Hogie's manually rotating bartop

[Hogie1418]

I am in the beginning stages of designing my bartop and I decided I would create a thread dedicated to it.

My plan is to use a 17" monitor and have monitor face, manually rotate. For the rotation, I purchased this: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001L4AJDW/ref=oh_details_o02_s00_i00
To hold the rotated monitor in place I was thinking of going with magnets in the back that would restrict the rotation to only 90 degrees.

The bartop will be built out of 1/2" mdf and will be run by an old dell laptop that I have set up to run mame.

At this point I am hoping to hear some feedback from anyone in the community who might have some guidance on the manual rotation(what works and what doesn't). This is not my first cab build but it is my first rotating cab. I plan to start building by the end of the month but am looking forward to hearing any suggestions. :-) Thanks

I have sketched a few different angles of what I imagine this looking like.

[TopJimmyCooks]

One thing to watch out for:  Vesa mounts on monitors are not always dead center vertically, so you need a display with centered mounting or an offset plate. 

[BadMouth]

One thing to watch out for:  Vesa mounts on monitors are not always dead center vertically, so you need a display with centered mounting or an offset plate.

+1  In doing research for my cab, I found out that the mounts on the back of a monitor are centered by weight according to VESA standards.

I created the outline of my monitor on foam project board, marked the outline of the screen and punched out VESA mounting holes where they are on the monitor.
Then I marked the center point of the screen and made another set of mounting holes centered with the screen and rotated 45 degrees so there would be clearance between the old mounting holes and new ones..
Those 8 holes are the pattern for your adapter plate.
Pics in reply #9 of my build thread: http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,119308.msg1270530.html#msg1270530

Looking forward to seeing how this developes. 
I've been wanting to make a budget bartop with manual rotation, but have way too many unfinished projects already.

[Lord Hiryu]

Hi Hogie.
Maybe my current project may help you a bit.

http://arcadeforever.forumfree.it/?t=63704218

Check it out. Still in cardboard proccess ( I will buy the MDF boards soon), but it's the same idea.
Using a Samsung TFT rotable monitor, and also, a 17" TFT place on the backside to show the Marquees of each different game.

It's the same idea as I used on my NOEMI project:
http://arcadeforever.forumfree.it/?t=55006687

Sorry...it's in spanish....but you can take some nice ideas for your forthcoming bartop.
Luck with your project.

Cheers.

[Le Chuck]

Check out DMWorking24/7's Alien Bartop it's a favorite of mine and was a huge inspiration for my Darkade build.  He does a really sweet out the front manual rotate that might be right up your alley.

[Hogie1418]

One thing to watch out for:  Vesa mounts on monitors are not always dead center vertically, so you need a display with centered mounting or an offset plate.

Thanks for the heads up on the vesa mounts. I had no clue that they were not centered on the back of my monitor. It looks like i will need an adapter plate to make up for how offset the monitor mounts are.

I created the outline of my monitor on foam project board, marked the outline of the screen and punched out VESA mounting holes where they are on the monitor.
Then I marked the center point of the screen and made another set of mounting holes centered with the screen and rotated 45 degrees so there would be clearance between the old mounting holes and new ones..
Those 8 holes are the pattern for your adapter plate.
Pics in reply #9 of my build thread: http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,119308.msg1270530.html#msg1270530

Looking forward to seeing how this developes. 
I've been wanting to make a budget bartop with manual rotation, but have way too many unfinished projects already.

So if I am understanding correctly, you created an outline for the 8 holes and used an adapter plate to help center the monitor with your rotation mount. Looks like the way to go 

Ive been wanting to build another cabinet for awhile now but a cheap bartop will hold me over until I get a bigger place. 

Sorry...it's in spanish....but you can take some nice ideas for your forthcoming bartop.
Luck with your project.

Finally my 3 semesters of spanish are paying off!!!! ok, I didnt follow perfectly but I will definitely find a webpage translator and follow your build!! Thanks for the link

Check out DMWorking24/7's Alien Bartop it's a favorite of mine and was a huge inspiration for my Darkade build.  He does a really sweet out the front manual rotate that might be right up your alley.

The more resources the better I say. I had a hard time finding a build that did a manual rotation from the front so this will be great to look through.

Also, I must say, your darkade is what made me want to build a bartop of my own. My wife thanks you for that 

[PL1]

I will definitely find a webpage translator and follow your build!!

Here's one I've used for Russian, Romanian, Portuguese, and --occasionally-- Spanish.
(Bonus round: It also has a language autodetect function, just in case you're far from being a polyglot.)

http://translation2.paralink.com/translations.asp


Scott

[Termin8tor]

Any progress on this, looks promising from the sketch. 

[Eldritch1969]

Rotating bartop ... ! That is really something I would try doing, too.
Good luck in your project !

[darthpaul]

These rotating Bartops are getting some ideas flowing but I really need to finish my Automated cab first . Good luck with this, I'll be following your progress.