Dining Room Table Cabinet - Planning Stage

[AtomSmasher]

Well, here it is.  I'm finally starting a project I've been talking about for a little while.  My plan is to make an arcade cabinet that looks like a dining room table.  I drew some simple plans a little bit ago, and am now looking for some advice.  I've never done a project even close to this size without following someone elses plans, so this could be quite an experience for me.  This project was inspired by Com[Plex]'s Giganto-MAME Project, except I'm changing the design quite a bit.

The biggest change I'm making is that I want to hide the controls.  I want it to look like an ordinary dining room table when its off and put away, but I want it to be completely functional as an arcade cabinet.  As you can see in my plans I'm planning on putting the control panel on rails and having it slide out into position.  They will then be secured with some sort of bracket to the panel that folded down, which should make them fairly stable.  One of the big downsides to this plan is I have little room for the control panels themselves.  It looks like they'll be able to have a total height of 7'' and a depth of 8'' and 6'' (depending on which side its on).  I'm hoping this will be enough room, but I'm not 100% sure on this.  Another thing I want to do is have a full keyboard on one side (something like this: www.happcontrols.com/interactive/keyboards/45001100.htm), this will let it be a functional computer that I will be able to read the news on while eating breakfast.

For the monitor I'm planning on using a 27'' Sony Trinitron Tv, which has very clear image at 800x600 with an rca cable, so I'm sure it'll look even better with an s-video cable.

Also, I have a feeling stability will be an issue since I'm trying to make the base fairly narrow, so I'll probably add some legs to it later on.

This is a very rough sketch, it's not to scale, and is only to give an idea of what I will be doing, and will help me plan out exactly what I'll need to do.  Please let me know any thoughts you have on this.  Its best to find out that I'm crazy, that this will never work, sooner rather then later.

[IG-88]

My thoughts:

I love the idea. However I agree this thing is going to be way top heavy. Legs will probably be needed on the corners. Or maybe you could do a pedestal type setup with "feet" coming out from the bottom to make the base wider??

I added some #'s to your pic. (hope you don't mind:) Why not make it 32" high and use that extra 2" for the room you wanted? I broke out a tape measure and measured my dining table. I don't think the extra 2" height would bother me all that much. You wouldn't be able to go too much lower however without the flip out panels resting on your legs while sitting.

I like the keyboard idea also but that happ thing is waaay to pricey!

Oh ya, whats the measurement I left ?? at?

[AtomSmasher]

I love the idea. However I agree this thing is going to be way top heavy. Legs will probably be needed on the corners. Or maybe you could do a pedestal type setup with "feet" coming out from the bottom to make the base wider??

Agreed, I thinking I'm going to add some sort of feet that stick out on each side, but I haven't decided yet.

I added some #'s to your pic. (hope you don't mind:) Why not make it 32" high and use that extra 2" for the room you wanted? I broke out a tape measure and measured my dining table. I don't think the extra 2" height would bother me all that much. You wouldn't be able to go too much lower however without the flip out panels resting on your legs while sitting.

Ya, if needed, raising the table is the way to go, I'm just not sure how thick its going to have to have everything fit.  7'' is kinda small so I may need to go to 9''.

I like the keyboard idea also but that happ thing is waaay to pricey!

heh, no kidding.  The link was just to show the type of thing I wanted.

Oh ya, whats the measurement I left ?? at?

If you look at the top down view you can see the measurement at the is 8'' + 5'', so 13'' total, and it would be 11'' on the skinny side of the table.  The top view might be a bit confusing to tell what your looking at, but I couldn't think of another way to easily draw it.

[Mark70]

Tell you what.

Since I just finished my cabinet, and I've had a couple of wobbly pops tonight, I'm willing to lend you my AutoCAD skills for this.

Get me some solid numbers.  I mean real numbers.  I need dimensions of every bit of the TV.  I have Happ pushbutton models.  I have a happ trackball model.  I have a happ super model.  ....ha..... happ super model...   oh, excuse me.   

Anyhow.  Feed me real information and I'll try and throw some 3d models and scale plans together.  Partly because I think a workable solution to this may be something I could bet past the wife.

My additional thoughts:
You're going to need removable blinders under the glass where the controls are.

Let me clear my head and look at it in the morning.

You're also going to need patience.  I've been working 6 days a week lately looking at AutoCAD and it makes it hard to look at AutoCAD in my spare time.

The real challenge is going to be making this thing modular enough to get in and out of your average basement..... while still having those moving parts like the control panels.

[AtomSmasher]

Sweet, a 3d model would be awesome and should help a ton figuring out the details.  I'm in no hurry, this is a weekend project only for me so its progress will be slow.  Of course I was hoping to start cutting the wood in a few weeks, but waiting a few extra weeks to get the details down would be worth it.  The tv is currently in the entertainment center, but I'll dig it out later tonight and get some measurements.

Also, as far as modular goes, I was thinking of making it into 2 sections, kind of like the Giganto-MAME Project I posted above.  Basically the base (bottom) section will be one piece, and the top section (the controls, glass, etc.) would be the top section.  Make it so the top section would sort of slide onto the bottom section, then secure it with a few screws high up on the base so they can't be seen without going under the table.  Or something like that.  I'm figuring this thing will weigh a ton when its all together, so multiple pieces just seems like the logical choice.  If you can think of a better way to do it, let me know.  Right now I'm extremely open to ideas.

[IG-88]

The real challenge is going to be making this thing modular enough to get in and out of your average basement..... while still having those moving parts like the control panels.

How hard would it be to make the top removable? That, and the ability to pull the legs/feet off would make it a little more portable.

What type of material are you thinking of using for it? I would suggest veneered ply that you could stain/paint to match the colors of the rest of your furniture.

11"-13" seems to be deep enough. I was worried about it but after sitting at my table it "feels" OK.

My additional thoughts:
You're going to need removable blinders under the glass where the controls are.

How about smoked glass for the top?

Oops, looks like you thought of the removable top already 

[IG-88]

Also, as far as modular goes, I was thinking of making it into 2 sections, kind of like the Giganto-MAME Project I posted above.  Basically the base (bottom) section will be one piece, and the top section (the controls, glass, etc.) would be the top section.  Make it so the top section would sort of slide onto the bottom section, then secure it with a few screws high up on the base so they can't be seen without going under the table. 

My Dining room table is extend-able, with leaves that you can take out or put in. It has these flat hooks that swing out of the way when not in use or swing up and hook onto a screw that's positioned just right. It makes for a real snug fit of the 2 sections as you kinda gotta force the hook up and over the screw. Might work for you...

[AtomSmasher]

My Dining room table is extend-able, with leaves that you can take out or put in. It has these flat hooks that swing out of the way when not in use or swing up and hook onto a screw that's positioned just right. It makes for a real snug fit of the 2 sections as you kinda gotta force the hook up and over the screw. Might work for you...

I like it

[AtomSmasher]

Attached is the sketch of my tv, let me know if you have any questions about it.

Also, I was thinking of doing a smoked glass top, which would help hide the fact that theres a monitor when its turned off.  Also, I'm thinking of having a piece of wood underneath the glass (painted black to mask the square where the monitor is) and have it go out to the corners to make the glass very stable and easy to secure, but cut in where the controls are.  Kind of like on Danny's rotating cabinet, except it would be cut in on all 4 sides and it'd be much bigger of course


As for the wood the rest of the cabinet would be, I was also thinking some sort of veneered plywood and a medium/dark stain.  I have a fair amount of left over mdf which I will probably use for internal pieces that you can't see, but I definately want the outside to be real wood.

[Mark70]

I may get to it next weekend.  I worked this past weekend and some late nights probably early this week.  Don't let me forget.  PM me if you have to, just give me until about Thursday night to get work out of the way.

[AtomSmasher]

I may get to it next weekend.  I worked this past weekend and some late nights probably early this week.  Don't let me forget.  PM me if you have to, just give me until about Thursday night to get work out of the way.

That would be awesome if you could get it done this weekend.  I guess I'll pm you sometime on Fri to remind you

Also, I only drew out one side before, so I just did the other side.  Its pretty much the same, except a bit shorter, and because of the shape of the tv I couldn't angle these sides.  I left the depth of the control panel areas at 7'' because we still don't know how deep they'll need to be.