First off, I've seen designs for 8" deep and 10" deep cabinets. What are the "extra" 2 inches for? I don't plan on ever having a ball lifter, so I would think that 8" is enough but wanted to check with others.

Are people using wood that is listed as 1"x8" and then cutting to length (knowing that these boards are really .75"x7.25") or taking sheets of wood at the desired thickness and then cutting them to 8" or 10" actual?

OK. Next is the fact that I don't want to paint the cabinet. I would rather stain the wood (meaning that I would want oak to match the rest of my stuff in my house) which of course can get pricey and even with wood filler, you would still see the screw holes, or use particle board and laminate it. I have enough laminate left over from building my arcade cabinet a couple of years ago, but I am not sure how I would finish the front edges that are only .75" wide. For the arcade, I just used T-molding as that is the standard. I don't know if I want to use T-molding in the pachinko cabinet, but don't know if I have any other options.

I was looking at starting with Ken's basic design, which also includes a "curve" on the sides near the bottom ball tray in the cabinet (not the tray on the pachinko itself). That is the sale edge that I would need to "finish" some how as mentioned above. If it was T-molding, then no problem, but again, I just don't know if I want T-molding.

Any thoughts or ideas? I am hoping to be able to get started on this cabinet next week after I finish putting trim up in my basement this week/weekend...