Check Out My Sweet Profile

Well I finally took about two hours this weekend and I cut out the sides of the arcade cabinet. I really like the slim profile now that I've seen it in person. It's a good height (I think) but it definitely doesn't look like it will overwhelm a room.

The first thing I did was lay out one of the sides on a piece of plywood in pencil. I used the factory edges for the rear and bottom edges after confirming they were square. Then it was just a matter of using the plans I posted a few days ago. I should note that they aren't accurate - the top dimension should be 16-1/4" and not 15-1/4" - it doesn't work otherwise (at least for me it didn't). Also, it took me a while to figure it out that the marquee area lines up exactly with the bottom corner of the front of the cabinet (16" from the rear). Finally, the 7" dimension isn't accurate either for the bottom of the marquee area - it's more like 9" or something but it doesn't matter because I didn't use a direct measurement for that line.

After the profile was laid out on the plywood I used my jigsaw to cut it out. I made sure to stay approximately 1/8" from the lines I drew. Once the rough shape was cut out I use my router and pattern cutting bit with a straight edge to remove the excess material exactly to the lines.

Now that I had one side cut out it was time to make an exact copy. I traced the side onto another piece of plywood (making sure the grain was going in the proper direction) and then rough cut that shape out again using my jigsaw. Next, I clamped the good side piece to the one I had just rough cut and used my router and pattern bit to make an exact copy.

This is what the pieces looked like clamped together prior to making the exact copy:

It took like 20 minutes to make the copy - easy!

Here's a shot of the finished side standing upright:

Next up is finishing the two 90 degree corners on both sides - as you can see in the picture both spots look rounded where a hard corner should be instead. The pattern cutting bit can't get close enough. I'll clean them up with a Japanese hand saw. I also have to route the slots for the t-molding that covers the edges... I'll probably post a more detailed writeup on that part though but likely not until next weekend when I have some more time to work.

It's nice to finally see some real progress on this thing though.