Cabinet Construction
Disclaimer: I'm pretty hardcore about keeping my pinball machines as original as possible and scoff at any custom shenanigans. So I didn't consider hacking up a real arcade cabinet for my purposes. No arcade games were harmed in the making of this project.
From the Internet I found quasi-dimensions for a generic Taito cabinet. I picked this profile for no other reason than it caught my eye.
Mockup: I usually don't have the patience for jigs and mockups. But I made an exception here because I had no sense of how the project would turn out or how it would look and fit within the rest of my gameroom. A practice iteration seemed like a good idea. A quick mockup would also give me something to play with while I took my time building the real thing.
I cut a pair of cabinet sides from cheap ½" plywood which I assembled with 23" scraps of 2x4 and drywall screws. I thought the Taito dimensions would be short so I stretched the overall height of the mockup to 69". The front of the control panel is at 41" with a 5 degree slope. The mockup is only 24" deep because I wanted to get both sides from one sheet of plywood.
Beginning my Franken-Taito cabinet mockup.
My control panel is basically a 23" wide version of my previous panel from DIY Retro Arcade. The orange S2 button is centered and 6" back from the front edge of the control panel. The red S1 button is 5" back from the front edge and 1½" from S2. Yellow S3 is 6" back and 1½" from S2. The S3 button feels too far away even at the minimum spacing of 1½". But the 60 in 1 has only one three-button game, so I didn't worry about it.
The joystick is 5¼" from center and 5" back. The trackball is 6" from center and 6" back. These dimensions appeared to give me plenty of area to rest my palms, but still kept my body spaced away from the cabinet. I moved the one-player and two-players buttons to the upper left simply because that's where most of the JAMMA wiring will be.
Control panel.
My only specific control concession to a specific game was the addition of side buttons for Pinball Action. The side buttons are about 3½" back from the front edge of the control panel and about 2" down from the front edge of the control panel. The left and right side buttons work in parallel with the red S1 and orange S2 buttons on the control panel, respectively. The left side button could be an alternate Fire/Jump button for someone wishing to operate the joystick with their right hand. Personally, I prefer having my right hand on the joystick. This may be a subconscious habit left over from my childhood Atari 2600 which was my only significant exposure to video games.
Left side button for Pinball Action.
Right side button for Pinball Action.
Next I framed the marquee to help establish my sight lines toward the monitor. I built a monitor support frame including a temporary piece of monitor-shaped plywood as a visual reference. The black outline on the plywood represents the actual image area on the monitor. I really had no idea how to position the monitor frame. I simply picked a height and angle that felt comfortable. It was all held together with drywall screws so it was easy enough to move things around to see what worked.
Monitor frame.
I didn't intend to mount most of the electronic components in my mockup cabinet. So I added a shelf below and behind the control panel.
Equipment shelf.
Needed a tray to catch the quarters.
Assembled mockup.
Mockup Observations: The real cabinet should be 30" deep for a more authentic look. Add 1" to the bottom of the cabinet (e.g. wheels and feet) to raise up everything including the coin door, control panel and monitor. Add 2" to the top of the cabinet for a more substantial marquee. Total height will be 72". Push back the side panel radius and add another inch to the flat lines above the side buttons. Expand the coin door panel down to allow for a cashbox. Wiring would be better if the one-player and two-players buttons were another ¼" from the left edge of the control panel.
The Real Thing: For my real cabinet, I went to The Geek Pub at thegeekpub.com and bought some arcade cabinet plans. I wasn't necessarily interested in the plan dimensions, but I did like the construction techniques. The base material is ¾" MDF and most everything goes together with cleats, wood glue and brad nails. The strength and simplicity of basic wood glue is often overlooked. It makes for a sturdy assembly with no visible hardware or blemishes on the outside of the cabinet. There are at least a half dozen arcade cabinet construction videos on The Geek Pub YouTube channel that are all worth watching.
Below is a rough profile sketch for my side panels. Click for a larger image. Otherwise, I have no specific plans to offer and no interest in going back and remeasuring anything. I eyeball most things and make it up as I go. In fact, my mockup was about the closest I've ever come to having a formal plan for something I've built.
Cabinet profile. Click above link for larger image.
The Internet seems to think a 4x8 sheet of ¾" MDF weighs about 90 lbs. I believe it! Full sheets were well beyond the abilities of my table saw and normal work spaces. So I bought a 4x8 sheet of foam insulation board. The insulation served as a sacrificial substrate allowing me to work the MDF on the ground with a handheld circular saw and straight edge until I had more manageable-sized pieces. A leaf blower worked great for cleaning up between cuts.
4x8 sacrificial insulation board.
I bought three sheets of MDF. Two of the three sheets were for a pair of 30" by 71" side panels. The remaining material and the third sheet were cut into 23"x48" panels. The 23" is less important then that I did all the final trimming on my table saw without touching the fence. Thus I had a stack of identical-width material for front, back, bottom and top panels. It's possible I could have built the cabinet from only two sheets of MDF had I not expanded the cabinet's depth from 24" to 30". There's no practical reason to have such a massive cabinet for a home environment, I just liked the look.
I clamped the two side panels together to simultaneously cut their final shape. This worked well for making straight cuts with my circular saw. But for the curved cuts my jig saw wasn't up to the task of cutting two layers of ¾" MDF. So I cut the curves on one panel then used it to trace the curves on the other. After cutting both, I clamped the panels back together for final shaping with an orbital sander. I kept a small square at hand and constantly checked that I was maintaining square edges while sanding.
Final shape of the left side panel (which is identical to the right).
I used a slot cutting router bit to make an edge groove around the side panels for T-molding. I also routed an inside groove for the marquee. It's a 3⁄16" groove to accommodate a marque sandwich with two layers of .093" clear sheet. The picture below shows the top inside surface of the left side panel. At this point I had so much time into some of these components that it was nerve-racking to continue. I took a lot of thinking breaks. And I make a lot of test cuts on scrap material before tackling the real thing.
Perimeter 1⁄16" edge slot for T-molding and a 3⁄16" slot for the marquee.
By the way, MDF dust is nasty and it piles up fast. I took the extreme (for me) precaution of wearing a dust mask. A smarter person would recognize the inadequacy of that and go for a more sophisticated respirator. Here again I did most of my cutting outside (my table saw is on wheels) and kept the leaf blower close at hand.
I made a bunch of cleat material by cutting some of my MDF into ¾"x¾" strips. The picture below shows some of the cleats attached to the right side panel with wood glue and 1¼" brads.
Attaching cleats to the right side panel.
From Twisted Quarter I found a pair of these edge wheels for the back of my cabinet. It'll be like having a built-in hand truck. On the downside, it took a lot of tedious cutting and routing to fit the wheels and brackets.
Corner wheels from Twisted Quarter.
Test fit of bottom and rear panels with wheel pockets.
For the front of the cabinet I used T-nuts and a pair of pinball leg levelers.
Front leg leveler components.
Front leg leveler.
Assembled bottom panel with rear wheels and front levelers.
Assembled rear panel with rear wheels.
On the inside I added some reinforcement around the wheel pockets and leg levelers. I also added a stiffener across the middle of the bottom panel because I'll need to grab the cabinet with a hand truck to move it in and out of the house.
Bottom panel inside.
Bottom panel inside.
There's only 1" of clearance under the cabinet so I cut slots in the leg leveler shafts such that I can adjust them from inside. And I moved the jam nuts inside.
Leg leveler adjustments with a slotted screwdriver.
Finally something three-dimensional to look at.
Below is an inside view of the top rear corner. Eventually there'll be a service hatch below the rear panel. There'll also be a removable panel in front of the top panel to access speakers and the marquee system.
Top rear corner.
This horizontal front panel will support a cashbox.
Coin door panel.
Next up was the control panel. The one-player button is 8" back from the front edge of the control panel and 8¾" from center. The two-players button is 8" back and 7¼" from center. All other controls are positioned as noted above with respect to the mockup. Cutting the trackball pocket was the most tedious operation. There's no CNC here; it's just me and my handheld compact router. The original DIY Retro Arcade control panel made a useful template. For the button holes I invested in a sharp new 9⁄8" forstner bit. After cutting all the holes I flipped over the panel and drew out the joystick mounting plate. This will likely be painted over so I pre-dimpled the mounting screw locations.
Control panel layout.
Joystick mounting screw locations.
I intended my control panel to have a 5 degree slope, which means the control panel would be 95 degrees relative to the front face of the cabinet. How to add a roundover to a non-90 degree edge? I glued a 1½"x¾" strip to the bottom front edge of the control panel and made a mark ½" from the top and ½" from the front edge. I skimmed the assembly through my table saw to ensure the combined edge was perfectly square. Then I ran along the top front edge with my router and a ½" roundover bit. Next I set my table saw blade to 5 degrees and made a vertical cut corresponding to my mark. As shown below, my extra layer of material was unnecessary and was completely cut away. I suppose it may have helped stabilize the cut. In any event, I was left with a flat 5 degree surface that was wide enough for a front face and a reinforcing cleat. The result was a 95 degree control panel assembly with a ½" roundover corner. Lastly I shaved about 1⁄16" off each side of the assembly because this will be a hinged control panel and needs to loosely fit within the 23" inner width of the cabinet.
Unnecessary 1½"x¾" strip.
½" roundover.
Five degree cut.
Front face and cleat.
According to my mockup, the monitor will be about 17 degrees back from vertical. So my final operation on the control panel was to cut a matching 22 degree bevel on the rear edge. That's 17 degrees for the monitor plus 5 degrees for the control panel itself.
Control panel rear edge bevel.
The picture below shows a test fit of the control panel piano hinge mounted to the top edge of the coin door panel. I found this hinge at Home Depot described as "oil-rubbed bronze". Apparently that's the sophisticated way of saying "black", which is what I wanted. Also shown is a test fit of the left side button. Also shown is the left control panel support cleat. The gap is for one of a pair of control panel clamps from Twisted Quarter. When the game is finished the clamps will be accessible from the coin door opening.
Left control panel support cleat.
Control panel test fit.
Partial test fit of a control panel clamp.
I felt that the piano hinge was going to need at least some small measure of adjustability in order to get a good fit between the control panel and the cabinet. I didn't like the self-centering nature of the little black wood screws that were provided with the hinge. So I discarded the wood screws and went with #8 sheet metal screws. I drilled a new set of offset mounting holes such that opposing screw heads would not interfere with each other. And I enlarged all the mounting holes such that the hinge would have some wiggle room before tightening down all the sheet metal screws for good.
Offset enlarged holes with #8 sheet metal screws.
Control panel swung open on the piano hinge.
I built the monitor frame from half-lapped strips of ¾"x¾" pine glued to a front skin of ¼" plywood. I routed recesses into the front of the frame for the monitor mounting brackets such that the monitor and mounting hardware will be set back slightly from the front face of the plywood. The plywood will provide back support for a bezel. On the bottom front edge of the monitor frame I added a strip of pine to serve as a shelf for the bezel. The shelf will be slightly below the rear edge of the control panel such that the bottom edge of the bezel will be locked in place between the plywood and the rear edge of the closed control panel. I added a pair of finger holes to the shelf such that the bottom edge of the bezel can be lifted out after opening the control panel. My bezel will be a 3⁄16" sheet of acrylic.
Rear side of monitor frame test fit into cabinet.
Front side of monitor frame test fit into cabinet.
With the control panel lifted away, here's the bezel shelf with a pair of finger holes for lifting out the bezel.
The monitor frame will be screwed, not glued to the cabinet side panels. I assume I'll have to remove and modify the frame if I'm ever faced with replacing a failed monitor. The frame needs to be removable from the rear so as to not scratch the finish up front.
Fortunately my monitor frame was a light friction fit in the cabinet so it was easy to adjust it's position. I used a scrap of acrylic plus the thickness of a business card to space the frame back from the control panel. When I had the correct position I glued some small positioning cleats to the cabinet side walls. The positioning cleats are not glued to the frame. The cleats are there only to help me reference the eventual mounting holes for the frame screws. That is, I simply jam the frame up against all the positioning cleats and I know all the frame screws will line up with their respective holes in the side panels.
An acrylic and business card spacer.
Right side positioning cleats at the bottom rear edge of the frame.
Right side positioning cleat at the front top edge of the frame.
Monitor frame mounting screws (four per side).
Below is the 3⁄16" sheet of acrylic for the bezel. When the cabinet is finished the top edge of bezel will slide up and behind the speaker panel. The bottom edge will rest on the bezel shelf and be locked in place by the closed control panel.
3⁄16" acrylic bezel.
The speaker panel secures the top edge of the monitor bezel and supports the speakers and marque compartment. The integral speaker grill hole patterns are modified from one of the templates provided with The Geek Pub plans. The panel includes a 1⁄16" edge slot for T-molding and a 3⁄16" inside slot for the marquee.
Bottom outside view of the speaker panel.
Upper inside view of the speaker panel.
The top access panel will be screwed, not glued to the cabinet for providing service access to the speaker and marquee compartments. The panel has a 1⁄16" edge slot for T-molding and a 3⁄16" slot to lock down the marquee.
Test fit of the top access panel.
Test fit of the marquee clear sheets which are supported by a groove on all four sides.
I glued in a thin plywood divider immediately in front of the speakers. The divider defines the rear of the marquee compartment and will support the marquee illumination.
Marquee compartment.
Most every DIY arcade video game cabinet I see has some sort of service access door (some rather elaborate). I thought it made more sense to have a service hatch which can be completely removed and put out of the way when the cabinet requires service.
My hatch is just a big piece of MDF. The side panel cleats prevent the hatch from falling into the cabinet. Using a piece of ¼" plywood, I glued a tongue to the inside bottom edge of the hatch which prevents the bottom of the hatch from falling out. To prevent the top of the hatch from falling out I used one of my standard-keyed cam locks. I didn't have a means for making an indexed lock hole. So I drilled a round hole and recreated the flat spots by wedging in some toothpicks with a bit of wood glue (being careful to not glue in the lock itself). The toothpicks were later trimmed and sanded. I glued in a scrap of oak with a bit of a taper to give the lock cam something to wedge against when locked.
Bottom inside tongue.
Toothpick hole hack.
Recessed lock.
Oak wedge.
Finished service hatch.
Lastly I built a small cashbox from scraps of ¼" plywood. The box has a few contours to fit around interfering cabinet cleats and coin door frame bolts. And I added a dowel for a carrying handle. I glued some positioning cheats to the cashbox shelf. Otherwise the cashbox stays put by gravity.
Cashbox.
Cashbox shelf with positioning cleats.
Carpentry done!
On to the next part: Paint & Graphics.
