My $400 Ikea Ramvik Arcade Table

Here is a video showing game play and the drawer in action:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5G-5kAJDquk

I decided to build an arcade coffee table about 1 1/2 weeks ago and ended up with a finished product 2 days ago (I get things done quickly).

I have had the Ikea Ramvik coffee table for almost 2 years now and have always loved it, but I decided it needed to be changed up a bit. After 1 day of research I ordered the parts I needed.

*60-in-1 iCade Classic Multigame JAMMA PCB - Ver.QB

*15A Arcade Switching Power Supply with Digital Display - 110W

*JAMMA Full Cabinet Wiring Harness Loom

*2 Green Pushbuttons

*2 White Pushbuttons

*Player 1 Start Button

*Zippy Ball Handle Joystick - Short Shaft

*23" IPS LED HP monitor (got it for $25 after using rewards zone vouchers). I decided to use an IPS monitor for the high angle of viewing.

First I started with cutting the monitor opening with a plunge router. On the top of the table I cut a smaller aperture opening about 1/4" deep (did not go all of the way through the table top) that would cover the bezel of the monitor.

Second I flipped the table over and cut a bigger aperture opening about 7/8" deep to place the monitor in, this way part of the table will be covering the silver bezel of the monitor.

After the hole was cut, I test fit the monitor and hooked it up to a computer (moms computer, flower background is not my cup of tea) to see how it looked. The monitor fit well, just needed to sand the edges and paint the edge black.

About 20min after i tested the screen the mail man came and dropped off my package with all of my arcade parts!

I hooked up all of the arcade parts to test to make sure everything was in working order, and it was!

The next step was building the drawer with the control shelf. I wanted this to be as user friendly as possible. I wanted the drawer to do all of the work so all the user would have to do is pull the drawer open and start playing. Unfortunately I do not have a picture to show the control shelf lifting mech but I will try to explain it as best I can.

Essentially there are 2 legs mounted under the control shelf held by 2 hinges, and connected at the bottom by a 1X1 piece of wood. this creates a "[_]" shaped leg attached to the bottom of the control shelf. I attached a chain to the center divider of the table and ran it to the leg I made and attached it to the 1X1. What this does is when I pull the drawer open, the chain will pull the legs "[_]" strait while opening the drawer. **I apologize for the complicated description, this is very difficult to explain. I will add a link to a flickr account with an attached photo and video of this mechanism soon.

Now back to the building of the Control shelf. I needed a sturdy piece of wood for the shelf since there will be a lot of button jamming involved. I looked around for materials I already had but had no luck. I then remembered there was a house being built across the street with a big dumpster up front with a bunch of wood. I jumped in and found a beautiful piece of 1" oak with a rounded edge already cut into it. I cut the wood to the right size and mounted it in the drawer using a very simple hinge (I drilled a hole at each end of the shelf and drilled holes in the sides of the drawer and inserted pins through the walls of the drawer into the holes I cut in the shelf.

I then used the router to cut out all of the holes in the control shelf for the joystick and buttons.

I mounted the speaker in the back of the drawer, which I was skeptical about at first because of sound quality when the drawer is open but it ended up working out great. I hooked up a simple logarithmic potentiometer to control volume and mounted the volume knob on the control shelf. I also mounted a full system power switch on the left side of the drawer for easy access.

Once the drawer was completed I mounted the PCB inside of the table on the center divider, and mounted the power supply under the table so it would have sufficient air supply.

I put the coffee table back together to test the system and controls and make minor adjustments.

The final steps were to sand and stain the control shelf and sand and paint the edges of the screen opening.

When everything was finished, the whole project came out to a little over $400 (which includes the price of the table).
This was right at my budget and I am very pleased with the final product.

I hope these steps aren't too difficult to understand, and I will try my best to answer questions and provide additional images if needed!



Thank you for reading and enjoy!