Here we go....again.....Mame cocktail build!

[bclinton]

Started working on this today. http://www.instructables.com/id/Furniture-grade-cocktail-arcade-cabinet/

Thanks for the post on here pointing me towards it. At first I was thinking no way.....looks too hard and will require too much wood working skills. Well I was surprised. Cuts were very easy to make. Only needs a little over 1/2 a sheet of plywood for the entire project. I went with Oak. His plan calls for MDF and painting it flat black. I am wondering how staining the oak and nice finish of clear coat would look - surrounded with the mahogany slats instead of the black finish. I am going with a 19 inch LCD arcade monitor that I ordered from Holland Computers. Covered with a piece of nice 3/8 inch glass. Will have all week to think about it

[Draco1962]

Probably a good idea to use tempered glass on that. Standard plate can be nasty if it breaks. If done right, I like the stained wood and have seen it done very successfully on a few projects.

[tthurman]

Draco is spot on with the tempered suggestion, it is much more resiliant to pressure, and of course if it does break, it will be lots of tiny pieces, not sharp shards!

It will cost a bit more, and you may need a pattern, but in the end you'll be much better off with it for numerous other reasons as well. Find yourself a good local glass shop and they should be able to get anything you need, but you will need to order it, so be sure to allocate time for delivery.

That looks like cabinet grade red oak plywood to me, something I've used many times over the years. One thing that I know looks great is Band-It edging, but it takes patience to work with. I've used both birch and red oak variants with great (IMO) success. I can post pics if you like, but it's really pretty much just a glue on veneer, and it's real stuff that has a heavy glue bed that saturates the plywood edge it is being applied to.

Another optioin is to grab some T-Molding in the color of your choice and the appropriate router bits to cut the groves needed to adhere the T-mold. This is really only a good option if you have access to the tools to do this, unless you just want a router anyway that is. I'm planning to do this on my pedestal build, and once I get past some health hurdles I'm going through, I can report back with how it went. You'll probably be done by then though

As far as finishing, I'm a big fan of satin clear finish coatings, and have done numerous projects with Minwax and Cabot's poly's with great results. Problem is, they are a real pain to clean up and prep between finishes, and breathing the VOC's sucks. Due to this I'd strongly suggest Formby's or Minwax Tongue oil finishes or the like, I just happen to have the most experience with these two products.

Note that these are really wiping varnishes, tongue oil is really a loose refrence here as to what the outcome appearenace is, as pure tongue oil takes forever to set up, and doesn't have the resiliancy of varnish based variants. If your going for a multi-sided piece, take your time and do one side at a time, but if everything is glued, screwed and assembled, don't worry so much, you can do it all at once as long as you don't let things set up before wiping off the excess.

Wipe it on, let it stand for several minutes, and wipe it off. After drying, buff with extra fine (00000) steel wool, clean with a shop vac, followed with a tack cloth cleaning, and repeat. Usually a minimum of three coats is what I'd recommend. This sounds like a lot of work, but compared to poly-urethane, the results are very similar, and brush strokes/bubbles are something you will not be concerned with.

If you glue at all, Tiebond III is my all around favorite. Be certain to wipe off any that gets onto a surface you wish to finish, and do so multple times with a clean wet sponge.

(disclaimer, you likely know much or all of this already )

[tthurman]

BTW, that looks like some excellent cutting!

[bclinton]

BTW, that looks like some excellent cutting!

Thanks you that comment! Precision is usually my weak suit.

When you are talking about the edge banding - do you mean the rolled banding that you can get at HD?

[tthurman]

I've always got it at Lowes, but HD probably has it too. I bought the edge trimming tool as well, and it is much more accurate than free handing with a razor knife.

The results are quite pleasing, almost looks like a solid wood board when it's done, depending on how close you get the grain to match. Be sure to keep that in mind, especially with red oak, as some of it tends to be darker with a much looser grain, while others the grain is much tighter, and the wood lighter in color. They must take this into consideration, because I've been able to find either, just go through them until you find one that is the best match for the veneer your plywood has.

Sort of irrelevant here, but FWIW, the birch seems to always be a little on the light side, but still produces excellent results.

The thing is applying the edge banding can get time consuming, depending on how picky you are. It's nearly pushed me to going with solid wood, that is until I priced it. That plus the plywood tends to be more dimensionally stable, and usually lighter.

Due to this, after exchanging numerous ideas with Draco, I've decided to try T-molding on my controller stand. The black edging on natural finished birch should fit nicely with other elements in my room anyway.

I like your idea of the mahogany slats, would you be staining them in a reddish finish, as in that mock-up? I've considered doing some contrasting stain on the rear supports, also in a reddish color.

Just curious, what type of saw and blade did you use? The one bad thing I've noticed with the veneered plywood is the tendency to tear out, on the cross grain cuts especially so. A 10" 80 tooth finish blade goes a long way to solving this, but not completely. I tried the "reverse" slide score technique, but did it without hooking up the sled. Needless to say I created a wood Frisbee and took a nice hit just below the ribs.

I do not recommend this BTW!

[bclinton]

Due to this, after exchanging numerous ideas with Draco, I've decided to try T-molding on my controller stand. The black edging on natural finished birch should fit nicely with other elements in my room anyway.

I like your idea of the mahogany slats, would you be staining them in a reddish finish, as in that mock-up? I've considered doing some contrasting stain on the rear supports, also in a reddish color.

Just curious, what type of saw and blade did you use? The one bad thing I've noticed with the veneered plywood is the tendency to tear out, on the cross grain cuts especially so. A 10" 80 tooth finish blade goes a long way to solving this, but not completely. I tried the "reverse" slide score technique, but did it without hooking up the sled. Needless to say I created a wood Frisbee and took a nice hit just below the ribs.

I do not recommend this BTW!

I was going to go with Pine slats with a reddish mahogany stain but am open to anything. Instead of the aluminum control panel that he use I am leaning toward a solid wood control panel. This is going to be an end table when not used to play games so I am thinking of the solid wood look throughout.

As for the tear out - yes I had some. Sanded it down and plan on using those sides on the inside. I used an 80 tooth blade but it is an older one that I used for a variety of different woods so it has seen a better day

I am leaning on using T moulding myself too......

[tthurman]

Cool, thanks for the feedback on the blade, It's reassuring to know I'm not alone .

That's a good idea with the multi-purposing use, plus you can leave it in attract mode while entertaining, which will have everyone wanting to play pac-man or the like!

[bclinton]

Cool, thanks for the feedback on the blade, It's reassuring to know I'm not alone .

That's a good idea with the multi-purposing use, plus you can leave it in attract mode while entertaining, which will have everyone wanting to play pac-man or the like!

I have a friend of a friend that makes cabinets for a living. I am amazed at the precision of his cuts and joints. He does it with no effort too...