Yet another Centipede Project, this one with a 25" Monitor (lots of pics) :)

[Lance]

Well awhile back I picked up a Centipede cabinet that had been converted to 1943 and then to something else.  I got it pretty much as an empty cabinet with just the marquee light, coin door, power supply and isolation transformer.

After searching on the net I found Justin's Centipede MAME project and basically used that as my reference for what I wanted to do.  Justin has been a great help to me via email along the way as well, thanks Justin

A photo journal of my project can be found at:

http://arcade.spamrevenge.com/gallery/mame

If you click the thumb nails there are little blog type entries for most of the pictures as well.

Here is is the cabinet as I got it:






I didn't have my camera with me when we stripped the sides of the cabinet. It was pretty much an all day job. We started using gel paint stripper on the pink paint. I was hoping we'd be able to save the side art that was under the paint but the stripper started eating into the vinyl. We also had to use a heat gun to get some of the old vinyl off the sides since the stripper didn't take it all off. Once it was off we used Durhams Rock Hard Watter Putty to fill any chips in the sides and also used a vinyl spackle filler to cover some imperfections on the sides.



I used alkyd paint and primer to paint the sides. This stuff probably the best choice for painting particle board but it has a long drying time (16 hours). Latex paint will cause the particle board's grain to raise and swell, I didn't have that problem using the alkyd paint at all. I put one coat of primer and about 3 finish coats on the sides. I used 400 grit sand paper in between coats to knock off any dust that got in the paint while it was drying.

[Lance]

I started calling around TV repair shops hoping to find a broken TV with a good tube that I could convert to an arcade monitor using a replacement chassis. I finally found one however we opened up the case this tube came from we found a magnet in the bottom of the case that had been crushed so I have a feeling I'll need to find another tube.

Since we already had the tube we still decided to test mount it to see how it would fit. There is no way you can put anything larger then a 25" tube in a Centipede cabinet. There is less then 5/8" on either side of the tube.







The chassis right now is just the one that came with the TV, however I'll be getting a replacement arcade chassis soon so I can feed the monitor RGB from an ArcadeVGA card.



Lots of people told me that a 25" tube would never fit into a Centipede/ATARI cabinet. Well there is still a good couple inches between the neck board and where the back of the cabinet sits.



It is really starting to come together now. Don't worry about all that paint on the t-molding, it is getting replaced once I move the cabinet back home.

[Stingray]

Looks good Lance. It's no mystery why so many choose to MAME a Centepede, that's one seriously good looking cab when finished, and you can't beat the side art.

-S

[JamesS]

Looks damn good.  I am thinking of just putting a 21 inch monitor in my Crystal Castle Conversion, it has been converted many times.

I thought about a 25 inch Tv, but I am not I know enough to make all the changes that need to be made.

Good show man.

[BobbyG66]

The sides now look silky smooth, good job!

Good luck with the TV, now that it fits, hope it works out for you.

[Lance]

The sides now look silky smooth, good job!

Good luck with the TV, now that it fits, hope it works out for you.

On man we spent so much time on those sides.  Eventually I want to get new side art for the cabinet and I original assumed that the sides wouldn't have to be perfectly smooth since the vinyl would cover up small imperfections.  Justin set me straight on this, apparantely the repro vinyl is really thin so any imperfections will show through.  

I found this out after 2 coats of paint where on so I used a quick drying vinyl spackle to cover any things we missed before the paint went on, sanded and then put on another 2 coats of paint.  The final result is really smooth looking sides, hopefully they will stay that way

Right now it looks the the TV works just fine, which is kind of cool since it was totally free.  I still want to get a arcade chassis for it so I can output RGB to it.

lance

[Justin]

Awesome.  Can't wait to see this finished Lance.  I can't get enough of Centipede cabs  LOL!