Controls!
This is going to be the toughest section of the cabinet build for me. Not so much the wiring, but I'm working with thin ply and plexiglass and detail is going to be important. Fine finish work really isn't what I'm into. The controls are only partway done, but I've done a little experimenting to prepare myself for the final job. I'll post my findings on working with the materials in case anyone is interested.
The Power Drive cabinet originally had a 3 player control panel. I wanted to keep the original panel shape because I like the hinged metal base that came with the original setup. My only real pre-requisites were 6 buttons per player for fighting games and sticks close enough together for Robotron and other twin stick games like Black Widow and Smash TV. I love the frantic action of the twin stick games!
After pulling the original metal "skin", controls and T-molding out of the original control panel, I was left with a good template for the replacement panel. I couldn't just use the original due to the huge holes for the 2 ways sticks and oddball button placement. Here is the original Power Drive panel along with the roughed out ply and plexiglass replacements.
I cut the rough panels with a low end Makita circular saw and a very fine toothed blade made for fine woods or plastics. I think an aggressive wood blade would cause the plexi to chip on the edges. You also have to be pretty careful that it doesn't start vibrating up and down on you too. Overall, it wasn't as hard to work with as I expected. The plexi makes a huge mess. Definitely cut it outside if you can. I was going nuts trying to sweep it. Due to static, it jumps on the broom and sticks, or sticks on the driveway and doesn't want to move. I finally got pissed off and gave up. The rain will wash it away!
Couldn't resist plopping it on the cabinet to see how (if!) it'd fit. I need to do the edges, figure out where I want everything, then cut the holes for the sticks and buttons.
I was real worried about drilling the holes for the buttons. One of the problems I had was finding the proper sized hole saw for the control buttons. The typical button size is 1 3/16", but Home Depot and Lowe's only had 1 1/8" and 1 1/4".
I bought a 1 1/8" hoping to make due with it. I stopped in Sears hardware for some other stuff, and took a look at their selection of hole saw stuff. They had a Milwaukee 1 3/16" in stock! It uses a different arbor than the other holes saws I have, so I had to pick that up too* . I'm finding that although most of what I'm doing is being done economically, it's easy to get nickel and dimed (actually $20'd and $40'd) to death. Actual cabinet parts so far have been under $300, but I've ended up buying quite an assortment of extra tools to do the work. Not really a bad thing, since they can be used for future projects, it just adds up at a mind-boggling rate.
Here is the first test I did with the hole saw. I sandwiched the plexi between two sheets of 3/8" ply. The clamps were another of the unexpected expenses.
*read more on the Milwaukee arbor further down.
The drill went through bogging down and making a hell of a stink, and I was expecting horrible results.
It came out really nice! There is a little bit of plastic schmutz to clean up after drilling but the hole saw made a very clean cut. I put the scrap pieces together and popped a button in there to see how it looked. The flange on the button JUST covers the evidence! The ply will be painted black after all the drilling on the final control panel. I'm debating on graphics, but for right now I just want it to work and not look like a 5th grade science project.
Some goodies came from Ultimarc (www.ultimarc.com) last week! 12 control buttons, 1 & 2 player start, two Slik Stik's, a wiring kit and an I Pac. For anyone not familiar with the I Pac, it basically takes the stick and button signals and converts them to standard keyboard presses for the MAME PC. A lot of the older cab builders had to hack keyboards and game controllers for this function. Some still do, but the price on the I Pac is well worth the time and aggravation (I hope) it will save.
Drilling Time!
Ah, drilling the plexi control panel. This is the thing I'd been worrying about since I first decided to build a control panel instead of just using a Hot Rod or Slik Stik. I read up on prepping plexi on both MAME projects and model railroad websites (that's where a general search took me, and there was some decent info!). I had a limited amount of material, unlike the plywood, so I was really hoping not to screw up.
I downloaded some Adobe .PDF control panel templates from Talking Octopus's MAME page. He also has some other useful templates. Worth a look if you're thinking about doing a cab. http://webpages.charter.net/rbecker5/index.html
The templates I used are full color Capcom Street Fighter 2 layouts, but since I didn't intend to use the graphics, I just printed them grayscale and messed around with placement to try to find a comfortable layout. I wanted to find a balance between being able to play the single player twin stick games (Robotron) and not bumping elbows when playing a two player games. If anyone saw me in the garage standing in front of a stripped arcade cabinet playing with imaginary joysticks and buttons, they must have thought I was a total tool.
I was originally thinking about a slightly offset layout as seen in the picture, but ended up moving the left stick back over to a more traditional position.
After playing through about 15 imaginary games of Robotron and Mortal Kombat, I decided on final control positioning, laid down the templates and drilled some pilot holes. I was super cautious at this step, drilling tiny holes, then larger holes before stepping up to the 1 3/16" hole saw. I kept having this vision of the large bit slipping and ripping clear across the face of the plexi.
I had the first bad drilling experience when the Milwaukee hole saw arbor I mentioned earlier broke halfway into the very first hole. The set screw that holds the bit to the saw body popped right out of it's detent. I tried to file it down and get it to work but it was futile. I went back to Sears Hardware and looked around. I finally found a Craftsman version and decided to try my luck with that. Don't buy the Milwaukee arbor if you're going to drill plexiglass. It's not strong enough. The Milwaukee hole saw body itself is fine.
Thar She Blows with the stick and button holes done! The one's at the top are the 1 and 2 player start locations, and I also added three more above the Player 1 controls for Esc, Enter and Insert Coin.
You have no idea what a time consuming bitch it was to drill these holes. My plexi is 3/8" and so is the ply. I clamped them both together and drilled at the same time to make sure everything lined up. The plexi would clog the hole saw, so I actually drilled through it, cleaned out the bit, then drilled through the ply and cleaned it again before starting the next hole. "Cleaned out the bit" sounds so much less frustrating than what I actually did... beat the shit out of the plexi with a screwdriver jammed through little slots in the bit. Once I got a system down, including an astronomical torrent of obscenities, things starting moving a little quicker.
Here's the days payoff (well, this and 20 plexiglass donuts)! It was all worth it when I set it in and temporarily plopped in some buttons. The protective covering is still on my plexiglass at this point. I don't want to remove it until all the rough work is done.
I originally planned on just sanding the ply under the plexi, giving it a nice coat of gloss black and having a very simple black panel. I screwed up any chances of this by making the control panel with the ugly side of the plywood up! I guess that's the downside of having a protective cover on the glass. I considered filling the ugly visible knots and cracks, then finally just decided to cover the panel.
All that I could get locally was the same black marble contact paper that everyone seems to use for their control panels. I was disappointed because I've seen it on a ton of web pages, but when the neighbors and family saw it with a "fresh" outlook, they said it looks great. Its complete and functional, so I'm going to continue on with it, but when I go back to detail things, it's way up there on the list of changes. Here is the front and back. I just slapped the contact paper around the edge of the ply and taped it down. Still need to do a moulding on the panel edge, but that's going to wait until I re-do the covering.
I cut three extra button holes as a last minute decision for ESC, Insert Coin, and Enter. Still have to get buttons for those... Knew I should have ordered a couple spares!
The cab is playable, so work has slowed to a crawl!