So I was going to try and build the large vertical monitor neo geo this year, but it isn't going to happen. I did though manage to finish the decking of in the garden properly, I got the Gazeebo up and managed to get some time in on the hot tub before summer ended
. So as the decking was complete and I no longer had a Gazeebo and hot tub taking up precious room I managed to rearrange all my tools and actually get my summer house back available to me. Yay finally
It's only a little summerhouse which is less than 8ft x 8ft internal space. But in there I have a lot of stuff.
I have a Soft modified Wii, Soft modified Wii-u, Jtag Xbox 360 with DVD Removed and put into HD DVD Casing for extra cooling, Soft Modded PS3, Complete 5.1 THX Stereo setup, 36" TV and 43" TV (The 43 should go into Neogeo when built). I also have a Dell Venue tablet and docking station for Kodi/Youtube etc.
Looking at this pile of Electronics and stuff I realised that I need to get it arranged and sorted, At the moment it is just haphazardly piled up and cabling is a complete mess. I looked at the space that everything is piled into and measured it to find I have available to me a whole 48.5" wide x 15" deep (Any deeper and I would have to move plug sockets, any wider and I'm into door territory). Once I had the measurements for everything that needed to go into the unit I sat and doodled down on a piece of paper how I see the layout.
Once I had a crappy 2d sketch I transferred it all to Sketchup and this is what I ended up coming up with.
(Unfortunately the Subwoofer is 18 Deep so sticks out)
(Yes that is a lot of electronics for a small shed)
(The Green Strips are LED Strips which I plan to use for ambient lighting, or flashing in time to the music)
(Putting some more strips on the back, just because I have lots of them).
The unit as designed means that 1 sheet of 4 x 8 18mm (Furniture Ply or MDF, not sure yet) should build it all.
Base will be exactly 48" wide and depth will be 13" Height will be around 54"
This works out well as If I get the 4 x 8 cut into 7 strips at 13" and 1 at 5
2 x full lengths
4 get cut in half, which gives me the 8 x 24" uprights
1 gets cut to fit for all the shelves
the 5" bit can get run through the table saw to give me 2 of 24" x 3.5" Kickboards, and 4 of 12" x 1.5 Kickboards
The entire thing will be put together with Pocket Screws and Glue.
I have some spare Tmolding in Red and Black, So I may very well finish off the frontage with that.
Things not yet decided, What kind of finish do I want, If I go with MDF I can either Spray or Vinyl wrap without issue, But it will be heavy as hell (Maybe should change out the legs for wheels).
If I go for furniture ply it will be a bit lighter, but will the finish be as smooth, I worry about splintering etc on edges when using ply (Only used for door of shed previously so not massively experienced with it)
Cable tidying/running, There are a lot of cables for all of these items, I will have 2 x 6 way extensions under the unit hopefully that should pretty much cover everything I need to plug in, It's just making sure that the cables don't look an utter mess afterwards, I think I will probably go with cable tidy tube and some plumbing clips. The only good news there is that my new Amp has 5 HDMI Inputs so most of the consoles can go straight through the amp.
If I fit a back to the unit it will be a single sheet of white 3mm hardboard with relevant holes for cables.
So there we have it, my next project is ready to rumble, I just need to find somewhere local that can cut the wood into 13" strips and it shouldn't take too long.