Okay, I've been having some fun, and some tedious time this past week. Mostly, I've been finishing up staining, then applying coats of urethane, sanding, and applying another coat of urethane. Most pieces now have 3 or 4 coats except for the 2 big side pieces that don't have any urethane yet.
Following the direction and advice of mcseforsale, I ordered my sheet of acrylic from TAP plastics. Solar grey, 3/16" thick. Then I thought: how am I going to insert the acrylic? He pointed to the way in a picture, and I figured I better cut a slot in my admin panel...but how? Aha, I've got it! Turn my table saw into a dado cutter -- set the blade depth by turning the blade depth crank to 1/4", set the fence to 1/4" wide, and make a pass. Perfect! One narrow slot, 1/4" deep. Now, adjust the fence, make another pass, and nibble away some more. One more adjustment, one last pass, and now I've got a little square groove/slot that is 1/4" x 1/4" at the top of my admin panel. My acrylic is 3/16" so it should fit just fine.
I've been going back and forth on what to do with the actual computer. I really don't want to just keep it in a case, especially since I got one of those tall CoolerMaster Hyper212 heat sink/fan units -- those things won't fit in just any case. I want to mount all the computer parts onto a board, and I've got the threaded inserts, nylon stand-offs, and long screws to mount the motherboard, so that part is easy. But, how and where do you mount the hard drive? Do you mount a DVD drive, or do you even need one in there after you've got everything loaded and installed? What about the power supply?? Lastly, the video card tips back and forth because it's not mounted or screwed down like you would do in a case - how do you keep that from moving?
Yeah, a lot to think about...also, is Windows XP a good OS to install all this with for a MAME PC? I've got copies and licenses for XP, but I've also got the Windows 7 install DVD and I could just install that into the PC and not do any updates or registration? (Also, the Windows 7 install DVD is a 64-bit install...of course I want that for my gaming computer, but I really don't think I'd need all that extra horsepower and speed for a MAME PC.)
I had a small mishap tonight. After staining and applying 3 coats of urethane, and after cutting my slot for the acrylic, and even after gluing on some of that birch veneer edging and staining that, I decided to drill the holes for the admin buttons...man...as the 1 1/8" spade bit was rotating, the drill jumped in my hands and popped out and made a scratch in the wood just beneath the button hole.
I dabbed some stain in the gash, but since it's through the veneer, the coloring doesn't look right, even with a button in place. And, my wife was quick to point out that I would know it was there...all...the...time...and it would just drive me crazy. Yeah, she's right, it would. Well, luckily, now that I knew how to build this piece, doing another one took all of 15 minutes to re-cut. Lesson to be learned? Do all your cuts and drilling
before you spend a bunch of time doing the finishing work.
I also ordered 2 Logisys CCL front light bars.
http://www.outletpc.com/c7918.html I may need only one, but I ordered 2 just because I don't know how much light they put out.
Okay, the pics!
#1 is the square slot I cut out using my table saw. Look at the bottom.
#2 is the CP box, flipped over. You can see the bottom board and the plywood boards that form the box - they have the birch veneer glue-on strips and are stained as well. Not many people are going to get on their hands and knees to look at the bottom of a control panel, so I think it will look fine.
#3 is my mishap piece and the new board, already cut and 'slotted' with the square slot. I put the Minwax Pre-Stain Wood Conditioner on and wiped off the excess, but I won't apply the first coat of stain until tomorrow when it has a chance to dry fully.
#4 both speakers mounted in the plywood piece. The open style grilles were painted flat black by me - the original color was a silvery grey. The silver that you see is part of the actual speaker.