The first step in building a bartop, or any other kind of arcade or jukebox for that matter, is to buy and learn the use of all the latest & greatest 3D modeling etc. software.. Or alternatively you could do everything the old-fashioned way with only a pen, a ruler and a few sheets of paper like I did ;)
When the small bartop idea was decided upon I then measured the old laptop and basically just started to draw different bartop profiles on the paper..
A couple of designs/beers later the bartop's profile and dimensions were ready and it was time to start actually building the thing.
For a few reasons, having to build the machine in an apartment not being the least of them, I decided to get the MDF and plywood I'd be using on this project precut to size. (There are after all only a few pieces of wood on this small a bartop.) Anyway, I bought six pieces of 10mm MDF and eight pieces of 4mm plywood in sizes between 35mm x 335mm and 320mm x 350mm. And so it was time to get my jigsaw and finally really do something ;o)
From now on mostly pictures to best demonstrate the development of the project.
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The bartop design as it was done on a few sheets of paper. Here it is already cut out to transfer the profile to the MDF side panels. |
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Here's the first side cut from a 32cm x 35cm piece of MDF and with the first screwholes for the inner supports drilled. |
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The jigsaw-cut sides with all the other MDF and plywood pieces in the picture... |
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Main inner supports glued and screwed in place and the plywood baseplate screwed on. The horizontal piece of MDF on top has a double duty both as a structural support and as the back of the marquee box where also the fluorescent marquee light will be placed. |
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Here's the speaker panel drilled and almost ready for the Harman-Kardon speakers that just happened to be the perfect size for this project... Notice also the brackets I'm using to attach the speaker panel... there will be quite a lot of those inside this box before this project is over ;) |
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Controlpanel drilled. A 25mm hole for the joystick and the usual ~28mm holes for the three buttons. Also, four 12mm holes for the other buttons. The panel, of course, still needs some sanding, a few layers of black spray paint, more sanding and then maybe some more sanding.. |
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Test fitting the control panel. Also, just behind the CP, the L-brackets to hold the laptop screen and bezel plexi are in place. |
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More of them good ol' L-brackets.. |
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The screen/bezel plexi rests on the L-brackets. It will be sandwiched between the laptop screen and the control panel on bottom and the speaker panel on top. |
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The laptop secured and holding the plexi in its place ..with yet another couple of L-brackets, of course ;) |
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Test assembly of the marquee, speakers and the fluorescent light. Both the marquee and the bezel artwork will go between two layers of 2mm plexi.. |
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A view from under the newly painted speaker panel. The marquee retainers were made out of L-shaped corner moulding which was then sprayed black. The strips of plastic actually holding the "glass" in place are only 4mm wide.. |
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After adding sidestops to keep the laptop in place and centered the last L-brackets (corner brackets, whatever) were glued and screwed in to hold the plywood panels covering the back of the machine. |
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Another view showing the laptop sidestops and the last L-brackets in place. The insides are now painted black (except the marquee area which of course was painted white) and the bartop is just about ready to receive its first layers of paint on the outside surfaces.. |
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After quite a lot of sanding, puttying and more sanding the outside was sprayed with some six or seven coats of black paint. Could have been left as it was in this picture.. NOT! |
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A few days later it was painted with quite a few coats of off-white and then even more layers of high-gloss red, red and then again with red ..just to be sure that in the end it'd be more or less... well, red. |
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Instead of just sitting and waiting for the paint to dry I assembled the control panel next. All the graphics -control panel, bezel & marquee- on this machine are more or less photoshopped edits of the 1978 B-film Attack of the Killer Tomatoes' front cover illustration.. |
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Well, that's a mess. Control panel wired and in place, the Keywiz programmed and working ...just waiting to be connected to the laptop. Quess I'll have to clean the wiring a bit before I can say it's all done. |
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A couple of days later...)
Finally! Time to put it all together for the first time. Mostly assembled already with not that much room to spare really :) |
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As some of the pics above already do show, all the transformers & other electrical parts are kept in place with velcro. The laptop screen and the main unit are also velcroed together with 18mm wooden blocks between them to give the machine at least some room "to breathe". |
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Just before installing the marquee and the top and back panels.. |
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Same shit, different angle. |
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Another plain red bartop with marquee in place... |
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The back panels are all just 4mm plywood and as such quite flimsy stuff.. While the panels on top and bottom are good as they are, the center panel, being much larger than the others, was warped to start with. Well, that was cured with the MDF panel I'd kept in reserve in case I'd F up my 1st control panel.. |
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Here's one of the really bad pictures I managed to take while trying to get The-Really-Good-Picture of the marquee light.. |
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Yeah, same angle but with a flash. Cab's not bad I quess, but now there is absolutely no way to see what the marquee looks like in reality :( |
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Another view ..just to be sure. |
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Full frontal nudity? |
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Just say cheese :)
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