I am a product designer, video game geek and apartment lover. I was bitten by MAME arcade Zerg and needed to buy a wedding present for my friends Dorothy and Alvin, so I decided to design and build an unobtrusive arcade cabinet, it is expected to become a biography of heir. Using the cocktail arcade form factor, I focus on simple, classic games like Pac- Man and Galaga displayed in portrait mode on the screen. Sticking to these classic games also limits the complexity of the interface, which means I can use a simple 4-way joystick, a trackball, a few play buttons and some menu buttons. Although I want to be simple and elegant, I also want it to be versatile and can be upgraded. My version has only two play buttons, but is scheduled to add 4 more easily, and the trackball makes it very simple to run a record player or GUI. The styling I chose for the Cabinet was to evoke the WHOPR computer in \"War Games\" and still feel like a piece of furniture. The wood edge is Batten, allowing air to flow, and is where the speakers are installed. The shelves around the monitoring cabinet are designed to add control space under the glass and act as shelves for Japanese small toys and trinkets. The side and back of this unit are quite clear as it may live in the form of a final table for a few days. This Instructure is to record how I made the cabinet, it is not to make an MAME computer ( Although I do include the parts I use) The resource I used to set up the electronics was John St\'s \"Project Arcade: Building Your Own Arcade Machine \". Claire from Amazon. The whole project was built in a messy corner of my little studio apartment and cost about $600, but I did use the drill in my office Saw, spindle sander and belt/disc sander mainly used to process aluminum parts. I also \"outsourced\" the production of the stick to my dad who had a table saw. It should be noted that all my dimensions are inches, and the size I gave the material part of the pine chips is 1/4 to 1/2, and the width and thickness are 1/4 and respectively. This is how their wood is marked. The original design was created in SolidWorks. Component: Power Board ( I recommend the epia mini Itx with built-in sound video) Video card ( I use 17 inch CRT) The memory hard drivekeyboardamplierpower stripslot loads the combo optical drive (not scrounged )Happ Controls. Com: joystick------------------------50-6084-1125R----23. 55 trackball----------------------56-0300-10----------161. 40 micro switch button (x2)---49-0577-00----------0. 91 instant Buckle (x3)----58-9100-L------------2. 25 shielded speakers (x2)---50-9005-00----------11. 25McMaster car: 36x40x1/16 perforated aluminum----9232T171-----57. 1224x12x1/8 aluminum sheet------------88685K16-----31. 3636x2x1/8 aluminum belt---------------9134K132-----27. 62brass screws---------------------------------92114A110----3. 40 rubber felt------------------------8764K3--------21. 1/2 diameter aluminum bar--------------------9038K2---------6. 40 stainless steel buttons-------------? ? ? casters-----------------------------------------? ? ? 3/8 diameter aluminum tube--------------? ? ? One day Glass: 1/4 \"Sun Ash, 24\" x 24 \"pencil grinding edge, Custom Cut 2\" radius on corner, no temper clip mark----26. 00 Home Depot: 24x48x3/4 inch thick plywood sheet12 x 72x1 inch transparent pine10 x 72x1 inch transparent pine4 x 72x1 inch transparent pine (x3) 50 black paint black primer paint 3/4 square clear Pine (clear) Mahogany stain1 1/4 \"plasterboard screwssandpapersolderwood glueepoxywood puttyClear glass countertop bumpersbottom-----------------------22. 5 x 22. 5 ( Radius 1/1/8)front face---------------------18. 5 x 17. 73back face---------------------18. 5 x 18. 5front side (x2)--------------(see drawing )back side (x2)------------- 15x4 rear frame------------------(see drawing )shelf (x2)--------------------(see drawing )box side long (x2)---------18. 5 x 3. Short side of 5 boxes (x2)-------17 x 3. 5box top long (x2)-----------18. 5 x 3. Short top of 75 boxes (x2)----------11 x 2brace--------------------------17 x 1. 5 ( 10 ° angle planned along the edge)triangle (x8)-----------------(see drawing )sticks (x50+)----------------3/4 x 18. 3 for the base, you may be able to have them cut 24x48 inch plywood into half before checking out with the panel saw in the store, then trim it to a more precise size when you go home. I used my cordless saw to trim the corners off with a jigsaw puzzle. To make the parts on the front and back, you need to glue 2 parts 12 inch wide. I don\'t have any long pipe clamps, so I press them together with my hands, nail them to the joint, and then put a heavy weight on the top of the dry piece. Use it if you have a cookie joiner! The result was good because later they all bought a brace somewhere in the grain and joints. You may notice that after considering the cut of the saw, there is not enough wood to make up the board of the exact length. Don\'t worry - The front is trimmed 10 degrees in the back, and two pieces can be 1/4 too short before anyone notices it. From the 10 inch wide board you should cut enough cuts to make two front side blocks and then you can tear the rest off to make the back and upper side blocks. The rest can be cut into length and then torn or gouged to the correct width later. Some parts require very specific cuts and radius to be cut so that they can be assembled together. View the measurement drawings provided for the correct size. ---EDIT --- I have added a second layout image so you can see how to get the required parts from two 3/4 thick mid-fiber boards ( Medium density fiber). This will make this unit very heavy, but this is a cheaper and simpler way to build arcade cabinets. I will do this if I want to produce them on a large scale :) 3 sub-components should be completed before final cabinet assembly. The front assembly consists of the front piece, 2 front side pieces and brackets. The back assembly consists of the back, 2 back and back shelves. The gap on the rear shelf should be facing the front. The monitoring cabinet consists of 2 long box faces, 2 short box faces, long top parts and short top parts. I have not used any fasteners so far, only wood glue and clips The glue joint is very long without any great pressure. If you feel that you need a stronger joint, you can add a square strip to increase the glue area, or you can screw these parts to avoid screwing directly into the edge of the board. I used 20 stone screws of 1/1/4 and 5 min epoxy to fit the submarineassemblies. 3 screws enter the Side block through the bottom and 2 through the side frame. The monitor cabinet is not mechanically connected to the rest of the device, but it covers 8 screws that go through the side rack. Before you install the casters, it is best to put the whole thing upside down for storage. The skirt at the front and back is not very strong. To install the CRT into the display cabinet, I piled up 2 triangles in each corner and trimmed them to get the screen as close as possible to the top surface of the table. Before trimming the grain to the correct thickness, I arrange each triangle pair in the opposite direction. After the triangle is installed into the display cabinet, you have at least 2 inch of the wood that can be screwed in to install the CRT. Wood putty, sand and paint. Use the best craft you are satisfied with as we are after the lacquer wood and I really don\'t know what to do: P paint 50 square sticks in red. I used my cordless circular saw to cut the perforated aluminum plate in half, clip about 2 1/4 black steel pipes on the table, bend it to match the radius on the shelf and the bottom part. The right distance is very important- One end should come into contact with the front, and then once the two parts are bent, you can trim off the excess on the back. The top and bottom edges of the perforated sheet have a small boundary without perforation Put this on top. You can use some thick cards to make templates for the wrap-around part of the screen and cut them off on the bandsaw. The corners of these pieces are mitted and then pushed in place. Use a saw or band saw The saw cut off the two control boards. For the upper game control board, select the number of buttons you think you need and cut them on the drill press. I used a paddle bit on the 1/1/4 game button, but it was terrible. It\'s also bad to use a round cutter, but try to use some lubricant to cool the metal and prevent the cutter from sticking together. I used a round knife and just cut the trackball and the ring hole. The outside of the ring was cut by the band-saw. All the other holes are made with traditional twist drills. The most difficult part of shaping aluminum is cutting the disc groove. I covered the area with a lot of masking tape to protect the surface in case my hand slipped and then cut off the slot with a dremmel cutting wheel. I then cleaned the slots and other holes with metal files. The knob is made by grinding the end of the rod flat with a file or disc sander. Without a lathe, it is very difficult to center the shaft of the knob, but I am as close as possible, and then trim the existing edge of the knob on the Sander to make it concentric. With the axle ( 3/8 aluminum pipe) After installation, I installed the knob on the drill press and put the metal file on the corner to grind the chamfer. Then I removed the hash tag with a file. Tidy up the edges so you don\'t cut yourself on anything and make your face to the point where you\'re happy with their look. Stick the ring to the front panel with epoxy or super glue and use the knob to help center the ring. To keep the dirt and fingerprints on the original aluminum, apply it with a clear paint agent. Spray the perforated sides with a black primer. Assemble the monitoring cabinet by screwing the CRT into a triangle and applying felt to the bottom of the box. To assemble the side plates, you need to find the center and screws on the first stick. Make sure it is vertical as this is the location of the rest. To properly place the stick, I glued a stack of 3/8 p together with tape, and then fixed the next stick in place to make two spacers. Now you can screw through the holes on the perf, but make sure they are away from the side touching the side shelf and the bottom. When you get to the bend of the metal, you may need to dig it off the corner of the bar to make them fit properly. The speaker is simply screwed into the stick through the same perf hole. Cut a slot in front of the disc drive and front control panel you want. Make the slots to fit the slim drive tightly and then use the dead CD to help locate the control panel. Make sure the CD doesn\'t rub on the edge of the slot so you don\'t scratch all the discs. Mark the position of the buttons, knobs, LCD and bolt holes and then drill holes. Now you can bolt on the front control board. To connect the knob to my amp, I crushed the aluminum tube shaft a little and pushed it to the roller shaft of the amp. There is a layer of felt on the back of the knob to prevent the aluminum surface from being ground. The way I build the main control panel may not be the best, but I don\'t want the bolt head to break the clean metal surface, so I fixed the joystick and trackball in place. You also want to put a felt on the top edge of the front assembly and the panel on the body. The last step is to make a big enough hole at the bottom to get the power cord through. The only part I skipped was the rack I installed inside to hold my amp, which is too hardware for here. To connect the side panel to the body, I used the same brass screws to fix the bar. Make sure all your electrical connections are good and everything is stuck together or screwed in place. The front control panel is bolted, and the position of the game control panel between the two side shelves is wedge-shaped. The final step is to stick to the 4 clear rubber bumpers supported on the top of the glass. Now your cabinet is ready to play! So on a winter night in February, I handed over the cabinet to ecstatic Aven and Dorothy. Arvonn was a huge geek who immediately stripped it off and installed his own linux version. Later, when they move or play hardware around the country, the CRT is broken and replaced by cheap LCD, so now when they want to play, they remove the glass desktop, and tip the monitor cabinet next to it. They had problems with the LCD\'s viewing angle distortion color and the smoky glass blocking too much light. Looking at the comments in structure, I decided to add some ways to simplify the whole thing. First of all, the whole thing is much easier if you use density instead of pine trees. I added an image of the display layout on page 4, but it is also copied here. Second, one of the most annoying parts of the building is the accurate construction of side covers It is almost completely unnecessary to use perforated metal. Make two curved end supports on each side. Third, I wish I had put some hinges on this thing. Now both sides are screwed and the top sits right there. You need to find some \"European\" cabinet hinges with virtual axes. On top of that, you can also put some desk stand on the lid to make the Cabinet adjustable. The finished product is a bit bigger than I want, but it works well. If I\'m going to do this again, I\'ll try to make it more modular and upgradable. Technology will always move forward and it will be great to be able to use it. Also - Make sure to get a sample of all the buttons to use- The feel of the button will really make a difference, and the button I chose for the top 3 feels really bad :( These are just some extra photos of the Instructure books contest.
