Arcade Cabinet
I'll preface this part with a warning. If I did it again, I don't think I'd do it this way. The first thing I did was stack the frame, control panel, and the sides together, then I glued & screwed them together. Then I
Arcade Cabinet
Here, I outline how I assembled the control panel for my arcade cabinet. A fair amount of effort went into the control panel. I tested several mock layouts on paper until I found one that I liked. Slagcoin.com is basically the online bible of arcade button layouts, and I
Arcade Cabinet
The marquee serves no real functional purpose except to look really freakin' cool. Building this part wasn't exactly rocket surgery (although I had a couple struggles) Basically, I needed a ceiling and a floor for the marquee. These are just strips of MDF held in place by
Arcade Cabinet
The screen area is made primarily of 1/2" MDF, with several trim pieces to keep a glass panel in place. I started by taping several pieces of paper to cover the entire screen-area on my monitor. This gave me a template to cut the hole for the monitor
Arcade Cabinet
I just realized that I've been seriously negligent on my arcade cabinet updates. I actually finished it a few months ago! Next up: The speaker panel. First off, I created a template on 1/4" MDF to help me rout out the speaker holes. The old butter
Arcade Cabinet
My cabinet has an administration panel below the monitor, which offers basic navigation functions for starting / stopping games. It also has a 7" LCD that displays the controls for the current game. First, I cut a 1/2" MDF sheet to the appropriate dimensions. Then, I clamped a
Arcade Cabinet
Here, I detail how I used a paper template to create the two identical side panels for my arcade cabinet. Weekend #1: Using my original SketchUp drawing, I saved a 2D PNG version looking directly at the side panel. I scaled this up in GIMP to the actual dimensions at
Arcade Cabinet
Some would argue that an arcade cabinet doesn't need a frame, or that it makes it too heavy. I disagree. The frame will give additional weight on the bottom, to prevent the machine from being too top-heavy. Also, it'll provide a skeleton that should make it
Arcade Cabinet
I don't own a table saw, and I'll need to make a lot of long, straight cuts in MDF to build my arcade machine. Rather than drop a few hundred bucks on a table saw, I made a sawboard for less than $20. I started with
Arcade Cabinet
Here's what my arcade cab will eventually look like, once I get a chance to start working on it. I like it.
Arcade Cabinet
Not much progress yet. I did manage to use PhotoShop to make the sideart for my cab. I had some empty space to spare, so I made a brushed metal-like surface for where the keyboard & mouse will sit when that panel is installed.
Arcade Cabinet
The winter weather has not been cooperating with my plans to go outside and cut wood for the arcade cabinet. So, I decided to start designing some of the graphics that I'll use for the marquee, admin panel, and control panel. I think I've settled on