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Monitor
stand side panel. The round corners at the bottom were made
with a 3" hole saw.
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This
is the side panel with all 1x1 reinforcements attached.
I made 2 shelf supports and the base with 1x2 reinforcements.
The 2 shelves are also shown, along with the end pieces.
The
holes in the shelves and the one end piece are to allow
wires to pass through.
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Here
are 3 sides glued and screwed to one side panel. You can see
the hole in the base for the wires to pass through. |
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A
different view of the above. Here you can see the side panel
and both wire pass through holes. |
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I
have now attached all 4 sides of the lower section. I decided
to glue in 4 2x4's to add extra support for the weight of
the monitor. After this picture I glued and screwed in the
base piece.
At
this point, I haven't decided whether to add leg levelers,
wheels or carpet sliders.
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Here
you can see how big the monitor is. The stand is now done,
although the door isn't shown. |
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Side
view. |
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Back
side. |
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Inside
view with lower shelf removed. |
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Final
shot with lower shelf in place. I sat on the stand, and
I think it's going to hold the weight just fine.
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Here
are the parts for the control panel stand. |
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I've
attached the bottom, sides, top and front. The hole is for
a coin door. |
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Inside
view of the above picture. |
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Side
view, showing the construction of the angled part. I'm not
sure how I'll attach it to the monitor stand. Most likely
bolts will go through the open area. |
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Complete
assembly. I'm not sure how I'll attach the control panel either.
I think I should have made a flat top piece. I may have to
do some modification here, but we'll see. |
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Completed
front view. Here you can see the hole in the bottom that lines
up with the one in the monitor stand. the wires will pass
through the hole from the PCB shelf in the monitor stand to
the control panel. |
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Here
I've placed the control panel stand next to the monitor
stand. I haven't yet made them attach to each other.
Please
excuse the mess, I'm out of room and am using the cabinet
for parts and tool storage until I get some more room.
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Here's
how I made the rounded edges for the monitor surround. I
drilled 2 holes in the stick. One hole has a screw inserted
so the stick will pivot. The other hole is just big enough
for a pen.
You
then put the pen in the hole and slowly draw the curve.
I then used this piece as the master to cut all the other
curved pieces.
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I
was having trouble wrapping my head around the measurements
to make sure I used as little wood as necessary to make the
top and bottom of the monitor surround. I made a template
out of cardboard to verify my measurements, then copied it
in paper to make sure I could cut 2 pieces within 48 inches
of width. |
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This
is the monitor placed on top of the base of the monitor surround.
It looks like my measurements were pretty good. |
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Notice
that the monitor chassis is off center. I don't know why
they made it like that, and I had to adjust my measurements
once I noticed it.
I
may cut some off the back of the piece, as it's a bit deeper
than it needs to be.
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This
is just a test fitting, none of the pieces are glued together
at this point. |
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I
drilled a couple extra holes in the lower monitor bracket.
The plan is to have 3 bolts holding the bracket to the base
of the surround, and 4 bolts pass all the way through the
bracket to the inside of the cabinet.
This
will allow the surround to be removed from the stand, while
the monitor is still mounted in the surround.
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The
monitor surround is finally built. I still need to figure
out how to hold the plexiglass in front of the monitor. The
rectangular hole is where the monitor wires will pass through
into the monitor stand. |
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I've
placed the monitor surround on top of the monitor stand.
The surround isn't that heavy without a monitor in it, I
was able to place it there by myself.
I
had to bolt the monitor bracket through the surround and
into the stand just to keep it there, as the empty surround
is back heavy. The monitor has most of the weight in the
front, so once it's in there the balance should be centered
on the monitor stand.
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Angle
view of the major assemblies in their proper places. |
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Side
view of the pieces placed next to each other. At this point,
I haven't bolted the control panel stand to the monitor stand.
I have come up with a way to do it, I just haven't had the
time yet. |
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That's
a big relief! The monitor fits in the surround just right.
I've got enough room for the plexiglass with no problems.
I've
temporarily placed the piece of wood that will hold the
plexi curve in the bottom of the surround. This piece will
have to be screwed in after the monitor is in place as there
isn't enough height to fit the monitor in with the wood
in place. There will be one on the top as well as one on
the bottom.
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I
made an access hole in the back, but it may not be big enough.
I'll need to get my arm in far enough to connect the monitor
wires to the games wiring harness.
I
may be able to use a coat hanger and snag the wires from
inside the monitor stand.
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I
had made the surround deep enough to allow some spare room
behind the monitor, but when I placed the surround on the
stand I didn't like how deep it was. I ended up cutting off
another 2 inches, and you can see from this picture that the
chassis is almost touching the back. |
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Here's
a picture of the power supply mounting. When I took this
picture I hadn't yet secured the wood blocks to the cabinet.
I've
cut a square opening in the cabinet that will allow the
power supply to stick out flush with the back of the monitor
stand.
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I
cut a hole for the fan just above the power supply. I'm planning
on having it draw air into the cabinet. The power supply has
a fan that blows air out, and the rest of the warm air should
rise to the monitor surround, where it will exit through the
vent I added to the top as well as the access hole in the
back. |
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I've
mounted the game board with 4 screws to hold the metal plate
in place. I hope the hard drive is alright at that angle. |
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I
had to notch the interior shelf to allow the fans on the game
board to blow air all the way up the metal plate. I've also
got to think about adding some sort of plastic or metal piece
to the intake fan that will allow the incoming air to flow
towards the board. |
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The
control panel attaches to the stand via a piece of wood. Here
it is attached to the control panel with 8 bolts through the
existing threaded inserts in the control panel box. |
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Here's
the backside of the control panel mount. I used the slight
discoloration on the bottom of the control panel tub to
guess at the shape of the wood. I cut a slot in it to pass
the wiring through.
I
installed 4 T-nuts into the board. They will be what holds
the wood to the control panel stand.
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The
top of the control panel stand. There's a slot for the wiring
to pass through, and 4 holes for the bolts that hold the control
panel to the stand. |
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I
decided not to try and hide the bolts that hold the wood to
the control panel. I figure that it's not important, since
it's only visible if you're on the ground. |
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Here's
another shot of the bolts that hold the control panel on. |
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Front
view of the panel attached to the stand. |
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Side
view of the panel attached to the stand. |
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Finally,
major construction is done! Here I've given all the parts
a quick hand sand with 220 grit, and layed them out for painting. |
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I've
now got one coat of primer on most of the parts, and two coats
on a few parts. I've used one quart of primer, and I'll have
to get another to finish the second coat. I'm using a foam
roller, and a brush to cut in the corners and edges. |
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At
last, painting begins. I chose a two color scheme based on
an idea I saw on the arcadecontrols website. I bought black
and dark blue T molding, and the paint should be a close match
to the blue molding. |
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Painting
is done, and construction begins. Here's the bottom of the
control panel tub with the mounting plate attached. I've also
added T molding to the plate. |
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The
monitor is in the surround, but I'm still working on mounting
the plexi.
You can see the bolts that hold the monitor bracket to the
top of the surround, but it'll be high enough up that they
shouldn't be too noticable. I couldn't think of an easy
way to hide them. If I countersunk them, the strength of
the wood would have been comprimised.
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I
decided to use furniture sliders instead of leg levelers.
I wrapped the T molding around the bottom of the cabinet to
protect the bottom. |
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Here's
the control panel stand with the control panel bolted to it. |
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I
put the coin door on to see how the control panel stand looks
completed, but I need to fill the holes, sand and refinish
the door. |
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I've
mounted the electronics in the stand, and put the shelf in.
Everything fits the way it should. Now I just need to put
the monitor on top, but that's a two person job. |
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I've
installed the lock and some Gauntlet Legends art work I bought
to finish off the door panel. |
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I've
got the monitor on the floor, raised up by wood blocks. There
are 4 bolts and 3 wire harnesses that need to be passed through
the monitor stand. This'll be tricky, as I'll have to have
someone help me lift up the monitor and then make sure all
the bolts and wires line up. |
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Instead
of refinishing the coin door I removed one from my MAME cabinet.
I've also installed the Gauntlet Legends service switch assembly
inside the control panel stand. |
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My
friend came over and helped me get the monitor up on the
stand today. The monitor assembly weighs a ton, there's
no way it could have been done by only one person.
You
can see in the picture that I still need to add the monitor
plexi, and the small covers that will hide where the two
parts connect.
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When
I looked at this picture I noticed that the white vent cover
on the floor. That should have gone over the access hole
in the back of the monitor surround. I'll have to slide
it out and screw that in.
At
this point I took a rest, so I haven't attached all the
wires and powered it on yet. I wanted to be able to concentrate
on the wiring to make sure everything was hooked up right
before I turned it on.
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Here's
how I made the brackets that hold the plexi over the monitor.
I took aluminum angle stock and glued a balsa wood triangle
to the back. I used balsa because my local hobby store didn't
have triangles made of plastic.
The
purpose of the wood is easily seen in this picture. Rather
than have the sharp angle, the wood acts as a buffer that
lessens the angle so the plexi slides in and follows the
same angle.
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Ignore
the drill hole, that was from another project. The real
holes should go in the same side as the balsa wood.
I
simply used wood glue to attach the balsa, and it's holding
fine. After gluing I painted the brackets.
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The
protective film is still on the plexi in this photo. I still
have to figure out how to hide the monitor brackets. The
easy way would be to get a piece of black cardboard and
cut a hole for the monitor, then place it behind the plexi.
Some
monitors have the paper bezel straight across, instead of
following the curve of the plexi. I think that type looks
better, but it's harder to make.
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Today
I plugged everything together for the first time and powered
it on - success!! A friend and I played for a couple hours.
The only issues were a couple buttons that I swapped when
I had them all unplugged to clean the control panel, some
pincushon in the monitor picture and no lights in the control
panel.
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I've
made the covers for the area where the two main pieces bolt
together. I used black plastic snap screw covers to conceal
the screws that attach the panels to the cabinet. |
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This
picture was taken without a flash to show the game running,
that's why the picture's a bit dark.
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Three
quarter side view showing the lit up attract panel in the
joystick tub.
Yes,
that's a light saber on top of the cabinet. It seemed like
a good place to put it until I get around to making a lit
up marquee box.
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Reverse
angle from above. |
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I've
now added a light up marquee box above the monitor, and also
game instructions below the monitor. |
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This
is a closeup of the monitor section. I bought the marquee
box already assembled, but there was no artwork, plexi,
screws or light. I bought a flourecent light, plexi, and
auto trim screws locally. I bought the artwork for the marquee
box and the game instructions from ebay.
The
marquee box is 2 pieces of plexi with the artwork sandwiched
inbetween. The game instructions are stuck to a piece of
plastic, then attached to the monitor plexi with velcro
on each side. If I change the game out, I can make a new
instruction sheet and attach it in the same place.
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