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Hitting a mental and financial wall on the cab.... Advice?

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AGarv:

BobA, great I dea about turning the LCD upside down for an angled cabinet display - never thought of that!

alfonzotan:

Any particular reason why you're planning to laminate both inside and out?  I'm a huge laminate advocate, but covering the interior seems like a waste of money and effort... I mean, it'll look fantastic when you have the door open, but otherwise, who's going to see it?

Adding to that, if you aren't going to have any exposed wood anyway, why spend the premium to get birch plywood or heavy MDF?  Get the cheap pine stuff instead, it's lighter, and the laminate will look great even laid up on a C-grade surface (just be sure to pick out flat sheets--which is a pain in the store, but worth it once you get home).

Caveat:  MDF is the best choice for a control panel surface.  Even, flat and it won't change shape with age.  Worth the weight and the sawdust...

wivelden:


--- Quote from: BobA on May 08, 2012, 08:43:38 pm ---Brian74, try turning your LCD upside down.   The view from the top is usually alot less washed out then the view from the bottom.   This is because we view the screen either evenly or from some height.   Since we do not sit at a desk that lets us look uo thru the keyboard the view from below is cr#p.



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I did this on my cocktail cab and it looks a whole lot better. Dont forget to rotate the display 180 degrees in the graphic settings too.

harveybirdman:


--- Quote from: alfonzotan on May 09, 2012, 08:48:03 am ---Any particular reason why you're planning to laminate both inside and out?  I'm a huge laminate advocate, but covering the interior seems like a waste of money and effort... I mean, it'll look fantastic when you have the door open, but otherwise, who's going to see it?

Adding to that, if you aren't going to have any exposed wood anyway, why spend the premium to get birch plywood or heavy MDF?  Get the cheap pine stuff instead, it's lighter, and the laminate will look great even laid up on a C-grade surface (just be sure to pick out flat sheets--which is a pain in the store, but worth it once you get home).

Caveat:  MDF is the best choice for a control panel surface.  Even, flat and it won't change shape with age.  Worth the weight and the sawdust...

--- End quote ---

I understand what you are saying, in this case though the reveal will be visable on the cabinet's exterior at the top and back using my current design.  PlusI don't just want to build a functional cabinet, I also want it to turn a few heads.  I mean I'll never be able to top some of the craftsmen here because I'm not nearly smart or tech savy enough to even approach some of the innovation I've seen.

I've decided that based on input from Agarv, PL1, and several others that I'm going to make the panel modular without looking modular.  Since the control panel is small say 2' x 7.5" the interface will need to be mounted lower in the machine. I see no reason not to take advantage of this and use a batten with a slot cut in it for a tab on the panel to ride in. Then it can be held in place with a chest latch instead of screws and other panels with the same tab can be hot swapped out.  So I may have for example a second 2' x 7.5" panel with a trackball, two rotaries, and three player buttons per stick...

It will cost more for additional interfaces, but that can be part of a phase II upgrade, but the architechture will be there to support swapping panels, even though I may only make one panel now and as far as anyone will be able to tell from the outside it won't look modular.  I drew it out but I'm at work, i'll post pics when I can.

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