I actually started building my MAME cabinet about 2 weeks ago, but I'm just getting around to posting about it now. I really wanted to have a theme for the cabinet before I went off posting about it, but I just can't seem to settle on anything in particular.
I started out thinking about a JetFighter theme with faux aluminum sides and retro-aircraft details, but then I started to think, "what's the point?" I'm pretty much the only person who's going to be using this thing. I always get carried away with stuff like this and then I realize that it was pretty much a wasted effort. Like when I decided to customize my PC before it was mainstream to do so. I actually used a Dremel tool to cut a window in my steel computer case. I installed an acrylic window with neon lighting. What the HECK for??? Nobody sees the computer at all. In fact, that particular computer is now sitting in a server room where nobody is looking at it. And yes, the neon lights are glowing as I type this.
(http://www.ooine.com/Image/aladdins_castle.gif)
Even so, something is still drawing me to theme this cabinet. Heck, it will require a marquee at the bare minimum so I'd better come up with something! So I think I've settled on the Aladdin's Castle theme that I mentioned above. It would be sort of a dark purple, red, black, Arabian Knights sort of feel. The only problem with this is that I would most likely need to come up with my own original artwork. Yikes.
So I decided to build the cabinet that is presented in the Project Arcade book by John St. Clair. This design is known as a modified Lusid cabinet. The design calls for the use of a type of wood-product called MDF (Medium Density Fiberboard?). Well I hate that stuff so I decided to spend a little more and use high quality birch plywood.
MDF is basically pressed paper and it acts like it. It soaks up water like a sponge (and swells appropriately), it crumbles if you squeeze it the wrong way. I looked at it in Home Depot. I gave it the Skadar-test. Basically I manhandled the corner of a sheet of it and it ripped right up and crumbled. Bah! Forget that stuff.
I opted for 3/4" birch plywood. Granted, plywood is not "real" wood either, but this stuff is pretty frickin' close! It is twice as expensive as MDF. The birch plywood is $45 for a 4" x 8" sheet. You need 3 sheets for a cabinet.
First trick. Getting the wood home. I have a Hyundai Santa Fe and the cargo interior is exactly 4 feet wide. I had the guy at home depot make a precision cut (they aren't supposed to do precision cuts) on each piece so I could fit them in my vehicle. His cuts were slightly off, but it didn't make a difference in the end.
This is pretty much what it looked like as I was driving home...
(http://www.ooine.com/Image/santafe.jpg)