The NEW Build Your Own Arcade Controls
Main => Project Announcements => Topic started by: holdennut on October 16, 2004, 05:03:20 am
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OK, I've finally finished my first arcade cabinet. Since I build this project from the ground up myself, I found this board invaluable for information and advise during the build. I thought I should post a few pics to inspire those just starting or not finished yet.
It was a hell of a lot of work but well and truely worth it in the end :-D
--- There are some more pics and info on my website below ---
http://www.modnet.com.au/pacman/
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Great job! I hope my Pac man based cocktail comes out looking good like that.
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Wow, that is one fine looking cocktail cab. Good job, love it.
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Fantastic cab, well done! Great stools too, very retro.
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Awesome! I love the color choice. It looks great and very different from other cocktails....
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Very nice. I like your stools too.
EEWWW! Not those kind of stools! The ones in the photos!
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nice colour - is it paint or laminate?
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I chose to use paint as opposed to laminate, the colour chosen is "Affinity" by Dulux and was applied with a good quality roller.
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hey...its the same colour theme as this message board's titles!
have you been psychologically affected by BYOAC? ;D
i like it... now thinking my next cab might be painted instead of oak.
http://www.arcadecontrols.org/yabbse/index.php?board=10;action=display;threadid=25687
i would like laminate but i think that will be quite expensive vs painting.
what wood did you use? i figure MDF will give best surface for painting but ouch...the weight!
wow just seen you website - nice job!
i love the fire button layout on the CP. was the CP custom made? is it metal?
your internals are much tidier (sp?) than mine!
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can't be said enough, great colour scheme!!
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Yes it is made from 19mm MDF (3/4") and it's damb heavy, being a cocktail and it's smaller size it needs the weight to keep it steady during heavy game play :-)
Yes I designed the control panel myself and had a local metal fab company fold and punch them for me. the artwork I designed in Illustrator CS and had a local printing company print them for me on laminated vynal.
As for the tidy internals, I would have spent 3 or 4 hours once it was all built just on arranging it all to fit nice and neat.
Thanks again for all the great compliments. All credit goes to my wife for the colour scheme, as it had to fit in with the rest of the house and still look quite retro.
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Yes it is made from 19mm MDF (3/4") and it's damb heavy, being a cocktail and it's smaller size it needs the weight to keep it steady during heavy game play :-)
Do you think the MDF is neccesary? The reason I ask is because I'm thinking of using MDO which has a similar surface but is not quite as heavy (about 1/2 the weight). I don't want my cab to be too light so it moves around during gameplay... Should I use MDF or will MDO do the job? The monitor and stuff are going to be heavy too...
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What does MDO stand for? If it's cheaper then it might be worth looking at.
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What does MDO stand for? If it's cheaper then it might be worth looking at.
Medium Density Overlay. It's like regular (light) plywood in the middle but it has a very smooth surface like MDF does so it's easy to paint. This makes it much lighter than solid MDF. I'm not sure you are going to find it cheaper - in fact it is probably more expensive. Cabinet makers use it in most of their projects...
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I've never heard of MDO before. I went with MDF as it's easy to work with and paint. Also, how well would the screws hold into the ply part? I had no external screws on my unit (no need to backfill with putty) so I needed the screws to grip the MDF nice and firm.
Ps. You can never use too much wood glue. I used about 1 litre (3 bottles) for my cabinet.
The weight isn't an issue for me as I don't intend to shift it around the house. But it was a two man job getting it into the games room.
My monitor came in at 20Kg plus glass, plus MDF etc, probably weighs at least 50-60Kg. But it doesn't move around, even when I get a bit over excited playing galaga or 1942.
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Did you use oil or water based paint?
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Waterbased, so much easier to cleanup.
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Yeah that's right. I was going to use only oil based on my cabinet because I need to paint some metal plates. What is water based paint like on metal? Would it scratch badly?
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For the metal I would use oil based. It will give you a much stronger finish since it can't soak into the surface like it does on wood.
Water based paint will certainly scratch off the metal much easier than oil based.
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1. Properly clean and dry the surface prior to painting.
2. use Enamel or Melamine
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Ok thanks. I can get a small sample pot for that job. Thanks for the tip. Did you notice any swelling in the wood with water based paint?
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Ok thanks. I can get a small sample pot for that job. Thanks for the tip. Did you notice any swelling in the wood with water based paint?
did you use primer/undercoat?
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Water based paint works a treat on MDF, it certainly won't cause the MDF swell. I have worked with MDF quite a few times before on other projects and water based paint works real well.
A sample pot is the way to go if your doing small areas. I bought a 1 litre tin and only used 3/4 of it on the whole project.
I didn't use a primer, everyone said to, but the surface of MDF is actually quite dense and didn't such up the paint much at all, that said, I did put on 2 coats and each was quite thick as I used a roller. If you needed to paint open cut ends, then a primer may be a good idea. In my project the t-moulding covered all the end cuts.
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Thanks again for the info. I may not use a primer now.
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One more question. Is the paint low sheen or is it semi gloss?
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I used low sheen, the same stuff you paint your house walls with.
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Hooray - someone else from Perth! (just an assumption based on the printers)
That's a sweet looking cocktail. That's some of the neatest wiring I have ever seen - great work.
Cheers
-cdbrown
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Wow, really nice work. I like it!
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Hooray - someone else from Perth! (just an assumption based on the printers)
Yes I certainly am from Perth, it's only about the worst place to find parts for your arcade machine :-(
I spent a lot of time finding people with the expertise to do what I needed. It took the glazier 5 attempts to cut the glass properly.
Sun Industries rocks for the artwork, such good quality work.
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pity the coindoor is not operational
also you need to have some CP lighting like mine ;)
its great makes a big difference (well in my opinion)
it was pit of a pain finding the white plexi though
making the LED lighting board was relatively easy and cheap.
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Looks good
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That is one seriously good looking cocktail! Outstanding job!
-S
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What type of Front End are you using (if any)?
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Rchadd, I was going to light up the CP, but I had trouble finding plexi, and now it's fixed in for good so I can't change it.
Javeryh, I'm using Game Launcher, I found it so easy to use and configure.
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Thanks. I'm trying to use Game Launcher myself but I am having problems getting it to work properly. I'm using mame .87 and the most recent glaunch file. I can configure everything but once I start it I am only allowed to select the first game on my list. When I try to scroll down it always returns to the top. I'm destined to play 1942 forever!!!! Any ideas on what might be causing this? Everything works fine if I manually type in the commands in the dos window...
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Thanks. I'm trying to use Game Launcher myself but I am having problems getting it to work properly. I'm using mame .87 and the most recent glaunch file. I can configure everything but once I start it I am only allowed to select the first game on my list. When I try to scroll down it always returns to the top. I'm destined to play 1942 forever!!!! Any ideas on what might be causing this? Everything works fine if I manually type in the commands in the dos window...
Maybe a silly question...but do your controls work properly when you are in the game? Sounds like it could be stuck on up or left?
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Maybe a silly question...but do your controls work properly when you are in the game? Sounds like it could be stuck on up or left?
heh, yeah, the controls work perfectly... The only time I have a control issue is when I'm at the game selection menu in game launcher. It just won't scroll down! It is making me mental!!!! ???
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I guess the next step is to check the key mappings in glaunch.cfg in case thay have been changed?
Sorry this post has got so off-topic (its not even in the right forum!!)
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Maybe a silly question...but do your controls work properly when you are in the game? Sounds like it could be stuck on up or left?
heh, yeah, the controls work perfectly... The only time I have a control issue is when I'm at the game selection menu in game launcher. It just won't scroll down! It is making me mental!!!! ???
try plugging in a keyboard and unplugging your encoder, at least this will narrow it down to either hardware or software
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yeah, sorry about the off-topicness ... I posted my question a while back here (http://www.arcadecontrols.org/yabbse/index.php?board=3;action=display;threadid=25979) but had no luck... anyway, I'm not using the encoder yet - just the keyboard. I'm trying to set everything up before construction begins...