Dragon's Lair Arcade Game!

Gotcha. I rolled the Kilz on today, was the quickest way to get it done. I did think about rattle cans, but it would take quite a few I think. I’m gonna grab that sprayer off of amazon since it’s not in stock at my local lowe’s or home depot, and I might switch to latex because I gotta do another one of these, plus a Ms Pac-man. Spraying sure would make my life easier.

Like I said, it will orange peel a bit, but that might be alright for a game cabinet. Makes it a bit more scuff resistent.

Sweet thanks for that info! I do wet sand with 2000 grit in the end to get rid of roller marks, so I could always do that still if the orange peel is really heavy.

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That’s waaaaaay too much work! :rofl:

HAHA You’re telling me! I probably wouldn’t do a customer’s cab like that, but these are personal cabs, so… Gotta look good so the wife will let me bring them home again haha

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Try some of this in your paint:

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Flood-Floetrol-1-qt-Clear-Latex-Paint-Additive-FLD6-04/100198078

I use a sprayer on my air compressor. I started adding this stuff to the paint when I spray and it made the paint flow SO much better. Lays down perfect. I could even thin kiltz enough to spray through my sprayer.

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I’ve heard of that stuff! Read about it on an arcade restoration forum, they swear by it over there. I’ll have to check it out. I think they even make it in a version for oil based too.

When you used it in Kilz, was it the latex Kilz?

+1 floetrol – this stuff is amazing even for brushing on paint. I learned about this stuff from a paint crew that we had at our house several years ago. Hi Gloss finishes are really easy with Floetrol

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I used the latex kiltz.

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Just an aside, Flood, the company that makes Floetrol also makes a product called Penetrol. I used to work at Automobiles Peugeot’s US HQ and they recommended Penetrol for use on things like black bumper covers, clean it and a apply couple of light coats of Penetrol, lasts longer than any auto product I’ve tried.

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That looks incredible!

I assume you’re going to run Dexter as the Laserdisc player door has been made one piece with the middle back board? I am on this same adventure and stumbled across this thread and am loving the way it’s coming together. Are your plans based on the DXF’s at classic arcade cabinets?

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Hey @penguindeity welcome to my madness! You’re 100% correct, with my original PCB, I’m using Dexter as the player. Just didn’t see the need to build out the laserdisc drawer for something the size of a Raspberry Pi haha I’ve got to do the same thing all over again after this one, to build my Space Ace too. Good times.

The CAD are the same ones from ClassicArcadeCabinets.com. I spent some time with Brian sending measurements back and forth and we have completely verified them against an original. So this is me telling you, they’re safe to use! BUT! When you’re cutting the sides, go ahead and drill the monitor bracket holes, but NOT the control panel holes. They don’t quite line up. I only put a small indentation on my cab, just to see how close they were, and they’re off in the dxf. :stuck_out_tongue:

So here we go. Today, was eventful. Got some more done on it. @barry99705 I wasn’t able to get that sprayer you linked because no one had it in stock. So I’m gonna get it from Amazon. But, I was able to roll on the first coat of black. And honestly, I think if it flows out, I won’t have to do anything else but some touchups here and there. But I’m not that lucky of a guy so I’m sure I’ll be slapping another full coat on.

The scoreboard panel, and lower marquee panel… SHINY! Love how oil based paint always looks so shiny when it’s wet. It’s a semi-gloss RustOleum, so it will still have a little shine when it dries. Hopefully not TOO much tho. This is my first time using this paint.

And the back door and monitor surround panel. There’s another piece that goes in front of the monitor surround but I forgot to snap a pic of it. It’s just a rectangle piece. That’s black. LOL Soon, I’ll be putting this bad boy together and getting the electronics going!

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Thanks for the quick reply! good to know. I’m starting on my drawing revisions now! A couple more questions, and I apologize as I can’t do direct messaging as I just joined. Did you bring the front panel cuts to 3/4 instead of the 7/8 they are at in the drawing? Additionally, It appears you created the monitor Surround as one piece? Was this several pieces before? Sorry for the barrage of questions. I’m building from scratch with Arthur and Dexter and have no original cab to go off of.

Hell yea! Ask away! I’ve had 2 originals in the past that got ruined in storage. This is why I’m building these actually.

Ok, first thing’s first, let me tell you. If you cut the cab as is, but only use MDF, you’re gonna be disappointed. If you cut the cab as is, and use ply for the top, back pieces and bottom you’ll be perfect.

On the front panel, that was tricky because in the DXF, it requires you to pocket out the groove for the front to sit in. As I said, I’ve had 2 of these, and one was done like that, and the other wasn’t. So what I did, was made the front panel the same width as the Power/Fan panel, and didn’t cut that pocket for it to sit in. It rests up against the normal 3/4" blocking as it’s supposed to. No changes were made there.I left everything where it was, and just placed the front up against the blocking. This will give you a hair more than the 1" indent on the front of the cab. Also, you’ll wanna skip the coin door hole if you don’t have the original Wico, because the hole will be too big for an aftermarket coin door.

As far as the monitor surround. On my original, it’s made up of 6 pieces total. I opted to just make it 1 surround piece, with the 2 bottom “braces” because you won’t see any of that anyway once the bezel is in, and the smoked plexi is in place. I cut alot of corners to achieve the same results haha

If I can help you out in anyway, let me know! I built this LR2 CNC machine just for these 2 cabinets! haha And now my wife thinks it’s supposed to make plant stands and beds, and chairs and… Gah, women…

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FWIW, I really appreciate the questions in public. I am learning things I didn’t know I wanted to learn!

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HAHA! Arcade machines are fascinating!

Oh, btw. I guess I should have updated this long before now. Pandemics and all, got a guy out of sorts. So this is the Dragon’s Lair, all finished and looking gorgeous. I traded a friend this machine for some other arcade related goodness, so I’ll be cutting yet another one of these soon. ALSO, I’m happy to report that my time spent in lockdown mode, and switching to 3rd shift at the ‘working for the man’ location… I’ve designed quite a few of my own machines that I plan to start selling flatpacks, and fully assembled versions. I’ve created some bartops, and uprights, and currently in CAD working on a cocktail burps No, I mean a cocktail table. lol…

Hope y’all are well and staying safe!

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AWESOME!!!

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Stunning. Excellent detail with the coin slots and graphics. I am in the process of making a prototype, just working out the Raspberry Pi emulator & audio side of things to make it repeatable for sale here in SA. Having to make from 16mm material as that is the only thickness T-binding available here. What are you powering yours with? Did you go with a PC, Raspberry or other?

Did my learning curve with my jukebox. Also Raspberry powered using the excellent ‘fruitbox’ software.

On a side note, you have way too many shoes (looking in the background…sorry). I am going to make a rack for both my pairs of crocs.

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HAHAHA Those aren’t mine! Actually that photo was taken at my friend’s house that ended up with the cabinet. He has a pretty big family!

It’s powered by real hardware from the original cabinet. I replaced the laser disc with a Dexter player, but the PCB is all original. Also, Pie is easy to get running, if ya need any help there don’t hesitate to ask! I’d probably go with retropie since it’s the most supported. Also will allow you to boot directly into the frontend, or single boot directly into a specific game, so you don’t have all the logos etc when starting up. Has more of a real arcade startup.

You weren’t able to source any 16mm tmolding? Not even sure they make it. But I do know they make it in many sizes. Worth some research I suppose.

Love that jukebox! I’d LOVE to have a wurlitzer jukebox or replica or something simular but I was never able to find any ‘roll yer own’ plans. Blah! You did a killer job on that! Looks amazing!