Finally! building a cabinet from scratch

[MaMeNnO]

This one looks way better no doubt about it, it looks more like a natural design. The other one looks more like a bunch of pictures put together. I really love the orange, yellow, blue that's a great combination and indeed more old school. But are you sure it will match the white/red cab and how about your black/yellow/red buttons?

I've also been thinking about the buttons. You got a point there. I also have yellow ones!
I guess I should have six red and green to go with the joysticks I'm having a vision of... an order... an button order!
About the colours in combination with the cabinet, there is white, black and red in the CPO!
I could give it an other go now that I've got the hang of it.

[javeryh]

I also like the newly designed artwork!  Very nice!

[MaMeNnO]

Thanks for the support of the last CPO. I decided to use it. I might do a little tweaking on the colours. To be sure it will look allright, I printed a part of the CPO and put it on the CP board in the cabinet to have a more then virtual look. I'd imagined it on the CP with my eyes closed, but that didn't do it.





Beside this I did a few little things. I bought some wire for the CP. In three colours, red, green and black. It was sold at lengths of 5 meter (16' 1/6"). That should be enough for 12 contacts (joystick=4, 6 buttons, 1 player (I and II) start, 1 quit/credit) on one side and 12 on the other (red/green) and the Shazaaam! button. I'll have 41 cm (16") on average for each contact. My CP is 60 cm (24") wide.



I put the monitor in the cabinet to look how it would fill it up. I must say, it goes well with dimensions of the cabinet. I'll make a bezel of cardboard first. Then I can still mess around with it and tweak till I'm satisfied. Then I'll make one out of black cardboard or maybe some thin flexibel wood and then spray paint it. I have a little left from the speaker plate and the top inside (everything above the CP).



I did put some 90 degree metal supports to the bottem plate and sides to firm it up a little. There will be some weight on it from the monitor, so a little extra support just in case.

[MaMeNnO]

I just sum up all the costs. Always a painful thing, but it's for a good cause, so who's counting?

None the less, I was curious right now the counter stands at 584,86 Euro ($779,74 with the current exchange rate of 1 euro = 1,333200478 dollar)

That's inclusive wrong choice of wood and a pair of other sticks and some screw ups.

I'll just say it quick to my girlfriend... or maybe not. Hey, hobbies cost money! I guess you'll all know...

[tranq]

Well, you're not married....and, if you don't give her any less attention, can she complain?   I think not.......uh, unless yer not giving her any more.

[Loki]

Isn't €584 worth $777 ? ... or am I wrong here ^^;
Anyway, looks nice so far!

(I'm also Dutch btw)

[Timoe]

oooh and ah that CPO is gonna look great!

[MaMeNnO]

Isn't €584 worth $777 ? ... or am I wrong here ^^;
Anyway, looks nice so far!

(I'm also Dutch btw)

Well good to hear. Monkeyman is also Dutch. Eventually we'll take over!
Oops, little mistake... your're correct, actually it is $779,74.
(Edited in the above post).

Are you building a cabinet too?

[MaMeNnO]

oooh and ah that CPO is gonna look great!

Thanks! It better be or I'll have to design something else. For now I don't have second thoughts. Maybe I'll adjust the background colour from back on both sides to white in the middle.

[Loki]

Well good to hear. Monkeyman is also Dutch. Eventually we'll take over!
Oops, little mistake... your're correct, actually it is $779,74.
(Edited in the above post).

Are you building a cabinet too?

I'm already on a quest for world domination... so guess when I have the time I'll take over this forum too 

At the moment I'm just looking around here and trying to get some ideas.
I'd really like to build a cab for mainly Neo Geo and pinball games...

[MaMeNnO]

Well, you're not married....and, if you don't give her any less attention, can she complain?   I think not.......uh, unless yer not giving her any more.

We have a kid and a house together. In my opinion that counts more then being married But no, she can't complain.

[MaMeNnO]

Well good to hear. Monkeyman is also Dutch. Eventually we'll take over!
Oops, little mistake... your're correct, actually it is $779,74.
(Edited in the above post).

Are you building a cabinet too?

I'm already on a quest for world domination... so guess when I have the time I'll take over this forum too 

At the moment I'm just looking around here and trying to get some ideas.
I'd really like to build a cab for mainly Neo Geo and pinball games...

Plenty of ideas around here! I can tell you it's very addictive once you start building one.

[rolls rolex]

Oh man, i stand corrected  This looks awesome, i'm really into the whole bright colorful design. Check out the red tmolding with that orange  How about some orange and blue pushbuttons it will look great on the red part. Not sure how it will look on the green part, maybe you should do it all red? I also saw orange joysticks, that would just finish it 

[MaMeNnO]

I have two red Mag Stik Plus from Ultimarc. That costed me a little fortune, but they are great! switchable from the top without opening the CP and that was what I was looking for.

Right now I'm gonna have a design session for the bezel en marquee. Can't wait so see that on the cab!

[spacies]

Looking good.

Loving the Fonts on the CP.

I want some of those sticks too.

Don't stop now, you want to be playing on this over XMAS!!!!

[MaMeNnO]

Sooooo much ideas... so little time to spend

I think there might be a chance that I could play then. I don't have a deadline though.

[spacies]

Heh,

I know what you mean.

The more you look around the more ideas you want to incororate into your cab.
Never fear, when this one is finished, start another.
And when the other is nearly done, sell the first and so on...and so on...and so on.

    

[MaMeNnO]

Heh,

I know what you mean.

The more you look around the more ideas you want to incororate into your cab.
Never fear, when this one is finished, start another.
And when the other is nearly done, sell the first and so on...and so on...and so on.

    

Sell my baby?! I've seen it get born and raised it my own. We played Donkey Kong, Ms. Pacman together...  oh no, couldn't do that.

BTW I just noticed that the extra depth of the cabinet was not unnecessary. The door can just close now. I remember seeing quite a few (to many!) photo's with monitors sticking out at the back. That was a good choice!

[MaMeNnO]

Today I planned to drill some holes and make space for the joysticks, but due to strange result after printing I decided to delay that.
I printed the layout and adjusted the paper properties before printing. I taped two sheets of A4 together, so I could print the whole length in one go. I thought that was more handy then tape it later on. I don't know what happened, but after measuring it with a joystick plate, it was way, way off.
Then I printed it with adjusting the paper. The printed joystick plate was spot on!?

This week I'll print the marquee, CP and layout for drilling at a print shop in one go on the same printer and everything in one piece. Then I'm sure everything measures up OK. The centering I did as follow in Adobe Illustrator.

The layout of just the buttons and joysticks. This will be used for drilling holes and such.
It is placed on a different layer then the design of the graphics. All the objects are exact measures from the real joysticks and buttons. The circles for the buttons are the outer measurements. Be careful to use the right drill size! Otherwise the buttons will fall through...


To be able to see through the graphics and see the layout make select the whole layer
and make everything transparent for, say 25%. All the graphics become a bit vague.


Now turn off the design layer and go to the layout layer and select the things you want
to move. After that switch back to the other layer and make it visable.

Drag it in place and use the arrow keys to make the finer adjustments.


Everything is in place and ready for printing.

[MaMeNnO]

Today I brought the marquee and controlpanel to the printshop. For the marquee I can take four options:
- Normal paper (tried that... no, not an option)
- Waterproof paper ( haven't seen it, but seems to be an option)
- Blue back paper (yep, the back is blue )
- Backlit paper (milk white back on transparent layer)

The last one is the most expensive, but I hope to see where that extra money went! It's the stuff that is especially used for these kinda things. 24" x 7" will cost me around $84,50... when I check mamemarquees.com they charge $17,95 (without shipping)!

Just sent a question to mamemarquees.com what the total costs would be.

The final marquee...


The final controlpanel...


For the joysticks, I didn't know if the top red nob just should come off or that I should take the whole stick apart. As the pictures show all had to be disassembled. I wanted to know how well the red ring would fit within the direction arrows.

 

The red ring fits beautifully!


The layout of the controlpanel that I didn't dare to use...


From the picture above you can also see that I took off the plastic cage of the monitor. I didn't really decased it fully, because that wasn't necessary. I'm gonna use the bolds on the lower left and right hand corner to secure it to the plate of the monitorstand. I also placed a little support strip behind the monitor.

[MaMeNnO]

Today I collected my marquee on backlit and my CP on vinyl.
The marquee is maybe a little light. The CP looks great... from a distance that is. In closeup (see pictures) you can see colours are flowing a little on the edges. That's to bad. I don't know if you guys ever experienced something like that. The thing is, it is not on all parts, but the text 'Arcade actioN' is the most obvious.

I allready cut the holes out for the buttons and they just fit perfectly.











 

[Kaytrim]

I'd take them back and demand a refund. That bleading is bad. 

[leapinlew]

I'd take them back and demand a refund. That bleading is bad. 

Thats pretty harsh. First off, I'd say decide if your happy with it or not. If your not, see if the printer can make it right. If you are happy with it - move along.

I would keep it - in this hobby you can either build machines or spend forever trying to reach this perfection nirvana which doesn't exist.

Your call! Give the printer the option to make you a satisfied customer if you are unhappy.

[MaMeNnO]

It's what leapinlew says. I'd allready decided to move along. I didn't cut out those holes for fun! I find it to expensive to give it an other try.
My own simple HP inkjet printer does it a bit better, allthough that was on paper.

[MaMeNnO]

Just pictures for now, coz something went wrong and I lost the whole post!
Maybe I edit this post with some explaining later on...

[Edited 30-12-2006 14:25 GMT]
Finally I could set myself to type in the lost post again... but this time first in notepad!

I had did some mindbreaking how to do the mounting of the sticks.

underneath
For this to look nice I actually had to have longer shafts for the sticks. If I would do it this way, then almost only the nob would stick out. So, no option.

topmount with coverplate
After thinking alot about this, it would have took my some hours to finish it. Not even in a satisfactionary way. The plate would add extra tickness. The idea was too countersink all the parts that stick out in the coverplate. Lots of work.

countersink from underneath and countersink bolts from top
This would have been a good option, but this way I had to router out a great deal from underneath. The bolts a had to countersink from the top. I could use some woodfill to get rid of the holes. Because the CP plate is 18mm (little less then 3/4") there wouldn't be enough wood to carry the metal joystick plates. Topmounting the bolts wasn't an option I wanna use.

Inserts
Then I thought of making inserts for just the joystick area. I thought about it and I couldn't think of any bad side effects, so that was the way to go.

The inserts sticked a little out of the rest of the CP, so I slamed all corners with a hammer. That wasn't enough so I made the dent a little deeper.
 

 

Once I had the inserts glued there was no way I could ever use a screwdriver to thigten the screws that hold the mechanism with the cherry switches. My father in law said "You better use some loctite here!". I guess the name says it all.


Lock bolts hold the metal joystickplate in place. From underneath I used a ring and a ring with little hooks/pins (don't what it's called). The normal rings to prevent the nut to go into the wood. The otherone so it won't get loose.

 

[theCoder]

Love the close up photos.  How did the joystick cover plates work out?  If they are lower than the surface, you can skim coat them with some drywall mud.  Or you can use wood putty mixed with a little water.  This is going to look nice with your CP artwork.

[MaMeNnO]

Love the close up photos.  How did the joystick cover plates work out?  If they are lower than the surface, you can skim coat them with some drywall mud.  Or you can use wood putty mixed with a little water.  This is going to look nice with your CP artwork.

Thanks. The cover plates worked out fine! Really. Glad I decided to work with that option. I'm excited about the end result.

[MaMeNnO]

Before the vinyl could be glued on, I had to sand (by hand) the woodfill around the joystick area. With a little woodblock and a sanding sheet the work didn't take to long. The result was excellent! I couldn't feel any seam at all. I had to protect the joystick switches from dust. For that I took two little plastic bags to cover them up. With some tape on the baggies and on the top a sand or saw dust was noooooo problem!



 

Well, the end result is so-so. I had to sort of brush the glue on the vinyl and on the CP. That's because I used contactglue. The risc of getting glue through the holes of the vinyl on the otherside of the vinyl is present. After doing it (yeah...  ) I'd better used some grips to hold the vinyl in place. I my case some glue got on the otherside of the vinyl just below the buttonholes on the right.





To hold down the CP on the cabinet I bought some snaplocks. Very handy, not expensive and easy to fit. I'll still have to see how it gone work when playing some games. For now it feels OK. I used two of them, left and right.
I was thankful to see that the locks could not only used straight, but also in a 90 degree angle.

 

[rolls rolex]

Too bad you had a glue accident, that stuff can be pretty tricky. I can't wait for an overview picture with the buttons in place 

[Neilyboy]

very nice so far man.. im looking forward to some finished pics!! very nice

Neil

[MaMeNnO]

Too bad you had a glue accident, that stuff can be pretty tricky. I can't wait for an overview picture with the buttons in place 

Yeah, to bad. After some spray varnish allmost everything is gone. About an overview picture, that's underway. I wired all buttons and sticks last week. Today I wanna wire the KeyWiz to the terminalblocks and then... the long awaited moment to be able to play the first game on the cabinet!

very nice so far man.. I'm looking forward to some finished pics!! very nice

Neil

If I have to believe some people here, a cabinet is never finished. I'll post this week some nearly finished pics. The side art and such is still something I have to work out.

[MaMeNnO]

Here's a little update of the wiring job I did so far. I didn't want to solder anything as all switches can can take quick disconnects. This made it for me easier. It made it also more flexible if I want to change something.

I started with the ground (black wire). For the inputs I used red wire. My father in law sat down next to me when I did the wiring. I explained what my plan was (this used to be part of his job) and he said how I could do that the most easiest and cleanest way. I used little loops to wire the ground contacts. When you do it like this you can use one long wire without ever cutting it for except the terminating quick disconnect.

Make two cuts in the wire and remove the part between the two cuts...


Bend the cleaned wire and put it in the quick disconnect.


Finally, press the quick disconnect together and connect the quick disconnect to the contact.
For the next contact measure the wire that you need by dragging it to the next contact and
repeat it from picture one. That´s all!
Here you can see the little loops. The starting point here is the top right quick disconnect (that was
changed later on for convenience).


The KeyWiz is placed in the middle. I've put kinda foam stuff underneath for isolation and to keep it free
from the CP.


For the inputs I did the same thing, but for these everytime only just one little wire is needed. Clamp the
wire in the quick disconnect. Measure it to the terminal block and screw the other end in here.


The nearly completed wiring. Nearly as the KeyWiz needs to be hooked up to the terminal blocks.

[meltman]

Clean wiring job. Very nice work.

[psychotech]

Yes, my words exactly..

Clean wiring job. Very nice work.

It's all in the details, some might say... 

[Timoe]

Turn it over already so we can see the top! 

[MaMeNnO]

Thanks for the comment!

Turn it over already so we can see the top! 

That's planned for today... relax, calmness will save you

[MaMeNnO]

As promised some photo's of the top of the CP. It's playable now! Just did my first test shoot with 1942! Wow, what a blast! Those sticks (mag stik plus from Ultimarc) did a real good job. Some complain about the short throw, but I really like 'em!

It's to bad that the pattern of the vinyl shines through. This became apparent after spray varnishing the CP I think I'm gonna straight for making a next CP!





I also took a shot of the marquee with the light on. I guess the light should be dimmed a little, because I can't make a photo from the whole cab without over exposing the marquee.



Not as clean as the wiring of the CP, but playable...


Well, lots of things that I can work on.

[Kaytrim]

As promised some photo's of the top of the CP. It's playable now! Just did my first test shoot with 1942! Wow, what a blast! Those sticks (mag stik plus from Ultimarc) did a real good job. Some complain about the short throw, but I really like 'em!

I have a pair of old T-Stick plus joys and I am very disappointed in playability in 8-way mode.  The problems are most apparent in Robotron where the cardinal directions are difficult to maintain.  Could you try out a few games of Robotron and let me know how these new Mag-Sticks play?

[rolls rolex]

Cool 

Forget about the CP, just finish the cab. Just give it a go with this CP as see how it feels.  You never know what might bug while playing, the proof is in eating the pudding or something 

[MaMeNnO]

As promised some photo's of the top of the CP. It's playable now! Just did my first test shoot with 1942! Wow, what a blast! Those sticks (mag stik plus from Ultimarc) did a real good job. Some complain about the short throw, but I really like 'em!

I have a pair of old T-Stick plus joys and I am very disappointed in playability in 8-way mode.  The problems are most apparent in Robotron where the cardinal directions are difficult to maintain.  Could you try out a few games of Robotron and let me know how these new Mag-Sticks play?

Sure. I'll see this weekend how things go.