Home Built MAME Arcade Machine Project – Part 6
Building Your Own DIY Arcade Machine - Pictures
Hey guys. Sorry for the delay in my latest post. A lot has been happening in real life lately so I have been a little behind. We got some work done of the system this past Friday but then on Sunday my friend text messaged me with some big news…
His son was born!
I want to congratulate him on his first kid, and I know he’ll be a great dad. That kid is going to know how to build the hell outta stuff!
Anyway, because he is preoccupied with his first child, we are going to be taking a week or two off of building the Arcade Machine. It’s ironic because the timing couldn’t be better.
The last time we worked on the system we did surface work, priming and painting. Short of a little paint here and there, and a few small drill holes and additions that need to be added the system is almost completely done.
In the interim I will be using the extra time to start working on designing the Arcade Artwork for the system. I had been procrastinating about doing this, and now with the kid being born I will have some extra time to get this done right without feeling rushed.
With that being said I will be writing some follow-up articles soon about doing Artwork for an Arcade Machine from the Marquee and Side Panel Artwork to the Arcade Control panel artwork.
But before we do all that, let’s take another look at where we are with the Arcade Machine.
Below I have shots of a latest progress on my home made Arcade Machine along with captions for each picture with information and building tips I have been learning from the project. As always if you would like to see all my pictures for the project you can find them on my Flickr account here: DIY ROM Arcade on Flickr
[Sorry the latest pictures are a little grainy. I had to use my camera phone to take them.]
Home Built Arcade Machine Pictures & Guide - Part 6
We picked up where we left off last week and finished up Priming the system in any spots we are going to paint. We used Auto-body Primer and Filler since it goes on pretty thick and does a nice job of leveling any imperfections in the surface of your Arcade Machine.
You can see in the picture that we also started priming the Arcade Controls. Make sure you do surface work and sanding prior to priming and painting so that you get as smooth a surface as possible.
While the Primer was drying we did some work on the Arcade Controls. In previous week we drilled out holes for where the Arcade Buttons and Joystick will go. Now we needed to start soldering the wires to the USB gamepad we are using so it can be connected to the Arcade Controls.
It helps to have a device like the one we are using in the picture. It holds your circuit board (PCB) in place and makes it easier for soldering connections to it.
We didn’t do the best job of sanding the Arcade Controls down before we Primed the piece and it showed. Once we noticed this we waited for the Primer to dry and went back and sanded down the Arcade Control panel.
As I mentioned before make sure you do a job of sanding and filling any gaps or cracks on the surface of your Arcade Machine before Priming. Using Grey Primer is good because it can be painted white, or black very easily but also does a great job of exposing areas that need work. These areas are much harder to spot if you are using a black primer.
Once the Primer has dried it gets pretty hard and can be sanded down to correct problems without gumming up your sandpaper. (Unlike paint, which is much more of a mess to sand.)
Here my friend is filling some of the gaps and cracks we noticed on the Arcade Controls after we applied the primer. We had used Bondo to fill a lot of gaps on the surface prior to priming but there were still some spots that needed work.
We were trying a couple things out to see how different surface fillers would work on the system. Here we are using a very light weight spackle to fill in very small holes along the beveled edge. Adding the bevel to the MDF resulted in small holes along the rounded edge.
This is a shot of the rear grill we will be using on the system. We are adding a top or rear fan (Haven’t decided on placement yet.) to exhaust any heat that may build up in the Arcade Machine.
We cut this piece out of the PC Case we cut apart to use for mounts inside the system. As you can see we are priming and painting any parts that will be used on the outside of the system.
Here you can see we have Painted the outside of the system and I took a picture of some of the areas inside the Arcade Machine. Once the parts are reinstalled into the system many of the unpainted areas you can see in this picture will be covered.
Once they have dried and we are completely done with the Artwork and Plexiglass we will reinstall the Arcade Joystick and Buttons and wire them up to the gamepad we have been getting ready for the controls.
Here is the final shot of were we left off last Friday. As you can see the system has been completely Primed and Painted. We wanted to make sure it was completely dry before we handled the system so we did not leave finger prints in the paint.
The next time we work on it we will be applying the clear coat to protect the paint job. Eventually I will be applying custom designed Arcade Artwork to the side of the system. But this is still in the planning phase at the moment.
Overall I am very happy with how well the paint job came out and how smooth and polished the system feels.
Building Your Own MAME Arcade Machine Summary
As you can see from the pictures above the project is really coming along. I am very happy with the progress we have made so far and now that the construction part is almost finished I am moving into more of the difficult parts of the project.
Building the system has been a challenge but I have had my friends help and he is very knowledgeable when it comes to building things. Some of the next parts of the project I will be figuring out as I go.
I know there are a lot of guides and resources online that can help with this type of stuff but I wanted my first Arcade Machine to be built through trial and error before I started reading through all the information online.
For some of the next steps in this project I will be doing the following:
- Designing a coin plate for the Arcade System.
- Designing Arcade Artwork for the Cabinet.
- Designing the Marquee for the Arcade Machine
I will be documenting each of these projects just as I have done with the rest of this project, so people can follow along and see what I have done through trial and error.
As always thanks for checking out my site, I really appreciate it! Please feel free to leave any comments, feedback or questions below and I will do my best to answer them.
For now, keep checking back to see what develops with the system in the coming days. Thanks!
Updated Build Plans for my DIY Arcade Machine
Design Updates for my Home Built Arcade System
Hey all. As I mentioned in my previous plans post I had a feeling some things would change in the design of the Arcade Machine as the project went along. Well I am pleased to say that because of the initial planning phase, and my friend’s talents as a carpenter, the arcade system is almost 99% to spec.
So I will be keeping the original plans on the site for anyone that wants to take a look at them. The original plans can be found here:
Build Your Own Arcade Machine - Plans, Designs & Guide
I am however updating the plans for the layout of the internal components as this has changed. I will also be adding a more legible plan for the side panels of the Arcade machine.
Updated DIY Arcade Machine Designs
The first download below is for the improved side panel plans. My friend recommended to me, that I remake the side panel plans so they are easier for people to read without the need for a compass, or protractor. In the revised version of the plans we've marked that the back of the system and the bottom of the system are a 90 degree angle. You can match the side of your wood with this for a starting point. From here we have measured the length up the wood and the distance out for each angle in the side panel. Using this plan you should easily be able to determine the shape of the side panel without the need for a protractor.
Download (Arcade Cabinet Plans - Side Panel)
In the next two images I have shown the slightly revised layout of the parts inside the system.
We decided against the fold out keyboard in the first Arcade Machine as it just seemed to be unneeded. (Maybe in a future project) This space is now being utilized for the hard drive mounting area. The next change we made was moving the speakers down to the lower section of the Arcade Machine. This was for two reasons. First there was not enough room for them up top, and second I did not want them blocking the light for the marquee.
Download (Arcade Machine PC Hardware Layout - Side)
Download (Arcade System PC Hardware Setup - Top)
These are the most noted changes in the layout. If you have any comments or suggestions please feel free to leave a comment! Thanks for checking out the site!
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!