Arcade Cabinet Width

[DHTech]

Hi Guys

Deciding how wide to make my cabinet, any comments, what's the average width of an arcade cabinet?

Thanks,
Jeremy

[Buick455]

I would say its dependent on your monitor / # of players on the controls.. Between 26 and 34 inches wide is a good guess. My monitor alone is 23 wide, panel is around 34 (2 player panel with Tball and extra 4way). a think about bezel space. most of the plans you find can be easily adapted for width i would think.

[JDFan]

Another consideration is how wide are the doorways between where you are building and where you willl be playing on the system -- Much easier to get it into place if you consider the doorway width before building than having to tear the whole thing apart to get it into the room !! 

[Seith]

More importantly, and something that the novice builder would be likely to overlook, is "can it fit through doorways"?

edit: beaten

[Jumpman64]

Kind of depends on the style of cab you have in mind.  Older "golden age" cabs tended to be right around 24".  Later fighter & 4-player beatemups got bigger.  Your monitor will definitely be a big factor.

[Buick455]

yeah doorways.. my panel is detachable for this reason. my house also was built with double doors or no doors, I use to deliver furniture. you would be amazed by the ways we got crap into peoples houses. The best one was a sleeper sofa into the 2nd story loft with a spiral staircase. Roof of truck -> Roof of house -> in the window  think we got a tip? nope

[ark_ader]

I like the novel approach where arcade cabinet size is totally based on available size of location.

With the arrival of this little fellow the smaller the better so 10-12 inches still can be practical.

[Fursphere]

Mine has the inside diminsions of 24" wide (inside the "sides").  I wish it was 26" so I had more room for a trackball. 

Lay out your control panel first, decide on monitor size second, then think about cabinet width.

(and don't' forget about doorways)

[Yourname942]

Make sure you make it less wide than your doorway (if you ever decide to move it to a different room/house)

Also figure out the size monitor you want + how much space for the bezel. That will help you figure out how wide you want to make it.

[dandro]

My cab is 26" wide based on the monitor (29" arcade), which typically means a wider control panel, just make the control panel removeable if you want it through doorways, etc.. which mine fits perfectly.

[DHTech]

Thanks for all the advice, I hadn't thought too much about door widths, I think i'm going for 610mm (24") with the side included it's 647mm (25.5"), so should slide through the doorways without too much trouble.

[chucklepie]

I'm using 18mm MDF and the internal (i.e. the width allowed for an embedded control panel or monitor) is 660mm (i.e. total width is 696mm).

This is sufficient for a control panel with two players with 6 buttons and a trackball. It will also fit through most doors (about 700mm). I don't like cabinets with oversized CP's, they just look wrong.

Here's my depth/height too. Note, this is easily big enough for a 24inch monitor but would only fit a CRT if the screen was taken out of the case

[brihyn]

Just to echo the wise advice already given, it should be at least 1/8" less than the width of your doorway.....not that I personally had to tear a few pieces of mine apart on the patio outside of the basement sliding glass doors or anything.....

[eds1275]

I tend to like cabinets that have the control panel in between the sides of the machine and not extending outward. My big one, still unfinished  uses an lcd and is only 24 " deep front to back. Side to side it is 30" which is the width of most of my interior doors but it slides through nicely side end first.

Shameless self-promotion:

[Dawgz Rule]

Does it go to 11?

[eds1275]

heck ya it.... will. When I get the funds to finish it up. Sooon..... dun dun duuunnnnnnnn

[CpCaveman]

Thanks for all the advice, I hadn't thought too much about door widths, I think i'm going for 610mm (24") with the side included it's 647mm (25.5"), so should slide through the doorways without too much trouble.

Mines 24" deep and 24" plus the two 18mm mdf sides wide, i built it on the fly so no plans just knew those dimensions could be made from two mdf boards 4` x 8` and some baton, heres a pic so you can see if your layout will fit (would post a newer one but waiting for my monitor surround stickers to dry and its apart atm, it aint the greatest but does the job )