New Member + First Project (Bartop) FINISHED 1/12/12

[kb84]

Greetings-

I've been a long time lurker of this community but I figured now is a good time to finally join and become a contributing member. I have always admired the craftsmanship and creativity of all the members here and always wanted to build something similar myself. My knowledge and ownership of any sort of tools through-out my life has been bare minimal which has hindered any progress I have made towards this hobby. I bought the project arcade book a few years back- read it cover-to-cover and was super excited to get started. I bought some joysticks/buttons/i-pac and tinkered but never got far as I didn't have the skills to start a cabinet build and didn't really want to get a kit/couldn't find a good deal on an empty cab.
So with it being a new year and my goal of learning new things I started construction on my very first woodworking project of any kind- a Bartop Arcade. I wish I would have taken more pictures during the cutting/assembly but you'll get the picture. I bought 2 tools a cheap pawn shop jigsaw and a skil router from lowes to get me started.
I am doing sort of a Donkey Kong theme and more of a focus on the 80s based games with this build and hoping that I achieve some success with this so I can build a few more geared towards 90s/neo-geo stuff.

Here are some of the items I've acquired so far for the build.

Asus PTGV-DM w/ 1.7 ghz Celeron (using onboard video/audio)/1GB Ram/power supply - $15
15" HP LCD (mounting vertical) $30 (second hand store)
I-PAC 2 - purchased awhile ago
Ball top joystick/buttons - purchased awhile ago

Here is a look at my progress so far. My apologies for the pictures not being the best- poor lighting/iphone camera.



Priming...



More priming...



Painting the interior




I went with a similar blue color as seen on some of the Donkey Kong cabinets. 2nd coat shown here (applied 4)



Making progress.....  



Motherboard/Cpu/Ram/Power supply came in the mail. The motherboard is a lot smaller than I expected which is a plus.  



Control Panel Overlay that I am going to use- ordered through Game On Grafix- also having them print the original Donkey Kong Marquee for me scaled to fit.


More to come soon.........

[BobA]

Looking good. The DK theme will be nice. 

[Dalgaard]

Its looking really good All ready for the t-molding too I see. What color are you going to use?

Love the donkey kong controlboard...retro all the way! Keep the pictures coming!

[kb84]

T-molding is going to be white. Scheduled to arrive tomorrow....I seriously can't wait. I am pretty much to the part of the process where I am just waiting for items to arrive to finish it up. I just finished cutting the plexiglass for the screen overlay and need to setup the marquee glass next.

Anyone have suggestions for a good LED marquee light that can be wired into the PC power supply (12v?)

[BobA]

Nova Matrix Marquee LEDs

[kb84]

Thank you!

[kb84]

I found this as a cheaper alternative to the Nova Matrix lights you had listed- I wonder how much of a difference there will be.

http://www.directron.com/ml12wt.html

[Unstupid]

So what is that round hole in the back of the cabinet for?  Speaker or exhaust fan? 

[kb84]

There will be 2 larger diameter holes on the back of the cab. The one shown in the pictures on the top panel is for a 80mm exhaust fan. I also have a 4" hole on the other panel (not shown) for a rear speaker. The smaller hole near the top is for a power button.

[BobA]

The Nova Matrix give better light coverage due to the way that they are split up.  They can be mounted to cover the whole marquee not just a straight line.

[Le Chuck]

For a bartop I'd say that the strip light would be fine.  That said I have the nova in mine and love them.  I didn't even use them all and have excellent coverage and still have two more units I can use at a later date for underpanel lighting or something.  Plus it's nice to support the community when you can. 

Your build is looking good, keep it up.  Good theme too. 

[kb84]

Just a quick update. I got the t-molding in the mail today and quickly installed it. I also received my rear fan and grill. I ordered a white fan but they sent me a yellow...  . I called and they no longer have the white in stock so I either have to deal with the yellow or buy a different type- so for now I think I may just install the yellow as its not going to be that big of deal in the end. 

[yotsuya]

Love the DLR icon.

[kb84]

New VH album 2.7.12  

[kb84]

Installed fan and also cut monitor plexiglass- just need to tape/paint it.

[kb84]

Did some work on it last night and its really starting to come together.


Monitor plexiglass installed/painted. I was originally only going to put 1 speaker in the rear of the cab but as able to run 3 with proper ohms on 1 amp. There are 2 small 2" speakers mounted above the monitor and a 4" speaker in the back.


Power button/speaker/lock installed. I still need to wire the main power cord and install the plate for it.


I still have a ton of cable mess/wire management to figure out but it is up and running. I also need to properly mount the fan above the CPU- going to buy the brackets for it today.


Ms Pacman


I am still waiting on my marquee and control panel overlay from Game on Grafix -and also waiting for my marquee light to arrive but I am getting close to having it completed.

[Le Chuck]

You can always tell how good a project will turn out by the time spent on the back panel.  Yours is looking super, can't wait to see the rest come together.  Keep it up!   

[kb84]

So I have been mulling over on what I want to do in terms of any side art or additional cosmetics. I originally wanted to add some of the DK side art but was sort of turned away from it when I saw the numbers to get them printed and the price vs. size of print really didn't seem to add up ($60 for 2 8x10" prints?). Anyways I was messing around with some ideas and decided to see what I would be able to do on my own and actually am really happy with the test result I got.

I printed the side art at 300dpi in Photoshop and printed to the appropriate size I wanted on some mid-level sticker paper.



I let the ink sit for a few and sprayed it with some Krylon Low Oder Clear Finish to provide it that professional sheen and protective barrier.



After letting the clear finish to dry for about 3 hours I applied it with a dry/clean roller on to a test piece of wood that I quickly painted for reference.
The clear coat really makes the image pop when you compare it to the original print.




I am really happy with the results and am going to set this up for my actual cabinet unit. Colors appear to match perfectly with what I am looking for and quality of print is quite nice.

Anyone else tried this?

[kb84]

added the side art using the above method.

[Green Giant]

That side art looks great.

Is that a simple 8.5x11 sticker print?  Did you have to coat the entire side with the clear finish?

[kb84]

@Green Giant - I used some generic sticker paper from Staples and applied the krylon clear coat only to the sticker paper prior to putting it on the cab (So no clear coat on the actual wood itself). I did 3 light coats over the sticker paper about an 30 minutes a part and then let it sit over night to dry. The krylon stuff did a great job and the paper actually has a vinyl feel to it now- I am quite happy with it.

- also just to note my printer isn't anything fancy either its a cheap Canon iP2600 I picked up a few years back for around 40 bucks. I used the "fine" setting when printing the art.

[Le Chuck]

The art looks good but I'm concerned with long term durability and yellowing of the image.  You mentioned a $60 price tag but didn't mention the vendor.  John at Basement Arcade Grafx did all the art for my bartop for under $100 with shipping and I'm covered in vinyl.  I can't imagine those two images would be that pricey and you'll be pleased with a commercial grade vinyl in the end.

Who quoted you that price?  If the answer is Kinkos then thar's yur problem.   

[kb84]

I didn't get a quote from FedEx Kinko's as I avoid that place the the plague usually. The quotes I got from gameongrafix/pheonix arcade/and a few local shops were all around that 60 dollar price range. I haven't checked out basement arcade but I definitely will.

I do have some concern for yellowing as well- however I have printed some of my own digital artwork in a similar fashion and sprayed with the same krylon stuff and it has held up for over 5 years- some of it displayed and some of it stored in my art portfolio. Time will tell on what will happen with it. If I wind up getting anything professional printed I probably will get the whole side art printed (whole cab side) so its all the same- but at this point I am happy with how it has turned out.

[kb84]

My Marquee and CPO from GameonGrafix came in this morning so I was able to finally finish everything up and call it "complete". I have the majority of the games I want to play loaded on but I am sure there are a few more I will add. I setup the system to use Mala/direct boot. (I will record/post a video of the entire cabinet soon- but here are some finished photos! I appreciate everyone's support on this project. 
















Now on to playing some games and planning my next project! (Neo Geo Perhaps?)

[Le Chuck]

Fantastic first project man.  Great result, much better than my first project years ago.  Way to bring it together!