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Started putting together the MAME cabinet on friday.  I managed to get as far as assembling the base.  Since it’s such an integral part of the entire cabinet, I spent a bunch of time with tubes of No More Nails and some good wood screws to make sure nothing moves. 

It supports me standing on top of it- hopefully it’ll support the weight of the cabinet and the TV (which probably weighs twice as much as me together!)

Fancy tip: pre-drilling all of the screw holes should ensure that none of your wood splits.

I’m still trying to figure out how to cut rounded corners for the cabinet.  I picked up a toonie-sized washer at Rona, hoping that I can use it with some double-sided tape to guide the router around the curve.  I’m not very confident in the success (or safety) of doing it this way.  I’ve noticed that a lot of cabinets seem to skip the rounding step - I suppose it won’t be too terrible if I just keep my 90-degree corners.

Since my last update, I’ve found a number of cabinet construction inspirations:

• http://www.garry.ca/: Nice pictures of cabinet construction, including T-moulding insertion.  Lots of detail about creating marquees.  Fellow canuck (big plus).
• arcadecontrols.org forum: Nifty implementation of a control screenshot with button labels.  I was thinking about doing this for my cabinet, but it would be nice to have something to just drop in.  Think of it as “context help” for the game you’re playing on your cabinet.
• Massive MAME Project: Canadian source for Oscar spinners.
• Stealth Boy’s MAME Cabinet: Lots of detail on good construction techniques.  Interesting links.

Okay, gotta make myself a checklist so I can finish this project up in a reasonable amount of time.  It looks like a lot, but I can usually take out a number of these in a day.

Did I mention that a MAME cabinet requires a huge amount of commitment?

Stage One: Construction

• Round cabinet corner sides (optional).
• Attach 2x4’s to sides of cabinet for all edges, monitor and speaker/marquee shelves.
• Construct strong monitor shelf from already-cut wood and 2x4’s.
• Attach cabinet sides to base, using 2x4s to connect sides together.
• Install cabinet front using Blum hinges and key lock.
• Install cabinet back with Blum hinges and key lock.
• Cut 45-degree angles on cabinet back diagonal piece.
• Install cabinet top and back diagonal piece.
• Cut T-moulding groove with router and slot-cutting bit.
• Install T-moulding.
• Cut 45-degree angle for control panel back.
• Assemble control panel, using blum hinges and draw hasp for top.
• Install drawer slides in cabinet and control panel, attach control panel to cabinet.

Stage Two: Installation/Wiring

• Purchase 25” or 27” inch TV (possibly Sony Wega).
• Order buttons, joysticks, coin box, marquee light, marquee retainer from Happ Controls.
• Order Opti-Pac, i-Pac, joysticks and trackball from Ultimarc.
• Order spinners and spinner tops from Oscar Controls.
• Cut coin box hole in cabinet front.
• Install coin box.
• Drill speaker holes above display.
• Drill control and joystick holes in cabinet top.
• Test-install all controls, make sure everything is correct, remove controls.
• Sand, prime and paint all cabinet surfaces.
• Re-install controls.
• Wire all controls to i-Pac and Opti-Pac, test controls.
• Install TV on monitor shelf, secure.
• Construct paper bezel for TV (from arcadecontrols.org forum instructions).
• Install plexiglass (tinted and clear?) in front of TV.
• Install speakers in speaker holes.
• Install light behind marquee.
• Install marquee with marquee retainer.
• Install extra speakers, if needed.
• Install subwoofer in cabinet base.

Stage Three: Computer Hardware/Software

• Mount motherboard in cabinet by mounting in slotted 2x2 pieces of wood.
• Mount power-supply to cabinet interior.
• Mount harddrive and enclosure within cabinet.
• Install additional ventilation- top and back of cabinet.
• Install 4-port home-connect-style multimedia ports with ethernet jack in rear of cabinet (any other wiring?).
• Drill/cut hole for single external power cord.
• Install Fedora Core 2.
• Install MAME packages.
• Test-play system for kicks.  ;)
• Set-up front end and fancy boot process.
• … ?
• PROFIT!

I took the cabinet sides and used the circular saw to clean up some of the nastiness I left by using a spinsaw.  The trick is building a jig using a straight piece of wood and an aluminum guide.  You can use one edge of the wood to line up your cut and then use the aluminum to guide the saw in a straight line.

I also got the top of the control panel cut.  By the time I started I was getting pretty tired and really messed up the first cut.  Thankfully you can fix most cuts with more cutting.

My recommendation to anyone considering building a MAME cabinet: make sure you can commit for a couple of months.  For inexperienced woodworkers like myself, you’ll probably take a couple of hours to do cuts that a skilled worker could do in a few minutes.  I’m glad that I’ve been doing it- I can at least count myself as someone who can now use a power tool safely and figure out a way to make any basic cut that I need.

The MAME-cabinet-related posts are a little boring and repetitive, I know.  It’s mostly so I can keep a journal of when I’ve worked on it so I can string them together as a basic instruction guide after I’m done.  Bear with me!

Lots of cutting involved in creating a MAME cabinet.  This last weekend I managed to cut out the two side panels using my brand-new spinsaw from Canadian Tire.  It’s a sweet tool - a bunch of different rotary tools in one.  Like a Dremel, but more heavy-duty.

I went to a number of stores looking for the T-moulding that I’ll need on the cabinet edges.  None of the places here in Calgary stocked it, so I decided to order from t-moulding.com.  They also carried the 1/16” slot-cutting bit that you need to route the edges with.  I don’t know how long it’ll take to arrive.  At least there’s some assembling to do before it all gets here (the base of the cabinet can go together before anything gets routed).

Been busy over the last few weeks as we get married, took a week off hidden in the mountains of BC and then returned to Calgary to get back into our regular groove.  It’s been really hectic but a lot of fun.

Our wedding was in a mountain up around Abraham Lake, Alberta.  We chartered a helicopter company to take us to a little nook above a beautiful mountain lake.  It took six trips to haul our 20-person wedding party to the mossy outcropping.  The pilots gave us a great ride, even following a fantastic sepentine mountain valley river for a short while.  From the destination’s ledge the view was spectacular: a green, glacial mountain lake sitting at the bottom of two enclosing mountain chains.  There was even a small glacial waterfall on the nook that we used for all of our pictures.

There’s a surprising amount of work (and stress) to organize a wedding- even a small one like ours.  I can say one thing for sure: it’s definitely worth it.