Made another Bartop Arcade

6 Months ago I started woodworking as a hobby, I made my first bartop arcade and was quite happy with the result. I gave it away to my brother-in-law as a birthday present but decided that I wanted to make more. Not only is it one of the coolest things I've ever made but I really enjoyed the planning and the building process.

This Build:

18mm MDF, LED Buttons, Raspberry PI 3 B+ Running Retropie, 22"Samsung Monitor and a cheap set of speakers.

All in all a lot better build quality than my prototype which I built 6 months ago (I uploaded the first one to Imagur as well: https://imgur.com/a/YlRVGDT)

Downloaded the plans online from Instructables http://www.instructables.com/id/2-Player-Bartop-Arcade-Machine-Powered-by-Pi/ printed them, taped them together and cut out the shape.

I'm building two at the same time so used the first cutout as a template.

inner frame for connecting the back, front, top and control panel.

Using an off cut to measure, nail gun down with loads of woodglue.

frame built.

one has a larger monitor and two USB breakouts as well.

fucked up as the marquee at the top is about 1cm wider on one side. remember... measure two cut once kids!

solid.... this monitor ain't going no place!

not too shabby...

painted with acrylic undercoat to seal the MDF.

painted black!

Added the speakers and doors.

didn't bother painting the back...

added a carbon vinyl to the top marque with speaker grilles and 18mm chrome trim. Was going to use a perspex marque with graphics and lights but decided against it... Which means I tried it and couldn't get it to look nice!

Button, button, who's got the button...

soo many flippin wires...

Had to wire up a power source as well... word of advice, ordering LED buttons on eBay... they never give you a power supply... OR INSTRUCTIONS! The last one I ordered worked with a 5v USB cable (which I split and soldered) this one needed 7.5v which I had to purchase separately.

The set I purchased had one white and one blue set, as I wanted the buttons the same colour I ordered two sets and that way one machine will have white buttons and one will have blue. I printed off some labels, these LED buttons come apart so you can easily add labels inside above the LED.

FINITO... tested it all and everything works fine. Added more carbon fibre printed vinyl to the sides (can't tell from this pic as it's potato quality) but all in all I'm happy with how it came out.

Now time for some HARDOOKENS!

Hope you enjoyed this post.