Well, here we go.

[kelemvor]

I've lurked and posted here for a few years but never got around to making my own cabinet.  Many reason for that including my wife, time, laziness, etc.

Well, for whatever reason, I'm on the kick again and this time I'm going to do it for real.  Or at least I hope so...

BUILD OR BUY?
I started by deciding whether to modify an original cabinet or to build my own.  Today I went to a local Novelty place that repairs arcade games and leases them to bowling alleys and stuff like that.  My only requirement is that it is NOT the style of Ms Pacman where the control panel is enclosed within the side of the cabinet.  I want something where the CP is more on top or in front of the cabinet and sticks out the side.  This will let me expand the CP easily if I decide to go bigger or whatever.

They had 3 cabinets that they would part with.

A Xenophobe cabinet:
http://www.klov.com/game_detail.php?game_id=10503

Something that he said was originally a Black and White football game.  It was very upright and squared off and just looked kind of weird to me.

And he had something that was an original Taito cabinet from the 80s.

Any of them would have been $75 minus the screen, coin mechs, innards, etc.   So basically the cabinet, with the CP, and marquee and such.

I decided that none of those was exactly what I was looking for so I'm going to make my own.

DESIGN
Because space is an issue in our house (well, not for me but my wife doesn't want a big, hulking, thing in the basement) I think I'm going to go with something similar to "The Woody" by Knieval:
http://www.knievelkustoms.com/thewoody.htm

EQUIPMENT
Over the past few years I've been collecting most of the suppliesI will need to make my cabinet run.  Here's what I have so far:
PC:  Pentiium 4, 2.4 Ghz, 1gig of Ram, onboard video, 80 gig HDD
Josysticks: 2 Ultimarc Mag-Stik Pluses (blue & red) for top switching from 4 to 8 way and 2 Ultimarc J-sticks with the same top as the Mag Stik in case I want to make a 4 person CP so they look the same but switch from the bottom
Buttons: I have an assortment of buttons in 4 different colors so each player can have their own color buttons.
Steering Wheel: I picked up a Logitech USB steering wheel from Target to use with driving games
Encoder: IPac 2
TrackBall: None.  Not sure I'll pick up a trackball or spinner as they are so expensive

So now I have to decide on the plan for sure, decide on plywood vs MDF, and then go from there.  Once I start I'll be sure to take pics so I can update this thread.

Wish me luck! 

[gatordad]

Not sure I'll pick up a trackball or spinner as they are so expensive

Meance has some happs and betsons (mine was in great shape and price could not be beat
http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=72133.msg742650#msg742650
and here
http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=71402.msg733038#msg733038

[krutknut]

Spinners are expensive to buy, but cheap and easy to build. Unless you really really need to play Arkanoid 2, which requires an encoding wheel the size of a CD, if you build it yourself.

[XyloSesame]

Meance has some happs and betsons (mine was in great shape and price could not be beat

Another design inspired by Knievel's Woody! Well, you know what I mean...

I can second Menace as a source for trackballs. And if you want to build a DIY hard drive spinner, I've got some HDD spindles in the free thread I can send your way.

[DrumAnBass]

Looks like you've done your homework and will result in a really nice cabinet!

I followed Doug Hansen's hard drive spinner tutorial as mentioned above, and the results are really good! It is not as difficult as it may seem.

Good luck!

[Franco]

Good luck mate, enjoy the build, its as good as if not better than playing on it

By the way won't you need an IPAC-4 if you are building a 4 player CP?

[kelemvor]

Good luck mate, enjoy the build, its as good as if not better than playing on it

By the way won't you need an IPAC-4 if you are building a 4 player CP?

Yes or a second Ipac2.  But we'll worry about that when we get that far.  It's going to be a 2 player CP to start with but I'll make it in such a way i can add on to the CP later if I want to.