Knievel Clone (Yes, another one) - First time build – Finished!

[schmaltz]

Hello Everyone
This was my first build, and it took waaaay longer than expected..  However, I was really pleased with the end product. My kids love it, and it has become a hit with all the neighborhood kids.  I know that many people don't care for the "Woody" look, but it was a much easier sell with my wife than the used Golden Tee cabinet I was originally looking at converting.

I built it fairly close to the specs for Knievel's woody..  Though my cabinet is deeper, and a little more rounded in places.  The cabinet is built out of Maple veneer plywood, and finished with woodstain and Poly.  All the controls are from Ultimarc, and I'm using Hyperspin for the front end.

Big thanks to everyone who has been willing to share their experience and knowledge on these forums.  From advice to pictures to product reviews, this site has been invaluable..  There is no way that someone with my experience (or complete lack of it) could have built an arcade machine without it.

Huge thanks to Knievel!  I hope that my build did your design justice.

I’m curious to get some feedback..   Go easy, it was my first time!

[markc74]

That looks great. 

Loving the Pac man on the base but what's the top right joystick for?

[Malenko]

That looks great. 

Loving the Pac man on the base but what's the top right joystick for?

My guess is Qbert.

[schmaltz]

The second joystick is for Karate Champ..  I was obsessed with that game when I was a kid! 

It was kind of an afterthought.  I have that dedicated 4-way joystick in the center of the panel and I added the second dedicated 4-way specifically for Karate Champ.  It looks a little tight with the second 8-way joystick, but it actually isn't bad at all..  I find it really comfortable, and love the feel of the two (restrictor plate) 4-ways..  Just feels more authentic!

[Hockeyboy]

I love to see someone else taking on the challenge of building a Knievel "Woody"! Looks great! 

No build description? No build pics? 

As someone who did the same thing last year, I'm very curious how you did the control panel - what material you used, how you mounted your hardware, dimensions, etc. What size monitor is that?

[jongunz]

I loved Karate Champ growing up too.  For single player Karate Champ I just use both the one and two player joysticks.  They are a bit spread out, but it works.  For two player I assign buttons as the second joystick.  I have a 6 button layout so I basically use a wasd layout.  Middle button top row is up  and the bottom button row is L D R.  Still fun to play either way.

[schmaltz]

Thanks Hockeyboy!  Was just checking out your build thread..  Nice cabinet.  Love the stain job you did on your CP top.  Looks awesome!  I originally planned to do the all wood CP top, but in the end decided to do a graphic overlay to tie in the marquee and the light-up trackball.  Plus to be honest, I was getting pretty sick of staining and poly.  I did two coats of Minwax (Jacob Bean) stain, and 5 coats of poly on the inside and outside of the cabinet.

Unfortunately, I did a pretty poor job of documenting the build process.  With two young kids, I had to take the build time when I could get it, an hour here and an hour there.  Kept thinking I would take more pictures later.

The monitor is a 19 inch that I had lying around.  Control panel box is 33 x 12.  It is made out of ¾ inch plywood.  I built it the same as in the Knievel thread.  Mitred corners, and a Dado for the base so that it sits flush.  It is rock solid.

CP top is a sandwich made from 5/8 MDF with a 1/8 graphic overlay, and 1/8 Plexiglass top.  The graphic overlay is just a sheet of adhesive vinyl that I had printed at a local sign company, then stuck to a piece of 1/8 plywood.  It actually turned out better than I expected.

Joysticks are top mounted.  I routed rebates into the top of the 5/8 MDF for the joystick mounting plates.  The trackball is mounted from underneath.  It came with some expanding inserts, but I wanted to make sure that everything on the CP was kid-proof, so I just ran bolts right through the 5/8 MDF (countersunk the heads on the top).
Unfortunately, I only have a picture of it from the bottom once the hardware was mounted

[schmaltz]

You can see some of the box in this shot..  Unfortunately, you can also see my biggest screw up.  I was out by 1/8 on the distance between the top of the cabinet base, and the small admin panel / glass holder.  Once I had my CP all assembled and went to attach it to the cabinet, there was a small gap between the glass holder and the top of the CP.  I couldn’t bring myself to rebuild the CP box, so I just added a 1/8 plywood “shim” under the box.  It is only visible if you are looking under the control panel, but it still drives me crazy every time I see it!