Mame Arcade Project - Continued

Wood cabinet now complete...

Mame Arcade Project - Continued

The base is complete (though I'm thinking of switching the casters over to another set I have which rolls better) and the initial build process for the cabinet has begun. I've also received the router bit and T molding and have figured out the process I'll need to use to route the side pieces...

Mame Arcade Project - Continued

All pieces have now been cut! On to assembly of the base...

Mame Arcade Project - Continued

Ordered T-Molding (part number 49-0999-00) from http://www.happcontrols.com/ which will be installed on the two vertical side pieces of the arcade cabinet. The minimum length for ordering is 25 feet.



I also ordered a Four Wing Slot Cutter, 1/16" Kerf, 1 7/8" Diameter, 1/2" Cutting Depth, 1/4" Shank router bit from http://www.woodline.com/ which will allow me to route a vertical cut through the middle of the vertical pieces in order to install the T-Molding.

Two of the 4x8 sheets have now been measured and cut! I'll post a picture once the third piece is done. I'm using a combination of a jig saw and circular saw for cutting.

Compound Machine Project

My daughter recently needed to complete a science project which involved using household items to build simple machines and then connecting them together to form a compound machine. The goal of the machine was to be able to pop a balloon.

The compound machine needed to consist of the following simple machines:

Gears
Incline Plain
Lever
Pulley
Screw
Wedge
Wheel and Axle

The process for our machine starts with a pencil sharpener (gears) winding a string which lifts a platform. This allows a hard drive platter (wheel and axle) to roll down a half cut piece of PVC pipe. The hard drive platter is connected to a piece of string which is pulled as the hard drive platter rolls. The pulled string moves a dowel up through a hole in another piece of pvc pipe pushing a golf ball through the tube. The golf ball lands in a plastic cup attached to two pulleys which move a lever into a "down" position (The level is held in an up position by a large screw). The lever held a piece of plastic which is released by the lever change and swings and pushes a toy train piece down a set of tracks. The train piece has a needle (wedge) connected to it which then runs into a balloon - popping it!

Click on the title above for a closer look at the machine itself. This brings back memories of the game Mousetrap!

Mame Arcade Project - Continued

Bought the wood last night (heavy to carry on your own!) and started to measure and mark the dimensions for the first side board...

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Mame Arcade Project

I've been thinking about building a MAME Arcade cabinet for about a year now and after recently looking at some blogs and websites dedicated to do it yourself cabinets, I thought I'd give it a try!

I'm using the plans available at http://users.adelphia.net/~seanhat/arcade/ as I like the look and style of the cabinet.

I started by researching control panels as I knew I didn't want to build one from scratch. I found a company called X-Arcade that offers a nice pre build control panel that supports PC, Xbox and PS2 connections. I decided to get the two player panel as this will typically be used in groups. I grabbed an old PC from my basement and configured it with Mame, and Meedio as the front end and tested everything to make certain it worked!

Here is a picture of the X-Arcade control panel:



Next up buy three 4x8 3/4 inch sheets of MDF particle board...