Plans For Upright MAME Cabinet With Sketchup Pics

[Ulfada]

Well, after lurking on the message boards and putting off building my MAME cabinet.  I finally decided to start building!  Thanks to the community here for the inspiration to finally own my own arcade cabinet! 

After much consideration I decided on a few requirements.

• be movable, I tend to move a lot and I wanted it to fit through a standard door frame
• have a removable control panel, I would like a trackball, but I don't like the massive all-in-one control panels
• support a real arcade monitor
• have a convenient place to set beer!

I designed the cab after looking at many, MANY other projects.  Because of the mobility requirement I decide to go with plywood instead of MDF (stronger, lighter).  A friend of mine is giving me a 21" CRT monitor he has in storage. I do want a real arcade monitor, but that can wait and I save 440 bucks! 

Here are some images of the cabinet plans.


isometric view


front


left side - Notice the flat surface on top, perfect for cold refreshing beverages! 


back - The circle at the top is a Vornado Compact 530 with the base removed.  I have read that they are very quiet and powerful.  My hope is that it will be enough to circulate air in the bottom and out the top to keep the whole cabinet cool.


top


inside - The blob in the middle is the PCB.  I am not going to use a case so the PCB, hard drives and anything else for the computer will be mounted on plastic PCB feet.


back door open - For access to most of the components.  The monitor will be placed in the cab from the front by removing the lexan.


top door open - This will give me convenient access to the speakers and the florescent back light for the marquee.

The whole thing is 6 feet tall, 30 inches wide, and 40 inches deep from the edge of the control panel.  The sides are 3/4" plywood the frame is made from 2x4s except for the framing on top and back, it is 2x2s.  In the plans I used car speakers, in reality I plan to use a 3 piece computer speaker system.  I'll put the two speakers where the car speakers are and the subwoofer on the bottom shelf.  I was looking at coin doors and found a good deal on eBay so I ordered a over/under coin door.  From what I can see it looks like the same one that Happ sells, part# 40-0038-00.  Except this one doesn't come with the locks, however it comes with two working .984 token coin mechs!  All for just under 65$ total w/ shipping.  I also ordered the controls, two super joysticks and 16 Happ long concave push buttons from tornadoterrys.com for $54.69 total w/ shipping.  Since the control panel is removable I will build that first.  The idea is to test the button placement and of course I'll be able to use it while I'm building the rest of the cab!  My house doesn't have any room to build someting like this, not to mention that I don't own any woodworking tools.  So I'm going to build it at a friends house, he has a garage and a bunch of tools.  I'll start next weekend.  As I'm working I'll post pic of my progress.  I'll also post more detail on how the removable CP works.

For anyone who wants to design there own cabinet I suggest using Sketchup.  I found it easy to learn and there are a great number of components available in Google's 3D warehouse, which is where I got the models for the more complex parts.  Plus it's free!

I have never attempted a project of this scale, so if any one has any suggestion or comments on anything I can do better please let me know.

Thanks again to all who have posted their projects before me! 

[DaOld Man]

Looks good.
But I think I would loose the gusset braces on the bottom of the CP..

[Jimbo]

Looks really good mate! 

Your requirements are very similar to mine, check out my project if you want to see how I did the control panel and monitor (21") etc..   I think I had better post my sketchup plans too, I'll go hunt for them now!

 

[Ulfada]

I added the gussets because I was concerned that the CP may wobble after awhile if people really pounded on the CP.  The control panel's case will be glued to the sides so they are probably overkill.  I'll leave them off the final project as I can always add them later.  Plus they are kind of ugly!

Jimbo I love your project and took some ideas from it.  I like the simple color scheme.  I was thinking of using rubber grommets and metal posts, instead of screws and wingnuts, to stop the CP from shifting in its holder.  That way I could remove it with no tools and there is also no real way to access the control panels interior without removing it and didn't want any bolts visible.

[Blanka]

Remove the braces under the CP. That looks and is ridiculous. If you glue the bottom to the side panels, no-one can move it, and 200lb people can sit on the CP with ease.
What is the big subwoofer doing in the top/back panel? Or is it a Indian train-fan?

Some slots are good enough for cooling 

And either remove the wooden bars (glue will do) and if you want them for holding screws, then screw from the inside! I see to many unneeded wood filler on the exterior because people screw from the outside!

[IG-88]

Looks pretty good. I say keep the fan up top. I would remove the monitor case too if it were mine.

By the way where did you get the various pics for your sketchup plan? You draw them yourself?

[leapinlew]

I would ditch the Vornado and put a couple exhaust ports at the top. You could put two 120MM fans in the bottom of the cabinet and it could push air into the cabinet from the bottom. This would allow the heat to rise out the holes and pull in cooler air from the bottom of the room.

I wouldn't put the back door on a hinge that swings open. What could happen is you need to get in behind it, but not enough to pull the thing 4 feet away from the wall so you can swing the door open. I would consider a lip on the bottom of the door to hold the door on and secure the top with panel clamps.

Good luck!

[Martijn]

whole cab is nice, except the size of the monitor, to small for such a solid construction

i would use a TV or buy that arcade monitor

like they say , don't go below 25 inch

and i would close up the marquee light as it would bleed through the fan back and maybe monitor and speaker

[dkssprs]

very nice and classic design!!!!Many gratz to you mate 
I agree using a larger monitor.
GOD i must learn how to use sketch up

[Gatsu]

looks really good man. I agree though about those support beams...you don't need them.

sketchup is relatively easy to use. Its glitchy as hell though on my machine...cant speak for everyone else. But its the fastest I've picked up and learned a 3d modelling program.

[csa3d]

I used to keep a fan on my desk at work next to a 21 inch crt.  When I turned it on, the screen would be wavy due to electrical happenings in the fan.  I might test it that close to the monitor before final installing.  Other then that, looks great!

-csa

[Ulfada]

The cab was originally designed for a 24.8" Makvision monitor.  However the computer monitor is free, so for now I'm going with that.  I have alternate plans for the monitor, and it will convert easily.

Thanks for the info about the electrical interference with the fan.  This is something I will have to investigate.

For anyone who wants to learn sketchup, I learned a lot from ARTIFACT