Scratch Built Williams Mini Clone

[taylormadelv]

So I'm back! I took a break from arcades for a bit. I was forced to liquidate almost my entire collection due to a divorce.   But....I saved my Startgate mini that I posted here awhile back. I love this site and the builds here are so impressive. Even when I worked on restoring cabinets for an operator, I dreamed of building my own cabinets from scratch. It becomes a bit intimidating to post when I am a newbie at actually constructing cabinets from scratch. I am teaching myself how to work with wood and it's fun! I finished my first bartop  but I was too embarrassed to post all the mistakes I made. I stole the artwork from a project here and I can't find the link to the thread right now. Thank you for that artwork! It was brilliant! My project used the same 9.2" LCD and the bezel fit perfectly.
So now I will build my first scratch built upright! First, I took a piece of cardboard and traced the out the sides of the Startgate mini. Then I traced the cardboard onto a piece of 1/2" plywood and cut it out to create a router template. I have a top bearing, flush trim router bit from Rockler. So soon, I will be able to choose my wood and use my template. I want to stick with plywood for construction and use black laminate as the finish. Here's the template:
Thing with this cabinet is the monitor. It needs to be very small. I am considering using a laptop screen because it's so difficult to find a monitor small enough to fit nicely. I only have about 13.5" of clearance vertically to install the monitor. A crt is almost completely out of the question here, as 12-14" crt's are basically impossible to find now. The biggest struggle will be mounting the lcd connected to the laptop. This will be a vertical setup with an 8 way joystick, two play buttons, two start buttons and a 2.25" illuminated trackball. This will be playing old-school, "boat anchor" games, no fast paced fighter games here! The control panel is gonna be tight! More to come!

[taylormadelv]

I used my multitool with a plunge cut blade to cut out the curved part of the template. I didn't cust nice and perpendicular to the surface of the wood. So I need to use woodfiller to smooth out these areas and have a super smooth template to run my router over.

[taylormadelv]

Here's a shot of some parts. An 8 way joystick with black ball top from Twisted Quarter. Two led start buttons and a single mech coin door from Holland computers. I love this little coin door! Only $35 complete with coin mech AND a nice lock. But there's no illumination for the coin button return. I added a bayonet lamp holder and a lamp. I will connect this later on. The coin door opening is 7" x 10" and uses clamps from inside to hold onto the cabinet. No drilling bolt holes for the coin door!

[taylormadelv]

Here's the old Lenovo laptop I hope to use. The biggest thing besides mounting the screen is how to get this to turn on from outside the cabinet. I hesitate to try soldering anything to the power button on the laptop. I have read about Bios settings where the comp will turn on automatically when power is restored. I have not configuered this yet. Any input about turning this thing on from a switch on the outside of the cabinet will be most welcome!
Next is my horrible soldering job on a mouse hack. I am a terrible at soldering! I used an old "hockey puck", one button Apple mouse for my attempt at a trackball mouse hack. It's actually very easy to do, you just need to be able to solder pretty decent.

[taylormadelv]

Laminate! Well, I went to Home Depot to check this stuff out in person: http://www.homedepot.com/p/Wilsonart-48-in-x-96-in-Laminate-Countertop-Sheet-in-Black-Matte-Finish-1595603504896/203592675
Yuck! It looks and feels like plastic, nothing like the Formica matte black I wanted. I will go with nice Birch Plywood, with a stain and paint finish. I will show you how nice I can get that combo and look.

[taylormadelv]

Work on the templates has been slow. Still using wood filler to get side template smooth. Cut the front template with coin door opening. A nice fit!

[Vidiot]

I thought I recognized that artwork. 
Glad it worked out for you. And thanks for the compliments. I've "stolen" many ideas that I've found on here as well. lol
Welcome back and have fun with your new project! 

[taylormadelv]

Slow but steady progress! I am still working on making the template real smooth and level. Lesson learned about cutting the template curve with the multitool with a plunge cut attachment! Next time I need to make sure I keep the tool perpendicular to the wood! ACK!
I decided I would keep going with the Williams Mini style and use plexi on my CP. The "real" Williams Mini Stargate control panel is  3/4" MDF with 1/8" plexi on top. I can tell because my 3/4" T molding only covers the wood and not the plexi. I prefer if the plexi was covered by the t molding. That means I need a thinner piece of wood! I just happened to have a piece of edge glued board that it is the perfect thickness with the plexi!

[taylormadelv]

More pics

[taylormadelv]

My tiny control panel! I'm gonna squeeze a 2.25" illuminated trackball in the center, two fire buttons at the top right and two illuminated start button at the top left. I'm gonna go with an 8 way micro joystick from Twisted Quarter http://www.twistedquarter.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=190_193&products_id=1217&zenid=bvfepq07dcfcpjkkt3lt8q1i04
I decided I will cut out the CP for the trackball and cut a hole in the plexi for the ball. I did some experiments with drilling a 1/2" hole in the plexi and then using a flush trim router bit to cut the holes. It works! But I screwed up one hole by pushing too hard on the router and moving the template/CP. I ruined a piece of plexi! Next time I need to clamp things down harder. I need to buy a new piece of plexi for the bezel anyways but still, this was FAIL.

[taylormadelv]

So the Williams cabinet builders really knew what they were doing BITD. When you start to break down this mini cabinet into individual cuts, you can see the cabinet can almost be completed with one sheet of 4'X8" plywood. The back is 16 3/4" X 48" alone. If you look at my drawings, you will notice that just one sheet of plywood will not be quite enough. For kicks and giggles, I did look very closely at the front panel where the coin door goes and sure enough, the wood grain goes horizonal just like my diagram! I figure that the Williams builders had lots of small pieces of scrap hanging around the shop they could make the small pieces of the cabinet with.

[taylormadelv]

So I was interested in buying a black melamine finish, 3/4" MDF from Menards.http://www.menards.com/main/building-materials/panel-products/specialty-panels/melamine/dakota-3-4-x-61-x-97-melamine-panel/p-1992766.htm
The black melamine shelving is crap but the big 4'X8" sheet is furniture grade. Problem is, I can't fit that big a piece of wood in my vehicle! Even my GF's Mountaineer can only handle a sheet 4' wide and about 69" long. Mendards WON'T CUT THE WOOD!! I am serious! They said they don't have a saw big enough to cut the wood. I said Lowes and Home Depot cut wood that big all day long and you compete with them. They said I could rent a truck for $60 to deliver it. Great! So it'd be around $115 for one sheet of wood that I have to haul around. I will not be shopping for wood at Menards again! Sticking with the original plan, I'll be going with a nice birch veneer 3/4" plywood that will have a stain/paint combo finish.

[taylormadelv]

Finally got some wood! I went with the 3/4" Birch Veneer Plywood from Lowes. I had to go through about 8 sheets until I found a sheet that had nice clean edges I could use. Lowes did cut the wood. But after inspecting the cut, I realized that a Lowes cut is only for getting the wood small enough to transport. Their saw is very rough on the veneer, absolutely NOT a finish cut.
So I need a saw that can handle all these long cuts. My HB 12" compound miter saw ain't gonna get it done. So I borrowed my GF's old Craftsman Table Saw! Holy crap this thing is HEAVY! It's an older model from the mid 90's. This thing must have weighed close to 300 lbs, it was a biatch getting this into the garage. But now I have a table saw to play with!
Last in this post, I have side by side pics of the template versus the original Stargate Mini side panel. Getting closer but still needs a bit more work.

[taylormadelv]

I'm back! I wanted some real progress to show here. It has been slow going. I made a few small projects for myself to get accustomed to using a table saw. I finally ripped my plywood sheets. This was the first time I had ever ripped big sheets of plywood on a table saw. It went smoothly. Any cut that Lowes made is all torn out. In the future, I will only make 1 cut at Lowes, just to get the plywood to fit in the SUV.
Then I used my 1/2" plywood template as a guide for my top bearing flush trim router bit. In theory, this should be simple. However, cutting 3/4" Birch plywood with a 1/4" router bit can be a challenge. That's a lot of wood to cut in one pass with a bit that small. It made it but I needed to sand and bondo (woodfiller) spots.
A woodworking tip that I learned about controlling tearout was to use masking tape on the cutline. I had to do lots of bondo along the curved edge and still had to cut my t moulding slots. So I tried using masking tape along the edge to control the tearout. It WORKED!!! This was a revealtion that I can cut slots in solid, cured woodfiller, as long as they were taped. Maybe this will help out someone with similar issues.

[Frank Drebin]

Here's the old Lenovo laptop I hope to use. The biggest thing besides mounting the screen is how to get this to turn on from outside the cabinet. I hesitate to try soldering anything to the power button on the laptop. I have read about Bios settings where the comp will turn on automatically when power is restored. I have not configuered this yet. Any input about turning this thing on from a switch on the outside of the cabinet will be most welcome!
Next is my horrible soldering job on a mouse hack. I am a terrible at soldering! I used an old "hockey puck", one button Apple mouse for my attempt at a trackball mouse hack. It's actually very easy to do, you just need to be able to solder pretty decent.

I don't know if you've found a solution to your problem or not but I do have a solution.

You can buy a control board and power supply for your laptop monitor that essentially turns it into a monitor.  It has HDMI, VGA and DVI in, audio in and headphone out. 

It would make it totally independent of the laptop.  Mine falls asleep almost immediately after the signal is lost (source powered down) and wakes immediately on power up.

http://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-Convert-a-Laptop-LCD-into-an-External-Monit/

Relocating the power button on the laptop should be easy enough.  I'm not sure if there are wires you can splice into like on a desktop or if you have to solder to the control board.

[taylormadelv]

OK. This project is going at a glacial pace but it is still moving along. I finally finished with all the cutting, shaping and bondo on the cabinet sides. Then I started staining. What I discovered is that stain will reveal every flaw in your wood. If the wood was untouched, it was super easy to stain. Apply and wipe a few times and you're good. BUT if any area that was sanded, even just a tiny bit, would not accept the stain as well. The areas with wood filler actually stained almost exactly like the wood. But the areas I had to sand the surface of the birch plywood needed to be worked over and over and eventually almost "painted" the stain on.
The insides of the cabinet sides, I went with stain and then Satin black. I had some issues installing t molding, it's not as perfect as I would like but it's functional.
I backed off on the Nintendo style audio opening. I just could not figure out a reliable way I could cut those slots. So I cut a 4" circle. I used a drilled plastic cover, painted black as the grommet and recycled some metal screening from someplace. Not quite as cool as the real audio hole but it works.
I have not installed supports for the monitor and cp yet, as I was not confident with measuring ahead of time for these.

[wp34]

Looking great so far!  I've been kicking around building one of these for my JROK board.  What did you use for a template to cut the sides?  I was thinking of trying to print Gozer's Sketchup model of the Stargate Cabaret and use that.

[taylormadelv]

I took cardboard to my real Stargate mini and traced the sides and cut. Then I transferred this to 1/2" plywood for a template. Then used a flush trim router bit to cut the 3/4" plywood.
This sounds much easier than it was in actual practice for me. Cutting curves in wood was a learning experience to say the least!
Not sure if I would attempt a Multi Williams with this, the the CP doesn't have the real estate for the 2 player controls on a MW.

[wp34]

That would be helpful to have one on-hand to copy. 

I agree with you about the size.  If I do go that route I would likely only have Stargate and Defender be playable.  The monitor size (as you mentioned) is also a concern.  It is one of my all-time favorite cabinets though and I would love to have one.

[taylormadelv]

Here's something I can do well! Cutting super clean holes in my CP laminate!
My CP wood is 5/8" edge glued pine. So it is not really smooth enough to get that super slick look of perfectly installed laminate. So I bought a plastic placemat and stuck the laminate on the smooth side.
This is my last piece of this black laminate I bought awhile back at Parts Express. I cannot find this exact laminate on their site anymore, I have no idea why. The closest they have now is an iron on version. So this last piece I treat like gold!
I will adhere the placemat to the CP wood and then place my plexi on top for that super slick look I want. I'm still debating about Spectra Eclipse buttons versus building my own IL translucents for the clear bezels/x-arcade black for the plungers.

[Vidiot]

I love the shape on this cab. The wood look is awesome!

[wp34]

This is my last piece of this black laminate I bought awhile back at Parts Express. I cannot find this exact laminate on their site anymore, I have no idea why. The closest they have now is an iron on version. So this last piece I treat like gold!

Ha ha!  I did that with my last piece of black laminate on my Tron build.   

[taylormadelv]

Great minds think alike! Muahahahahah :cough: ahahahahah

[taylormadelv]

The glacier moves! I have been kinda stuck at a point where I decided to mount a 13" CRT TV with composite video input as my monitor. But I have had some budget issues with buying the VGA to Video converter and I cannot verify that the monitor will work properly. This slows progress, as I cannot make my cardboard monitor bezel, I cannot paint my bezel plexi and I cannot finish the back door. The back door is an issue because there is almost no clearance to even get a 1/4" plywood back door on the cabinet. I need to retake photos to the cab in it's current state.
But I have done extensive work on the CP! I decided to go with old. recycled, black X-Arcade buttons. The black balltop TQ 8 way joystick and a 2.25" illuminated, blue trackball. I broke down and bought the Mike's Arcade USB trackball/mouse adaptor. This makes life soooo much easier! Mike has the 6 pin female molex for the trackball connector installed on the mouse adaptor! No hacking!
I installed my trackball in reverse and I don't feel like remapping every trackball game, so I hacked the x and y directions so I don'y have to remap the TB in every game.
The plexi was a huge learning experience! This was my THIRD shot at the plexi. My first met failure because I used a router and pushed too hard and deformed my button holes by pushing the template, the second shot failed because to miss measured my button hole placement and ended up with a gape between the t-molding at the edge of the CP and the end of the plexi. My third shot I cracked the plexi in the upper right corner but it looks acceptable! Whew! This is my first time using stickybacks on the CP, they make adhering the controllers a breeze!

[taylormadelv]

The glacier moves! I finally found a decent, working 15" LCD. The seller from CL was so anal that this Princeton 15" LCD from 2004 was still in the original box! I was planning on hacking the audio from the old 13" TV, so I am attempting to move that audio hack over to these tiny LCD speakers. We will see how that goes.
So I unmounted the 13" TV and mounted the 15" LCD. I can actually start work on the back door now! I can also install the CP! So this is starting to look like a real cabinet!
Yes, that is a REAL coin bucket that I had hanging around. Why not use it?
I hate wiring, I am really trying hard to make this neat. This is the first time I used stickybacks! Man, they make life easier!

[wp34]

I'm glad to see you are making progress.  Going with the 15" LCD should simplify matters a little.  Did the CL seller think he had a little box of gold?   

[taylormadelv]

It was only $25 but I made sure it was working before I bought it! Fits nicely. It looked brand new! Man, I hope it lasts! Now the computer........

[taylormadelv]

Time for an update! The LCD was not mounted quite right. I was getting a gap between the plexi bezel and the lcd and I did not like that space. So I reinstalled the LCD and got it nice and snug against the bezel.
I repainted the bezel several times to get the clean lines I wanted and frame the LCD nicely. The marquee I have actually tried painting twice without success. I am still haunted by this marquee....
I have the nerve to show the underside of my CP and my adequate wiring job. I am running mala and I am still smoothing out the games. I will post pics of the game lists.

[Wyo]

Looks so awesome!!!  Nice job!  I am currently working on a robotron mini as well.  I have a question.  PM sent!!