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Step by step
The making of the TaitoRama MAME cabinet
Project MAME  -  Weecade   -  TaitoRama  -   Nanocade  -   ArcadeStik  -  econ
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Design & Woodworking

In January 2008 my geeky, yet awesome brother told me he was working on what was to become his first arcade cabinet: Project Mame. He showed me his plans and offered to work out the blueprint and advice on building my very own machine. Being a total arcade freak I was hooked from the start, but I was a bit reluctant since I had no experience in building such a machine. Luckily my brother convinced me and even though it took a lot of work and sawdust in my appartment I have never once regretted my decision.

I got over my my initial fear of doing my own project and since I always have been a fan of the old classic and a bit beefy Taito cabinet from the early 80's, I decided that my cabinet should have the same outline, but have a smaller footprint due to the LCD monitor.

My brother worked out the design and blueprints according to a Taito Jungle Hunt cabinet I liked and with the blueprint I was ready to build my very own arcade cabinet. The TaitoRama.

 

I bought the following items at my local retailer:

-1x 16mm MDF/HDF board
-1x 12mm MDF/HDF board
-3mm plexiglass 700x1000mm
-1 sabresaw

Since I don't have a workshop to build the machine I placed the 16mm MDF board on my dinner table in my appartment and started transferring one of the cabinet sides onto the board with a pencil.

For the rounded part of the cabinet I used a nail as the center and a pencil attached to a string to draw a half circle.

The sabresaw eagerly awaits!

 

 

After I had transferred the outline of the blueprint I roughly sawed out the two arcade sides so I could handle them better. I used my coffee table to support the MDF board while I was sawing.

The next step is the fine cutting according to the outline on the boards
The fine cutting of the first of two sides of the cabinet in 16 mm MDF/HDF board.

Do I have to mention that my dinner table needed to be repainted after the build;o)

Since the two cabinet sides are identical I transferred the outline of the finished cabinet side to the MDF/HDF board, so the two sides would be absolutely identical. Then I cut the second board with the sabre saw. 

After that I sanded the two sides of the board and rounded the edges facing outwards. You could use a milling machine if you got one, but I used sandpaper and elbow grease.

 

 

Finally I drew and cut out the bottom of the cabinet in the 16mm MDF/HDF board. It's basically just a big square.

 

 

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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.

 


See the work drawings and artwork here
Video of the process here

 

[ Copyright koenigs 2008 ]