Hey guys! Thought I would share a recent project I have going. Last summer, I lucked on to a storage unit with 30+ arcade machines from an old arcade in town. I got a steal and bought them all!
Most of the games are in working order or only need a few small adjustments (sticky buttons, screen adjustments, etc). But a lot of them have not so great cabinets. And there are also several conversions. I’m building a home arcade so I want them to look great and play great for years.
Enter Maslow! It was the tool I found that would be within my budget to help me cut more complex panels accurately for restoring these. I decided to start with a classic: Mortal Kombat. It’s actually mounted in an old Double Dragon cabinet as a conversion. But since I have all the correct parts, might as well build a correct cabinet!
I have cut one side panel so far, and experienced a few issues that I’m working through. But overall I’m amazed at this things capabilities. It blows my hand jigsaw skills out of the water!
There is typically blocking inside a cabinet to attach various panels together and mount stuff. So I had the Maslow cut them out to a depth of 0.1” recessed so that I can quickly locate and place the blocking in the exact location without measuring. I’ll update back here as I make more progress, but I have high hopes for this one!
Interested in selling one of the cabinets? I have a custom made arcade already but would like to make one with an official size cabinet, If you had one with no insides I am interested in buying, if you are not far from me?
I’d definitely sell you one if interested. This one would be perfect, it’s in good shape. And luckily for me I don’t need it, because I have another one identical that has the original Double Dragon still in it I am in Arkansas, how close are you?
Near the Kansas City area on the Kansas side. Not a huge drive but I would need to arrange a truck and time. Let me know what you want and I will let you know if I want to pay it.
Any others you’re willing to part with? I’ve always wanted to restore a cabinet, more for the painting and graphics part, but since I also had a Maslow I thought about starting from scratch (I’m not to skilled when it come to electronics though) cheers
Honestly I’ve got several that I probably would part with. Right now I have them stacked together so tight in my garage I can’t walk between them though
I’ll have to get a list together of which ones I’m for sure keeping to restore, and which ones can go. May be a month or two as I’m redoing my floor (cleaning for epoxy coating) in my shop that these will move to.
That is awesome - one of the main reasons I purchased a Maslow was the possibility of building arcade cabinets but just haven’t gotten into it yet. I see you have a 1943 arcade cabinet in the pictures - I would love to get a trace and/or G-code for that cabinet at some point! Not sure if you are willing or have the time to do so, but I would greatly appreciate it! Eager to hear how the rest of your Mortal Kombat cabinet goes…keep us posted. Let me know if there is any possibility of getting something for the 1943 cabinet in terms of plans or code and also curious as to the other cabinets you have that are not viewable in the pictures. Thanks!
I don’t have any problems getting you some traces of 1943. I have actually considered getting measurements and making cad files of every cabinet I have that I can’t find online already. I have several conversions, so I’m hoping to get some of the games back into original style cabinets like I’m doing with MK. This was the biggest reason I bought my Maslow. That and cutting pinball cabinets! I plan to rebuild a few of them also. Being able to cut signs, furniture, and other stuff is a nice plus to help fund the arcade restoration
That works - however, would need the files transferred to Gcode for the Maslow. Anyone have files transferred to Gcode for cabinets on classicarcadecabinets.com that work “plug and play” with the Maslow? Files for 1943 and/or Ghouls n ghost would be greatly appreciated!
I used the drawings from that same site for this Mortal Kombat cabinet. His plans are very nice. I would be very leery of cutting from someone else’s gcode though. I’d be happy to generate it for you, but my feeds and speeds I like may not be optimized for your setup. I think if the Maslow was an out of the box machine that’d be ok, but with the diy aspect there’s just too many variables. Something as simple as where the home location is or how the pieces are nested or heck even using a different bit could be disastrous. I like generating gcode myself because then if it messes up, it’s all on me, and it also helps me learn my machine better. This first side I cut for instance, I had too deep of a depth per pass. Had to babysit the cut to keep it on track. Fixed in my code for side #2 but I may not update the side 1 code until I need to cut another. Maybe I’m overly cautious, but that’s just my thoughts.
Finally some progress. I got side number 2 cut. It went much smoother than side 1. I had issues on the first side with the bit pulling into the wood and the chains losing tension. To correct for that, I made several changes and I’m not really sure yet which one helped the most. I got a new bit (old one was bad dull) and switched to a single flute to hopefully help it last longer, added weight to the sled, and centered my side in the middle of my workspace. Very pleased with side 2, so I may end up recutting side 1 and using the first one to cut some of the smaller trim panels from.
Now to layout and cut the speaker grill and front panels. The Maslow is slow, but steady. I however am just slow. Hopefully not another 2 months before I can update back….
Ahh you’ve caught me in one of those “I’ll get to it when I can” projects . I haven’t progressed much with the exception of cutting the 2 side panels and leaning them against the wall to build at a later time. I still have intentions to finish the project, just haven’t gotten to it yet.
As for the files, I got the files from the above website http://classicarcadecabinets.com/ . To be honest I’m not sure if I still have the cut files on my pc, but as always I recommend creating your own cut files with your parameters that fit your setup. I actually recently got an original Mortal Kombat 1, so I’m planning to compare my cut panels to the original and see if it’s close enough for my liking.
. I haven’t progressed much with the exception of cutting the 2 side panels and leaning them against the wall to build at a later time. I still have intentions to finish the project, just haven’t gotten to it yet.
