How to build a MAME cabinet - A detailed guide and how to
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Step by step
The making of the Nanocade Mame cabinet
Project MAME  -  Weecade   -  TaitoRama  -   Nanocade  -   ArcadeStik  -  econ
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Page 3 / 7
Design &
Construction

    

A bar is placed where the control panel is ending for support. Later it turned out that there wasn't room for it... Also it is not needed because the cabinet is rock solid anyways.

You learn a lot from making a Plexiglas cabinet, because there isn't much information to be found about it.

The edge of the top panel and back panel is sanded down to make less of a gap between the two panels.
The gap is then closed with the UV curing adhesive. I think this turned out much better than expected. Almost any other angle on the cabinet, the panels meet in an angle of 90 degrees to avoid these gaps. 
The monitor and motherboard is installed to test if they fit. It's much closer than I like it to be. I had to grind the monitor panel a bit to make the PicoPSU fit. But for a moment there I thought that I was never going to make the parts fit. Pew.  It really is a tiny cabinet.
 
This is the finished harness for the UltraStik 360 to connect to the pushbuttons. The 10 mm buttons
The back of the control panel is sanded to make the epoxy stick better. The steel mounting bracket is also sanded./font>
The joystick mounting bracket is glued on with the epoxy 2-component solution. I have to use this every time two different materials meet. It's very strong, but not anything near the acrylic adhesive i use. Still, I recon you could easily lift a car with the bonding strength between the bracket and the control panel. I'm pretty sure this is never going to brake apart. Especially not with the little force being applied to the joystick.
The marquee is installed with the acrylic adhesive and hold into place with some tape. I wish I could have made a bigger marquee, but the monitor takes op all the space in such a small cabinet.
This is probably the part that makes a MAME cabinet look like a MAME cabinet. The control panel really is the heart of the machine, no doubt about it.

I finally decided to use the heat bend control panel. It just feels much nicer to the hand and eye, even if it doesn't have the perfect fit of the other control panel. You just have to follow your heats in these matters :)

It starting to look like a real MAME cabinet now. It's really itching to rip off the protective foil now. Do you feel it?

 

Also check out:
Upgrading the Nanocade (2013)
(9.7" iPad 2 screen, new motherboard, speakers etc.)
Join our Facebook group and receive updates and discuss MAME cabinets with fellow retro gamers:
Page 3 / 7  -  Design & Construction

 


If you decide to make your own MAME cabinet using my drawings, please feel free to make a donation,  as I'm trying to raise enough money to make a new up-right cabinet, that's hard to do as a student.

 


 

 

[ Copyright koenigs 2008 ]