My son's custom arcade cab for cubscouts - DONE

[mjmjr25]

EDIT - FINISHED - PICS:

Original Post:

Greetings again; this new project is a co-op with my son, in fact 99% of design and 95% of cuts were done by my son.

For cubscouts we are learning about tools / measurement / woodworking and the project is to design something for your home, built by the scout using wood / tools / glue / screws and a list of other items that introduce young ones to basic woodworking.

One kid is making a coffee pot coaster, another is carving a sailboat from a block, another is building a cat hotel, and my son wanted to build his own mini-arcade cabinet.

I as skeptical at first, but he wanted to do it and truth be told, I wanted to do it as well. We looked at cab images and what he decided on was the neo geo big red design, with the hood and marquee, but he also wanted it to be small (so do mom and I) and he wants to sit down at it. It is essentially what would happen if a big red and a candy cab had a wooden baby.

He designed it with my help and we focused on making it very basic so that he could do all measuring and cutting. The only pieces he did not cut himself were the side panels as the jig saw is a bit too powerful and heavy for him to control yet.

So far all the cuts are done, we will begin assembly this week.

Progress thus far:

All wood:

Cabinet Frame / Supports:

Custom fit wooden stool / chair:

Cabinet panels / hood / base:

[mjmjr25]

Build stage pics:

Chair Frame:

Cab Frame:

You can see in the above pic the seat for the chair.

The side panels were very close to an exact match, which was needed for the next steps. We used 1/2" plywood to keep it lightweight and portable, though I was a bit worried about the screws from the 1/2" panel stock going into the marquee / header 1/2" stock. I put those ones in as they needed to be dead center.


Cab w/panels and marquee hood:

The main sheet that will hold the monitor and arcade stick is about 1/4" too long, so we'll have to recut that later this week.

The mid shelf is a bit long as well and also needs to be trimmed.

Everything but final finishing (stain / poly) will be done this week.

All screw holes have been backfilled w/wood putty - we'll sand it down later tonight.

[8bit]

That's awesome! Good luck with the project!

[SteveyMajors]

Way cool. I can't wait to see the final product!

[Hobie-wan]

Looking good so far. Will blow all those small projects out of the water.

Also, Green Machines are awesome. I had one as a kid and if I had crazy workspace and a welder I'd be tempted to build a large one.

[mjmjr25]

The kid doing the cat hotel / play thing is actually looking pretty cool, 3 tiers and his dad is helping him along, that one will be cool.

I tried as I might to get the kid doing the coffee pot coaster to go bigger, but his mom is sorta just using scouts as a babysitting service, and no dad around :/ I told him he had plenty of time (we have 4 weeks to do our project) to pick something bigger and I could help him, but he stuck w/the coaster.

[noiseredux]

For cubscouts we are learning about tools

you guys want to have a joke-off on this or let is slide?

[flex wood]

For cubscouts we are learning about tools

you guys want to have a joke-off on this or let is slide?

[retrosportsgamer]

As an Eagle Scout, I think it's great you're leading your boys (and others) here.

[fastbilly1]

As an Eagle Scout, I think it's great you're leading your boys (and others) here.

Seconded. When I was in Cub Scouts we built a crappy toolbox, a really short stool, and a bulb planter holder. My mother actually still uses the bulb planter holder. Ever since I got my Eagle I still feel like I can accomplish anything if plan. It also made me learn how to think plans through quickly on the fly - something that ironically playing TFC made even better.