Cabinet construction starts

All during my Saturday morning Microeconomics class I was thinking cabinet construction. I was very eager to get started stripping down the cabinet and thinking about how I should proceed with the monitor. Right when I got home, I began stripping down my cabinet. I took off the back door first (duh) and took a good hard look at my existing 19" Wells Gardner 7000 tube. I knew from many many BYOAC examples/posts that charged monitors are deadly dangerous. Even a friend of mine told me that this guy he knew exploded his hand off from a discharging monitor. I read up on how to discharge them and was really nervous and scared to do it. Turns out that it was really easy to do and the Internet guides are overly cautious with their over-the-top warnings of death and destruction.

For mine, I made a discharge cable out a lamp cord and alligator clips, used a flat head screwdriver, wore boots with thick rubber heels,wore gloves, stood on a rubber mat (folded in half for extra thickness), and had my left hand in my pocket. I reached around the side of the cabinet to do it because I was sure that the force of the discharge would send the screwdriver shooting backwards toward the wall with the force of a carnival knife thrower. I clipped one end of the cord to the monitor chassis and with my eyes clinched tightly I slipped the screwdriver under the anode cap... and it simply fell off. No lightning bolt, no crack of electricity, no snap, no nothing. I stabbed at the anode contacts for a few minutes, then poked at every other scary looking part until I knew it was safe. I swear to god the websites that explain how to do it make it seem like you're setting off Hiroshima when in reality, you're touching your brother after rubbing your feet on the carpet, except without the satisfying spark. I think you only get the crazy voltages and movie-special-effects lightning cracks if you do it shortly after unplugging the monitor, you know, when you can feel the static charge so strong it makes your arm hair stand up.

With the monitor discharged it was easy pickings. To get the monitor plexi, bezels, MDF spacer, and black cardboard border out, I simply unlatched the control panel, and they come right out. The only thing holding them in place was the fact that the bottom of it extends down below the control panel. The whole assembly sits flush. I'll add pics to this to explain. When I reassemble it, I'll take pics and play it back in reverse I guess.

The monitor was mounted on a 3/4" piece of wood, commonly called a bezel board. It pulls right out of the cabinet and is held onto the cabinet with 4 wood screws. Undo those and it pulls out of the front of the cab. Once I had it out, I was able to measure the bezel board on which the 19" Wells Gardner 7000 monitor was attached. It was 22 1/4" square. I didn't want to cannibalize this one. As you can see, the arcade monitor has quite a sturdy bracket around it mounted to the 3/4" bezel board firmly.

When I took the case off of my 21" Viewsonic G800 CRT, I found that it was connected to the front bezel by 4 mounting points on the corners of the screen. All I had to do was get another piece of 3/4" plywood of the same dimensions and cut a hole for the monitor and mount it on there. Here's a few pics of the monitor already mounted to the new bezel board:


As you can see, the monitor is snugly in the bezel board. In the first pic, it's not even bolted in yet and it holds in place well. I made sure to measure about a hundred times before cutting. I happened to cut it just right so there is enough wood at the corners to bolt it down through the brackets. No metal supports were needed.


As for the controls, I made a bit of room at the bottom of the board for the wires to fit through without being squished by the weight of the monitor.





Here's my creation installed into the cabinet. Even without extra metal brackets, it's very sturdy. The weight of the monitor is supported by the sung fit in the wood mainly and the tough screws keep it from moving.






Unfortunately, the only problem with this whole setup is that the monitor is too deep. It sticks out of the back a couple inches. To fix it, I'm wondering if I can use another couple pieces of 3/4" wood to move the monitor forward in the cabinet, and perhaps removing part of the metal cage in the back. But most likely, I'll probably just make a new back door with a bulge in the back.