In design technology class in high school I was always tasked with pretty dull projects. Make a lightbox, make a backboard for a bin, do some wiring for a digital randomizer die, make a lamp. I could never truly go nuts over boring projects, in terms of scope of build, time limit (always the school term) needing to record every thought, feeling and miss-measurement to create a report and presentation at the end.
I always got middling marks because I could never clean up a project to their standards. I could have great ideas and build it but I never could find the care to make the project on their time and that never gave me the confidence or power to make things for myself. I always felt judged for what I made and when it wasn't up to par.
So years past after school and I come to a boring post Covid summer and given some serious confidence from watching far too much YouTube and I decide I want to convert an old Facebook marketplace purchase into a bar top arcade cabinet. I had a raspberry pi and two players worth of buttons and all I needed was a monitor.
Something got me excited and didn't hesitate (to start at least haha). I made rough plans and measured the parts I had bought, borrowed my friend's Dad's jigsaw, made the first of many trips to Bunnings and got to work. Three weeks later of time wasting and measuring for the 15th time I finally have something that resembles a functional cabinet! Not a pretty one but a way to set new Galaga high scores nonetheless!
Things I'd do differently for this project definitely include not mucking around so much for so long. This is so easily a weekend project to get the bulk of it done and I was mostly afraid to fail and just used analysis paralysis as an excuse to take 3 weeks and the majority of that time was spent staring at it pretending to think. I'd also used MDF about half if not a third as thin as it is remarkably heavy and is far too sturdy at the cost of it weighing an actual tonne.
I did spray paint it black however I failed to get any pictures of that before I painted it again.
The monitor is currently lent out to my roommate so the rest of the cabinet sits outside, only broken out for when nerdy friends come around and I need to keep them busy/impress them with my handy work.
This project was fantastic and gave me my confidence to problem solve, to create without fear and to just build what I want when I want to.
I learnt a lot through this project, notably doing things in stages as to have a fully finished build as early as possible in its life. As you can see I built the frame first and worried about the bezel, painting and speakers afterwards. I had intended to build some kind of light up marquee however I simply never got around to it. But since I didn't make adjustments for it in the original design my lack of care or burnout didn't cause the project not to be finished.
I love what I have built and am so proud of it.
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