I made a Custom Arcade machine I am sharing it for my Cake Day!

Hey everyone! So it's my cake day today so go easy on me please. For my Product Design GCSE in the UK I decided to make a functional custom arcade machine to emulate classic arcade games. This was my first time attempting anything this complex but I was happy with then end result. The course was split into two parts a making section and a documentation section. The power point I made was very long so I have decided not to include it in the post. I have also left out some part of the product like the volume control to keep the post short. I hope this can inspire other to do similar and maybe better cabinets. If a 16 year old student can do there is no reason you can't! I was heavily inspired by "I like to make Stuff" and give him full credit to him for motivating me to make my own. I will try and answer any question anyone has in the comment section.

Here is the final result of the project.

One of the first parts I made was the control panel. This was laser cut from a sheet of clear acrylic.

I made 2 versions of the control panel with the second including trenches for the LED tape to fix into. I also used sheet steel in the corners to magnetically hold it in later.

The LED tape was fixed in place and the tape was wired up. I also applied a carbon fibre vinyl sticker to make it look more polished and hide the electronics below.

Here the bulk of the control panel wiring went in. My design used 6 buttons which is standard for most custom arcade builds. Each button needed 4 connections positive, negative, ground and signal. All the LEDs in the whole product were able to use the same single 12V supply.

The panels were marked out and cut using a table saw however I later used the CNC milling machine because it was quicker. They then needed the mitre join cut using a band saw. Used a lot of wood glue and corner clamps to make everything straight.

After everything for one half was glued together I used filler to fix any imperfections. I was generous with the amount I used since I could always sand it down. The top panel was cut using the CNC milling machine because it needed to be precise.

And then there was lots of sanding and painting. This took up most of my time because I wanted to get a flat finish for the gloss paint. I used 80 grit for the heavy work and then wet and dry ranging from 400 to 2000 for everything else.

A bracket to hold the screen also was made. I used a traditional off the shelf monitor because I wasn't allowed to use a CRT. I also had to make the top half which was a repeat of everything else I have shown.

After the paint had a rough undercoat I began to move some of the components inside. I used a variety of fixing methods here including hot glue.

How it looks when closed.

The rear of the product and the special hinges I used.

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