My Mame arcade cabinet conversion

[Chris]

It is always nice to watch a craftsman at work!

Wow thanks Cath. I've never been called, or even considered myself a craftsman.

Well my in laws are visiting for the next two weeks, so it looks like I won't get any work done on this. I'll post some more pictures when I get going again.

[Suave]

Thank you for sharing the part list and further progress with us Chris! $300 for the arcade cabinet is actually very reasonable... and I agree that it's probably better not to keep a tally of all of the components

Your four player control panel is shaping up really nicely. Keep up the great work!!

[Chris]

Well I've gotten back to work on this. I've been spurred on by suave and his MAME project. I'm hoping to have it done before Friday as I've got more in-laws visiting then.

First I had to route out 1/8" so that the Trackball sits flush on top



Then I cut all the pieces for the bottom of the control panel box.


This groove is for the hinge I'll add later to open it up

[Chris]

Here it is put together. I glued and nailed it.


Then I routed the edges to make it all even and smooth


Next I filled in and sanded the nail holes

[Chris]

Time to paint.


I got a nice glossy finish using an alkyd paint and a foam roller

[Chris]

Then I put on the plexiglass and installed all the buttons and joysticks




Now for the pain in the ass task of wiring it all up. I'll have to do everything except player 1 and 2 and 5 of their buttons, since I'll be using the existing wiring from the cabinet for them. Tonight I got as far as doing the ground for all of them. I had to cut and strip each little piece then crimp on a connector:


And here it is on the other side.

[Suave]

Nice progress on this Chris - glad to hear that my own project put you back to work on this!

The control panel looks awesome, I really like the glossy finish

[Chris]

Here is the wiring all done (except for player 1 and 2 which will use the existing wiring) everything is attached to the iPac on the right there



Now back to the cabinet, I totally ripped off the existing control panel and painted the whole thing with the same glossy paint



I added these little ramps so to get the angle of the new control panel right

[Chris]

So Shiny



Here it is with the bottom of the control panel in and the new purple t-molding


And here it is all together. Now I need to get a new marquee for it to replace the old Tekken one. I've got an artist friend who is going to make me a custom one.


That's where I am now. I still need to hook up player 1 and 2 and that should be it. I'll post some final pictures when I get the new artwork.

Chris