Mancave. W.I.P. aka Where's KK been?

[Kustom Kid]

What's up crew? I just wanted to show off my mancave; currently a work in progress.

So far we have a decent 55" 4K display, a 24" monitor for pinball backglasses and game marquees, a dedicated gaming pc, Xbox 360 mostly for Windows Media Center, PS2, Wii, and a set of inexpensive Logitech 5.1 speakers.

The bookcase swings open for storage underneath the front porch which we call the Narnia room, a loft for my son to hang out on, a board game/puzzle area with table and storage, and my mess of a work desk.

All I have left is to get a comfortable euro recliner for solo gaming, get rid of the old tv, fix the railing, get a receiver for legit surround sound, build a pedestal for my arcade stick (which is also only about 3/4 done), get some more stuff on the walls, and get GameEx and PinballX fully functional again.

So that's a big part of why I haven't been active much on here lately. Between working on this, plus other stuff in our house, getting our old house ready to sell and then finally selling it, and work clobbering me, I've been busy.

Thanks for checking this out.

 

 

[hansolo77]

I... (don't) hate you.  Looks really nice. 

[tthurman]

Sweet, that is completely bad-ass!

I miss my big room so much, but I'm working away at squeezing everything into my new space. 

I feel your pain dude!

Good to see you posting too....

 

[stigzler]

Cool beans. What's the little ladder for? Reaching the bar?

[Kustom Kid]

@hansolo77 4 years ago I lost my house and was living with my parents. I busted my butt, and had a little luck, to get back to good. I moved out of state and started sorting my life out. It didn't hurt that Fort Wayne, Indiana has the lowest cost of living in the country either.

@stigzler the ladder is used to get into that little loft area. You can see a bean bag chair up there and my Struggle Stick. It's a continuation of the bay window from the main floor.

[tthurman]

I've been filling my walls with theme related items and posters.  If your considering doing something along those lines, a inexpensive solution for frames that doesn't look cheap is the Belmont series over at Michaels.  They routinely run these on sale for 50% off, like every other week or so.  The store will have them too, but not quite as low of a price as online.  They frequently send emails with limited time deals on shipping too, so if you sign up ahead of time; and can wait for one to come along, you might score a 6.99 flat rate shipping weekend.

My experience has been they package very well, almost aggravatingly so....bubble pack strapped with moving tape.  The frames appear to be mdf, or similar with some type of vinyl wrap that, so check them for defects regardless of the packaging.  I've picked up around 12 of these, and only had a couple that had problems.

A fellow that posts over at BYOAC about video game poster repro's has a good selection available on ebay, as do several other store fronts, if you're going for that type of thing.

 

Edited July 26, 2017 by tthurman
In reading some of those recent reviews, those negative comments have not been my experience.

[Kustom Kid]

Good looking out @tthurman We've actually bought those exact frames before, but not with the savings you mentioned. I'm not sure what I'm going to put up on the walls yet. I have an old poster from the 70's and a wooden sign from work that are going up. I'm sure something Metroid and Star Wars related will end up there as well. That might be it.

[tthurman]

I'm sure it'll look good no matter what you decide.  Now that you got so much room, I'm looking forward to seeing what you do with your pedestal.

[RIP-Felix]

Nice space for the growing man cave!

The wall in front of the couch would be perfect for a projector . I'd go for a 7.2 surround system as well. I like the Projector screens that descend/ascend by remote. You can hang it from the ceiling so it comes down in front of the Entertainment center when you want to use it, without committing 100% to it. However, these rack the bill up pretty quick, especially if you get legit specs.

Of course the space is yours, make it your own!

[stigzler]

Get rid of the dog and consequently that cage + put a pinball table in its place..

[tthurman]

5 hours ago, stigzler said:

Get rid of the dog

Them's fightin' words!

[Adultery]

Indeed! I'd get rid of the wife before I'd get rid of the dog!! [emoji23]

[RIP-Felix]

25 minutes ago, Adultery said:

Indeed! I'd get rid of the wife before I'd get rid of the dog!!

I hope she's doesn't follow your posts! Or maybe you don't care? In that case, the dog comment makes more sense...lol.

[stigzler]

Pah. Dogs suck. Cats rock. Pinball wins.

[tthurman]

4 hours ago, stigzler said:

Pinball Baraka wins

fixed

[Kustom Kid]

@stigzler We do have an overhead light box that I could use for a projector, but I don't want to deal with wiring up the HDMI and whatnot.I

love our dogs. I'd never get rid of them. Or the wife for that matter.

Here's another project I did. This one is book shelves in the main dining room/living room. I know steel pipe shelves have been done to death, but the cost for custom bookshelves are insane. I'll probably do something similar, but on a way smaller scale, for the man cave.

 

 

 

[stigzler]

29 minutes ago, Kustom Kid said:

love our dogs. I'd never get rid of them. Or the wife for that matter.

But would the wife get rid of the dogs (or the dogs the wife, for that matter. Wonder what the dogs really want?

Nice pad, man. Those shelves look the mutt's nuts (sticking with a theme).

[hansolo77]

You sure steel pipe shelves have been done to death?  That's the first time I've seen them, and I'm impressed.  If I ever get my own place, that's probably how I'm going to do it.  Looks easy enough to do.  Right now, I'm just using some prefabricated Walmart black book cases with that cheap particle board shelving and cardboard back.  I did at one point have a single book shelf over my TV where I had my entire Star Trek DVD boxes set up on display.  That was more work than it was worth.  I had to buy 2 shelf brackets, find studs to mount them into, make sure it was level, and have a shelf that was long enough.  Not an adventure I'm looking forward to in the (near) future.  But those pipes look pretty cool.

[tthurman]

Yeah, I didn't know that was a thing either.  I've sat at bars that had pipe foot rests, but I think this is the first time I've seen a shelf constructed using them.  I'm betting it takes a decent amount of effort to thread all that pipe into the fittings and flanges, especially considering how pipe threads taper as you go further in.

I like it!

 

[Kustom Kid]

She would get rid of me before the dogs!

It took about 10 hours total to get everything on the wall. We washed the machining oil off first. Then I assembled the pipes tight enough that they weren't wobbly, found the measurement which gave the best amount of support to wobble ratio for the the vertical and horizontal pipes, and set everything to that. Then I screwed the top most flange into the stud/wall using combination anchor screws. I made sure everything was level as I worked my way down to the other flanges with the one on the floor done last for each. It was easy to do, just time consuming, and you had to check your work every time you moved anything. 

Thanks for the kind words everyone. 

[stigzler]

On 24/08/2017 at 8:13 PM, Kustom Kid said:

found the measurement which gave the best amount of support to wobble ratio

Sound like me when I'm buying jeans these days.