm getting ready to build a showcase cab too and I'm struggling with the designs on Jakobuds website.  They have great measurements but they don't have angles from what I can see.  How did you determine the angels for the pedestal?

[Newgeta]

I'm getting ready to build a showcase cab too and I'm struggling with the designs on Jakobuds website.  They have great measurements but they don't have angles from what I can see.  How did you determine the angels for the pedestal?

Look at the DynamoShowcase34-cpStandSideLayout; it shows the angle, though you'll need to enlarge to see it clearly.

The one that's not supplied is the speaker cover angle; I roughed it out with some cardboard to get it looking right then measured it.

12 Degrees on the Pedestal
20 Degrees on the Speaker covers

[Newgeta]

I have not gotten the cabbie primed or painted yet, I am waiting on a warm, dry day.

I did however get my buttons, joysticks, wiring, hacked 360 controllers, CPO designed, CPO printed, CPO installed, buttons installed and I am starting on the joystick install after I post this.


Here is some button p0rn, Suzo Happs X 50 (white)




1-4 player start buttons.





Happ sent me a nifty gift for spending over $50 with them, wanted to include it cause I like the logo! 



White Directional Pad overlays from gameongrafix.com

http://imgur.com/a/iteIo#3



The Control Panel Overlay started as a nifty chibi fighter group I found on Google Images (Artist Unknown, I did not draw this).
I found the image at like 640X480 and started out to ray trace the mother effer with Ink Scape.
This process took...well..a little time....
I sent that vector gameongrafix.com and they took care of me and printed out a SUPER nice 3M overlay with adhesive backing.

Pictures do not do the print quality on this thing justice...

CPO before application.




Application was pretty painless, this material is fairly heavy duty (think construction paper) and install should be completed with 2 people on large control panels like mine.

I started at the top edge and folded back the plastic cover over the adhesive about an inch or so to make removing and re applying this initial set easier if I needed to.



Lucky for me I nailed it on the first shot (again pretty easy stuff to work with) and went from the middle out to both edges with my hand smoothing it out.
My CP already had the holes dripped in so the single bubble I had was very easy to fix.

After that I took a razor blad around the edge to make it flush and I am quite happy with the result with the exception of Taki,Mira, and Felica getting axed from the image (my fault as I forgot the edges were rounded...




Next I tested out how the buttons would go into the holes and I cut 1 VERY roughly with my razor blade and let the button push down the inside edges of the decal (using their dust washers as cover) it looks amazing.





With that outta the way I dusted off my Acrylic overlay and did some test fitting.




One thing I learned, I will need another CPO printed when I get enough $$ to pick up a nice track ball because I was too scared to put the directional arrows and button grouping objects into the overlay its self and chose to get decals for them and apply those later. 

That was an idea i regretted after the first decal, while their quality is top shelf http://imgur.com/a/iteIo#17 they are not quite as transparent as I would like and you can SORT OF see the edges in the right light.



I was not sure how accurate gameongrafix's size would be in print so I was hesitant, they hit the mark down to less than 2mm so next time I'll just put the button overlays into the image its self.
At $35 it was not TOO painful a lesson but one that you might want to learn from me on if you are starting out.

Buttons Installed with Acrylic overlay



Back of panel with buttons installed, time for joysticks and wires!.



Also, big thanks to HaRuMaN for his great service, anyone thinking about using him should go ahead and do it, his hacks were much better than mine...(which is in the dump by now)

[PIZZ]

Cool. Im really liking the art on that control panel!

[SNAAKE]

holy awesome artwork link to source pix plz

cabinet looking nice too

[Newgeta]

Heres the link to the original art.

http://frateroshi.deviantart.com/art/chibi-fighter-pile-71069314

Credit: Frateroshi on Deviant Art, I don't know who you are but thank you!

Aa you can see it is pretty low res, I ray traced the image and moved a lot of stuff around, and as I said, it took a LONG time...

I have 3/10 player 1 buttons wired up 100% and all of the grounding done for player 1, wiring is tedious and I should be able to get player 1 finished tonight.

Obligatory Progress Picture from today

[Malenko]

sooooo can I get a copy of the fixed up one?

[HaRuMaN]

Hey, cool...  I like seeing where my hacks end up!     Love the control panel art!

[Newgeta]

sooooo can I get a copy of the fixed up one?

Of course!

I'll get a link up and get the different iterations hosted tonight when I update the post with the progress from the past couple of nights.

It will need to wait until I get home from work.

Again, don't use it for profit, as I did not draw it.