The Arcade Even A Wife Can Love

I'm Back, Baby!

2010-04-14T06:00:00.003-04:00

Wow - it sure has been a long time since I worked on this thing... almost 2 years! I kind of got sidetracked restoring a Donkey Kong - not a bad way to spend some free time! Since that project is now finished I can get back to this one. I was moving things around in the garage the other day and I saw this thing just sitting in the corner under a tarp looking all pathetic so I decided it was time to get this project moving again.

Since I last posted I managed to stain the cabinet and add several coats of poly to the entire cabinet. I also got the t-molding in place. It's a good start. There is still a ton left to do:

Install front drawer
Install front access door
Finish control panel box
Wire everything
Figure out how to rotate the monitor
Buy and install computer

Easier said than done. I really need to get some projects off my plate.

The Control Panel Top

2008-07-02T06:00:00.001-04:00

OK, I finally found some free time this past week to cut out the CP top. I decided to go with the standard 2 player 6-button layout. It will also have a trackball and spinner - obviously I haven't cut the trackball hole yet. The top row will go something like this: P1 Start, P1 Coin, Spinner, Spinner Button 1, Spinner Button 2, P2 Coin, P2 Start.

This last shot shows roughly where the trackball will go:

If you are interested in the button layout check one of my older posts.

I hope to really make some progress on this thing now that the summer is here. The main thing holding me up is finding an entire afternoon to apply the stain and poly. Once that part is out of the way I will be able to work on it in smaller time increments which means after work and on the weekends when I have a free hour or so...

65°? It's About Time

2008-04-02T16:11:00.002-04:00

OK, after the painfully long winter it finally looks as though warmer weather is headed my way. I'm going to have a long weekend coming up in April where I will hopefully be able to make some progress. I've been a bit discouraged lately since the colossal failure of a CP box mocks me every time I'm in my workshop.

Next up:

Re-cut all 5 pieces for the CP box and do a dry fit
Stain all of the pieces for the CP box FIRST
Glue it up
Seal/finish with poly
Cut out panels for front door and kickplate
Make keyboard drawer

I also want to stain the actual cabinet (I better not screw it up) but I'm not sure how to go about it. I'm thinking about laying the cabinet flat and doing one side at a time. I would have the most control over the staining process if I did that and I wouldn't have to worry about runs. I should be able to apply a nice even stain. The only problem is that eventually I'll have to stain the interior and the cabinet will have to be upright for that. This way will also take a few days per side instead of doing it all in one day. Oh well - no need to rush...

Noooooooo!!!!!!!

2008-03-03T17:31:00.004-05:00

Well, I ruined the CP box over the weekend. I tried staining it and it came out splotchy as hell and I have to redo the entire thing. I'm also apparently blind because there are several spots where I didn't sand all of the glue off (even though I swore I did). I'm so pissed because the box itself came out quite nice. You can be the judge but I'm really disappointed.

I should have stained each piece before assembly and waited until it was warmer outside.

I'll save it and possibly cover it with some black laminate - the shape is still good and it might make a nice CP down the road but just not for this cabinet.

The Control Panel (Box: Part 1)

2008-02-27T06:00:00.001-05:00

I finally got Bella's Arcade to the point where I can work on this one and not feel guilty about having unfinished projects laying around the house. The next thing on the list was building the control panel box and top. It was quite complicated since I decided to miter every single joint including the bottom panel.

The overall dimensions are:

Bottom panel: 12" x 32"
Side panels: 12" on the bottom edge; 5-1/4" on the back edge; 4-1/4" on the front edge (it's exactly a 5 degree slope).
Front panel: 4-1/4" x 32"
Back panel: 5-1/4" x 32"
Every corner is mitered at 45 degrees
The top edges of the front and back panels are mitered at 5 degrees to match the slope of the side panels so the control panel top will sit flush
The two holes in the side panels are for pinball flippers

After cutting all of the pieces I did a dry fit for the side panels to check for squareness and if everything was going to fit together properly. Note that the box is upside down in this picture.

Once I decided everything was lined up properly it was time to cut the slots for the biscuits to hold everything together. I could have probably used just wood glue and nothing else but the biscuits will provide a very secure bond between the panels. Here's a shot of the side panel without the slot:

Next you can see a shot of the biscuit joiner lined up with the mitered edge. All I had to do was set the fence to 45 degrees to cut all of the biscuit slots.

The next shot shows the slot:

The next shot shows the biscuit in the slot. It's a #10 size biscuit - I tried 20s but the slot went all the way through the wood on my test cut so that wasn't going to work.

This process was repeated on all of the mitered edges. I used one biscuit in the corners and ten of them on the bottom panel (three on the 32" long edges and two on the 12" shorter ones). In my next post I'll show the glue up and the final results. Overall I'm pleased although it's not as *perfect* as I was hoping to get everything. I'm hoping the finishing process will eliminate any visual imperfections/gaps in the construction. If not, since the control panel is completely separate I can always try again!

Sneak Peek (I'm not dead!)

2008-02-08T06:00:00.000-05:00

The reports of my demise have been greatly exaggerated or something like that. After about 2 months of inactivity I'm finally gearing up to work on the arcade again. Next up is the Control Panel - It's basically just a box that the joysticks, buttons and other controls sit on top of but building it is going to be very difficult because I'm planning on mitering every single joint.

Below is a sneak peek at one of the sides to the control panel base. The two holes that are cut out are for buttons (as you can see) - this is the short side of the control panel base and the buttons will eventually be used to simulate flippers on a pinball machine. There are several great programs out there such as Visual Pinball which recreates tons of different pinball tables. This is really going to be one arcade to rule them all!

This is going to be fun.

Clamps are OFF!!!

2007-12-21T12:15:00.001-05:00

Check it out people - the clamps are OFF. The cabinet is VERY sturdy and everything came together evenly and square. I'm really happy. After standing it up I realized how nice a full-sized cabinet is going to feel (well, at least height-wise). The CP area and marquee are set perfectly for someone of average size like me (6ft.). Overall the cabinet just feels right.

Enjoy the pictures:

I was hoping to make more progress this month but with the holidays and work I just couldn't find the time. Hopefully I'll make some more progress before the New Year while I'm off but I doubt it.

Clamping It Down!!

2007-12-01T06:00:00.001-05:00

Alright people - check it out. I'm finally getting somewhere and from now on I'll actually have "something to work on" instead of random sheets of plywood sitting in the garage. I glued up all of the panels I cut and everything came together pretty nicely - angles and all. The joints are all quite tight and I'm happy so far. The cabinet was put together using #20 biscuits to help me line everything up.

This first picture shows how the base I built earlier out of a 2x4 interacts with the various plywood panels. You can also get a good look at the cauls I used for each clamp - these are used so the clamps don't damage the workpiece upon tightening.

The next pictures gives you a good idea how many clamps I needed in order to secure everything - a lot! It also looks like some of the clamps are bent or things aren't square but I assure you that isn't the case. It must look that way due to the odd angle I snapped the picture at - everything is nice and square.

This next picture shows the bottom interior panel set in place where the computer will eventually sit as well as how the marquee area came together.

Putting everything together by myself was tough. I had to apply the glue to all surfaces, clamp it together and then wipe up any squeeze out. I LOVE my biscuit joiner - it saved me a ton of time and helped me align everything in order to glue it together. On my last project I installed 3/4" x 1.5" cleats along all of the lines where interior panels were going to be placed for support. It was difficult lining everything up and required many extra hours of work. The biscuit joiner cut all of that out - plus it gives me added strength on all of the joints.

Anyway, not much more to say other than enjoy the pics and stay tuned for the unclamping!!!

These Angles Are Making Me CRAZY!!!!

2007-11-28T06:00:00.001-05:00

Effing angles. I cut a few of the interior panels that make up the interior of the cabinet. It was freezing outside and kind of hard to see but that's not going to stop me. If I have free time to work I'm not going to waste it no matter the temperature.

The panels were actually very tricky to cut since most of them had to be cut on an angle due to the somewhat odd shape of my cabinet's profile. The first thing I did was cut one of my plywood sheets into two equal halves. I don't have enough room in my workshop (the garage) to use the tablesaw for something like this so I ended up using the jigsaw to rough cut it and my router with a pattern bit installed to remove the extra material making it precise. Each "strip" was 23.5" wide and I will be cutting all of the interior panels out of these two pieces. With the exterior side panels, the total width of the cabinet is going to be 25" wide.

The next step was to cut each of the 5 interior panels using measurements from the actual side panel I had already cut. Each of the interior panels gets installed 1/2" from the edge of the side panel all the way around so I had to measure in 1/2" from all sides and take my measurements off of those lines. Then I had to calculate the proper angles to set the blade of my tablesaw at in order for all of the joints to be flush. No magic here - I use my reference lines and a protractor to figure out each angle.

Once the dimensions were worked out it was time to get some extensive practice on my tablesaw (it's about time). I am having a tough time making perfectly square cuts for panels of plywood. I think I need to make a cross cut sled or something like that to run the panels though the saw without using the fence... also my fence seems to drift about 1/16" away from the blade and no amount of tinkering seems to fix it... I just need more practice, I think. Setting the tablesaw blade at an angle was no problem but running the piece through cleanly and perfectly straight was tricky. I'm just not comfortable using the push stick, the featherboard and the proper amount of pressure on the board. Also, I don't want to lose any fingers. Norm makes it look so easy!

Anyway, enough rambling - in this first picture you can kind of see the angle on the edge of the speaker panel - plus the two sweet holes I cut for the speaker grills. I used a holesaw to make those cutouts.

In this second picture you can clearly see the 45 degree angle I cut for the kickplate panel.

Finally, the third picture gives a sneak peak at the assembled cabinet as well as shows off how I had to angle the edges of the top panel and speaker panel so the edges would be perpendicular to the floor in order to accept the marquee properly. Fun stuff!

I'll be posting the results of the glue-up soon!

You Wish You Were This Good

2007-11-26T06:00:00.000-05:00

After hours and hours of careful planning, check out this sick bit of woodworking I came up with for the base of the cabinet. I took a 2x4, cut it into 4 pieces and get this.... glued it together!!!! Oh yeah - check out these pics and start drooling....

Here is a shot of the unassembled base with all of the pieces cut. Notice how awesomely precise all the cuts are.

This second shot shows the pieces glued together. Pay close attention to the clamping pressure - it is perfectly set to achieve a tight bond between the wood.

I could post the plans of this part here but I doubt anyone would be able to follow them due to their high complexity and the talent necessary to carry them out.

The Ultimate Button Layout!

2007-11-20T06:00:00.000-05:00

I think this is the FINAL layout that I'm going to use for the player 1 and player 2 controls. I designed it to be as ergonomic as possible. I gave the slight arc to the buttons because that is where the tips of my fingers are when my hand is resting on a table. Check it out:

Each button is spaced 1-3/8" on center and the holes will be drilled using a 1-1/8" foerstner bit. The hole to the far left is also 1-1/8" and will be for the joystick shaft.

I toyed with the idea of adding an extra button in front of the bottom row but decided against it for now. Lots of people like to add that 7th button in order to have a row of 4 to play Neo Geo games like they were meant to be played. I might add it but I really want to keep the clutter to a minimum.

Slots to See Here!

2007-11-10T06:00:00.002-05:00

It's about freaking time. I FINALLY routed the slot around the side panels to accept the t-molding. For a while there I thought I'd never get a chance to do some more work on this thing. The hardest part was adjusting the depth of the blade on the router bit to cut the slot so it is exactly centered on the edge of the panel.

First, I installed a 1/16" slot cutting bit into my router which I purchased from MLCS. They have pretty cheap prices and they sell just about every bit imaginable - I've ordered from them a few times so I can recommend them. Next, I eyeballed the depth of the bit with the edge of a scrap piece of the same plywood panel I used for the sides and made a test cut. Then I flipped the scrap piece over to see if the slot cutting bit fit into the slot I had just cut. It wasn't exact so I made a small adjustment and tried again. The idea here is that when you flip the scrap piece over the slot cutting bit should slide into the groove you just cut - this is how you know it is exactly centered. I actually had to make about 5 test cuts before I got it perfect.

Once I knew the slot cutting bit was at the right depth I just ran the router around the edge of the side panels where the t-molding is going to go - the ball bearing on the router bit runs along the edge of the panel so you get a nice consistent depth all the way around. Once everything was set up the cutting took all of 10 minutes. You can see the start of the slot I cut in the picture below. Pretty simple!

Next up - cutting the interior panels and the glue-up!

What's On Deck

2007-11-02T06:00:00.001-04:00

I'll be making posts like this for my own sanity and to try and bring some order to the way I go about completing this project.

Cut the t-molding slots in the side panels [DONE]
Cut the rear panel (angled at the top to meet the top panel) [DONE]
Cut the top panel (angled at the front to meet the marquee and back to meet the rear panel) [DONE]
Cut the speaker panel (angled at the front to meet the marquee with holes for speakers) [DONE]
Cut the bottom panel (angled 45 degrees at the front to meet the kickplate) [DONE]
Cut the kickplate (angled 45 degrees at the front to meet the bottom panel) [DONE]
Make the base out of a 2x4. [DONE]
Cut biscuits on all panels [DONE]
Glue everything together [DONE]

All of the interior panels are going to be 23" wide which will give the cabinet an overall width of 24.5" taking the side panels into consideration. Once I get these panels cut and everything glued up it will really start to look like something.

Future

Cut out the 3 MDF templates for the control panel (overall shape of top, small recesses, through holes)
Begin construction of control panel box (mitred cuts on all sides)
Finish construction of control panel box
Paint the underside of the top panel of the control panel black
Apply several coats of stain to assembled cabinet (interior and exterior) and control panel

The MDF templates should be easy enough to make since I know what the layout of everything is going to be but the mitred construction of the control panel box is going to be difficult. Not only am I planning on mitring the corners sides of the control panel box but I'm also planning to mitre the bottom panel as well. All of the joints have to be perfect for this to work.

Cutting Corners

2007-10-31T06:00:00.001-04:00

Not much progress over the weekend, unfortunately. Anyway, I did manage to sneak away for 20 minutes and finish squaring up the 4 inside corners in the side panels.

Here's a shot of the top showing the squared-up corner:

I know - try to contain your excitement. Making the cuts was actually way easier than I thought it was going to be - having the right tool for the job helped too. I used a Japanese hand saw (also called a flush saw) and a little patience to cut each corner exactly square. I placed the blade of the saw along the edge of the plywood in a position to cut away the excess material. Then I just moved the saw back and forth while making sure that the blade remained as tight as possible against the plywood edge. I'm actually surprised at how accurate the cuts came out using the Japanese hand saw - they almost look machined.

Here's a close-up of the finished corner:

I don't have a "before" shot because apparently I don't think that far in advance. I'll be routing out the slot for the t-molding next - sometime this week after work one night. So this is where I'm at for both sides now that the two interior corners are cut (on the top and where the control panel will rest):

It's slowly coming together. Cutting out the interior panels should be fairly easy so hopefully next time I have a few hours I'll end up with something three dimensional.

I've Ordered The Parts - No Turning Back Now!

2007-10-25T06:00:00.002-04:00

I've been putting this off for a while since it's going to be expensive but it's probably time to order some arcade parts so I can get going on my control panel.

Here's the list of stuff I need to get started (again, all parts are being ordered from divemaster over at BYOAC):

(22) BLACK Pushbutton - Horizontal Microswitch [58-9166-L]
(4) Small Round Low Profile Pushbutton, White [57-0004-21]
(2) UltraStik 360 Joysticks - BLACK Oval Top [with USB cable]
(2) UltraStik 360 Hard Springs
(2) UltraStik Round Restrictor Plate Kit
(1) SlikStik Tornado Spinner (with BLACK knob)
(1) Trackball (Happ 3" highlip) [56-0100-11HL]
(1) Trackball Mounting Plate (for the highlip trackball)
(1) Replacement 3" Trackball - BLACK
(1) iPac2 [with USB cable]
(1) OptiPac [with USB cable]

That's a lot of stuff. The total cost for everything (including shipping) is $522.25(!). I'm also planning to buy a coin door sometime down the road but I'm trying to spread some of the cost around. This should cover most of the mechanical parts for the control panel except for the wiring and some odds and ends.

Rotate The Monitor?

2007-10-24T06:00:00.001-04:00

This will probably make me want to kill someone but I think it would be really cool if I could figure it out. Since the LCD monitor is not going to fill up the space between the two side panels I think there will be room to add in some sort of rotation mechanism. This will allow me to play horizontal (4:3) games with a horizontal monitor and vertical (3:4) games with a vertical monitor. This poses four major obstacles:

building a circular frame to allow the monitor to rotate;
implementing some sort of motor to rotate the monitor (clockwise and counterclockwise);
installing software to tell the monitor which way to face based on the game that is launched; and
hiding the fact that the monitor rotates (I don't want the circular frame to be visible).

I really have no idea how to go about accomplishing any of this but it will be fun to learn. I envision building something similar to the awesome drawing I made on the left - a circular frame that moves to position the monitor vertically or horizontally.

Several people over at BYOAC with way more skills than me have figured it out (especially THIS GUY) so hopefully I can follow their lead and get something working.

Check Out My Sweet Profile

2007-10-21T06:00:00.001-04:00

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.

I've Got Wood

2007-10-20T06:00:00.001-04:00

I finally made it out of the house and picked up the birch plywood for this project. I anticipate that it will take 2 full sheets to build the thing - one for the side panels and one for everything else. I've just got to be sure when I'm cutting stuff out that I remember to take the grain of the wood into consideration.

Check it out:

It's been a while since I've worked with this stuff before but I'm looking forward to it. It should make the cabinet fairly light but very sturdy. Plus, breathing in the sawdust won't kill me like using MDF would.

I'll be cutting out the profile soon.

The Cabinet Profile

2007-10-17T06:00:00.002-04:00

I'm not sure how I feel about this. I think I've settled on a design but I'm not that thrilled with it... well, it's going to look awesome when it's done (hopefully) but the design I've chosen limits the monitor size to a 19" LCD. Not a big deal but I was originally planning on going with something a lot bigger.

Here's the profile:

I had nothing to do with this design - Knievel over at the BYOAC forums came up with this (among other brilliant designs) and I don't want to reinvent the wheel so I'm just going to use the dimensions he came up with.

My decision to use this design is mainly because I really want to make a "furniture-style" cabinet with a dark stained finish and a slim profile that doesn't overwhelm an entire room. If I am going to convince anyone that an arcade cabinet can be placed somewhere other than a basement it's going to have to blend in and not be an eyesore. The desired slim profile and a 27" arcade monitor cannot co-exist. If I adapted this design to fit the monitor I wanted I'd have to add about 8" to the overall thickness and also make it taller. This added surface area would throw off the elegant proportions and look a little off when stained. Oh well - I'll build the 27" cabinet for my next one.

Parting It All Out

2007-08-30T06:00:00.001-04:00

In order to stay somewhat organized, I made an Excel spreadsheet so I can track the stuff I need to build this thing. I tried listing everything I could think of so I don't kill myself on shipping costs by ordering multiple times from the same vendor. I know I'll mess this up but I at least want to get everything in hand so I can build the control panel.

The goal is to spend a weekend building the cabinet and control panel. Once I get that finished I can work on it in smaller bursts of time but with a newborn and a 3 year old running around there's not much free time these days. The wife and kids are spending a weekend in September at her parents so I'm hoping to put in two 16 hour days working on this. If I can get the frame built and stained and the control panel put together in one weekend so it looks nice then maybe, just maybe, my wife won't kill me when she sees it.

Here's the list of stuff I need to get started (all parts are being ordered from divemaster over at BYOAC):

Pushbuttons (24) - $1.35 ea. = $32.40
U360 Joystick (2) - $59.00 ea. = $118.00
Hard Spring for Joystick (2) - $5.00 ea. = $10.00
Circular Restrictors for Joystick (2) - $14.00 ea. = $28.00
Spinner (1) = $87.99
3" High Lip Trackball (1) = $64.99
Replacement Black Trackball (1) = $15.00
Trackball Mounting Plate (1) = $10.99
iPac2 [with USB cable] (1) = $43.00
OptiPac [with USB cable] (1) = $43.00

TOTAL = $453.37

Woah. There's really no way around this cost... This will cover all of the mechanical parts for the control panel except for the wiring.

Time to Plan the Control Panel Layout

2007-08-24T06:00:00.000-04:00

I've got this thing pretty well laid out... in my head. Time to start writing it down - what better place to do it than a blog no one will ever read?

Here's a very rough pic of what I anticipate the control panel layout to look like (not to scale):

It's a 2 player control panel. Each player will have the standard 6 button "Street Fighter" layout and an Ultimarc 360 joystick. There will be a 3" Happs trackball in the middle for games like Golden Tee. The top row of controls from left to right are Player 1 Start, Player 1 Coin, a Slikstik Tornado Spinner, Buttons 1 and 2 (for the spinner), Player 2 Coin and Player 2 Start. It's pretty standard stuff.

I am also planning on adding 2 buttons to each side of the control panel box to act as flippers for pinball games as well as possibly a pinball plunger for added realism. I need to work out the details of that though.

Here We Go Again!

2007-08-21T18:00:00.000-04:00

Please don't tell my wife because this is getting a bit crazy. After successfully building Knights of the Arcade Table and Bella's Arcade, I now bring to you .... The Beach Arcade!

This will be the third arcade cabinet I build from scratch. It will be a "furniture style" cabinet made out of birch plywood and stained a nice mahogany color or something similar. It is designed for 2 players and will have a 6-button layout for fighters as well as a trackball for Golden Tee and a bunch of other cool stuff which I will explain as I build it. I'm in the designing stages right now but I'm hoping to begin construction in a few weeks.

A little bit of background... My in-laws have a house in Salisbury, MA. It's a great little house right on the beach where everyone in the family can go to relax whenever they want. Every great vacation spot needs an arcade, right? I have a feeling this cabinet will be getting a ton of use once it's complete - hopefully I can sand-proof it!