Bartop Arcade Carcass: Part III, Panels

Deadlines are motivating. Sometimes you actually make them.

Why I don’t think I’ll have have the Bartop Arcade done in time.

Unfortunately, it doesn’t look like I’ll make the mid-January deadline. That said, I am finally making real progress on the Bartop Arcade.

Over the passed two (2) weeks, I’ve managed to get the grunt work done.

Clamps & Cauls, Mmm.

I glues up all of the panels. This was a tedious task, as the individual boards were wider than my jointer and the panels wider than my planer, it was more work than I would have liked. I was also a board short on the curly maple so I used some leftover purpleheart to widen the panel. I placed the purpleheart on either side of the center maple panel. It makes a sort of racing stripe pattern which I hope adds a dimension of ornateness which is lacking from the sheet good arcade carcasses I’ve seen.

The purple heart strips will run up the face of the carcass, starting at the bottom, across the control panel and up the monitor panel.

Once the panels were finished, I cut them to size. To determine the angles, I simply used a bevel gauge to record the angles on my full sized template. Then I set the bevel gauge against the table saw blade and adjust it to match.

A very handy accessory.

Finally, altering cutting all the panels to their finished sizes, I cut the domino slots. My new Seneca Domiplate came in handy here.

So many slots.

With the panels ready, I glued the marquee to the top. As they’re glued along an end grain miter, I used Matt Kenney’s glue sizing tip to prime both with a 50/50 glue/water mix. Then I glued them and used blue tape to hold them together. I’m not going to reinforce the miter any further. In it’s assembled form the rest of the carcass components will work to hole the top and marquee together.

A little sized glue should go a long way for strength.

Next up it will be time to layout and drill out for the controls. Until then, here is the test fit front facade.

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SOURCE: The Penultimate Woodshop – Read entire story here.