{"id":33,"date":"2009-11-23T13:02:00","date_gmt":"2009-11-23T21:02:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lukerymarz.com\/ratingpending\/2009\/11\/cocktail-arcade-cabinet-fabrication.html"},"modified":"2010-03-06T18:46:43","modified_gmt":"2010-03-07T02:46:43","slug":"cocktail-arcade-cabinet-fabrication","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/lukerymarz.com\/ratingpending\/2009\/11\/cocktail-arcade-cabinet-fabrication.html","title":{"rendered":"Cocktail Arcade Cabinet: Fabrication"},"content":{"rendered":"

I recently posted some photos<\/a> of a cocktail arcade cabinet I built, and Ithought I’d go over the fabrication for those interested. \u00a0Aseries of photos taken during the process is available here<\/a>. \u00a0I also took some photos of a Revenge of Doh cabinetfor research purposes, and those are available here<\/a>.\u00a0I’ve detailed software<\/a> in a different post since that was asignificant undertaking in its own right.<\/p>\n

\"\" <\/a><\/div>\n

I was inspired to make this cabinetafter watching a documentary called The King ofKong<\/a>. \u00a0It’s about a guy’s attempt at beating the highscore record in Donkey Kong. \u00a0It made me try Donkey Kong onMAME, and snowballed into wanting a proper arcade cabinet to enjoyclassic games. \u00a0I was also in need of small table for a cornerin my apartment, and an arcade cabinet was the perfect fit.
\n<\/p>\n

The Plans<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

My cabinet is a modification of theplans from Kyle Lindstrom at Mike’sArcade<\/a>. \u00a0If you’re planning a project like this, you mayhave come across it. \u00a0He’s got the most detailed plans for aMs. Pac-Man cabinet you could ask for. \u00a0Note that there aretwo sets of plans at Mike’s Arcade. \u00a0I followed the Ms. Pac-Manplans since they are much more thorough than the Pac-Man plans.\u00a0That being said, I also read over the Pac-Man plans for moregeneral info.My changes to the Ms. Pac-Man plansare as follows:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. I used 3\/4″ thick birch plywood for everything.<\/li>\n
  2. My tabletop is 25″x37″ and 3\/4″ thick, while the Ms. Pac-Man plans call for a tabletop that is 22″x32″ and 1″ thick. \u00a0I wanted something slightly larger, and I made some subtractions in other places that allowed for this increased size on the same 4’x8′ piece of plywood. \u00a0I used the same corner radii as the original. \u00a0This is item #10 <\/strong>in the plans. \u00a0Also, making the tabletop 3\/4″ thick means I didn’t have to buy 1″ T-molding.<\/li>\n
  3. I wanted room for my legs under the table, and I have no need for a coin box, so I completely changed items 1 and 3 <\/strong>to 9″x20x1\/4″ U-shaped pieces. \u00a0You can see the U-shaped piece in this photo:\n
    \"\"<\/a><\/div>\n

    The U-shape is to allow you to run all the necessary wiring to the control panel. \u00a0It measures 3″x14″.<\/li>\n

  4. I wanted my table to be slightly taller, so I made item 2 <\/strong>30″ tall.<\/li>\n
  5. Since I removed a large part of the volume in shortening items 1 and 3, this forced me to use an LCD (what I had planned on). \u00a0Because of this, items 4 and 5 were not needed, as comprise the hinge for lifting the top of the cabinet, monitor included. \u00a0As such, I replaced items 4 and 5 with a duplicate of item 2<\/strong>. \u00a0This was a really useful simplification, and made construction of the box a lot simpler.<\/li>\n
  6. Item 6<\/strong>, the bottom is much different because of the change to allow leg room. \u00a0It is now 9″ from the top of the cabinet, meaning you have to route the groove for it in a different place on items 1 and 3. \u00a0I also adjusted item 6 to include the base of each control panel, resulting in a big plus sign:\n
    \"\"<\/a><\/div>\n

    This piece is cut out of a rectangle measuring 30 1\/2″ x 20 1\/2″. \u00a0The 20 1\/2″ width leaves room for a 1\/4″ tongue joint. \u00a0I then cut a 3 1\/8″x7″ rectangle out of each corner to create the two control panel bottoms. \u00a0The area for the control panel bottoms measures 7″x14″.<\/li>\n

  7. I contructed my control panels out of wood instead of buying pre-cut metal ones. \u00a0This allowed me to customize the layout to my own design, and I think it looks better. \u00a0More on that later.<\/li>\n
  8. The hinge for my tabletop is attached to to top itself, making for a bit easier fabrication. \u00a0This makes for a flip-top lid that is much easier to open up if you need to make an adjustment to the guts of the thing:\n
    \"\"<\/a><\/div>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Tools<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

    I didn’t have woodworking tools to start. \u00a0I bought a used\u00a0 Ryobi One cordless kit<\/a> including a drill and a circular saw, and bought a Ryobi One Router from Home Depot (note that Lowe’s doesn’t stock Ryobi). \u00a0I also bought a Milwaukee Router off Amazon<\/a> when it was $108 as well as an edge guide for it for $30. I bought a 1 1\/8″ hole-drilling bit from Amazon since I had trouble finding one at Lowe’s and Home Depot. I already had other things like screwdrivers, wire-strippers, pliers, a hammer, X-Acto knife for cutting the T-molding, etc.<\/p>\n

    Materials<\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n

    With my adjustments to the plans the whole cabinet, including the top, was constructed from a single 4’x8′ piece of plywood. \u00a0I had the Home Depot guys cut it into three manageable pieces before taking it home since my hatchback can’t fit a 4′ wide piece of wood. So I didn’t need the 1″ MDF\/T-Molding from the list in the Ms. Pac-Man plans, but everything else still applied. \u00a0I skimped on the following, though:<\/p>\n

      \n
    1. I didn’t buy anything to lock my tabletop down.<\/li>\n
    2. I didn’t need a coin door.<\/li>\n
    3. I didn’t buy control panels. \u00a0I made my own.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      Speakers — <\/em>I used some trashy dell speakers for mycabinet. \u00a0They sound better than I expected since they have alot of volume to resonate in. \u00a0I attached them just above thecontrol panels on each side of the cabinet, as you can see here:<\/p>\n

      \"\" <\/a><\/div>\n

      The metal screen came straight off the speaker. \u00a0I cutit to fit with a pair of scissors, which are now a lot less sharp:). \u00a0Note that this is the player 1 side, and it has a volumecontrol. \u00a0The player 2 side does not have a volume control.\u00a0From the inside, the player 1 side looks like this:<\/p>\n

      \"\"<\/a><\/div>\n

      Buttons\/Controls — <\/em>Arcade buttons and joysticks all came from Groovy Game Gear<\/a>. \u00a0They have Suzo-Happ buttons (which seem to be everyone’s favorite) for a lot less than the Suzo-Happ site. \u00a0They also have T-Molding and wiring supplies. For my controller, rather than soldering a keyboard, I bought a KeyWiz40-ST<\/a> from here as well. \u00a0It made the whole controller-wiring process really easy, and I recommend some sort of controller over soldering (unless you love soldering). \u00a0I’d like to note that I didn’t have to do any<\/em> troubleshooting with my controls with this thing. \u00a0I wired it up and it worked. \u00a0Pretty awesome if you ask me.
      \n
      \n<\/em>
      \nPlexiglass — <\/em>I went to a place called Tap Plastics for the plexiglass top. \u00a0I had planned on ordering something online, but they have a store near my house so I stopped in to ask a few questions. \u00a0It turned out they could cut my 1\/4″ plexiglass with the rounded corners (3.5″ radius) for about $60. \u00a0This was incredible considering some of the quotes I had gotten online. \u00a0They had it ready for me in about 5 minutes, too. \u00a0If you have a Tap Plastics near you, I highly<\/em>recommend them. \u00a0They have a       website<\/a>, too, so you may be able to order from them online.
      \n
      \n<\/em>
      \nLeg Levelers — <\/em>Leg levelers were a pain to find. \u00a0Home Depot and Lowe’s have a terrible selection, but I have a wood specialty store called       Southern Lumber<\/a> near me, and they had leg levelers. \u00a0Your mileage will vary in this case. \u00a0If there’s a Southern Lumber near you, I recommend it as well. \u00a0They have some really amazing wood to look at if you like that kind of stuff.
      \n
      \n<\/em>
      \nMonitor\/Computer — <\/em>I had an old computer from college, so that was a given. \u00a0The monitor took some time to pick since I needed really good viewing angles. \u00a0I settled on a Dell 2001fp, which can be bought on ebay for a little over $100. \u00a0It’s an S-IPS panel, which essentially means kick-ass viewing angles from ALL angles, not just the sides. \u00a0It’s 20″ and 4:3 (rather than 16:9 or 16:10), and it fits just about perfectly in the tabletop. \u00a0For games like Donkey Kong, a 4:3 display in vertical mode fits the game almost perfectly. \u00a0There’s more wasted space with a widescreen monitor for all games, so 4:3 was the way to go for me. Home Depot and Lowe’s are your friend for the rest of the supplies. \u00a0I bought plexiglass for my control panels there, as well as screws, wood glue, and other various necessities.<\/p>\n

      Contruction<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

      Contruction was a bit ad hoc for me, but I suggest following the Ms. Pac-Man plans as closely as you can. \u00a0You’re basically making a box, and then adding some things to the sides. My control panels were custom, and all wood. \u00a0I made a prototype control panel to test my hole-drilling bit, and to get an idea for what kind of layout I wanted:<\/p>\n

      \"\" <\/a><\/div>\n

      Once I had done that, I did 5control panel prototypes in Visio. \u00a0A single player controlpanel layout can be printed to-scale on an 11×17 piece of paper, soI created some life size layouts to put my hands on. \u00a0My finaldesign can be had here (PDF<\/a>| VSD<\/a>). \u00a0I printed it on an 11×17 sheet of paper and drilledguide holes through each of the button centers. \u00a0After doingthat, you can go at it with the hole-drilling bit. \u00a0I did thisfor both the wood and the 1\/8″ plexiglass. Even unfinished thepanel looks nice. \u00a0Take note of the edge routing for theT-Molding.<\/p>\n

      \"\" <\/a><\/div>\n

      Thefront face of the panel is connected with a tongue and groovejoint, which would come apart if I routed all the way around theside pieces. \u00a0So I had to route like this:<\/p>\n

      \"\" <\/a><\/div>\n

      My T-molding doesn’t have a groove to fit into on the front face, but it is still held in place by the rest of the grooved edge. \u00a0I used an X-Acto knife to trim my T-molding.<\/p>\n

      The actual control panel is held up by the pieces of 1″ square dowel I’ve screwed into the side faces as well as a very deep route in the front face. \u00a0I also used 1″ square dowel to make the whole control box sit properly on the base. \u00a0In a perfect world, a nice joint would have been better, but this makes for a detachable control panel if I need to do some adjusting.<\/p>\n

      \"\" <\/a><\/div>\n

      I then applied some finish.<\/p>\n

      \"\" <\/a><\/div>\n

      The final product with plexiglass on top looks quite snazzy.<\/p>\n

      \"\" <\/a><\/div>\n

      I then pounded the T-molding in. \u00a0I recommend a rubber malletfor this rather than a hammer, as a hammer can dent the T-molding abit. \u00a0It’s not terrible if you’re careful, though. \u00a0Oncethe T-molding was in, it started to look really<\/em> good.<\/p>\n

      \"\" <\/a><\/div>\n

      Then I mounted my leg levelers, which are useful for protecting yourfloor and making any minor height adjustments you need.<\/p>\n

      \"\" <\/a><\/div>\n

      I saved the tabletop\/monitor detailsfor last, since having a big piece of wood hinged to the top madethe whole thing a lot less easy to move around. \u00a0I cut a holefor my monitor after<\/em> I finished the wood, but I recommend cutting thehole first. \u00a0I got excited and wanted to see some finishedwood. \u00a0If you cut the hole first you will have completelyfinished wood to work with. \u00a0As a result of my excitement, Ihad a few small chips in my tabletop that I had to cover up. Thehinge for my tabletop came from Home Depot, and was a 30″ longhinge that I cut-to-fit with a hacksaw.<\/p>\n

      \"\" <\/a><\/div>\n

      I “mounted” the monitor by cutting a centering it on mytabletop, tracing it, and the cutting a hole for it with a jigsaw.\u00a0It is held in place by some L-shaped metal pieces and woodthat came from the electrical section at Home Depot. \u00a0I usedthe same principal here as I did for the control panels; themonitor is resting on a makeshift shelf made from pieces screwedinto the larger structure of the box.<\/p>\n

      \"\" <\/a><\/div>\n
      \"\" <\/a><\/div>\n

      Electrical<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

      The final bit was getting all the electrical stuff sorted. \u00a0I massacred the aluminum case my old computer was in. \u00a0I saved only the metal underneath the motherboard since it makes a nice platform for the mobo. \u00a0I didn’t have shears, so I just bent the aluminum until it broke off. \u00a0I’m pretty sure you can pretty easily crack your motherboard doing this (if it’s still attached), so I don’t recommend it. \u00a0The end result was this:<\/p>\n

      \"\" <\/a><\/div>\n

      I rigged the power supply on theside of the box with some string. \u00a0It’s pretty wacky, but itworks :D. \u00a0I had some styrofoam handy, so I used that where Icould to protect against vibration noise a bit.<\/p>\n

      \"\" <\/a><\/div>\n

      I had a 2.5″ drive handy, so I usedthat, and screwed it into the side of the box. \u00a0I also handcut some fan vents, one for in, one for out. \u00a0I routed theplywood out so I had the wood was thin and used an X-Acto knife anda hammer to cut out a nice pattern.<\/p>\n

      \"\" <\/a><\/div>\n

      I had planned on doing this for thespeaker holes as well, but plywood of this quality can only take somuch hammering before it just shatters. \u00a0The fan holes looklike this from the inside:<\/p>\n

      \"\" <\/a><\/div>\n

      The final piece was the controlpanels. \u00a0This is a lot simpler that one might expect. \u00a0Ibought a KeyWiz40-ST<\/a>from GrooveGameGear to make it easy on myself.\u00a0Ground connections are daisy chained each button only has onewire going to the KeyWiz. \u00a0What I ended up with was a bundleof wires coming out of each control panel and going to the centerof the box where they are all connected to the KeyWiz.<\/p>\n

      \"\" <\/a><\/div>\n
      \"\" <\/a><\/div>\n

      After I had done that, I realizedthe need to make use of the Shazam! button (essentially a shiftbutton) on the KeyWiz for system functionality. \u00a0So I drilleda hold in the side of each control panel for a shift button, andran a standalone pair of wire from each of those.<\/p>\n

      \"\" <\/a><\/div>\n

      I use this button extensively on thesoftware side of things.<\/p>\n

      After that I ran some power (which could be sorted out a bit better on the inside of the box) and I was done building! \u00a0I could probably sort out the power button for the computer in a better way, but my software solution circumvents it using system standby. \u00a0Plenty more photos of the whole process are available here<\/a>. \u00a0I also took some photos of a Revenge of Doh cabinet for research purposes, and those are available here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

      A write up on my software is comingsoon.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      I recently posted some photos of a cocktail arcade cabinet I built, and Ithought I’d go over the fabrication for those interested. \u00a0Aseries of photos taken during the process is available here. \u00a0I also took some photos of a Revenge of Doh cabinetfor research purposes, and those are available here.\u00a0I’ve detailed software in a different […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-33","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-gaming","category-video-games"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/lukerymarz.com\/ratingpending\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/lukerymarz.com\/ratingpending\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/lukerymarz.com\/ratingpending\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lukerymarz.com\/ratingpending\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lukerymarz.com\/ratingpending\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/lukerymarz.com\/ratingpending\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":84,"href":"http:\/\/lukerymarz.com\/ratingpending\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33\/revisions\/84"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/lukerymarz.com\/ratingpending\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lukerymarz.com\/ratingpending\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lukerymarz.com\/ratingpending\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}