Two piece stand up arcade?

[willybeamish]

I'm thinking due to ease of transportation of moving in and out of rooms I'd like to make the top monitor portion removable. Has anyone tried this before? Also were thinking mdf board what size thickness would you guys recommended?  Thanks

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[jennifer]

          Although this is an interesting idea I would pay attention to design,the project as a whole may be heavier.

[willybeamish]

Its okay because the weight would be cut in half lol

[Unstupid]

There was this one: http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=92899.0

[RyoriNoTetsujin]

I'm thinking due to ease of transportation of moving in and out of rooms I'd like to make the top monitor portion removable. Has anyone tried this before? Also were thinking mdf board what size thickness would you guys recommended?  Thanks

Of course, it can certainly be done - however, how easy it is to schlep around depends greatly on your design!  I did a "multi-piece" cab years ago but in that case, in the 3 years I had it, I never moved it -- before I dismantled it for good (I ended up moving into an apartment that was simply too small to accommodate it.)

It sounds like you're shooting for something that can be carried around in pieces by one or two people. If that's the case, I wouldn't bother with MDF at all, frankly. (To answer your question: Common MDF thickness is 3/4" for cabinets which, as Jennifer alluded to, gets really heavy in a hurry!)  I'd do it with plywood, probably covered in some kind of laminate.  Wouldn't bother with a CRT monitor either, if you're thinking about it...

If you really think it's going to move around that much, I would spend as much time as you can on the design before you even pick up a tool.  Have you looked at Knievel's "woody" design?  I don't think you'd even need it to be 2 pieces at that point...

[willybeamish]

I'm thinking due to ease of transportation of moving in and out of rooms I'd like to make the top monitor portion removable. Has anyone tried this before? Also were thinking mdf board what size thickness would you guys recommended?  Thanks

Of course, it can certainly be done - however, how easy it is to schlep around depends greatly on your design!  I did a "multi-piece" cab years ago but in that case, in the 3 years I had it, I never moved it -- before I dismantled it for good (I ended up moving into an apartment that was simply too small to accommodate it.)

It sounds like you're shooting for something that can be carried around in pieces by one or two people. If that's the case, I wouldn't bother with MDF at all, frankly. (To answer your question: Common MDF thickness is 3/4" for cabinets which, as Jennifer alluded to, gets really heavy in a hurry!)  I'd do it with plywood, probably covered in some kind of laminate.  Wouldn't bother with a CRT monitor either, if you're thinking about it...

If you really think it's going to move around that much, I would spend as much time as you can on the design before you even pick up a tool.  Have you looked at Knievel's "woody" design?  I don't think you'd even need it to be 2 pieces at that point...

Yah maybe your right I mean I'm living in a apartment now hopefully a house is in my future and that would be when i move it. The doorway to get it into my future gameroom is on the tight side. I was thinking maybe a LCD to keep the weight down and how much work do you need to put into plywood to get it smooth and thickness would you recommended?

[RyoriNoTetsujin]

That depends on the grade of plywood.  A-grade facing can be pretty nice, but can also be expensive and will still take a little work to get smooth with filler/primer/paint etc.

Or, like I said, you can just cover any cheap old plywood with a laminate and get a nice, controlled, smooth finish. 

3/4" plywood is, again, the standard width for cabs, but you can build with whatever you like.  You could do 5/8", or even 1/2", but you might sacrifice stability.   You can get t-molding for pretty much any width.

Hell, it doesn't even have to be made of wood.

[willybeamish]

Lol who needs plywood. I've never worked with laminate before. About how many coats would I need?

[Unstupid]

You can buy pre lamilanted particleboard*, MDF, or Plywood. 

*Don't buy particleboard!
 

[willybeamish]

You can buy pre lamilanted particleboard*, MDF, or Plywood. 

*Don't buy particleboard!
 

Is there any treatment for applying vinyl stickers to the sides?

[Unstupid]

You can buy pre lamilanted particleboard*, MDF, or Plywood. 

*Don't buy particleboard!
 

Is there any treatment for applying vinyl stickers to the sides?

Make sure it's not dusty!

[RyoriNoTetsujin]

Laminate is a thin, sheet material - not a liquid.  You glue it to your surface, then trim off the excess with a flush trim router bit.  It's the stuff most kitchen countertops are made with.

Here, this might help with the concept:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hcvO2olyIdo

[willybeamish]

Thank you I thought laminate was something you brush on  . Im looking forward to doing this project after christmas thank god I have a excellent woodworker for a pops otherwise id be making this thing out of cardboard. So then 3/4 Plywood it is. Oh yeah quick question regarding the angle of the LCD or rear projection monitor, is it normally positioned perfectly straight or tilted back or forward a little bit? Thanks everyone for the responses   

[jennifer]

     The tilt of the monitor would depend on the height of the cab, here [with a lcd] viewing angles come into play.

[jhupka]

I built a cabinet with this exact idea in mind.  I based my cabinet on a Centipede cabinet's dimensions, and I made the cut in half just below the bottom of the control panel.  I then made the upper half 1.5" wider than an actual Centipede so it would slip over the base (it also gave me more room for controls since I did a two-player setup versus the single trackball on Centipede).  I also made the cabinet base a few inches taller so there was something to slip into the top.  I've attached a picture of a side-view of it put together mid-construction.

But, I will say once I was done this became a bit of a worthless effort.  The upper half ends up being so heavy and unwieldy due to the shape and CRT within that it is really difficult to carry around.  Overall it was much easier to use a dolly or just have two people carry the arcade around.  It all ended up light enough that two people could carry it just fine.  The only thing I kind of like about the two halves is I ran T-Molding all around the top half's frame, so there's a bit of a visual belt-line in the sides of the cabinet.

[paigeoliver]

Agree with this poster. You are overthinking a problem that isn't too big of a problem in the first place. You aren't going to move your machine that often. If you do then you really DON'T want a multipart machine anyway, as the top half is going to be awkward and have most of the weight, and taking it apart is a great opportunity to damage it.

I have moved some ridiculously heavy stuff into and out of my old 2nd floor apartment (which featured a stairwell with a 180 degree turn that made moving anything big tricky), and it was still easier just to get as many helpers as you needed than it was to start taking stuff apart.

Two average guys with no dolly can move a 19" atari cab (they made the heaviest ones) up or down a stairwell with no problem. Those same two guys can move most 25" games with a bit of grunting. Get 2 more helpers and it becomes super easy.

If moving the game is a concern there are 3 things you can do that are all more reasonable than the two piece cabinet.

The first is to make sure the game has places to hold onto (atari failed miserably here).

The second is to build with weight in mind. Use plywood, don't go crazy with internal framing, etc (look at a few real cabinet interiors before you build).

The third is to make it as easy as possible to pull the monitor out, this can subtract a substantial amount of weight in a hurry.

Also, if your control panel sticks out past the sides then it needs to be removable. Try to avoid making the cabinet both too wide and too deep. Ideally it should either be 26" or less in either width or depth. Classic machines tended to be 24" wide and about 30" deep, although many 70s era games reversed those numbers, being wide, but being less than 26" deep.

I built a cabinet with this exact idea in mind.  I based my cabinet on a Centipede cabinet's dimensions, and I made the cut in half just below the bottom of the control panel.  I then made the upper half 1.5" wider than an actual Centipede so it would slip over the base (it also gave me more room for controls since I did a two-player setup versus the single trackball on Centipede).  I also made the cabinet base a few inches taller so there was something to slip into the top.  I've attached a picture of a side-view of it put together mid-construction.

But, I will say once I was done this became a bit of a worthless effort.  The upper half ends up being so heavy and unwieldy due to the shape and CRT within that it is really difficult to carry around.  Overall it was much easier to use a dolly or just have two people carry the arcade around.  It all ended up light enough that two people could carry it just fine.  The only thing I kind of like about the two halves is I ran T-Molding all around the top half's frame, so there's a bit of a visual belt-line in the sides of the cabinet.

[Turambar]

If you are dead set on doing this, I'm pretty sure the mameroom.com ultimate arcade 2 plans are such that you can take the top off the base.  Those plans came with the first edition of Saint's book if I recall, or you can get them from their site.

[paigeoliver]

Wow, that would be even worse. Top half of an Ultimate Arcade 2 looks like it would weigh over 100 pounds by itself and there is no decent way to set it down.

[Turambar]

Wow, that would be even worse. Top half of an Ultimate Arcade 2 looks like it would weigh over 100 pounds by itself and there is no decent way to set it down.

I didn't say it would be easy... Just that it is possible.