So I took a rare day off work today and got lots done!
I'd previously cut the 6mm plywood monitor bezel and affixed some battens so that I could rout the hole for the monitor with a flush trim bit. It came out nice with some rounded corners. Today I glued the two battens on the top and bottom of the monitor bezel, to a) affix it to the side panels and b) allow me to affix some small detachable monitor retainer blocks. I also glued two battens onto the bottom of the two side panels for the base to attach to...
^ Oh yeah, also 2 small blocks on either side of the monitor to hold it in place laterally.
The detachable monitor retaining blocks are basically just 40x40x12mm plywood blocks affixed to the battens using small hex bolts screwing into brass inserts...
Here you can see the bottom batten with the 2 retainer blocks affixed. For these ones I had to glue some 2mm balsa wood strips to the blocks to pad/reach the monitor and keep it from moving when the bolts are tightened...
For the top batten, no balsa padding was needed, but I still need to shave a bit off the outside edge of the blocks so they're flush with the batten, as this will butt up to the underside of the marquee panel...
Here's the back view. Monitor fixes nice and snug and secure and is dead easy to remove if I ever need to replace it.
Aaannnddd... the front view - looking good
I'll be putting artwork on the front of this monitor bezel, so will be filling/sanding/priming for that at some point soon. I also have to add the bottom monitor glass retainer. I've ordered the 4mm toughened safety glass (grey tinted) which will sit on top of the 6mm ply bezel, over the artwork. The glass should be here in a couple of weeks.
I also decided to raise the cab off the ground a little - I don't want the t-molded sides touching the surface it's sitting on, so I have glued 3.5mm ply sheet to the base, a little smaller than the actual base panel, and will be gluing a 3mm rubber matting to this. This'll put the cab 2-3mm off the floor/table but provide a nice solid anti-slip base...
I also did some more painting prep for some of the remaining panels. Filling, sanding, and some high-build primer was the order of business...
From left to right: -
- Speaker/Storage-box panel. Front of which has a slot for the marquee, back of which is the base of the storage box behind the marquee.
- Front panel of the storage box behind the marquee.
- Storage box lid (underside)
- Cabinet base - with the panel added for the rubber matting.
- Top marquee panel.
- Finally at the bottom there are 2 primed butt hinges that I'm going to paint black, for the storage box lid.
The plan is for all of these bits to be smooth matt black. The only parts of the cab that will be mirror finish gloss are the inside of the side panels, and the top (maybe).
Lastly... Some bits I ordered for the back panel have arrived!
4 USB panel mount connectors, an IEC power socket and 2 long-shaft 1K potentiometers (I'll use one for the volume knob on the back panel, and the other to limit the max volume of the speakers to something sensible)...
I haven't sketchup'd this yet, but my idea for the back panel is as follows...
So that's (from left to right): -
- 2 USB sockets for Players 1 and 2 (for controllers when using console games on Retropie)
- Power IEC socket and momentary power push button for the Pi (wired to GPIO pins)
- 80mm quiet USB fan to give some airflow to the pi (it has a small fan on it as it is overclocked already)
- Volume knob
- Pause Button
- 2 USB sockets for Players 3 and 4 (for controllers when using console games on Retropie)
If you can think of anything I've missed, or can offer suggestions to improve it, please let me know.