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Calling all UK forum members - UK arcade parts supply discussion!

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Turnarcades:
From many years on the scene and starting up Turnarcades in a difficult economy, I personally believe UK arcade enthusiasts are seriously short-changed compared to our american cousins when it comes to building our arcade machines, restoring cabinets and generally keeping the arcade spirit alive. I feel that as small a nation we are, the enormity of the arcade scene back in the day in this country was second only to America. This is evident from the number of British members on forums like this, the efforts to bring conventions on the hobby back (ie Insert Coin '09) and the trade that other UK-based vendors like us find ourselves lucky enough to receive.

Unfortunately, from my own enquiries, trade experience and conversations with forum members and other vendors, it is evident that obtaining the parts needed for cabinet building, maintenance and restoration is very difficult. Even supposedly simple parts you think would be readily available are very hard to find once you start to look for them. This means having to resort to ordering from abroad, which although now common with he advent of the internet, is not always ideal due to the costs/duty/delivery soon adding up, not to mention the ridiculous waiting times.

To get to the point, I'm taking a leaf out of Andy's book (ie. Ultimarc's various interfaces born out of demand) and have decided to try and eventually offer something to the community (well the UK and Europe at least) that is simply needed but often overlooked. I'm looking to expand Turnarcades over a long period and would like to start offering parts and accessories that simply aren't commonly available on this continent for European customers, without the need to import goods that aren't necessarily ideal for us as arcade enthusiasts. I think we need something like this to encourage more enthusiasts to take up this hobby and for restorers to preserve video game history.

What I'd like to do is draw on all UK (and European) member's experiences and try to identify items that would either be useful, commonly requested, currently have to be self-fabricated, are rarely available or are just not available but would be beneficial to the community. I'm thinking along the lines of things like cocktail cabinet clips, T-moulding in metric sizes, replacement glass, cheaper marquee retainers, artwork, custom electronics (like a magnetically-shielded, low-profile speaker system that instantly connects to a PC), catches, mounting solutions or maybe even specially-commissioned displays for home-build use.

If users can submit suggestions in replies on this thread, I will add them to a master list in this posting. Once the listing is complete, I will be approaching some companies to see if fabricating these parts is feasible business-wise, and maybe even other vendors with the right contacts can take some of these suggestions forward. Although I'd like to expand and offer these items, I'd really just like to bring these points into focus so any member here who is in a position to do so could think about taking the idea forward if they can and give UK hobbyists the choice we deserve.

So, to kick this list off:


* T-moulding - various grades/colours/widths in metric sizing (for the DIY scene)
* Cocktail clips - various materials/finishes/sizes again in metric sizing (for the DIY and resto scene)
* Marquee retainers - home or commercial grade, easily trimmable, various materials (for the DIY and resto scene)
Any suggestions will be added, then whittled down to most popular. I will also ask if Saint will sticky this if the topic proves popular. It's your chance to have your say and get these things we need, even if it's something new that doesn't even yet exist (but should).

Avinitlarge:
Lets face it. The UK is a pile of crap. In a lot of cases, It works out cheaper to buy parts from the US. Gordon Brown or who ever is in charge just like to have a big fat wallet.

Turnarcades:
...which is the point of this thread. If experienced forum members and anyone who's built a cab can identify the more difficult to obtain items, I'm looking to make it happen. Whether it be us or someone else, we need to get these parts noted down so maybe us or another vendor can see about getting these parts fabricated in the UK in limited runs and make them available much cheaper than ordering stuff in overseas.

I'm amazed there's not been more interest in this - it's problems with part rarity and supply issues that make the 'UK price watch thread' so redundant, if the parts aren't readily available at a good price.

Franco B:
To be honest there are not that many parts that I can think off that are that hard to get hold off.

As far as t-moulding goes I think you would have to stock a lot of different colours/styles other wise people are only going to go to the usual sources. What size metric t-moulding are you thinking of, 12mm + 18mm? The thing is you can pretty much use imperial sizes with metric material.

Glass clips, I'm not sure how popular they would be. There only seems to be a couple of Euro cocktails built a year at most.

Marquee retainer may be a good idea. I used it on my 1st cab but  don't really like the look of it so would probably use something else now though like polished/sprayed ally L section from B&Q.

I do think its a good idea, I'm just not sure if you will get enough custom to make it worth your while.

What would be good is if you could become a reseller for Happ and GGG on this side of the pond. I'm sure you would get a lot of business that way.

turnergw:
I would love the idea of a 'one stop shop' for arcade parts in the UK.  I'm fairly new to the building side of this hobby, and am still building my first cab, but it took a lot of research, looking around, comparing prices, working out shipping rates, and so on to work out the most cost effective way of getting stuff delivered, and I ended up going with multiple different suppliers at different times for similar bits of kit.

Whilst the likes of Ultimarc and Gremlin solutions offer a good selection of the more common parts, it's frustrating to see just what a huge selection is out there from international suppliers, but buying just one or two items simply isn't worth it once post and customs is factored in.  I would heartily second Franco's idea of a Happ / GGG / etc reseller in the UK.

A few specific things I think it would be good to have supplies of in the UK:
- T-molding, and the slot-cutting router bits for it (I got both from the states, but the customs + post came to more than the items themselves!)
- Some of the GGG items (interfaces, lighting, etc)
- Coin doors & mechanisms (there don't seem to be many options for these over here)
- Monitors - arcade, and possibly even large non-widescreen LCDs if it's possible to get hold of them (I know this might be contentious!)
- Maybe some of the more basic items used in the physical cab construction, like flourescent lights sized for the marquee, castors for the cabinet, forstner drill bits, hole saws, etc - some of these seem to be very hard to track down in the UK
- Marquee / CPO / side art printing - I'm interested in getting some side art printed, but not sure of any UK suppliers.

I really hope you can expand your business to cover some of these, and more - I'm certainly hooked after nearly completing my first cab, and several friends have expressed interest in doing the same.  I'm sure there is huge untapped potential for cabinet building / restoration out there in the UK, as most people just don't realise it's possible (and fun!)

Best of luck to you, and I hope to be ordering stuff from you in the future!

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