Finally got some time to get something done.
For the newbs like myself I thought it might be helpful to continue documenting what I've learned, so.......
Pocket joints as mentioned above, they are made with the Kreg Jig:
Holes look like this:
Drill slowly on both the pocket hole, AND when you drill the pilot hole for the screw or else you can get some of the head of the screw sticking out:
You can use a Dremel to take it down so not the end of the world. They also sell pocket hole fillers, but for me I will just be using wood filler to smooth it out until I can get the laminate over it.
Next I figured I would just use European hinges to have the lid open as it was what I was planning on doing with the main control panel......so yeah I'm really glad I'm practicing. You can use these hinges if you don't have an overhang on your lid. It will work if the lid is either flush or inset from the edge of the box, so big fail:
In doing research I came across these:
They are Soss hinges and they are pretty fantastic. I really wanted a hinges that was invisible from the outside, and I like these even better than the European Hinge. They wouldn't normally be that difficult to install, however because my box is on a slope it made it challenging.
Thankfully they come with a handy template:
Guy at the local Rockler store gave me the "Pro Tip" of first drilling a small pilot hole and put in some brad nails, then use a Dremel to cut the tops off:
This is so you can make an imprint on the lid and have a perfect alignment. Sounded pretty good but I almost got caught losing the brad nail in the wood from pressing the lid on. Barely fished them out with the needle nose.
ANWAY, I marked off the positions of the shallow and deeper holes you need to cut for this to fit:
Because the lid was on a slope I couldn't use the fence on the router table, but I did realize that if I put the whole box together it would form a smooth surface to slide back and forth. I ligned up the marks with the center of a 3/8" straight router bit (this a requirement for the proper holes). I used wood blocks to prevent over cutting left and right and a block in the back for depth. I did have a helluva time figuring out the depth to the fence because as I mentioned the slope created a gap between the fence and where I needed to route. That meant I had to offset the distance:
You have to make two passes, one for the shallow depth and one for the deeper part of the mount in the center:
I was doing shallow first then deeper, however in retrospect I would reverse that, because you can overshoot your depth on the deep hole, but you need to be accurate on the shallow hole depth so it lines up correctly.
Cue the better outcome of the two:
You can see how far this swings out, in fact if you don't have too much of an overhang you could get 180 degrees.
I'm definitely digging these a lot.