Jason's Arcade Cabinet Build

[Jason Carr]

Hey all, I greatly miss the beautiful bartop arcade cabinet that @Rincewind designed the graphics for way back in 2016:

We ended up giving this cabinet away to the Game Chasers, which was honestly the best decision we could have made as a company at the time, however difficult it was to see it go. The cabinet was featured in tons and tons of videos and we got crazy amounts of publicity from it. Monster Arcades did a great job with it, but because of the copyrighted artwork, they weren't willing to build us another one because legally they could only build one as a "tribute".

I do have a full-size arcade cabinet that's pretty decked out already, but it's a modified Rec Room Masters cabinet, and it's seen better days at this point. It also never had any artwork on it so it's just black. All this to say that I've been itching to build a new cabinet for years. I've also started woodworking as a hobby in the last couple of years, so it's not a bad pairing. It will be a full-size arcade cabinet with a 32" TV in it.

For artwork for the new cabinet, I've commissioned some amazing nostalgic bedroom scene artwork from the one and only Rachid Lotf: https://rachidlotf.com/

I'll share a small version of the artwork here once I receive it from Rachid.

For the actual cabinet build and plans, I'm following this tutorial, and I've purchased the plans:

The final cabinet will be very similar to this build, but I'm planning on putting glass in front of the LCD screen (instead of just mounting the LCD screen directly), and I'll be overhauling the control panel. I'm gonna make another post here shortly with some pics of the beginning of the build process. Feel free to comment on any suggestions or feedback for the build.

 

[Jason Carr]

Now for the build process! Over the weekend I cut all of the pieces out of birch plywood (plus a few 1x4s of pine lumber):

You can see some nasty tearout on a couple of pieces that I had to finish off with my jig saw. Apparently with plywood, if you cut it with a jigsaw with the correct side on top, you don't get much tearout, but you do if you use the other side, so lesson learned there. The good news though is that those pieces will get cut down anyways and that will all go to scrap, because I have yet to cut any angles into these pieces.

[Jason Carr]

Late this afternoon I went to the UPS Store to get the templates printed out. These templates are provided with the plans from I Like to Make Stuff (YouTube video above), and they help significantly to more easily cut the angles and curves and such for the more complicated pieces:

I was concerned that getting the templates printed out at the correct sizes would be a challenge, and it was somewhat, but the folks at the UPS Store worked with me and we got them all printed out at the right sizes. Apparently you can print these huge templates out on any machine that can print blueprints, for the most part. The templates can then be cut out and attached with spray adhesive to the plywood pieces to be cut down with a jigsaw.

[Jason Carr]

Tonight I finally started working on finishing the more complicated cuts and beginning actual construction. I have the basic frame for the control panel piece that sits in the middle of the cabinet completed:

Before I could assemble it though, I had to cut down some of the angled pieces with some of the smaller templates that I had printed out. This was easy enough with the spray adhesive, but it is a little bit of a challenge to cut straight lines with the jigsaw. For some of the bigger pieces, I might need to get a track for my circular saw and use that instead.

One other thing that I did for the first time tonight was to angle the blade on my table saw, in order to achieve angled edge cuts for the front and back of the controls box. I found it to be a small challenge to figure out where to place the angled blade on the piece when cutting it, but ultimately, it worked out well enough.

It's not perfect, but it all assembled well enough with pocket hole screws and wood glue. It's pretty solid. Not much of this piece will be visible when the cabinet is done, so I don't need to be overly picky at this point.

I'll update this post when I make more progress (most likely this weekend). Next I'll be building the base of the cabinet.

[Jason Carr]

Tonight I worked on and finished the frame for the bottom half of the cabinet (actually I worked on the angled edges and custom cuts some last night as well), so this was around two evenings of work. I figured that cutting out the hole in the middle of the front face for the coin door would be tricky, but it really wasn't too bad with the jigsaw. The edges aren't perfectly straight, but it doesn't much matter because it'll all get covered up by the overlapping edges of the coin door.

Speaking of the jigsaw, after I cut the hole for the coin door, I went out and bought a jigsaw blade with finer teeth that's specifically made for plywood, and that has made a world of difference for the more recent cuts that I've made. Thanks to @Lordmonkus for cluing me into that, because I didn't know that was a thing. I also discovered that my jigsaw has a setting on it that makes it much easier to make straight cuts, so that's another important thing learned. Perhaps I should be watching some tutorials on the tools that I'm using lol instead of stumbling around in the dark. Regardless, things are coming along:

'

Getting the cuts right for those angles was a real bear; it was definitely the hardest part of the build so far. The plans don't give you exact measurements, but instead tell you to just line up the pieces and draw it out. But only having two hands makes that a bit difficult. What I ended up with isn't perfect (the bottom piece extends out a tiny bit past the edges of the front pieces), but I can probably sand that down if needed.

Adding the back supports was easy enough, of course, but I did make a small mistake. I added pocket holes on the bottom piece but really I only needed them on the back supports themselves. Oh well, the holes are inside and I can fill them in if needed:

After this, the hard part was mostly done. I used the same angles and measurements for the top piece, and then flipped the whole thing over and set it on top of the top piece upside down to attach the top:

The only thing left then was to add the middle shelf. I flipped it upside down on top of my short bench and used vertical spacers to easily just place the shelf in there in the right spot, and glue and screw:

Finally, here it is all upright and placed on the ground:

And here it is with the controls section that I previously built just resting on top of it:

All in all, I'm pretty happy with the build. I still have a lot to learn though before I'm gonna be able to make it how I want it, including:

• How to paint it well
• How to curve some of the edges for the t-molding
• How to use a slotted router bit for the t-molding
• How to put on the vinyl well
• Probably more stuff I'm forgetting

Regardless, praise the Lord, it's coming along well so far. I'll have another update soon.

[Jason Carr]

Alright, here goes. Still moving quickly, but I imagine it will start slowing down here a bit now, because I'll be waiting on things like printing the graphics (more on that later), t-molding, and other things that I don't have yet. But anyways, today of course I worked on the frame for the upper piece to hold the monitor and the marquee. Cutting out the pieces went fairly well, better than expected. Now that I know how to properly use my jigsaw to make it cut a straight line, I didn't have any issues using the templates to cut out the large side pieces, which was my main concern. There also wasn't really any tear-out at all. I think I'll even be able to cut out the large floor-to-top side pieces without having to use my circular saw, which is great.

For the speaker holes, I ended up using a hole saw bit. I knew enough to put some masking tape on the wood before making the cut in order to reduce tear-out, and that worked really well. It was honestly harder work than I thought it would be because the holes are so big (took me a good 10 minutes and made my wrists a little sore), but in the end it gave me a great result. Here's the top piece after putting the first four pieces together:

I panicked a little bit at this point because it was rather lopsided. You probably can't tell much from the picture, but you sure could in person. I was able to force it properly upright, but it took quite a bit of force, and I wasn't sure how I was going to fix that, because I couldn't tell until I had it all completed and put it upright on top of the other pieces of the cabinet.

It turns out that the plans call for using a 1x4 in the back on the bottom for support, in order to keep everything square. In my experience, though, it was too lopsided for that and it needed a bit more support. I ended up using a 1x6 instead:

That very much helped to square it off and make it so that it wasn't lopsided anymore, thankfully. So we're all good there. I still had the top of the marquee to attach though before finishing out the upper frame. Unfortunately the plans have an error where they don't tell you to angle the edge of that upper piece to 20.5 degrees, but I was able to figure that out, thankfully. Otherwise, the top piece of the marquee would jut out a bit forward and wouldn't be flush with the rest of the frame in the front of the marquee. Here it is with the top piece added:

That's basically it for the frame. I still have to screw the three pieces of the frame together, work on the control board, the monitor mount, screen and marquee bezels, and of course the bottom-to-top pieces for the sides of the cabinet. I'm very pleased with it thus far. Hopefully I don't screw it up with some of the more complicated details later on.

[Jason Carr]

Also, I got the graphics from Rachid! They look amazing, as expected. Here are the graphics for the sides of the cabinet:

And the marquee:

The control board top:

The control board front:

And the two side wings on the control board, which should roughly match the sides of the cabinet:

    

Per the marquee, I plan to put a marquee screen in the middle of it, so I'm not entirely sure if I'll use the edges of it, or something else. I'm up for ideas. My marquee screen is on the smaller side and definitely won't fill up the entire area for the marquee. I'd love to have a one that would, but haven't found one that doesn't break the bank.

[kmoney]

Its looking good Jason. I am sure it is fun building it as I had a lot of fun building mine. I'm jealous of the nice size workshop as well. Looks like a beast of an arcade cabinet and will probably be heavy but vey robust. I am not sure if you are putting it in the house or not but it looks like it might be getting close to house door width size.🙂Also interior doors can vary in width from exterior doors as well.

[Jason Carr]

4 minutes ago, kmoney said:

Its looking good Jason. I am sure it is fun building it as I had a lot of fun building mine. I'm jealous of the nice size workshop as well. Looks like a beast of an arcade cabinet and will probably be heavy but vey robust. I am not sure if you are putting it in the house or not but it looks like it might be getting close to house door width size.🙂Also interior doors can vary in width from exterior doors as well.

Thanks brother. Yeah, it's been a lot of fun.

I am moving it into the house, yes, but thankfully I have double doors to the outside in my office, which is where it's going. I haven't checked if it would fit through a normal doorway though. That might be good to know lol.

[skizzosjt]

@Jason Carr your garage looks massive! 3 bay doors! what an awesome bit of work space! I'm jealous too lol

and it's cool to see you're going at it with that particular video's blueprints. when I saw that video I told myself, THIS is the cabinet style I want when I actually finally build one for me.

about fitting through doors....did they make some parts of it modular? (without watching the whole video to jog my memory) I kinda remember the control panel could be removed (after some cable disconnecting of course), and maybe that was part of their plan to make sure ppl could fit it through standard doors? I sure didn't think about that yet myself, so would certainly like to hear your experience on moving it around or how it measures up to a doorway when all said and done.

[Jason Carr]

1 hour ago, skizzosjt said:

@Jason Carr your garage looks massive! 3 bay doors! what an awesome bit of work space! I'm jealous too lol

and it's cool to see you're going at it with that particular video's blueprints. when I saw that video I told myself, THIS is the cabinet style I want when I actually finally build one for me.

about fitting through doors....did they make some parts of it modular? (without watching the whole video to jog my memory) I kinda remember the control panel could be removed (after some cable disconnecting of course), and maybe that was part of their plan to make sure ppl could fit it through standard doors? I sure didn't think about that yet myself, so would certainly like to hear your experience on moving it around or how it measures up to a doorway when all said and done.

The total width of the cabinet frame is 33.25 inches, so with the final side wings added it should be about 34.75 inches. That said, the depth of the whole thing is only about 31 inches, so you would probably want to move it sideways through any doors. The inside door frames of my house are about 35 inches wide, so it doesn't look like there should be any issues moving it about (at least in my house).

Yeah, I didn't find any better plans to follow on the web. So far I've only found minor issues, so I think I can go ahead and recommend the plans. The only thing I've found so far is that there are few edges that need angled that they forgot to put the specs for in the plans, but it's easy enough to figure it out from the other cuts.

And yes, it is "modular", at least while you're building the frame. You build it in three separate pieces (the top, the control panel, and the bottom), basically just I like I did above. That said, you do end up screwing it together immediately after the frame pieces are put together, and I don't imagine taking it apart would really be all that easy, because you have to take off the entire side panels.

[Jason Carr]

I have my custom control panel all designed out now:

I haven't drilled anything out of the wood yet though (this is just a Photoshop design), so more than willing to hear feedback on it. Everything should be measured out properly.

I ordered the following from Ultimarc:

• 30 GoldLeaf RGB Illuminated Pushbuttons - https://www.ultimarc.com/arcade/buttons/goldleaf-pushbuttons-rgb/
• GoldLeaf RGB Logo Cap Pack - https://www.ultimarc.com/arcade/button-accessories/ultralux-logo-inserts-clone/
• I-PAC Ultimate I/O - https://www.ultimarc.com/control-interfaces/i-pacs/i-pac-ultimate-i-o/?variation_id=311
• Large Knob for SpinTrak Spinner (Black) - https://www.ultimarc.com/trackballs-and-spinners/spinner-accessories/knobs-for-spintrak-large/
• SpinTrak Rotary Control - https://www.ultimarc.com/trackballs-and-spinners/spinners/spintrak/
• U-Trak FlushMount Arcade Trackball (Pearl Translucent for RGB) - https://www.ultimarc.com/trackballs-and-spinners/trackballs/u-trak/?variation_id=370
• U-Trak RGB LED Illumination Kit - https://www.ultimarc.com/trackballs-and-spinners/trackball-accessories/u-trak-rgb-led-illumination-kit/
• Optional Trim Bezel for U-Trak - https://www.ultimarc.com/trackballs-and-spinners/trackball-accessories/optional-trim-bezel-for-u-trak/
• 2 Mag-Stik Plus Joysticks - https://www.ultimarc.com/arcade-controls/joysticks/mag-stik-plus/

Hopefully that'll get me everything I need. I definitely went all-out on the control board; everything will be fully RGB lit. However, I will admit that the cost of all of this arcade hardware was way more than I expected lol. Oh well?

The Mag-Stik Plus joysticks have a mechanism inside that allows you to go back and forth between 4-way and 8-way. They are somewhat of an experiment, because I've never used them before, and I'm a bit skeptical. If anyone has used any of this hardware before and has any feedback, let us know.

[Jason Carr]

Yesterday I ordered the vinyls for the artwork from GameonGrafix: https://gameongrafix.com/

I imagine they'll have some questions for me though, because I ordered the full cabinet graphics, and there's some extra pieces for the wings (I noted this on the order). I'm also not sure if they need specific dimensions for the cabinet, or if the images that I sent will suffice. I haven't heard back from them as of yet.

Finally, I ordered plenty of t-molding from https://www.t-molding.com.

I think that'll ultimately get me what I need, outside of paint, which I'll have to pick up from the hardware store. I'm loathing the painting process the most out of everything, because I've had issues with painting plywood before (I'm not very artsy). We'll see how that goes.

[Jason Carr]

Oh, one last thing. I didn't plan on ordering a new marquee screen, but I'm afraid my current one is too small, and I got tempted into ordering one of these beasts: https://creativeartsandtechnology.com/product/recroom-lcd/

As far as I can tell, the dimensions should work well. That's also going to be an experiment though; we'll see how it goes. Onwards!

[skizzosjt]

17 hours ago, Jason Carr said:

The total width of the cabinet frame is 33.25 inches, so with the final side wings added it should be about 34.75 inches. That said, the depth of the whole thing is only about 31 inches, so you would probably want to move it sideways through any doors. The inside door frames of my house are about 35 inches wide, so it doesn't look like there should be any issues moving it about (at least in my house).

Yeah, I didn't find any better plans to follow on the web. So far I've only found minor issues, so I think I can go ahead and recommend the plans. The only thing I've found so far is that there are few edges that need angled that they forgot to put the specs for in the plans, but it's easy enough to figure it out from the other cuts.

And yes, it is "modular", at least while you're building the frame. You build it in three separate pieces (the top, the control panel, and the bottom), basically just I like I did above. That said, you do end up screwing it together immediately after the frame pieces are put together, and I don't imagine taking it apart would really be all that easy, because you have to take off the entire side panels.

Thanks man! Really appreciate sharing the dimensions! I've got 31" doorways to bedrooms, one of the many reasons I haven't built a full sized cab yet. Glad to hear the plans are working out for you, and good enough at that for a recommendation.

On the modular bit, I skimmed through the video and see why I recalled it wrong. It looks like the top board of the control panel just sits down into the bottom section/cavity of the control panel? As in if you need to get to the guts/wires that are in the control panel section you can just lift the top board off, is that correct? This was one of the things that attracted me to this design so would like to make sure I got that part correct. I certainly recalled this wrong thinking the whole control panel had an easy method for removal

 

[Jason Carr]

On 10/26/2022 at 7:25 AM, skizzosjt said:

On the modular bit, I skimmed through the video and see why I recalled it wrong. It looks like the top board of the control panel just sits down into the bottom section/cavity of the control panel? As in if you need to get to the guts/wires that are in the control panel section you can just lift the top board off, is that correct? This was one of the things that attracted me to this design so would like to make sure I got that part correct. I certainly recalled this wrong thinking the whole control panel had an easy method for removal

Yes, the three sections just sit on top of each other, but you do have to screw them together once you get the basic frame completed (basically what I have done above), and then you have to screw the side panels into the sides of all three pieces. Because of the finicky-ness of screwing pocket hole screws into plywood, I honestly wouldn't press my luck by screwing and unscrewing all those screws multiple times. I guess in theory it would work, but you would probably end up sacrificing some of the structural integrity depending on how many times you took it all apart and put it back together.

[Jason Carr]

Tonight I started working on the controls board again. I managed to use a Japanese pull saw to cut out the corners like so:

However, this was a massive pain in the butt to do accurately. I completely screwed up both corners the first time around and they looked terribly janky. Ultimately, I had to cut a new piece from the plywood scraps and do it all over again (which thankfully wasn't that difficult because it's just a square cut). It's still not perfect this time around, but I think it'll look decent enough with the art on it and the cabinet all put together. I did chip out the top finish on the edge of it, (see the second picture above), but I expect that won't be noticeable once the art is on the board. Still, that was not a great experience making that cut happen. The reason the plans call for you to do it this way is because there's a funky angle on the cuts, due to the fact that the control board isn't level with the ground, so I guess there's not really an easier way to pull it off. But anyways, I'm glad that's done well enough.

I did also have to cut an angle on the back edge of the board at 9.5 degrees in order for it to properly match up with the rest of the cabinet. This was also mistakenly left out of the plans.

Next, I started working on positioning the joysticks, buttons, spinner, and trackball on the board, and eventually I realized that my previous design had some usability flaws:

• The footprint of the design was slightly too wide, so players would likely be a bit too far past the edges of the 32" screen
• There wasn't enough room towards the front of the controller board for players to comfortably rest their wrists
• The spinner and buttons were awkwardly placed, which was making the player 1 joystick get in the way of being able to easily use them

None of those things were easy to figure out without physically placing the pieces on the board to feel it out. It also helped to use my Rec Room Masters Xtension controller board to compare things against (even though that board has some things with its design that I don't like). Anyways, I went back to the drawing board and came up with this:

In my mind, I think that's perfect. Everything will be comfortable to use and in theory, nothing will get in the way of anything else. We'll see how it goes in practice, but I'm pretty confident in this design.

I already received all the buttons, joysticks, spinner, and trackball from Ultimarc (it shipped here lightning fast), so next I'll be cutting/drilling out all the holes for the board and doing a test fit (though I can't put anything in permanently until after I get the printed art and put it on the board).

[Jason Carr]

1 hour ago, JaysArcade said:

That's pretty much the same Rec Room Masters design I went with on mine. Mine only has 10 buttons for administration, coins, etc instead of the 12 you're showing here. FWIW, I hate the placement of the mouse buttons when using the trackback as a mouse. Also, my controls are set back a bit more than yours. Mostly to accommodate the artwork I chose. I have yet to build the rest of the cabinet. Looks like you're off to a good start. I need to sell a couple of my old cabs so I can finish this one.

Oh, on the mag sticks... they are pretty stiff but work as advertised. I opted to not use them this go round since it has a dedicated 4-way.

I have the build photos here if you're interested. https://photos.app.goo.gl/EeiVRcqn3399qNVh8

 

Nice, the build looks great. Yeah, I used the Rec Room Masters board for my main inspiration. My main beef with that board though is the feel of the edge of the plexiglass on your arm as you play. It just hurts and feels cheap.

That's a good point with the mouse buttons. I think ideally you'd be able to click them with your left hand while using your right hand on the trackball. But finding a good place for them on the left-hand side of the board isn't easy. I'd put them below or above the trackball, but then they'll definitely get in the way while playing something like Golden Tee.

I have noticed that the mag-sticks have very little travel. I can't tell if I'll like them yet or not though, so I'll probably just end up installing them and I'll have to replace them if I don't like them. We shall see.

[JaysArcade]

Sorry I deleted my post earlier in an attempt to appear like I wasn't trying to steal your thunder. 

If I could do mine again, I would move the 4 way over to the right a bit more. You're correct that the spinner and 4 way are kind of on top of one another. I think the mag sticks are a good compromise. They're built well and will give many years of service if you stick with them. I've had them on my other cab since 2006 or so. I refreshed the switches in them a couple years ago but that's about it. 

Edited October 29, 2022 by JaysArcade
grammar

[Headrush69]

1 hour ago, Jason Carr said:

I have noticed that the mag-sticks have very little travel. I can't tell if I'll like them yet or not though, so I'll probably just end up installing them and I'll have to replace them if I don't like them. We shall see.

I felt the same way about mine and also found the switching wasn't always so easy. If it wasn't easier for me knowing how to do it, I knew it would be worse for other users.

In the end I switched to Ultimarc servosticks which allowed me to automate the switching which was a better end user experience and everybody seems comfortable with the greater throw of those sticks.