I emailed Mark Jenison, owner of the Mark 13 rotating monitor cabinet, and asked if he could pass on how they (he and Rick Schieve) managed the rotating monitor bit.  He passed back the following, and I sure appreciate it!  Thanks Mark!  Pictures will be coming when I can track them down (had them, misplaced them).

I first envisioned some sort of round enclosure which would rotate on wheels.  I had no idea how, but I gave the general idea to Rick in a few sketches and we worked the idea together into more practical options.

First, we took careful measurements of the 25" monitor.  We figured out what size the box would have to be to house the monitor, with the bottom piece of the box being a large 36" diameter circle.  We wanted to use something that would be fairly strong at 1/2".  If the wood was too weak, it would develop divots from resting on the wheels, and the edges might splinter.  We ended up using 1/2" 9 ply baltic birch, and to this date, no problems with it.

In order to mount the monitor in an essentially open box, 1 1/2" by 1 1/2" strips of wood were added internally across the top and bottom of the box towards the front to support the monitor mounting flanges.  The monitor was held in place by wood screws going through the flanges in to the wood strips.

We then cut a square out of another 36" diameter circle.  When we designed it, we didn't want to loose too much area out of the middle of the circle as these 4 corners might end up being weak spots where the wood might split or crack.  So there is about 3"+ between the inside rectangle and the outer edge of the circle.  We placed that on top of the box, and mounted it to the box with joints behind it for support.  But before we mounted it on there, we made a little picture frame style set up on the front of the circle.  You see, the tube actually protrudes past the monitor flanges, so we needed to build something extra to allow clearance for the tube, and something to hold the tinted glass.  One of the sides (the bottom) is removable (3 screws hold it in place), and a piece of tinted glass can be slid into the frame, taking care to make sure the glass will clear the protruding tube (just barely).  A hole is placed in the center of the rear circle for monitor wires to be fed through, and in the sides of the box there were two rectangular holes cut, and vents were mounted there (so the monitor could breath some).  It would be possible to place a fan in the box also, but I never got around to it.  Also, this particular monitor has a satellite board which has the monitor controls on it.  I wanted to be able to reach these from the front of the game, so on the top of the monitor above the frame we made a 4" by 2" by 1" deep cut out in the wood and placed the controls there.  I then fashioned a small metal door with a hinge to conceal the controls behind it.

The next part was to interface the wheel of fortune to the cabinet.  The back of the cabinet (originally a Xenophobe) is actually slanted, so Rick took careful measurements, cut some boards to the right angle, and made two mounts.  Then, built up the mounts a little bit near the ends with some small pieces of plywood.  We took two pipes and placed them apart just enough make sure the monitor head piece wouldn't fall out, but close enough to allow the circles to clear the front of the cabinet.  We mounted two wheels on each end of each pipe.  Rick has some old broken dolly wheels, and drilled out their centers, and sandwiched them between two wooden wheels.  After making sure the placement was correct so that the monitor circles would rest on them, we drilled holes and dropped pins in there to keep the wooden wheels in place, and let the rubber ones spin freely.  The pipes were then set between two pieces, and another piece of plywood was ratcheted down over the pipe.

Thanks Mark!  Want to see more of Mark's work?  Stop on by M.A.R.S. :)