My arcade cabinet has been ready for an upgrade for some time. You can see some of the work I did in the early on in this post and this post. It doesn't get a lot of use but it's good entertainment at any party.

First let me say, this isn't a how to. I only partially planned this out before I started. I knew I'd have to see the inside in order to figure out how to finish up. I'm going to use stuff I have lying around and I wouldn't expect anyone to try and follow my directions. Probably couldn't if you wanted to. Hopefully you will see what I've done and get an idea for your own project. Let me know! maybe you can teach me something new too.

I've had an extra LCD screen (ACER AL1917A) for a little while and I never found a good use for it. I decided to replace the CRT I installed at the beginning of the project. It wasn't a very good fit to begin with but it served me well. The LCD is a higher resolution (1280 x 1024), much lighter, and just plain looks prettier. I'm going to install it regular width way but I'm going to think about installing it on it's side.

The first thing I had to do was remove the entire front of the cabinet to get to the screen. Yes, had to.

To get the monitor to stay in I used screws, blocks and Gorilla Glue

This was a terrible solution, but it worked.

I really had to butcher the case in order to get it to fit. Apparently I didn't attach the CRT back to the case when I installed it. Whoops.

To get the LCD to stay I found some metal braces lying against the wall. I don't remember where they came from but I'm glad I still have them. They are perfect. No wait, I do remember. Maybe I shouldn't have cut it up… Nah, I'm sure it'll be fine.

I measured the width of the cabinet and cut the brace to size. Which happens to be 23.5 inches, if I ever need it again.

These blocks were already installed, possibly to help hold the original CRT.

Here is the LCD mocked up to see how it would sit. More or less perfect.

Now, the right way, probably, to hold the LCD up top would be to install another brace the width of the cabinet. Unfortunately there wasn't anything already in place for me to mount a brace to and it's sleeting here so I'm not running out to Lowe's to get what I need. I was about to give up and leave this mess all over the room but I decided to go poke around in the garage for a while. I found a used bicycle inner tube and a solution was formed. I cut it 5 inches longer than the width of the cabinet and screwed it down using the existing holes. I was prepared to trim it if I needed to but this seems perfect.

The bezel covers up to inner tube and you can't even tell. I didn't do anything specific to keep the LCD from sliding around. The rubber should keep it in place for anything up to an earthquake. When putting it back together I almost ended up with an extra screw. but then I remembered that there were extras from taking out the CRT monitor. Now all that's left is to play some Galaga.