Laminar's Slim LCD build

[Laminar]

I've always wanted a MAME cabinet and I finally decided to take the plunge. I have an Ultra Small Form Factor Dell with a Core 2 Duo, a 19" Dell LCD, and a cabinet design I whipped up a couple weeks ago. If I get the urge in the future, the cabinet will take a 22" widescreen LCD without too much fuss, but the 19" will do for now.





The control panel is approximately 39" high. It should be a good stand-up height and will work well with the stools I already have in my rec area. The control panel layout is based on the Sega layouts for players 1 and 2 to make the compact dimensions more usable.

The artwork I made up will give you a hit as to where I'm going with the theme.
Control panel:


Marquee:


I took the model and got all of the 3/4" parts nested together:


I picked up the MDF this weekend and hope to start cutting this week.

The joysticks and buttons are in, and I have some USB SNES controllers to use for that emulator. I have an old set of computer speakers with a sub that will do the job nicely. I've been playing with different front ends, and it makes me think that getting the cabinet built is going to be much easier than getting the software working right! Looking forward to playing with this thing.

[markc74]

Niiiiice! Big fan of white cabs and the shape and design look awesome.

Will be following this one!

[Slippyblade]

Since I'm a total Portal whore, I'm sub'd.  That and I'm interested in how this turns out. 

[Yvan256]

The artwork I made up will give you a hit as to where I'm going with the theme.
Marquee:

Hum, let me guess... the theme is Left 4 Dead 2, right?

Subscribed.

[Laminar]

I started out last night laying out the first cuts:


Then started in this morning with my circular saw, jigsaw, and little router table:










And eventually I ended up here:




Tomorrow I should be able to finish up the rest of the body and start in on the control panel. I should probably get my artwork ordered so it's here soon.

I cut a bezel for the display out of 1/2" MDF that goes around the entire display, not just the visible screen. If I use the Dell stand, the monitor will stick out of the front by about 1/4". I can detach the display and make my own VESA mount that would let me set the display wherever I want it, which will probably be easier than trying to build a platform to attached the Dell stand to.

I also need to look more into how to paint this MDF. The cut edges especially seem to just soak up any paint applied.

[johnndeanna]

Dude, that's a lot for a single day of building. Looks good.

[Louis Tully]

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[shponglefan]

Nice design and good start to the build!  Will be watching this thread for sure.

OOC, how did you round the MDF edges?  Roundover bit or something else?  I'm just wondering because it's hard to tell in the pictures, but some look rounded whereas some look a bit angular.

[rablack97]

This works, 1 part wood glue 1 part water, mix together.

brush the edges with the mixture using a foam brush and let dry, light sand, then repeat, light sand one more time this will help to seal and smooth the mdf. follow this up with a good spray primer (Kilz) and then paint....

Voila, this edges on this were rounded off with a router bit, so this should work on your project as well.

[yotsuya]

Laminar is here to kick ass and chew bubble gum and he's all out of...     

ass?

[Louis Tully]

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[Laminar]

Nice design and good start to the build!  Will be watching this thread for sure.

OOC, how did you round the MDF edges?  Roundover bit or something else?  I'm just wondering because it's hard to tell in the pictures, but some look rounded whereas some look a bit angular.

I used a 3/8 roundover bit on all of the outside edges. I think the lighting does make some of the corners look more square, but once I'm done everything should be uniform.

[stigzler]

Like it.

[Laminar]

Had a friend come over today and ended up doing more brainstorming than actual work, but we still got stuff done. I found an old VESA mount I bought off of MonoPrice on a whim a while back that I cut up and will use to mount the screen. I got the speakers mounted and just need to cut out two familiar oval-shaped holes in the frontmost bezel. I got all of the control panel top pieces cut out. I rough cut the Lexan with a jigsaw and used the router table to flush cut it to the piece it sits on top of, but it slipped and I cut about 1/8" into the Lexan - this piece is probably toast.









I also got my artwork ordered from FedEx/Kinkos this morning and picked it up this afternoon:


I had them leave 1/4" around the artwork so I can make everything fit nicely - I can trim it flush if I need to. The artwork is printed on a matte adhesive vinyl decal and the two pieces cost $47. I have no idea if that's a good price, but I can't beat that turnaround and the quality seems really good.

I'll pick up another piece of Lexan tomorrow morning and redo that portion, so I expect I'll be able to wire up the control panel tomorrow as well.

[Laminar]

More progress today! Started out by getting everything attached to both panels. Then we got the screen attached and centered, it turned out pretty good. I'm still thinking of doing some trim around the bezel to get that edge perfectly straight. This morning I picked up some 0.220 plexiglass to replace the polycarbonate I improperly routed yesterday. This time I drilled and countersunk four flathead machine screws to hold the plexi to the mdf base so that it could be routed perfectly.









I used a Forstner bit to drill the button holes in the MDF:


Then I used a 5/8" spade bit to pre-drill the plexi:


I bolted the two pieces together and used the router table to flush cut the holes so the two pieces would match perfectly. Then I put the joysticks in place. In the future, I may route out a pocket to get the joystick a bit higher; as it sits now the top of the joystick is probably 2" higher than the CP top.




Then I got the control panel wired up and hooked it up to the PC for a test run. I figured out I needed to hit Tab while in-game to configure my inputs. Each of the players has a button 1-6. The top two large buttons are for coin entry and player start, and the four small buttons are Escape, Pause, Vol down, and Vol up. So far it seems to work great!

I have the first layer of wood filler on the cabinet filling in the cracks and covering up the visible screwheads. Tomorrow I'll drop in a shelf and figure how everything will be situated within the cabinet. I may start on the marquee, depends on how motivated I feel and how much other stuff I find to do around the house - gotta finish up the soffits in the theater room before Sunday, too.

[talkgeek]

Excellent quality build, love the shape of the cab - and the speed of your build is impressive 

subscribed

[Brian74]

This is looking pretty sweet. I like the lines and the flow it has  One question, where did you find those smaller buttons at?

[JDFan]

This is looking pretty sweet. I like the lines and the flow it has  One question, where did you find those smaller buttons at?

Looks like he went with this set of buttons\joys and ZD encoders from Ebay -- ( http://www.ebay.com/itm/Arcade-DIY-Kit-Parts-2x-USB-Encoder-To-PC-2x-Joystick-20x-Buttons-For-MAME/201034334608?_trksid=p2047675.c100005.m1851&_trkparms=aid%3D222003%26algo%3DSIC.FIT%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D20131003132420%26meid%3D7324723080451116434%26pid%3D100005%26prg%3D20131003132420%26rk%3D2%26rkt%3D6%26sd%3D191111620465&rt=nc )

[Gatsu]

It's looking really good so far man. Love the Aperture theme.

I was wondering though, since you went for an LCD monitor, why not go with a lcd widescreen tv or at least a widescreen format monitor to fill in more of that bezel area real estate?

Just curious.

Keep up the great work.

[Laminar]

This is looking pretty sweet. I like the lines and the flow it has  One question, where did you find those smaller buttons at?

JDFan nailed it. I used a 1-1/8" Forstner bit to drill for the buttons but it ended up not being big enough - I had to use a 1-1/4". They are snug in the hole, but will pop out easily if pushed from below, as they're friction fit.

The encoders were picked up by Windows right away and getting everything to work in MAME was a piece of cake (heh).

[Laminar]

It's looking really good so far man. Love the Aperture theme.

I was wondering though, since you went for an LCD monitor, why not go with a lcd widescreen tv or at least a widescreen format monitor to fill in more of that bezel area real estate?

Just curious.

Keep up the great work.

I have a 22" widescreen that would fit. However, its vertical height would be almost identical to the 19" 4:3, and since most of the games are 4:3, I'd rather play them in their original ratio without stretching. Because of that, the 19" 4:3 works for me.

[Laminar]

I hosted a dude baby shower this weekend, that was the big push to get the arcade cabinet functional so soon. I got everything installed and running, it ended up being a great time - Tekken, TMNT, WWF, Marvel vs. Capcom.









This week is busy, I'm traveling to a wedding next weekend, and I'll be in Detroit the week after that, so progress will be slow for a bit, but I'm looking forward to finishing this thing up - I'm sure all of the little details will take up the majority of the build time, that's how these projects usually seem to work.

[Slippyblade]

Noooooooooo!!!!

Not the dreaded, "Just testing.." phase!  Once you hit that phase, all progress comes to a grinding halt.  Many folks on these boards wont even connect the computer anymore until the cab is cosmetically complete due to the "Just testing" phenomenon.

[stigzler]

Noooooooooo!!!!

Not the dreaded, "Just testing.." phase!  Once you hit that phase, all progress comes to a grinding halt.  Many folks on these boards wont even connect the computer anymore until the cab is cosmetically complete due to the "Just testing" phenomenon.

Ahhhh!!! That's what's going on!? Next time - Artwork first.... fire up second.

[Laminar]

Ha! In its current state its enough of an eyesore that I have no issue with motivation to get it completed. 

[yotsuya]

Laminar is here to kick ass and chew bubble gum and he's all out of...     

ass?

Bubble gum.

It's from a John Carpenter movie called They Live. The main actor is Roddy Piper. I got the quote backwards, but ... Check it out sometime.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0096256/quotes

Sorry for the off topic. Just trying to find a way to say this build is awesome.

Just noticed this. I was just ---smurfing--- with you, bro. 

[owkenobi]

How do you like your ebay joystick and button set? It seems like a good deal.

[mrdepths]

Very nice work! Only roamed the forum to gain ideas and inspiration.

This is definitely on the list of maybes! Do you have any dimensions or sketchup files.

Keep up the good work! 

[natablety]

Great work!
I am on this forum almost two years but Your project made me to register account.
I join to question above, can You provide plans / dimensions of this cab?

[Laminar]

How do you like your ebay joystick and button set? It seems like a good deal.

I'm on the fence about it, but leaning toward the positive side. The joystick seems stout enough, though the stick length is short after poking through the 3/4" control panel. I'll need to route out a pocket I think.

The buttons are okay, though they are friction-fit, they don't screw on like some of the other sets I've seen. Also, the 1 1/8" Forstner bit was too small, and the 1 1/4" was almost too big - the buttons are in the holes and not popping out, but I wouldn't quite call them snug.

The encoders worked natively with Windows 7, I didn't have to manually install or configure any drivers. MAME recognized them as joysticks and getting the buttons set up was easy.

[Laminar]

Very nice work! Only roamed the forum to gain ideas and inspiration.

This is definitely on the list of maybes! Do you have any dimensions or sketchup files.

I've tried learning sketchup several times, but coming from a SolidWorks/Inventor background I could never get my brain around it. I used Inventor to draw this up and could provide some basic drawings if you guys are interested.

[mrdepths]

i dont actually have that software.

if you could share the measurements for a side view, that would be good for me.

appreciate this, looking forward to how this pans out.

 

[Slippyblade]

I've tried learning sketchup several times, but coming from a SolidWorks/Inventor background I could never get my brain around it. I used Inventor to draw this up and could provide some basic drawings if you guys are interested.

LOVE SolidWorks, but damn is it expensive...

[natablety]

Very nice work! Only roamed the forum to gain ideas and inspiration.

This is definitely on the list of maybes! Do you have any dimensions or sketchup files.

I've tried learning sketchup several times, but coming from a SolidWorks/Inventor background I could never get my brain around it. I used Inventor to draw this up and could provide some basic drawings if you guys are interested.

Solid file works for me so if You can send them it would be great