Slot Cutter for T-Molding

Tracked down a 1/16" slot cutter for my router. This is a hard bit to find! Found one at a local Lowe's for $16 (with tax). They're $20 + tax at Home Depot. So far, this has been my general experience with prices at Lowe's vs Home Depot. I'll use this bit to cut the slot around the edges of the cabinet so I can insert the t-molding.

In the image, the distance B is the 1/16 edge that will cut into the plywood.

Base completed with casters

Got the base completed, including casters. I used 2.5" casters and as you can tell from the photo, there's about a 3/4" clearance. Took it for a spin in the basement area where it'll go and it rolls fine. And, miracle of miracles, it's level. The arcade cabinet won't tilt!

Got the base built

Got the base built. Only one support piece isn't flush with the cabinet bottom edge but a little sanding will fix that. I've got the L-brackets to mount the cab sides but I want to cut the t-molding slot before connecting them, so that's my next step. Actually, the next step is finding a 1/16" slot cutter - may have to order it as I haven't found anyplace that sells it locally.

Smart Strip arrived

I just got my Smart Strip from bitsltd.net - it will allow me to plug in the PC to the "Control Outlet" - when the PC is turned on or off, power to the other devices (monitor, speakers, etc) is turned on, too... very convenient and a power saver.

Has built-in surge protection and spike blocking, too.

Cutting the Cabinet Part 4

So, there they are... all the wood cabinet parts. I've wrapped the side panels because it was supposed to rain on my ride home, but luckily that didn't happen.

Everything is now unpacked in my own workshop and I'm ready to start assembling. A summary in case anyone is interested:

Started at 9am

Lunch at 12

Picked back up at around 12:45

Finished at 3pm

All in all, 2 man job took about 6 hours. I had fun... it's always good to spend some time with Dad in the workshop and catch up on things. More later...

Cutting the Cabinet Part 3

Dad had some great tools that I don't have, including a nice belt-driven sander. In a few of these images, you can see the control panel sides... we clamped them together and then gave them a quick run through on the sander. We were able to do this on all the various pieces that had matching pairs.

Also in this batch of images are the 2 control panel tops.

Cutting the Cabinet Part 2

In these images, you'll notice that piece of long metal that looks like siding. That thing was invaluable. We would draw our lines, then clamp this metal guide 5.75 inches to the right of the line. This was the guide that let us use the circular saw with very good accuracy. The metal guide can be separated into 2 pieces for smaller runs.

The sander you see wasn't to even up the edges but to take off the little slivers that inevitably happened along the edge. Just one quick pass down each long cut and the burrs were gone.

Cutting the Cabinet Part 1

FINALLY got away to spend a few days at my dad's workshop to cut the cabinet pieces. I've been ordering my components, bit by bit, but this is the part I've been anticipating most. I'll post some pictures below with some comments and will continue posting images as I put together the cabinet...

First images here include the side panels being cut. My dad and I worked together with the rule of double-checking each other's measurements. The great part is that I made a few mistakes that he caught and I caught some of his... so going slow and measuring twice (and sometimes more often) definitely paid off and we made all the cuts correctly the first time and I didn't have to invest in more than the original 3 sheets of Sandiply.

Speaking of sandiply - this stuff was great to work with. Not too heavy. EXTREMELY smooth on the "good side" and DECENTLY smooth on the "bad side." There were ZERO snags/splintering of the edges and all pieces were flat and no warping. I've not worked with warped plywood before so I can't speak to how much work this might have saved me, but I can tell you it made measuring and marking the cutouts much easier.

In one of the images you'll notice that we clamped two sheets together. "Good sides" were placed together so that when we cut out the side panels they will be mirror images of one another and I can use the smooth side. This also saved time and I only had to draw one side panel on the wood. We used a circular saw set to 1.75 depth and it cut through both sheets easily. No sanding was required to "match" the sides. That said, it was very helpful to have two sets of hands and eyes to do this.

Got delayed a bit...

This weekend my dad is helping me do the wood cutting. I'm going with a product called Sandiply (from Home Depot) - it's plywood, very flat, and sanded smooth on one side. I just don't want the hassles of MDF dust and weight and am willing to put in the time to prepare the wood so the final cabinet looks good. It costs about $7 more per sheet than MDF, but I think the smooth side combined with the lack of warp (common in plain plywood) will make it worthwhile.

I'll be posting pictures of the progress next week - including layout and cutting of the wood. I'll be doing this on the byoac.com website under the 'Project Announcements' section. Do a search for "Saucer Invasion" to find it.

Joysticks arrived

I got my 2 Ultrastik 360s from Ultimarc today. I also ordered the wiring harness for both of them so I won't have to do as much wiring. I plugged in one of the joysticks to the USB port on my laptop and ran MAME. I forgot to enable joystick control, but once I figured that out, I was able to run Pac-Man with no issues. My only (minor) issue is I think the joysticks are too "soft" and I may place an order later for the stiffer springs so the joysticks are a little tighter.

All in all, I'm very impressed. I placed my order last Monday and they arrive today, exactly a week later.

Ultrastik 360s ordered

I've now ordered my two joysticks - I chose the Ultrastik 360 from Ultimarc for many reasons, but the main one being the ability to program it. I know there are other joysticks with this ability, but this type of stick also provides for attaching up to 8 buttons directly to the stick. I may not use that ability, but it's there if I want it. I also liked the fact that my email questions were answered very quickly. (As a matter of fact, all the vendors that I've used have been very pleasant and responsive to my questions AND getting my orders to me - I've listed all the vendors I've used in my Links section.)

I ordered them with the black bat top - there is no green option, so I'm going to have to either stick with black or find some sort of replacement or workaround. Ideally, I'd like green bat tops (versus round ball tops) but I can't paint them and so far I haven't found anyone who makes a suitable replacement.

NovaGems arrived today

14 pretty little green buttons arrived today. I may only use 12 of them and have 2 as replacements OR I'll use them all... not sure yet. The other buttons on the control panel will be black (including the Player1/Player2 buttons I recently ordered).

Trackball arrived

The lighted green trackball arrived today from Tornado Terry's. Once you start ordering parts, you know that there's no turning back. The trackball is an authentic Happ 3" and has got some heft to it... the ball spins easily and continues spinning when you give it a good push. This is going to look great as the center piece of the control panel (and as the saucer's central area - see the control panel overlay in the earlier post).

Player 1 - Player 2 Buttons

I want black buttons for Player1 and Player2 - there's not that many places that sell them and they're a bit difficult to track down. I found a place that has them in stock and they responded very quickly to my email requesting whether they had the items in stock.

Lizard Lick Amusements has them for $1.50 each which is very reasonable. It's shipping that's going to get me in the end if I keep ordering from different places. But that's okay - some places have stuff, some don't - I'll order parts where I can find them. I just placed my order and was emailed that they'll be shipped tomorrow.

Early design for the Control Panel Overlay

I may change my mind, but I like the idea of using the green lighted trackball as the center of a saucer. This is an early design I threw together, just to have something visual to get me thinking... I'll have it drawn by someone with better skills than mine, and I may go with more or fewer saucers in the background... or none at all.

Lighted Pushbuttons

After looking at all my options, I've decided to go with lighted buttons vs. non-lighted. I've asked around on the BYOAC forums and found that the recommendations for the Groovy Game Gear NovaGems are excellent.

They're definitely more pricey than non-lighted buttons, but considering that I'm only going to need 12 to 14 of them, I think the added cost will be worth it.

Going with the green... obviously.

Cabinet Color Scheme

Based on some feedback from a few people at the BYOAC forums and some friends I've shown the designs to, I've decided to create a 2-tone cabinet as shown here.

Suggestions from others who have built cabinets tell me it's time to start ordering components - from what I understand, building the cabinet can go quickly and then you're waiting for all the different parts to arrive.

I've gone ahead and ordered my first component - a Happ 3" trackball in translucent green - it'll light up and should look great on the control panel. Now I'm trying to decide on buttons - lit or unlit. I like the idea of buttons lit up via LEDs, but it might be too much. Solid green buttons might do just fine.

I ordered the trackball from Tornado Terry's on Sunday at a great price. I received an email from Terry telling me it shipped today. Great service. You can find Tornado Terry's arcade components and other stuff here.

Website information

While I'll be using the blog format to provide pictures and commentary during the build, I've also created a website (sort of a sub-website on my small business site) where I'll be posting references/links, possibly some video, and other randomness.

While I'm waiting to start on the cutting (next weekend), I've been playing with color concepts for the cabinet. You can view what I've come up with so far here.

I really only like option #2... maybe 4, but I like the black Control Panel and I think it will look good with green buttons and a trackball.

It always seems to start with a book...

... and that book is "Project Arcade" by John St. Clair - you can get a copy from Amazon.com here.

The author's website

The Build Your Own Arcade Cabinet Forum

...and the Project starts...

Welcome to my (hopefully successful) attempt at documenting a complete MAME arcade cabinet. I'll be providing photos and text to describe the process - I'll throw in a parts list and some links to my favorite references and maybe this project will be beneficial to someone else...

For those of you who aren't exactly certain what a MAME arcade cabinet is, you're about to find out...