Well, after several minor setbacks the monitor is installed and working! We milled the frame out to the dimensions necessary for the monitor and made some special nuts for the mounting bolts since the slots for the bolts were no longer slots but more like notches.

With the frame bolted into the cabinet we picked up the monitor and slid it into place. It fit perfectly and once bolted in is solid as a rock.

Of course, we had to go ahead and hook up the computer and get something up on the display. So we cobbled the pieces together and switched everything on and…

The monitor made a series of clicking noises accompanied by flashes on the screen and then nothing. Then it would repeat. Not what we were expecting. So I emailed Rick Nieman and described the problem I was having. (Remember that I bought this monitor almost two years ago.) I sent the email at 6:09 and he responded before 6:30. That my friends is customer service!

Turns out I just needed to set the display resolution of the computer correctly and all was well.

We have a LONG way to go, but it is so cool to see Donkey Kong (and Dig Dug, and Centipede, and Joust, and Tempest – the kids played games using the keyboard until I made them go to bed) on the monitor in MY arcade machine!

Well, no project gets done without some adjustments to the plan…

THE BAD NEWS:

Got the monitor out of storage to install in the cabinet (a Nieman Video 27″ Flat Tri-Mode CRT Display) and it will not fit in the mounting frame. I designed and built the frame from measurements I got off the specs for the monitor, but they are slightly off and there is no room for error.

THE GOOD NEWS:

After measuring several times (just to be sure) and overlaying the new dimensions on the drawing it appears that we can mill out some material and make everything work!

So, into the shop we go tomorrow to fix things and then back on track.

Well, as I told you in the last post, I was not too happy with the color of the marquee once everything was installed. I knew it needed darkened up, so I adjusted the art and resent it to GameOnGrafix . They got it done and sent to me in record time and I put the new version in and turned on the lights…

Still too washed out. Better, but not what I was looking for. Then it occurred to me that in all the button lighting tests I did, the white led’s never looked very good (they washed out the orange too much), but orange led’s looked great! So how to get orange led’s in the marquee…or maybe, the led’s don’t need to be orange, just the light coming from them. I called a friend of mind who is in the sound and light business and asked if he had any orange film that they use to color stage lights. He did…

So I cut a piece of the film and taped it to the diffuser in the marquee box and installed everything back (including glass this time) and flipped the switch…

Beautiful!!!

And it looks good with room lights on too…

Onward and upward…

Well, from a picture standpoint, this is not much of an update. But from a work standpoint a lot has happened.

We are working hard to get all the drilling and painting and dust creating stuff done so we can move the Cowboy Arcade into the game room. As of this post, all the painting is done, the various mounts and misc things that had to be drilled, screwed in or glued are done. Also, the exterior plug has been wired to the interior outlet and the main power supply is in the cabinet.

Tonight we fitted the back pieces and then attached the lights to the power supply. We still need a strip of wood 3/4″ wide and 1/8″ thick to fit between the top and bottom backs. I left this off until now to make sure we had wiggle room. With the backs screwed in and the lights hooked up it looks like this:

Pushed against a wall with the room lights out:

So far I am very happy with the way things are coming together!

Got the lights and marquee installed! The upper part of the cabinet forms a box (which I call the marquee box…) that houses the lights, reflector, diffuser and marquee. The diffuser is fabricated from a florescent light fixture reflector that I hacked into pieces and then pop riveted together to make a cut-down reflector. The reflector fits into grooves routed from side to side in the top and bottom of the marquee box:

Originally I had planned on mounting the led light bars on mounts attached to the box and then sliding the reflector into the box, turns out there is not a lot of room to work in there. So, I mounted the lights on the reflector itself.  Worked great…

During the design phase I was worried about the LED lights being to direct and being able to see bright spots. So, I cut a diffuser panel out of the diffuser from a florescent fixture and it slips into the same groove as the reflector and makes sure the light is even…

Then the marquee holders simply screw into the underside and top of the box, bent to match the angle of the marquee and powder coated black. Once the bottom holder is in place the marquee slips in and the top holder traps it.

I’m concerned about two things:

First, I ordered the marquee from MameMarquees and they did a great job, but the plexi they sent to sandwich it is too thin for my liking and I’m worried about it getting scratched. I think I’m going to get a piece of 0.25 tempered glass for the outside piece so I can clean it with glass cleaner and keep it nice and shiny.

Second, when I designed the art I did not really know how backlit film would handle the effect I was going for. Turns out that the B&W original Tempest art in the background “allows” light to pass through and washes out the orange. I am going to have to reduce the level of the background and saturate the orange neon to get it right.

Other than that I couldn’t be happier!

Even though it is getting ahead of what needs to be done I couldn’t resist putting in the coin door.

The box is finished. Just 3 months shy of 3 years from inception and we finally have a cabinet to start putting things on and in!

Woot!

Well, last night we glued up the Cowboy Arcade cabinet! It went really well and all the planning and care taken to this point paid off in a great final assembly.

We had already test fit each part in each side, so we knew the thing could go together. With a side laying on the table of the router (flat, sturdy, big surface) we put epoxy glue in all the dado grooves that would be receiving parts. Then we put the parts in that side making sure each part was completely seated and correctly positioned. Then we put glue into the same slots on the other side and lifted it onto the assembly. Starting at the top of the cabinet we worked each component into place (sometime with a little help from a rubber mallet) until the whole side was seated over the ends of the components. We then used an air nailer and clamps to secure the side while the glue dried.

For the door, we used Bryce’s edge bander to put a black PVC edging on the door before laminating the front.

Then we test fitted the CP and admin panel to get an idea of what everything will look like!

We got the CP laminated and the hinges on the door before we quit last night but I didn’t get any pictures.

Tomorrow we will glue in the side pieces for the the back to attach to and make sure everything is complete and then it comes home!

Worked for about 4 hours on the cabinet at Bryce’s shop today! We are getting very close.

Here is the back of the marquee box glued up:

Then the whole marquee box together and fitted into a side:

Since the router bit used to cut the dado grooves won’t cut a sharp corner we have to round off the corners of the parts going into the side dados. We used a laminate trimming router with a plunge bit set exactly as deep as the dados and the rounded off the corners where necessary. Once the part is fitted the sharp corners are flush against the inside surface of the side and look very neat.

Here is the base being glued up:

We used biscuits to make sure the pieces lined up exactly and are using an epoxy glue that takes a few hours to set. It is a void filling glue and has several times the strength of carpenters glue.

Here is the base with the joists ready to go in:

And here is the completed base with the cement for the laminate on it:

Here is the front panel (the part under the CP) glue together:

Here are the door and the “monitor shelf” (the monitor doesn’t sit there…)

And here are a couple pics of the parts fitted into one or the other side:

Tomorrow we are going to glue the thing together! Stay tuned for pics of the complete cabinet.

A little more progress has been made. We had a little set back in terms of time to work on the cabinet, but got back to it this past week. Got the rest of the internal parts cut out and are almost ready to glue the thing up.

Here is the base fitted together (upside down of course)

And…

Today I got the custom vinyl letters I had Troy Robinson make for me.

Since I can’t get AimTrak guns in orange I decided I would accent my guns. They will go nicely with my cabinet theme.