MAME Cabinet

Have been working on a MAME project for use in the break room at work. I have a mass of buttons, joysticks, switches, wire and other electronics. I also went out an bought plywood and other hardware. I have made a plan in SketchUp over several design iterations.

I broke down the three plywood sheets last weekend to get them to more manageable sizes. Today I made a few design tweaks and got started on the construction for real. Here is a pic of the very first completed component part. It is the base panel:

You can see the roughly cut pieces for the top, front and doors behind the saw, and the other remaining ply on the right.

Here is most of the other hardware that I will be using:

Left to right you can see the latches that will hold the control console down to the base, the slides for the keyboard drawer, hinges for the front doors, various screws for joining the ply and attaching the other hardware, including some Kreg screws for pocket screwing, and of course it has got to be black!

Here is an overview of the design (the left door is hidden as is the keyboard drawer front to give a bit of a view inside:

The front is indicated as an angled join but it will be a kerf bend in the actual piece, the front ‘corners’ of the control deck will also be curved rather then exactly as indicated. Here is a closer view of the main player control spacing:

The final positions of the trackball and spinner are yet to be decided. There will be a row of button along the back edge of the deck for coin drop, 1up to 4up, start, etc. etc.

Most of the joints will be concealed pocket screws, visible in this shot of the first two pieces actually to be joined together:

After today’s session, the base is complete, here is an underside view showing the box bracing:

Here it is on the floor:

The cabinet back needs to go on next, and then the inner frame can be constructed in place and after that the front skin panels, which reach to the floor concealing the spaces in the box work underneath the base.

Lastly, here is the reasonably final construction diagram for the next piece of work – the internal frame and back. (What is missing is a cross piece for the drawer to close against, the short members at the top of where the sides should go I forgot to delete from the diagram, they are no longer needed as I removed a bent member across the top of the front to make the construction a bit simpler).

Stay tuned for more updates, including some shots of the buttons, sticks, trackball, spinner, keyboard emulator, rotary control boards…