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2P folding bartop (Still nameless... liking a Transformers theme though)

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syph007:
Hey guys!  Well I sold and parted out my first build and now I want another, but smaller this time.  I needed something that I could bring out to play then fold and store away when needed.  

Now I've loved the Benderama since I first saw it, so I thought I could modify that concept to fit 2 players and a bigger screen.

I made a mockup of the build with cardboard to get a feel for how it would look.  I made the tilt angle close to 100 degrees as it felt more natural to view at that angle to me, and fiddled with the curves a bit.







So I was happy with that design I went and got materials, white laminate and ordered a 22" 16:10 monitor from newegg which was on sale for $150.

I fiddled with the layout for quite awhile trying to get the curves just right.



I ended up settling on a curve of a 6 inch diameter.  I made a template from hardboard so I can route the curve smoothly.  I test fit the monitor as well, and I will have just enough room to mount the joysticks, and have them still clear the monitor when folded close.



The only other thing I got done so far was to test the thickness of tmolding to figure out how much of a gap to leave.  Turns out 3/32 of an inch shaved off each piece should be perfect.





I want to take my time with this build at make it nice.  I like the idea of white laminate with blue tmolding.

emphatic:
That's gonna look sweet.  :cheers:

syph007:
Well, I could fib and say that I got the side peices made first try!... but... it took more like 4, and most of today.... but.. I'm happy with how things turned out.

My problem was that I was trying to make each part separately, when really they should be made together as they need to mate up.

So.. what I did was first take an exactly true rectangle 24x10 and mark out my pieces.  Since i was taking back 3/32 on each edge, I drew a series of lines.  The neat trick here is that I then just ran my jig saw up the center line to separate the pieces.  Then all I needed to do was route the edges smooth using various guides.  If I had thought of this to start with I would have saved alot of time.



Here are what I refer to as my template pieces, separated and routed.  It was so fiddly to make these I wanted template parts to use to make more if needed, if I messed something up later on.



Here are my template pieces and production pieces.  I did all my pattern routing outside, MDF dust is crazy.  I actually broke my bottom template so I have a new template for that from MDF, but same difference in the end.



Here is what the pieces look like mated together.  T-molding will be going around the entire parts for protection, and the sharp corners are going to be rounded.



I feel like I made decent progress for today, so I'm happy.  Next I can make some of the cross pieces and start test fitting.

Cheers!

Bender:
Looks great!
Make sure you leave enough room for the t-molding
I didn't on my first attempt :banghead:

syph007:

--- Quote from: Bender on June 26, 2011, 10:06:00 pm ---Looks great!
Make sure you leave enough room for the t-molding
I didn't on my first attempt :banghead:

--- End quote ---

I didn't leave room on the first templates I made and figured I would just magically figure something out, but in the final set I made, I ended up taking of 1/8 inch of each side.

I'm looking at the hidden hinges you used, those aren't cheap.  $50 if I wanted 4.  The piano hinge is cheap, but hard to hide... did you come across any other ideas in the hinge department? I'm still debating what would work best for me.

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