DIY ROM Arcade Blog Build Your Own Arcade Machine

Pictures – DIY ROM Arcade Machine Construction – Part 1

Building a DIY Arcade System – How-To Guide and Tips

Behold the first shots of the DIY ROM Arcade Machine! With the help of a friend I was finally able to start on the construction of the Arcade System this weekend.

The shots below are of us building the Arcade System based on the designs I posted in my previous article:

Build Your Own Arcade Machine - Plans, Designs & Guide

My friend is a commercial carpenter and really helped me out a lot because I don’t have the best wood working skills in the world. He also gave me a lot of great tips that I will share below. For extended details about the pictures checkout my Flickr account here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/diyromarcade/

I started taking pictures from the beginning of the construction process so I have quite a few from the first part of the build so far. My friend started cutting some of the pieces ahead of time, but waited to do the side panels so we could take some pictures of how that was done.

(NOTE: I have only featured key photos from the construction in this article. To see all the pictures with extended details and tips checkout my Flickr account at the link listed above.)

 01. We started out by getting the building materials. In this case we are using MDF, and PBR. The MDF was on sale at $12.50 for a 8 ft’. by 4 ft’ sheet and the PBR was regular price, $15 for a 30 pack. ^_^

 02. My friend pre-cut many of the standard shaped pieces. We figured most people wouldn’t have any trouble cutting out a square. The two tips he gave me here are that if you are using an 8’ ft. by 4’ ft. piece of MDF you can cut all the square pieces in my design out from one strip of wood off the side. This leaves you with a large piece that you can cut the two side panels out of and still have some left over for a controller and misc purposes. Also when you measure your pieces take into account that your saw blade is usually about 1/8 of an inch thick. That means you need to add an eighth of an inch onto each piece you draw (measure) out onto your MDF, otherwise once you cut 8 pieces out the final piece will be almost an inch too short.

03. To transfer the side panels to MDF as accurately as possible we used protractors, and a compass to get the angles correct. My initial plans are a little rough and do not include these angles. I will be adding an updated set of plans to the site that include this information.

 04. Once the first side panel was cut out we used it as a stencil for the second side panel. When you trace your initial side panel the second panel will be slightly larger because it was traced from the original. This is to be expected and can be fixed with a router to make the pieces match perfectly.

 05. Once both the side panels have been cut out we clamped them together so we could router the edges to get both pieces to be a perfect match. It is crucial that the two pieces do not move when you are using the router to get the most even edge possible.

 06. We used a table saw to cut a bunch of small strips of wood to be used as cleats in the construction of the Arcade Machine. These are extremely useful for anchoring your panels together to get really clean seams between the wood. It also helps you avoid splitting the MDF by trying to screw directly into a piece of half inch board.

 07. Using a piece of scrap wood we drew guidelines for the cleats. Use a piece of wood as thick as your panels and line it up as close to flush as possible with your side panel. Then trace a line so you know the width of the panel. Once you have guidelines for all the sides you will be attaching panels to you will know exactly where your cleats need to go.

 08. Measure your side panels so you know how long the cleats will need to be. They do not need to run the full length of the panel. It is a good idea to leave an inch off of the ends for installing the other cleats and in areas that you think may be a tight fit for other parts of your Arcade Machine. Once you have them measured, cut the pieces to size and fit them into place.

09. Here we have measured and fitted the cleats into place. We cut them down to size and then used wood glue to attach them to the side panels. Once they had been attached we stapled them in place to ensure a solid construction. If you do not have access to a pneumatic staple gun you should be able to use standard screws to attach your cleats. Make sure you drill holes before attempting to screw into your MDF.

10. The controller area on the system was pretty tight so we had to make a mount for the panels out of scrap MDF. My friend showed me a good way to do this.

To make a piece that will fit perfectly cover the area you need to make the piece for in masking tape. Overlay the tape slightly on the edges to create a piece of paper. Since masking tape is thin you should be able to see the lines you traced through the tape. Use a ruler to trace the shape onto the tape. Take your scrap wood and then line up a straight edge on the tape to the straight edge on the wood. You can now use a saw to cut out a perfectly sized piece. Checkout my Flickr pictures for more shots of this.

11. Once all the cleats are in place on the side panels the front, bottom, top, and back panels can all be fixed into place fairly easily. We wood glued all the pieces and then used the staple gun to fix them into place.

12. Once the rear panel was in place we moved onto the front panels and the controller section.

13. Doing some small touches like rear mounted screws for easy access to the inside of the Arcade System. We also took the router and rounded the corners in the shape of the side panel to give the system a more authentic look.

14. A shot looking into the front of the Arcade Machine. Here the side panels, top and bottom are all in place. Now we need to focus on the controller area and bottom front panels.

 15. We dry fit the front panels into place and because of the angles on the controller section we had to re-cut some of the edges on the pieces to get them nice and flush. All the pieces fit together tightly because of the angled edges which allowed for a very snug fit in the controller section.

Here's my friends business card. He's a really talented builder who does beautiful carpentry work. If you are in Dane County, Wisconsin or surrounding areas and need a professional for the job, Clayton is the guy to call.

Arcade System Construction Progress - Phase One

Above is the partially finished cabinet after phase one of the construction process. So far the build has taken about 4 hours and we still have more work we need to do.

We left the front open because next time we will be adding in the monitor and internal parts. The back panel on the system comes off so we can easily access the inside and install the PC hardware into the Arcade System.

The wood panel in place on the controller section is a place holder as the controller is being redesigned to give the system a more interesting look. One other thing that changed is I scrapped the fold out keyboard idea from the system. It was an unneeded feature for the first system as I can just plug in a keyboard when I need one. As someone on the Arcade Controls forum mentioned to me “KISS – Keep it Simple Stupid”. This is always great advice, especially for a project like this.

The next time we build we will be adding the internal mounts for the computer hardware. I will add updated plans to the site once we determine were the mounts will be inside the system.

Tomorrow I will be ordering the remaining parts from Amazon.com and checking some reviews on Arcade Parts vendors to find the best place for my controller hardware. If you know of any good resources please feel free to share them with me in the comments.

Keep checking back for updates on the progress of the system. I will be posting updated designs to highlight changes, and additional details to the existing plans. I will also be posting my controller designs in the next few posts on the blog. Thanks for checking out my site!