Lance's Firebird

[Benevolance]

I have some photos of the Mame project on my Flickr page. I have a mock up of the side art here, and a tentative CPO here.

The cabinet was largely inspired by the Heavy Metal and Age of Steam cabinets.

When I started the project in August, I was looking at sample cabinets online for inspiration. The Heavy Metal cabinet really caught my eye; I liked the swooping lines. I didn't realize at the time that he had used plans that were available online. Instead, I used AutoCAD and approximated the dimensions, using Lusid's plans for a sizing reference.

One thing I did not like about the design was that the back of the cabinet was left open. I wanted a back piece to limit the amount of dust that could collect inside.

I used Garry's mame site for a lot of reference during the early building process. His cabinet was accessible from the front. I didn't think the hinged door would work as well for our space, so I've decided to go with a removable front panel, secured by magnets. I'm installing a couple of rails inside to make putting the panel on easier.

The cabinet is a two-part assembly, to make it easier to move around. I lifted that idea straight from the Heavy Metal arcade. Likewise, I gacked the idea of the 'metal' side panels from that build.

The sound system is a 5.1 surround sound for PCs. The rear speakers are installed on a 45 degree angle on the bottom cabinet, below the control panel. The hope is that the sound will bounce off the floor and wall behind and create a surround sound effect. I have a 20" CRT monitor for the screen and an old 1.8 ghz Athlon desktop computer with 1 gb ram to go inside.

I've got two 49 way joysticks for P1 and P2 from Groovy Game Gear, along with the Electric Ice-T trackball and my buttons. Now that I've got a few more bucks, I'm planning to order the spinner next.

I still have to decide on artwork for the marquee, and assemble my control panel.

Edit: For the curious, the name 'Firebird' was lifted from Lufia 2. It was the most powerful fire spell in the game, and featured a fiery phoenix carpet bombing the enemies.

[javeryh]

Looks cool.  I can't wait to see your paint job.  Also, people here (myself included) are lazy and easily distracted and like to see pics in the thread.  You had almost 50 of them posted on your flickr site and I looked at maybe 3 or 4 before checking out Megan Fox bikini pictures HERE.

 

[Benevolance]

Just for javeryh... 

Pretend this post is a 'best of' building montage. Others on the site have done a much better job documenting the building process. I am so busy building the cabinet, I keep forgetting to snap pictures along the way.

Wheels...


The speakers...



Monitor shelf...


Assembled...

[Benevolance]

The paint looks great. I'd strongly recommend against it if you have a large area to cover. This pic was taken after we finished our first coat.



But it looked alright after one coat...




In that second picture, you can see the rear speaker holes on the lower assembly and the opening where the front panel will be secured.

For the wings, I first marked off where the lines would go with black spray paint...


...masked over the lines with masking tape to create edges for my panels...


...and painted the whole side gold.

[rufio]

The cabinet looks great so far, I too have fallen for this design for my future cab:)

Any chance you would like to share the plans?

[web.geek]

I really liked the UAII for my first project as well. I plan on using it for my upcoming second project (target completion: January 2009).

Pics from first cab:

[Benevolance]

I would be happy sharing my plans. If you can read Autocad 2000 files, PM me and I'll send them over. But you might be better off with the actual UAII plans. I didn't realize that there were actual plans available when I started building, else I would have used them. Mine were simply eyeballed from a couple samples I found online, with more than a few impromptu changes along the way. Usually after I mucked up a cut. 

I've been building the cabinet in my parents yard, since our townhouse doesn't really have room for projects like this. I went over this morning to cut the administration bar and a couple other final pieces, only to discover that they had composted the 'scrap' wood I had neatly stacked out of the way. We had a really good rain last night, too, lest I'd harbour any hope of salvaging those pieces. Disheartening.

[BobtheAddict]

Looking good man!

[Benevolance]

Thanks!

I headed down to Home Depot to see if I could find something suitable for making the admin bar. Mostly, I wanted something to hold the glass in place. They had 8' lengths of MDF mouldings, 5/8" thick and 3.5" wide for $6, so I grabbed one. At least this problem was easily fixed!

[rufio]

You got a PM 

[Benevolance]

Another photo update.

We moved the cabinet back to our townhouse to finish the assembly. It never occurred to us that both parts might not fit into the van. After some impromptu Tetris, we got everything in.



Its new temporary home in our garage:


Tape removed:



I really liked the way the lines turned out. It gives a nicer clear border to the panels. In person, with the slight reflection from the metallic sheen of the paint, the effect is really cool.

Here is a close up of the speaker hole, that shows a little better the metallic look of the gold paint:



The door:



I offset the face board from the plywood frame in the bottom. It created a small lip that makes like up the door a snap. Originally, I was going to use magnets to secure the door in place, but the fit is so snug, it proved unnecessary.

Here's a shot of the magnets:



The magnets were really strong and my concern was that when I removed the door, the magnets would simply pull away from the MDF, too. To fix this (and weaken the pull of the magnets a little) I used my forstner bit to drill a slot for the magnets to sit. I drilled the holes so that about 3/16" of material was left between the magnets and the metal plate. In my tests, that weakened the pull enough that it would hold the door in place, but not so firmly that the door required more than a quick tug to remove. In the end, it wasn't need. I still think it was a neat idea, though.

I tried out the gold t-molding. In the picture here, it looks like it matches the cabinet well. But to the naked eye, it's rather a bit brighter than the metallic gold paint. In the end, I decided that the simple black t-molding was the way to go.



A view of the 80% completed cabinet:

[leapinlew]

lookin good.

I think 80% might be kind of generous though! The  is in the details...

 

[javeryh]

Looks great!  I like your detailed pics/explanation of the magnets.  I was thinking about doing something similar to hold the back panel of my jukebox in place and I think you've given some ideas on how to make it work.

 

[jharris]

The sound system is a 5.1 surround sound for PCs. The rear speakers are installed on a 45 degree angle on the bottom cabinet, below the control panel. The hope is that the sound will bounce off the floor and wall behind and create a surround sound effect.

Sounds like a good idea (no pun intended  ). Care to show some pics? Would love to hear your impressions once you get to play with this.

[Benevolance]

I think 80% might be kind of generous though!

I'm a generous kind of guy. 

Jharris, if you check out the front view picture of the whole cabinet, you can see the left and right speaker holes on the top, and on the bottom. Unfortunately, I haven't cut a spot for the center channel speaker, yet. I hope to get that done this weekend and put some new pics up by Sunday night.

Javeryh, I hope you can make the magnets work. I would have loved to use it on this beast, but I'll be happy if it can be implemented by someone else. I tried a couple different ways to hold the magnets, and this method definitely worked the best.

[Benevolance]

I finally feel like I made enough progress to warrant an update. I got a new sheet of lexan and drilled the holes. The Forstner bit worked wonderfully for driling holes in the lexan and the MDF. On both materials I found I had to stop every thirty seconds and clean the bit, though.



I believe it was mountain that used the trackball mounting template as a jig. Great idea, works beautifully. Here's a shot of mine installed. My pattern bit has the bearing on the bottom of the bit, so I had to setup the jig a little differently.



The t-molding installed:





I wanted a rough, industrial look to the wing panels. Sort of the same look as the old WW1 fighter planes, with the exposed rivets. I wanted the fake rivets to be roughly the same size as the carriage bolt heads, so that the carriage bolts were a little less obviously functional. I had a difficult time finding something suitable, but eventually discovered buttons at the local fabric store that we're 3/4" diameter. The buttons had a little shaft, too, so after I spray painted them black I drilled small holes into the side and plucked the button in. It fits snugly, no glue required. I think they match the carriage bolts rather well.



Here is a close up of one of the speakers installed.



Tab to keep the front door from falling inward.



Rail to help steady the glass. You can see the admin bar in this shot, too. In the end I decided not to cut a speaker hole on the admin bar. The centre channel is resting right behind the bar, below the monitor.



My drilling apparently wasn't very precise, or I miscalculated the size of the buttons, because everything was a little to close. The error was less than a millimetre in all cases, but it was enough that I had to file the bezel on the topof the buttons to get everything in place.

Now everything looks peachy on top, but the bottom nuts are a mess. I hadn't thought to consider those diameters when I was determining button placement, and those nuts are a little larger that the tops.



Next I test fit the CP top on the box before applying the t-molding, to make certain it would fit.



It did, so I applied the t-molding. By this time I'd had enough practice with the slotting cutter and  the t-molding, so the application went very smoothly. I got a nice clean cut and a practically invisible seam where the two ends meet at the back. The t-molding is 3/4" and it covers the seam between the 1/8" lexan and the 5/8" MDF nicely. This is probably the part of the project I am most pleased with.



Up until now, I hadn't attached the CP top to the box. I wanted to test the clearance before I did that. Once I knew where everything fit, I turned the box on its side and screwed the two together. I was worried it was going to be more difficult than it actually was.



Here's a pic with the CP box open. It's also a good view of the artwork. I'm pretty pleased with how the artwork turned out.



After playing with opening/closing the top for a bit, I decided the joystick cord on my Happ 49-way was a little too close for comfort. I used a utility knife to carve away the MDF and give the cord a little more clearance.



Still to do: All the wiring needs to be done, I have yet to apply the front and side art stencils. I haven't decided on something suitable for the marquee. And I need to cut a bezel for around the monitor.

[SNAAKE]

lol wow. not thread crapping but you might wanna rebuild your control panel and make sure its big enough to actually fit the cabinet.  everything else looks good though.

[Benevolance]

The CP is the size it was intended to be, but I'm curious what you mean? Make it smaller? Bigger?

[SNAAKE]

THIS..just looks wrong..after all the work

[kizer]

I think what hes saying and I "kinda" agree it looks like you cut the top board to big and said "Oh well lets just bolt it on".

However like you said its what you intended.

[Benevolance]

Ah, I get what you mean.

I considered a couple options to make it flush and not have the lip on the front. When I'm finished the cabinet, I'll see how it all looks together. If I suddenly agree with you and don't like the final look, all it will take is a small saw, another can of spray paint, and a couple hours of my time and I can make the facing flush.

The important part to me was that the bottom of the CP box lined up flush with the front part of the lower cabinet. When the cabinet is finished, there will be a phoenix emblem done in gold leaf that spans the two boards. There will also be some pipe hardware on the underhang of the CP box that might pull the eye away from what you see.

I'm starting the wiring this weekend, largely thanks to Delusional's instructional YouTube video and quick response to my queries on the forum!

In the meantime, I'm working on some different options for building the bezel. I was checking out the cockpits of some early jet fighters and steam trains for inspiration. I think I have the start of an idea, if I can find some analog temperature gauges for the CPU...

Thanks for the comments and compliments, by the way! All feedback is appreciated.

[Benevolance]

I finished the wiring over the weekend. The cabinet is now dangerously playable.







Figured I should post a few thoughts about the wiring process. Obviously, mine isn't a showcase control panel by any stretch of the imagination!

I used Delusional's trick with the Cat5 cable. It was cheap and it does keep the cables nicely together. The downside is that my wire stripper only strips as thin as 20-22 gauge wires. The Cat5 cable is thinner than that.

I was able to use the strippers still. There was a slight gap on the stripping section of my tool that I could use to pull off the wire. It required a fair bit of restraint. It essentially tore off the plastic, rather than cut and pulled. A few times it pulled the copper strands out, too.

The Cat5 wires were paired up and twisted together. I discovered that about half the time, I could put the twisted pairs together into the 18 gauge strip hole, and it would successfully strip both wires. Sometimes, though, it would only strip one of the wires, and then it was back to the first method to trim the second of the pairs.

I used 18 gauge wire for the ground. It was nearly impossible to fit two 18 gauge wires into a 3/16" quick disconnect. I had to pull one of the copper strands away and clip it off. That left enough room to squeeze both wires in. The crimping was really easy. I only had three or four Q.D.s that didn't pass the tug test.

For the admin bar, I didn't do anything fancy. I had considered drilling a hole in the monitor shelf, but decided that I wanted the control panel to stay removable. I simply cut an extra long wire and ran the wire underneath the board that sits on the monitor shelf, but under the admin bar. It was sufficient to wire up the two buttons.

I spent a little time yesterday assigning buttons in my various emulators, but I still have more qork to do.

I have to take a break from Mame cabinet building to finish the midterm assignment for my class, but I hope to resume the process by mid-November. 

[Benevolance]

The project has hit a snag.

Last weekend I made the stencils for my side art. I did up a stylized firebird logo to print on the sides. The new bezel was looking a little plain, so I decided I would add some text and additional colour. I printed up the images/text on transparencies, and carefully cut out all the images. The stencils looked great.

I tried the stencil out on a sample board first....and the paint bled underneath the edges of the stencil. The metallic gold paint that I'm applying the stencil onto just won't hold the paint very well. Further complicating it, the surface is very textured, which makes it difficult to get the stencil completely flat. The paint bleeds out along the nooks and crannies underneath the stencil.

I tried using a few different types of paint/markers with the stencil, in the hopes that one would adhere better than the others. No luck. The results were consistently terrible!

So I'm going to try a Plan B. I printed out the logos again onto the transparency and this time I'm cutting the text/images out and keeping the texty bits. I'm going to apply a little clear spray adhesive onto the back of the transparency and physically apply it to the bezel, like a sticker. It's not quite the look I was hoping for, but I'll settle for small success.

I also put in an order for the rest of my parts on Monday. I ordered a TT2 spinner and the LED marquee lights, and a replacement grommet for the Happ 49 way, to help the joystick centre better.

I don't want to put up any photos of the bezel until I've got it satisfactorily completed. But it doesn't feel right posting without a photo or image, so here's a sneak peak at the side art:

[Benevolance]

Warning: this topic has not been posted in for at least 120 days.
Unless you're sure you want to reply, please consider starting a new topic.

Ouch. I didn't think it had been that long since I updated.

Originally, I built one of the inexpensive $2 paper bezels out of black cardstock and set it behind a sheet of glass. Sitting side by side with the shiny metallic gold it looked really out of place. I disassembled it after a couple days and went back to pondering. My concept was that the arcade cabinet was the shell of a prototype vessel of some sort. More specifically, that it was the engine or control console of such a machine.

I browsed online for inspiration. Early on, I was hampered by the idea that I needed to put glass in front of the monitor. The breakthrough came when I decided to do away with the glass altogether and built a more 3D bezel after seeing some awesome photos of zeppelin control panels online.

I hit Home Depot and picked up a sheet of 1/4" hard board. I cut the board to size, made an opening for the display and painted it gold. I had lots of gold spraypaint left. I also taped off the screen of my monitor and painted the monitor gold to match.

Just the board looked a little bare, however, so I decided to add some bling. I'd always had it in mind to add some golden elbow joint pipes beneath the overhang of the CP, so I stayed with the same theme for the bezel. I hit up Princess Auto and bought a variety of hardware. I painted the fixtures to match, drilled and installed the hardware on the bezel. I tried out a few different layouts and ultimately settled on the one you see here.










Originally I threaded the pipes to the board, but it was really difficult to line the pipes up properly. When the time came to install the elbow joints beneath the CP, it was much easier to drill a size larger and use electrical tape to create a tight fit.








Ultimately for the side art, I realized I would have to spray paint. Nothing else would adhere to the metallic paint well enough to please me. I did not want to disassemble the whole cabinet and move it downstairs. I found some plastic in my garage, taped the stencil to the side of the cabinet, and built a spray booth around the logo. There was a little bleed through with the spray paint around the edges of the stencil, but the effect was to create a somewhat hazy, airbrushed look that I am very pleased with.








I installed the marquee light from GGG. It's fantastic. I added a basic toggle switch to the top of the cabinet so that I can turn the light on and off. I added the marquee in front.



Poor planning resulted in an unfortunate 45 degree angle on the speaker board that I would attach the bezel to. I searched the forum here for a solution, but didn't find one suitable for my purposes.

In the end I used a simple 1/2" C-channel from the drywall section of Home Depot. I cut it to size and painted it black, and sandwiched two sheets of 1/4" lexan in the groove. I built a small counter-weight from scrap MDF and screwed that to the bottom C-channel with really long screws, leaving a gap between the C-channel and the MDF. I then balanced the screws on the 45 degree angle.

This was not very secure, even though it did pass my 'cabinet shake test'. To add a little more security, I installed four L brackets on the top of the cabinet, and put a magnet on each one. The magnet snapped to the top C-channel and held it in place rather securely.



The marquee image is temporary. It was something I dashed off at work one day because I was tired of a gaping hole above the speaker board. It's just three sheets of 8.5" x 11" overlapping and it's pretty obviously a hack job whenever I turn the marquee lights on. I am waiting for inspiration on a better image. Until then, it will have to do.

[Silas (son of Silas)]

I've looked at the pics all the way through this thread and thought "hmmm?... nope.... hmmm?... nope.... hmmm?... nope...."

Then you posted the last pic. Now I get it. Good skills! I didn't appreciate how good this was going to look until the last shot. I'm not a huge fan of this style of cab and on their own I really don't like the colours you've used, but seeing all together I REALLY like this cab. looks great.   

[walls83]

looks good I like the steampunk kind of influence.  I agree the marquee needs to be changed but congrats on the nice work.