Bartop build...'Black Ops' finished (look at the pretty lights)

[emphatic]

Really nice. 

The left joystick currently has no enclosure (the bottom of the panel) from what I understand from your pictures, what are your plans?

[ninjasquirrel]

Emphatic- as far as the left joystick goes, if you look at the first very rough picture I sketched in reply 13 (which doesn't explain much  ), the entire cp area will be wrapped in wood and connect with the side panels. The connection there will be rough to make it look nice, we'll see how it goes.  I hope that's what you were asking...I should get some time this weekend to work on this beast and post some more progress, hopefully that will explain it better. thnx

[ninjasquirrel]

Over the weekend I was able to squeeze some hours into the beast.

First I started on the base, it needed to be applied before any other work could be done on the sides or back. Before I started bending and applying the cp to the sides, I traced the generic outline of the rabbeted area of the cp to a piece of 1/2" mdf.  By doing this it lines up with the side fronts and the top cp area rabbet cut out:



I only needed a border which I made 1.5" so that I could make a hinged door to gain access to the entire bottom for wiring, motherboard, harddrives, etc.  In this pic I'm using my circle template guide again to rout out the inside portion of the border:



And this is after alot of straight line routing and sawdust:



After the bottom border was created I lined it up with the sides and cp area and attached it:



Here is a closeup bottom view with the 3 pieces lined up.  You can see how with the rabbet, this will allow the 3/8" wacky wood to wrap around the entire piece and attach to the bottom border I created.



After the bottom was made the next step was confronting the infamous transition area near the speakers.  I think I've come up with a decent way to finish out this area by making numerous pieces similar to the one pictured and creating an array of them around a given point.  More on that later but here is where I'm at right now:



I also created a backup piece for the laminate under the speaker area since it was unsupported and it gave an area for the wacky wood to attach to near this crazy area:



Here is the 2.1 computer speaker system that I'll be using.  On the far right you can see what the decased speaker looks like:



Question-Will the magnets on my sub speaker effect the lcd screen or motherboard/harddrives? They will be pretty close inside the bartop, but all that I've read up on says that magnets don't really effect lcds but what about the motherboard? Anything I could put in between to use as a shield if so?

[Ond]

   nice work.  Is that PC 2.1 system already shielded (I can't see from the pics)?  Most PC speaker systems are already shielded. Unshielded magnets probably won't affect your motherboard or LCD monitor but they shouldn't be placed too near a hard drive.  A strong magnetic field (especially a changing one) could result in corrupted data.  Years a ago in another job and life we used strong magnetic fields to bulk erase video tapes.   keep em separated or shield from one another.  To shield a big ass magnet you can try the following, take a (big!) soup/olive oil/etc tin, cut it down so that it fits around the magnet and attach to speaker chassis to hold in place.  To see the difference for yourself place the assembly under a sheet of card and sprinkle a few iron filings onto the card - should be less defined magnetic lines than without the shield in place.

[spacegoogie]

The hardest part is going to be mointing the powersupply. I had half an inch to spare on mine, hopefully they make a small one you can use. 

You could just remove the inner parts of a power supply and ditch the outside so you don't have a big aluminum box. I did this with the cocktail cabinet I made, saved me a little bit of space.

[ninjasquirrel]

Ond- Below are close up pics of the speakers.  As far as I know because there are secondary magnets glued to the back of each speaker, they are shielded.  It's good to get reassurance on this stuff though    I should be able to place the harddrives at least @6" away too so hopefully that'll be enough.

spacegoogie- I suppose I'm just going to use my external brick power supply, in this way it is totally separate from the bartop all together.  Down the line if I update the motherboard and supply I'll probably have to do what your saying.

[XCVG]

Just decase it. There's lots of warnings, but I've never shocked myself with one, and I've done some pretty stupid things with them.

[spacegoogie]

Just decase it. There's lots of warnings, but I've never shocked myself with one, and I've done some pretty stupid things with them.

Nice! Just don'y touch anything. THey hold a charge like a TV  

[dkssprs]

You are a woodwork specialist!!!!!!! 
Excellent job!!

Cant wait to see the final result.

In my  bookmarks for sure.

[ninjasquirrel]

xcvg- I'm still trying to decide my next move with the ps.  That is definitely an option if there's room though

dkssprs-thanks for following! I checked your bartop out...it looks great!

Small update, the laminate supports under the speaker area are epoxied in and the boards used to house the speakers are cut and in.  I'll take some pics tomorrow and hopefully have a much larger update.  The next few steps include the rest of the speaker surround and the wacky wood application...it gets 'interesting' now 

[TEKNYNE]

Are you using a standard ATX power supply? You can get micro ATX power supply for about 25-50 dollars and save a bit of space.

[ninjasquirrel]

teknyne- It's actually an external supply, look at post #16 on the first page.  I've looked at the shell and I can decase it (it has the anti-tamper star screws) but I'll have to hack it up or buy one of the security star drives. I guess I could buy a micro ATX supply if I can rig the adapter to work with it.  I'll take a pic tomorrow of the connector to see what you think.

So I do have an update today 
First let's start with the pics from yesterday which show the speaker boards installed.




After the speaker boards were installed, I began on the surround for the speaker area.  To accomplish this I built up this section with multiple cut outs like lincoln logs.  Every other level is simply scrap that I've rough cut and will smooth in by sanding later.





Near the top the angles got a little tricky but they came out ok.





In the dead space between the sections at the top I'm thinking about using expanding foam which sets up hard after dry.  After the foam dries I'll form it by rasping and sanding and feather everything together to make it fairly consistent.  After this, I'm thinking about putting a layer or two of fiberglass over it to harden all the foam etc and give something for the bondo to stick to.  It's all a little rough but half will be covered in wacky wood and the other will be smothered in bondo and paint 

[SpaceHedgehog]

The overall look of this is going to be super nice  With the stack of wood at the sides, it's starting to look like another alien themed cab! It'd be great if you could add some sort of venting to it on these ares as it'd give a really interesting look. Are you thinking about creating a stand for it at all?

[Kurt]

Freaking unbelievable, after seeing your original design i thought there was no way your going to be able to pull that off, well i have been proven wrong.

Cant wait to see this come together, well done 

[ninjasquirrel]

Thanks guys! ...I still have alot of touchy parts to complete so I can't get too excited about the progress yet!

Spacehedgehog- I haven't really thought about a stand at all really.  I was planning on putting rubber feet on the bottom of it and simply using it as a portable bartop, something to think about though, especially for here at the house.  The venting would be pretty slick, but probably mostly aesthetic because of where the side panels block airflow to the center of the cab (where the motherboard etc will be kept)

[ninjasquirrel]

Some progress today...

I managed to apply the wacky wood today that wraps around the outside of the bartop.  For those who don't know wacky wood is a type of bending plywood usually measuring 3/8" thick made from luan and is able to be bent into a pretty tight radius.

The first step was to cut a generic piece of wacky and hold it up to the side of the cabinet.  By clamping it on one side and bending it by hand around the radius, I was able to trace the line of the cabinet top-



After tracing the top onto the wood, I then had to add 1/2" where needed to adjust for the 1/2" top so that it would slip into the rabbeted area (except in the area of the speakers where it simply was laminate no rabbet in that area)-



Next I clamped and bent the piece around the outside again, this time marking where the speaker wood stack ended and where the piece should be cut near the front, unclamped it, cut where it needed, then started attaching it with wood glue and brads-



Once the wacky wood was permanently secured, I gave it a quick sand to show how the whole thing will feather together into one smooth transition. 



And here is where I'm at right now.  Both sides have been applied and the glue is setting up tonight. 



Once everything is dry, I'll start applying the foam and smoothing out the speaker area.  I'll also be working on the front where the 2 coin insert buttons (just normal concave happ push buttons with a red glow) will be.

[Kurt]

 

[Hewskie]

Very cool!

Keep it up

Hewskie

[mllkat]

The skill and above all...Patience from the members on this board never cease to amaze me. Great job so far. Patience was always a problem for me...even as far back as model building...never wanted to wait until the glue was dry before moving on...which led to glue fingerprints on windshields....wheels that wouldn't roll...etc. Reminds me of this classic "Calvin and Hobbes."

[Bender]

Looking AWESOME!
Nice work, and really unique design
Can't wait to see this done

[emphatic]

Woah. 

[javeryh]

Looks great.  How's the weight with all that MDF in the corners?  You are making great progress!   

[ninjasquirrel]

Thanks for the compliments everyone!

javeryh- surprisingly the weight isn't bad at all yet! Since the corners are made with 1 1/2" 'frame' strips of mdf it didn't weigh it down too much.

I've got my fingers crossed that when I buy the expanding foam and use it to fill in the empty corners around the speakers, that it won't push and deform the mdf parts around it 
I know that they make different strengths of the foam, as far as how much it will expand...I'll just have get the weakest one I guess.  Anyone have a better idea of how to feel those corners if I don't use the foam?

[javeryh]

Anyone have a better idea of how to feel those corners if I don't use the foam?

Bondo!  It is really light, dries fast and dries hard as a rock yet sands easily.  Best of all - it doesn't expand so no worries in that area.  It also sticks to itself so if you sand too much or want to reshape it you can just add mor bondo , wait for it to dry and resand!   

[ninjasquirrel]

yeah I was going to use bondo definitely, just after I fill in the open areas.  I would have to dam the bottoms of the openings so the bondo wouldn't ooze out if I filled it with only bondo, and that would be a bunch of bondo!  I was hoping to fill them with something light and layer some fiberglass resin on top just to harden everything up and keep the different woods etc from moving and showing through the paint.  After the resin I was going to skim it with the bondo to make everything all pretty 

I guess I could always cut some wedges out of styrofoam, glue them in, and continue over top of that

[opt2not]

Anyone have a better idea of how to feel those corners if I don't use the foam?

Bondo!  It is really light, dries fast and dries hard as a rock yet sands easily.  Best of all - it doesn't expand so no worries in that area.  It also sticks to itself so if you sand too much or want to reshape it you can just add mor bondo , wait for it to dry and resand!   

+1

[dynasty_trs]

 

This build looks amazing and can't wait to see the end result.  Definitely learning a lot about the woodworking craftsmanship through this post.

[ninjasquirrel]

Just a quick post on progress made tonight...

I made the coin insert area in the front tonight and threw some bondo on it to fill in the cracks and brad nail holes.  You can also see the some of the screw holes filled on the cp area with bondo. (see below)

I went ahead and used the expanding foam, called great stuff (the weakest expansion I could find), to fill in the speaker area.  It worked great and I was able to take a hacksaw blade and carve off the excess.  Then after a quick sand all around the speakers I put some resin and fiber glass cloth down to create a stable area that the bondo could stick to (see below)

I guess the next couple days will involve maybe another layer of fiber glass and then a bunch o' bondo and sanding...

[pinballwizard79]

Damn dude thats awesome

Some of you people here make me want to delete my profile when you build such nice arcades.

Anyway, as you were...back to work 

[javeryh]

Wow - real nice!   

[phines]

Ninja:  Great craftsmanship and attention to detail.  I think you've given a lot of people inspiration, especially on how easy kerf cutting and forming can be.  Entertaining build!  Good Luck.

[ninjasquirrel]

So there hasn't been alot going on around here for a good reason...

I thought it was some sketchy Chinese I ate...but since my wife, and father-in-law got it too, looks like it was a lovely 2 day virus!! Let me tell yeah, that stuff sux...

Anyway after watching my little girl all day today, I was able to get an hour or 2 in tonight to work a little on the bartop.  After a quick sand over the glassed area and around the coin buttons, it looks like this right now-



The next step I wanted to get done was focusing on the top of the cabinet around the marquee area.  I made a template of the curve I needed then rough cut 3 more pieces out of the 1/2" mdf.  Next I glued and nailed 2 together using the first to flush rout the attached one, attached another, flush routed, etc....Once I had them stacked up, they were about a 1/16" too big as far as thickness, I didn't want to try and sand that off after it was attached, so I sunk the brad nails, put it against my tablesaw fence and trimmed it a little. Here is what it looks like right now-



Here is a pic from the backside-



And here is a close up of the top-



Well I wish it were a larger update but let's see if I can get more done tomorrow, my fingers are crossed 

[drventure]

Wow, hadn't been back to this thread in a while.

Jeez, dude!

I thought the buttons were cool. You guys with your bendy, twisty, curvy, kerf cuttin' builds are f'in with my mind 


Nice stuff!

[Bender]

This thing is awesome!
I have one more question, how are you planning on finishing the laminate?
Paint doesn't stick so well to that stuff
I could see a full CPO done with ploycarb over the whole front, man that would look slick

[IG-88]

  I see a Mamey in the making! 

[ninjasquirrel]

Thanks fellas' !!

Bender- Exactly...that's what I have planned, they make the overlay with the polycarb built into itself I think    Full overlay on the entire front, then I'll paint the sides, back, etc.  I thought about trying to find some small (maybe 1/4" or so) corner molding that's flexible enough to bend around the sharp corners all around the edge between the CPO and the sides.  It would have to be sticky back too probably...Still haven't worked it out exactly but I think it will need something on the edge.

I'm also thinking about using a piece of aluminum on the back to make the entire thing removable to access the marquee, screen, and speaker, etc
I could bend it to the curves fairly easily, so this might be my best bet.  It'll be reasonably light also, so that helps as far as portability.

[emphatic]

Just need to tell you that I'm loving every second of this thread. 

[Bender]

 I thought about trying to find some small (maybe 1/4" or so) corner molding that's flexible enough to bend around the sharp corners all around the edge between the CPO and the sides.  It would have to be sticky back too probably...Still haven't worked it out exactly but I think it will need something on the edge.

What about good old t-Molding around the whole thing?

that area is the only area you couldn't get a slot cutter into, could probably do that little section with a drummel
wouldn't even have to be perfect cause the areas around will hold the t-molding in pretty well

[ninjasquirrel]

Bender- I thought about that, it wouldn't be normal t molding, I found some that wraps around the edge to create a little round over on the top, and it's adhesive backed too.  Still considering what to do there though...keep coming with the ideas!


I was able to get a little done yesterday.

After applying the top and thinking about it for awhile, I decided to fiberglass all around this thing.  In the past like I said on other projects, even with bondo skimmed over a project, I've had the seams of wood show through the paint.  So hopefully by applying fiberglass to the whole project where there are seams, I hope to eliminate this.

The first couple of pics show the fiberglassed cab before any sanding has begun-







And here is a pic after sanding the glass a little bit.  Hopefully with the build up of resin I won't have to bondo too much to get everything smooth and level.



I was also able to flip the cab upside down and apply bondo to the grooves in between the kerfing to make that whole area solid so it wouldn't flex at all.  You can also see the holes that I drilled for player 1 and 2.



Player 1 and 2 from the top view-



So I'm still working on sanding down everything and getting ready for the bondo and primer-



I don't really care for finish work, but it's the nature of the beast so on we go...

I need to figure out exactly what I want to do as far as colors and CPO very soon also.  The painting is coming up very shortly and I don't want that to slow me down! I'm still toying around with the military theme, so maybe blacks and dark olive green...hmmm....more on that later

Oh and here is all that I have to fit inside the guts of the bartop...lets hope it all fits!!

[gryhnd]

Probably too late...but perhaps rather than molding, run a round over bit along the edges, especially since your glassing this in anyway. You've got your own vision of course, but I think the edges of any molding would detract from the curvaceous nature of this build.