My First Upright Cabinet - Moon Patrol Style

[Jamesbeat]

I started my build last weekend.

My cabinet is based on the Jakobud Moon Patrol drawings.
To me, the Williams cabs just look 'right', and I prefer the cutaway look of the front on the Moon Patrol cab to the straight sided Robotron style.

While I was discussing cabinet shapes with my wife, we came across the awesome 'Blip' made by markc74.
Once my wife saw that black cabinet with white T-molding and buttons, it was game over.
Markc74, if you read this, please don't be mad that I copied your color scheme, my wife made me do it

I made the cabinet 24" wide between the sides, so it is 25.5" wide in total.

The wood is 3/4" maple veneer plywood.
It's more expensive than MDF, but it is stronger and lighter.
Lighter is important, because I currently rent an apartment, so it is inevitable that I will have to move it at some point.
The plywood was nice and flat, and the high quality veneer was smooth enough to paint.

My goal was to get the sides cut and the battens attached, but the work went quicker than I expected, and I managed to get the whole frame cut and assembled.

I did the whole thing with a jigsaw and a trim router (for the T-molding slot).

It would have been easier with a circular saw and a full-size router, but I think some of the horror stories have been exaggerated somewhat.

For instance, I had no trouble getting straight lines with the jigsaw, and my cuts ended up square, despite all the warnings about blade flex that I read.

The slot cutting was shockingly easy.

My trim router's manual shows slotting cutters as optional accessories, so I didn't pay too much attention to the warnings about trim routers not being powerful enough.

I had been a little apprehensive about cutting the slots because I had never used a router before.
I did so much research that it was a complete anticlimax when I started cutting.
I tried it out on a piece of scrap first, got the blade adjusted to the center of the wood, and had the whole thing done in three minutes

I didn't take photos during the building process but here are a couple of (terrible) photos of the assembled cabinet.

After assembly:



One coat of paint:



Two coats of paint and coin door fitted:



(I'm aware that the speakers are in backwards - I just put them in the holes to keep them out of reach of my inquisitive 5 year old daughter )

I'm going to try to get the T-molding fitted tonight, and hopefully get started on the control panel this weekend.

[Laythe]

Looking good!  That is a nicely shaped cabinet. 

I approve of your choices so far.   (I shamelessly copied Markc74's color scheme, as well.)   

[harveybirdman]

good start, but post your build pics here so I can see them at work 

[Jamesbeat]

Looking good!  That is a nicely shaped cabinet. 

I approve of your choices so far.   (I shamelessly copied Markc74's color scheme, as well.)   

Thanks

I like the shape too. I mean, I knew what to expect to an extent, but it's one thing seeing photos and drawings, and another to actually have the cabinet in your living room.

I have no artistic skill whatsoever, so copying an existing cab seemed like the most sensible approach.
That Jakobud site is awesome.
I forgot to mention that this is a 'slightly slim' cabinet.
It's not as slim as some, but I figured out that since I'm using an LCD monitor, I could make the cabinet a few inches slimmer and get both sides out of one sheet of plywood.
Since the plywood is $55 a sheet after tax, it was definitely worth it.

[Jamesbeat]

good start, but post your build pics here so I can see them at work 

Here you go:

[harveybirdman]

Probably a bit higher mount on the coin door than I would have done, but looks good.

What are your plans for the CP? Two player SF layout? Trackball?

[Jamesbeat]

Yes, I kinda eyeballed the height of the coin door.
I looked at photos of Moon Patrol cabinets and they all seemed to be higher than I was expecting.
It seems comfortable to drop a coin in from a standing position though.
I'll see what it's like with the control panel installed.

Layout will be two player SF

[vwalbridge]

Thank goodness someone is building a machine with a nice and clean classic look.

#YouDontAlwaysHaveToThinkOutsideTheBox

[tomstewdevine]

I always like a modern Scratch build that still looks old school.

[dmckean]

I like this one too. I've always wanted a Moon Patrol.

[Jamesbeat]

Thanks for your kind words everyone

The way I figure it is that if you're only going to have one cabinet, it should look like a real arcade cabinet.
I do admire the more outlandish ones that people build, but I wanted a 'straight out of an arcade' look.

Anyway, can't talk now, got to install some T-molding...

[macattack]

Looking good, nice job on the build, I just cnc'd a moon patrol style cab for a client. Have to agree the shape is more pleasing than the straight lines of robotron etc.





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[Jamesbeat]

Nice cabinet Macattack - looks sharp!


Got the T-molding fitted last night - really pulls everything together:




Because the plywood is not exactly 3/4", there is a tiny bit of overhang.
I'm debating whether to trim it (and risk messing it up) or just leave it, as it really is tiny.
I think I'm going to try it out on some scrap first.

[Brouhaha]

This is looking great! 

[Jamesbeat]

Got the control panel built over the weekend.

Due to a measurement error, the front lip of the control panel where the hinges are was 1/8" too short.
This meant that the hinges would not lie flat, preventing the control panel from swinging all the way in.
I discovered this only when I had finished making the panel 

Rather than remake the control panel, I bought a piece of 1/8" x 3/4" steel, cut it to length, and welded the hinges to it.
I then screwed the steel bar to the underside of the front of the control panel.
This evened out the height difference, and the hinges lie flat, allowing the control panel to pivot properly.

I'll take some photos of the open control panel to show how it works, but basically, it swings forward like on a standard arcade cabinet.

The hinges do not provide any support for the control panel except to prevent it sliding back or forward - I placed blocks of wood where the control panel meets the cabinet so that any downward pressure from players is concentrated on the wood blocks rather than the hinges. It's very solid.


I still have to backpaint the overlay, but I dropped the buttons into the holes to see how it's going to look.

I made the overlay out of a sheet of Lexan (polycarbonate) which is MUCH easier to work with than Plexiglas (acrylic)

I also made some marquee holders out of aluminum angle (still have to paint these black), and got the plexiglas cut and the LED strip lights installed.

The LED's look fantastic, but I couldn't get a decent photo with my phone camera.

I still have quite a few finishing touches to do, but it's really starting to come together now.

[harveybirdman]

I like where this is going Jamesbeat 

[yotsuya]

Looking good so far,  my man. Good job on keeping the dimensions accurate.

[markc74]

Very nice. I used the moon patrol shape as the basis for my cabinet. It's definitely my favourite cabinet profile.

[Jamesbeat]

Looking good so far,  my man. Good job on keeping the dimensions accurate.

I don't know whether I did keep them accurate actually - although the side panels are based on the Moon Patrol cab, they are 4" (or maybe 5", I forget) less deep (like the back has been sliced off the cabinet).

I did it this way because it enabled me to get both side panels out of one 4x8 sheet of plywood.
I did this for three reasons:

Slimmer, because it has to fit in my relatively small living room. I'm using an LCD.

Lighter, because I rent an apartment, and I'll have to move it one day.

Cheaper - by using one less sheet of plywood, I saved around $55.


Talking of saving money, I should really have mentioned that this is a relatively low- budget project, so saving $55 was most welcome. It allowed me to use high quality plywood instead of MDF, which allowed me to make the cabinet lighter in weight.

I haven't added everything up yet, but I'm right around the $200 mark so far.
My goal was to build a cabinet for $250, with the caveat that I already had a lot of the parts and tools needed.
The budget mostly went on wood , the t-molding and the coin door, as well as a few sundries such as paint, brushes, rollers, screws etc.

This is also the reason that I decided upon the color scheme. Using the black and white theme saved money on artwork, which could easily have added hundreds of dollars.

I did splash out on new controls, but I'm not counting those in my budget because I already had some that I could have used.
I deciclded to buy some more so that I could use the others in my next project, which will be a barstick.

Assuming I can get glass for $50 or less, I will have kept within my original $250 budget.

I just wanted to put that out there for people who are trying to build on a tight budget.
I actually have quite a decent income, but living in NY and having two kids takes care of most of that.
I just wanted to show that it can be done, and it doesn't have to look $hit.

If you manage to borrow some tools and get a free PC from somewhere,  you can easily build a cabinet for $300.

[yotsuya]

Slimmer is ok.... it's when dudes go extreme slimmer that it looks odd.

[Jamesbeat]

Very nice. I used the moon patrol shape as the basis for my cabinet. It's definitely my favourite cabinet profile.

Markc74!
I'm sorry for stealing your color scheme! What can I say, you have impeccable taste

As soon as my wife saw the photos of Blip, it was a done deal.
I agreed, mostly because it looks unbelievably cool, but also because it required no side art and thus saved me money!

If anyone hasn't seen Blip, I urge you to pay the thread a visit. Markc74's build absolutely blows mine out of the water.

[Jamesbeat]

Slimmer is ok.... it's when dudes go extreme slimmer that it looks odd.

Yeah, I'm not a fan of those really slim ones either, they look like they're going to topple over.

[yotsuya]

Slimmer is ok.... it's when dudes go extreme slimmer that it looks odd.

Yeah, I'm not a fan of those really slim ones either, they look like they're going to topple over.

Exactly. You're doing a great job,  brother.

[dmckean]

One reason not to go slim is if you plan on placing real cabinets next to it someday, then slimmer can look really odd.

[Jamesbeat]

You'd also have to screw them to the wall, or risk it falling onto a child...

[zinger]

This is looking good. Are you planning to put any art on there? I guess that would break your budget?  I was sort of hoping you would put some Moon Patrol side art, marquee, etc. on there.

[Jamesbeat]

No side art, partly due to cost, but also because the cabinet is slimmer than standard.
Also, I think it would look weird to use the Moon Patrol art on this cab because it's the wrong color.

I'm still going back and forth on the marquee. It's hard to just choose one game because it's going to have thousands of games on it, but I also don't want a 'multicade' type marquee.

My wife's favorite game is Ghosts n Goblins, so that's the marquee she suggested, but in that case I probably should have made a replica of that cab instead (it was on the short list when I was deciding which can shape to build).

[n3wt0n]

looking good! Nice and clean.