TV Question - take out of case or trim TV cabinet

[nycjsw]

The inside of my Mameroom cabinet is only 27" wide.  Since most TVs are a bit wider I was going to just trim the sides off.  I have a Sony Wege 27" http://www.amazon.com/Sony-WEGA-KV-27FS13-27-Flat-Screen/dp/B00005T3DP

The sides flare out and it is just dead space in the area I have to trim.  The set is just over 28" wide.  I busted one TV forgetting to remove a screw that was in the video jack area when I removed the back cover. That was all my falt.  The next set (same Sony model) I didn't remove the back cover b/c I already knew the area I was cutting had no electronics.  I cut the sides off and put the set in the arcade cabinet.  I then found out the component video jacks didn't work???  They were working before I cut the set, moved it around with a dolly and put in in the cabinet. Since the jacks are in the back of the set and the set leans back in the arcade cabinet their could be stress on the jacks/circuit board?  Is this why people take it out of the case?

Trimming 1/2 an inch off the sides took like 5 minutes and was easy with my Dewalt saw.

[Junai]

If you are ok discharging the tv, decase it.  Making your own mounts for the tube will make it sturdier and perhaps lighter than bracing a cased tv.  Also, decasing aids in cooling allowing more air flow over the tv components.  All I would do is get some 1x4s (or whatever would pad the sides out near the tube once centered) and screw and glue them to the sides of the cab giving you some space to screw down the tube sides.  I'll post a pic when I get home of what I did with my cab to give you a visual idea.  Then mount the TVs board using pcb stand offs or cut a plastic bic pen and use wood screws to make your own stand offs.  Getting the tube in is the hard part, get 2 good beer loving friends to lift and hold it in place while you screw it down in exchange for a couple brews.

[Junai]

There's one corner of the tv I put in.  Forgot to meantion that I used a pneumatic nailer with some 1" finishing nails to tack the boards on before I used some screws to hold them down permanently.  The screws in the tabs there are 2.5" course wood screws I drove in on a healthy angle to bit through as much of the wood as I could.  The cab has been manhandled around quite a bit and nothings even budged a bit.

[nycjsw]

Thanks for the feedback. I am pretty much a novice at this stuff.  I have good looking machine with a Mameroom cabinet and a ArcadesRFun controller.  It looks very similar to the one in this thread but I have a Centipede around the trackball.
http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=77634.0

Anyway, I'm not that into doing a lot of this stuff on my own.  I mainly got into it to have an arcade machine with all the games and not wanting to spend $5K.  I found out this morning that my component video jacks are working.   I must have fried the DVD player when I tried hooking up the jacks the broke off the circuit board on the first TV.  The DVD player S-Video/Component video are both out and now only the yellow video jack works. It was an old junk DVD player anyway.

I just bought another Sony TV Wega on Craigslist for $40 so now I have the TV in the arcade game and a backup.

Thanks again