Before you open the box
A flat-pack bartop is a dozen or so panels, a bag of hardware, and — if you bought well — instructions that assume you have done this before. You have not, which is fine: the build is forgiving if you work in the right order and dry-fit everything before committing. Set aside a clear table, a soft surface to protect finished faces (a blanket or the box’s own cardboard), and two to three unhurried hours.
Parts for this build (any flat-pack bartop follows the same sequence):
- A bartop kit — this walkthrough suits the GameRoomSolutions Bartop Deluxe (cam-lock, melamine), the LEP1 Customs LVL23 (baton-and-screw, MDF) or the Ourcades DIY Bartop (blank shell)
- A #2 Phillips screwdriver (cam-lock kits need nothing more); a drill/driver on low torque for baton kits
- Wood glue if your kit uses batons; painter’s tape; a square; a friend for the monitor step
- Your monitor, to test-fit before the back panel closes
Step 1 — Inventory and identify every panel
Lay all panels face-up and match them against the parts list: two sides, base, top, back, control panel, monitor mount or bezel, marquee retainers, and speaker panel where fitted. Check edges for shipping damage now, not at step nine. On melamine kits, note which faces are finished — they face outward and inward visibly, and a reversed side panel is the classic first-build error. Tape a small label on the inside face of each panel if the kit is unnumbered; the LEP1 kit ships with numbered baton supports for exactly this reason.
Step 2 — Dry-fit the shell
Assemble the base, sides and top loosely — cam-locks finger-tight, or two screws per baton — and check the cabinet sits square and does not rock. This is your only cheap chance to find a mis-drilled panel or a swapped left/right pair. Confirm the control panel opening and monitor bay match your screen’s width; bartops in this class accept up to a 22–23-inch widescreen, but “accepts” assumes standard VESA proportions, and some monitors are wider in the bezel than their spec sheet suggests.
Step 3 — Fit the monitor before the cabinet closes
Mount the screen to its VESA plate or bezel now, while access is free from every side. Route its power and HDMI cables through the cabinet’s cable path and coil the slack where the back panel will not crush it. If the kit uses a plexiglass monitor cover (included with the GameRoomSolutions Deluxe), fit it after the screen is mounted and peel protective film last — plexi scratches if you so much as schedule it.
Step 4 — Final assembly, working outward
Break the shell down and rebuild it in the maker’s order, fully tightening as you go: base to sides, top, speaker panel, then the control panel box. Cam-lock builders: turn each lock until it seats with firm resistance — over-torquing melamine is how cam pockets strip. Baton-kit builders: glue and screw, wipe squeeze-out immediately, and keep the driver on a low clutch setting; MDF splits when bullied. Fit the back panel last and leave it removable if the design allows — you will be back inside this cabinet, and future-you is grateful for screws over glue.
Step 5 — T-molding and artwork
Press T-molding into its slots working around corners without stretching it; a rubber mallet persuades where thumbs fail, and a sharp knife trims the ends at a join hidden at the bottom rear. If your kit includes an artwork template (GameRoomSolutions and Ourcades both supply one), apply vinyl before fitting the control panel hardware — buttons and sticks trap artwork edges, which is good, but only if the artwork went down first.
Step 6 — Marquee and light
Fit the marquee retainers and plexiglass, and mount your light source behind it. An LED strip such as the Govee RGBIC strip adhered along the top inner edge gives even, app-controlled light without a mains fitting inside the cabinet. Test the marquee lit before the back goes on; hotspots are invisible in daylight and obvious in a dark room.
If your kit is raw MDF: finishing comes before assembly
Melamine kits skip this entirely, which is their quiet luxury. A raw MDF shell (the Ourcades blank, and most unmelamined flat-packs) wants its finish applied while the panels are still flat on the bench: seal every face and — this is the part that matters — every edge, because MDF edges drink paint and swell if left thirsty. Prime, sand, and apply your color coats panel by panel, then assemble with the finished faces protected by the blanket from Step 1. Builders who paint an assembled cabinet paint its inside corners badly and its outside beautifully, in that order, and regret the sequence at leisure. Artwork vinyl likewise goes on flat. The assembled cabinet is the worst workbench in the building; keep the bench work on the bench.
One more pre-assembly decision with permanent consequences: the control panel’s drilling. Blank shells leave hole layout to you (Ourcades offers pre-drilled 6- or 8-button options — take one unless your layout is genuinely nonstandard). If you are drilling your own, work from a printed full-scale template, center-punch every hole, and drill the button holes with the panel backed by scrap wood to prevent exit-side tear-out.
Step 7 — First power, open-backed
Connect the brain, controls and speakers (the wiring itself is covered in our control-panel tutorial), and run the first power-up with the back panel off and the cabinet on the bench. Play a game standing where a player stands. Check viewing angle, speaker aim, and that no cable fouls a fan or a button tail. Only then close the back, set the cabinet on its feet, and level it.
The mistakes, collected
- Finishing raw MDF after assembly — paint and seal panels flat, before the build, if your kit is unmelamined.
- Closing the back before test-fitting the monitor. See Step 3. Everyone does it once.
- Tightening cam-locks in sequence rather than progressively — snug all, square the cabinet, then final-tighten.
- Peeling plexiglass film early. It is armor until the last five minutes.
With the shell standing, the build continues with wiring the control panel and setting up the brain.