How to make a clean exit for wires?

[barfybuffet]

How did all of you provide an exit hole for your cabinets?
I want to make it look as clean as possible.. I have a smartstrip with a 6' long heavy duty cord, an ethernet cable, and a svideo cable (i plan to have the capability to output to television -- blaspemy, I know..).
Is there some sort of rubber grommet type thing that is made for this purpose? It will also need to fit over the plugs on the ends somehow...
What did you do?

[papaschtroumpf]

I use a breakout connector on my cab, something like this:
 
It looks real nice and makes moving the cab easy.
You can buy a cheap receptacle for the cable connection at home depot, or just go wireless  
There probably is the equivalent for the S-video connector.

[Homebrew]

personally i drilled a hole at the very bottom edge of my back panel.  Since its at the bottom edge, its actually more of an upside down U than a hole.  Since a picture is worth a thousand words:



Full size versions of those images here:
http://home.comcast.net/~homebrewracing/mamecab/cab40.html
http://home.comcast.net/~homebrewracing/mamecab/cab41.html

By doing it this way, i didn't have to make a hole big enough to pass the head of the plug through.  It keeps the hole nice and tight around the cord.  The drawback is that if your back panel isn't removable, it could be a serious pain in the ass if you had to replace/remove the cord for some reason.  Hopefully it will spark some ideas at least.  Originally i was gonna do the same thing as papaschtroumpf, but i was impatient and at the time couldn't fine the piece locally, so i took the quick/free route.  

-Kevin

[barfybuffet]

I use a breakout connector on my cab, something like this:
 
It looks real nice and makes moving the cab easy.
You can buy a cheap receptacle for the cable connection at home depot, or just go wireless  
There probably is the equivalent for the S-video connector.

that is a good idea... i was already thinking about terminating my own cat5 jack. how do you wire the power to that? how do i know which wire gets connected to which terminal? im guessing trial and error could be disasterous in this case....

[eightbit]

Many cabinets had a slot cut in the cab below the back door. So stick your cord in the slot then put the door on. Very clean, very cheap, very authentic. If you don't understand what I mean let me know and I'll get a pic of one of mine.

edit: Like what homebrew shows above except its easier to put the door on if you make the slot in the cab instead of the door. The way homebrew did it work but I bet he has to fuss with the cable everytime he puts the door on.

[Minwah]

I use a breakout connector on my cab, something like this:
 
It looks real nice and makes moving the cab easy.
You can buy a cheap receptacle for the cable connection at home depot, or just go wireless  
There probably is the equivalent for the S-video connector.

I intend to do the same.  Use a multimeter/continuity tester to make sure which wires are wired to each terminal on the mains plug.  Then double check...

[SirPoonga]

Also goto your local AV, hardware, or computer store.  I have Ethernet coming out of my cabinet.  I put a wall jack in the bottom back of my cabinet.  I painted it the same color as the cabinet so on pics on my site it is tough to see it.  A local store for me, Microcenter, has modular wall jacks that can hold 2 to 3 modules.  I have a 2 module with an ethernet.  In the future I may need another one so I'd jus thave to get the module for it and snap it in.

Ok, just took a pic.  Copy and paste link into brand new browser.
http://free.hostdepartment.com/S/SirPoonga/images/y_cab_cords.jpg

[papaschtroumpf]

I use a breakout connector on my cab, something like this:
 
It looks real nice and makes moving the cab easy.
You can buy a cheap receptacle for the cable connection at home depot, or just go wireless  
There probably is the equivalent for the S-video connector.

that is a good idea... i was already thinking about terminating my own cat5 jack. how do you wire the power to that? how do i know which wire gets connected to which terminal? im guessing trial and error could be disasterous in this case....

I sacrificed a power strip and use red spade connectors, similar to how I connect to my CP switches. I then covered the whole thing with a 15 cent blue inverted electrical box so that there was no risk of accidentally touching the terminal or bumping them loose.

The plug I got actually came with instructions but I had lost them by the time I put it in   . The center wire the the green (ground), and I have a cheap outlet tester that I used to see if phase and neutral were reversed (black and white), which by the way I had in my first try. The outlet tester is a few bucks at any home improvement center and mine looks like this:

[ashardin]

My cabinet had a hole at the bottom of the back door, but on my control panel that I had to pass wires through I used the 1 1/8" spade bit that I used to drill the holes.  Worked perfectly and was big enough to pass the connectors through.

[patchman4062]

If you are just drilling a hole through the wood you can go to Home depot and get some rubber grommets to make it look professional.  I forget how much a pack was but it was cheap.  I really like the breakout connector though.  Now I have to put one on my cab.  

Patch