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10
Tips for the DIY Arcade Builder: Vol. 1
By Nick Vazzana
(AKA M3talhead)
Stay with this hobby
long enough and you'll undoubtably come across a trick or two that
makes a particular phase of cabinet-building worlds easier. Check out
the 10 tips listed below. Some of them might be seen as common
sense, but then again, there might be 1 or 2 you havn't heard of that
solves a particular problem you're facing now.
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- Outline a
monitor's position on the cab's mounting brackets with a grease pen,
heavy pencil, or marker when removing it so you can mount it in exactly
the same position when you're ready to re-install.
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- Hot glue is your
friend. Use it to hold stubborn/loose t-molding sections in place or
keep frail wire connections from moving around.
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- Use blue wire
crimps to replace cracked or broken H/V (post-mount) connectors on a
monitor's yoke if you cant find a dealer that sells your particular
adapter. They're the same diameter and can be bought in nearly any
hardware, automotive, or DIY store for next to nothing.
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- Look around your
work/school for office furniture or desks on their way out to the
dumpster. If you're lucky, you might find one with a tubular lock and
key still in a desk drawer or filing cabinet (I found 3 sets during our
last furniture dump at work!)
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- If you're going
to cover the side of a cab with vinyl, leave yourself an overlap of
about a ½” around all sides. Make cuts along the
overlapped portion every inch or so and fold them over an edge you
intend to cover with T-molding for a clean look.
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- To make your own
TWP (twisted wire pair), cut lengths of wire approximately 1.5 to 2x your
intended length. Insert one set of ends into the chuck of a cordless
drill, while placing the other ends in a vice or under a piece of
heavy furniture. Squeeze the trigger slowly and watch the 2 wires
corkscrew around each other and become 1 easily managed cable. Makes
for a great power button extension from your PC's motherboard to a
mounted switch on the control panel or just inside the coin door.
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- Instead of using
USB thumb drives or burned CD-Rs to transfer MAME updates, new ROM
files or jukebox MP3s to your arcade, consider mounting a regular
Ethernet adapter wall plate on the back of the cabinet and jacking into
you home network. It makes transferring data a lot faster/easier than a
“sneaker-net” and can be painted to match your cab's color
scheme. (If you don't like the idea
of cutting another hole in the back of your cab/jukebox, you could
always go Wi-Fi.)
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- If you're not
going to use a PC case and can't decide where to place the components
of your cab's computer, it might be a good idea to mount everything on a
single wooden board, then mount the whole board to the inside of the
cab with screws or metal brackets. Everything becomes easier to
manage and much more accessible during hardware upgrades and
troubleshooting sessions. Furthermore, if you have an old or broken
case you don't care about, take a Dremel to it and salvage the hard
drive bays and mounting brackets from the chassis. You can then attach
the bays to the board and secure your hard drives to the bays like
they were originally designed.
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- Keep a
spreadsheet documenting where you purchased parts and tools from and
how much you spent on them. If you need a replacement and want to know
where you got it (or if its a better deal than what you got to begin
with), you'll have something to reference back to.
Note:
I am not responsible for the mental anguish and/or tears shed after you
go back and realize how
much money you've sunk into your new project.
You're on you own.
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- To help with
cable/wire management, grab a heavy-duty stapler and use it to tack your
wires in place.
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Above all, take your time. MAME will be here waiting for you when
you finish, so give it a warm welcome by installing it in a cabinet
you'd be proud to call a piece of furniture, not a P.O.S.
Credits:
Michael Vazzana
B.Y.O.A.C.
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