A proper man cave is something that every guy strives to obtain at some point in their life. For me, it was when I purchased my first house over 10 years ago. Since then I have been collecting the most random, yet awesome, bar styled art and, for lack of a manlier word, decorations. My man cave is full of signed racing posters, neon signs, random rifles on the walls, bar posters and other smelly things that exude manliness. It is a sanctuary that I love hanging out in and constantly adding to. My friends and I play table tennis, beer pong, poker and just sit around bs’ing with each other. Needless to say, I’m always on the hunt for awesome things to make my man cave that much cooler. Well I’m pretty sure I just found one of the ultimate man cave accessories. The best part is that it’s a DIY project and you can make one yourself. Granted you will need a little skill with wiring and power tools but most of this can be learned via YouTube so you shouldn’t have any problems. Imgur user TheStrayMongrel took an old wooden barrel and created the best pub table I have ever seen. Take a look at this incredible DIY project below and get inspired to create your own.
He started out with a regular old wooden barrel. These on their own are awesome man cave accessories. So just imagine the potential one has if you start to modify it.
He had to purchase some hardware first. Once that arrived, he was able to create a template that would eventually house the new hardware.
With the template made to fit, he used it to create a base that would house a few buttons and joysticks.
He had to enclose the control panel to hide the wiring that would be going in it. Everything had to fit the barrel which is round and has a different diameter from top to bottom. This process can take a lot of trial and error to perfect.
It looks like he got the curve cut perfectly. Once it was perfect, he secured it to the wooden keg.
With the control board, assembled and painted it was time to add something to control.
He created a metal frame to house the monitor that would be cut into the top of the barrel.
The frame and monitor are recessed into the top of the barrel creating a stable platform. It still needs a little protection to withstand the abuse of a man cave.
He decided to cut a cover piece for a more finished look and a little extra protection.
The cover fits perfectly and now only needs a little routing to smooth the edges.
With a tester and a steady hand he wired up all of the controls. Following a wiring diagram would make this much easier to figure out. All of these components are hidden in the control panel.
He then needed to wire in a 120 volt outlet to power the whole unit. He used a kettle plug socket that can easily be unplugged if needed.
A little testing and trouble shooting before it was installed one last and final time.
He had a piece of tempered glass cut to the dimensions he wanted. With the power on you can now see what he was working to achieve. One seriously awesome DIY arcade table.
He wanted a few more final touches to dress up this awesome DIY arcade table so he decided to paint the trim pieces.
A little time to let the paint dry and voila! There you have it, one of the coolest man cave accessories I’ve ever seen.
Here it is in all of its glory. A keg barrel arcade table!
He placed it in his backyard patio which he uses often for entertaining. It blends in seamlessly and looks like an awesome table. You could easily walk past it not knowing that it’s a fully functioning arcade table.
This DIY arcade table would find a perfect home in any man cave or entertaining room. I could spend hours on this thing. Especially since I see that it has the original 1981 Donky Kong game on it! I also see Street Fighter in one of the images above. I wonder what games he’s loaded into his game keg. Either way I want one of these so bad. I could see many fun nights glued to this with my buddies while kicking back a few cold ones.