Control Panel - attachment / removal

[Spawn2k]

Im building this cabinet and wanted to do the cp in 3/4 wood. I thought about gluing the bottom and front pieces together and making the top removable to access controls. Should i make the whole thing removable? What would be a good idea on how to do this and give me good support?

[Spawn2k]

I think what im going to do is have the top sit on a ledger and use threaded inserts for wood. I wanted it to look like a wrap around but i guess a few bolts on the outskirts will be fine.

[ivwshane]

I'd have to see your overall design to give you advice but if you actually want something removable you probably won't want to use screws but rather something like a toggle clamp.

[Spawn2k]

Do you know tight you can get a toggle clamp? How much force is need to pull out? I might toggle clamp the bottom so I can sand/bondo the front edge if needed. This is for an atari warlords coctail I'm making. The original cab had a pice of sheet metal that wrapped arround.

[ivwshane]

You can get adjustable toggle clamps so you can make them as tight as you want.

[rhoelsch]

I used a piano hinge in the back for the top to open. Control panel was originally just resting on top, which was ok because it was heavy, then I secured it using strips of commercial-grade Velcro. Invisible, very secure, and easier to mess with than some locking mechanism.