I think you will find that there are not a lot of guys who build their own cabinets. The only one I know of is cosmokramer here on pinside. He did a Sorcerer cabinet for me a couple of years ago to replace a termite eaten cabinet. Even Chris over at High End Pins farms out his cabinet builds. So I don't think any one is going to have a BOM handy for cabinet builds.

With regards to coin doors, I have seen some sorcerers with the older system 7 style coin doors that are all polished metal, and the newer back coin doors. The black doors are easy to restore, as the paint comes off with a wire brush attachment on a drill, and you can repaint using semi gloss enamel spray paint, with a splatter coat of gloss over the top. I try to re-use as much of the original hardware as possible. Most of which I clean in a sonic cleaner.

I think the best way you can get pointers on a restoration project is to read through the documented restorations here on Pinside. Most people are up front about documenting the troubles they had and how they overcame them.

I've built cabinets mainly for EM pins. They are not that difficult to build, after you have done a few. For the material I use pure birch 3/4" plywood, runs around $48 - 60 per sheet depend where you buy it, and how many sheet you purchase. I can get the bottom cabinet and back box cabinet out of a single sheet. For the backbox trim and corner bracing I buy clear birch. This is a good material for painting, done right you get a nice smooth finish, I only provide a smooth finished cabinet, the buyer has to provide his own final paint or decals. For the bottom board of the cabinet I use pure birch 1/2" plywood.

If you are going to charge by the hour for your time the cost of building one cabinet will seem to be high. If you charge per cabinet, and are not too concerned about making a full time wage, this is a good part time business. I could produce one finished cabinet per week.

My background has been in carpentry for 40 years, so I had all the equipment and suppliers available to me. If you are just starting out, I would recommend a good panel saw for plywood material cutting, beats a table saw any day, a HVLP paint system. Hope this helps you a little.

I am curious about this as well, my father in-law is a cabinet maker, the non-pinball kind and I have talked to him about building a cabinet from scratch. Is there a place where there are plans or do people just take measurements off their old cabinets?

Yes it's best from the old Cab and head

Doing this right now for a Bally Rolling Stones. Still have a couple of tweaks to make. Decided that this RS will have a fold down head. Will post progress as all the details are worked out.

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Very nice so far bud keep up the nice work

Thanks. Notice in the 2nd picture that the new RS cab sits at the exact same height as the HG next to it but the back casters on the HG are wound down 1 1/2” while the new RS cab legs sit flat on the floor.
The back legs are 1 1/2” longer on the new RS cab. I want the game to have a nice 6.5 degree rake and still sit with all the casters wound all the way in. I like the look. The longer legs are off of a Bally bingo.

That's right it does it's the right height right on

Interesting thread. I've done many renovations using custom cut RTA cabinets. They are computer cut panels for the plywood box and pre-made face frames. They ship flat and fit together perfectly. They almost self square. Plywood materials are beautiful and you could specify grade and species. If you could get a hold of schematic (or make your own) that these types of companies could plug into their CAD cutter they could easily cut and ship it to you for assembly. I guess they'd just have to be willing to do it. The assembly would be a snap.

Keith

Can you post a link to where you buy the RTA cabinets?