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bobbyb13:
Got a bit farther along on the box but forgot to take any pictures.

I decided to deviate almost entirely from any original cabinet (Star Wars or otherwise) and was working on the overall art theme and came up with some ideas.
Need to see if my sister can get her Cricut machine going and make me some stuff to try out for looks.

If I'm going to run with a "Red Five" theme here I might as well do it thoroughly.
Still haven't decided on exactly what the copy will be but this is a start using some fun themed fonts at least.

The other part would be some images that I am hoping to get from a real artist who made something cool that I liked and which works with the concept I finally came up with.

Other than that I'm torn between taking my first shot at vinyl lamination for this one or trying to paint it with urethane.
It might come down to how imaptient I get, since I can pretty much build out the whole thing and then cover it with vinyl and not have to take it all apart again.

I found some cool gun metal colored vinyl that would be the right look.

If I can stomach spending the $$ on the paint that could still happen, but it is a LOT more work obviously.

Mike A:
Red 5 always gets all of the attention.

Be original. RED 6.

Jek Porkins.

bobbyb13:
I like your style.
I'll bite.
Time to work out a marquee design incorporating Red Six that includes two 4" speakers on the sides a la Missile Command.

--- Quote from: Mike A on April 30, 2023, 11:41:36 am ---Red 5 always gets all of the attention.

Be original. RED 6.

Jek Porkins.

--- End quote ---

bobbyb13:
Sometimes I hate the modern world.
Second try on this post due to some flaky internet.

Being a pygmy goat midwife has kept me out of the cabinet building business for a week and a half now.
We are drowning in cuteness here now of course (six of the little shits) but I am exhausted.

So I decided I wanted to try a different finish for this cabinet and after thinking through different vinyl laminate possibilities and urethanes I arrived on epoxy paint.

The base coat for this technique (which is like painting a boat really) is first putting on some spar varnish as a sanding sealer.
Nice thing about this is that it can be rolled on, so I don't need to dedicate an hour to getting the gun and material ready, spraying, and then cleaning up (which is like half of the escapade.)
After a few days of hardening up this makes for a really nice base to put some paint on.

While this was drying (and in between goat deliveries and regular work) I figured I should get going on the bezel.
This is basically how I made the one for the Missile Command cabinet too but my goal here is trying to make it easier to build and easier to explain so that maybe somebody else might be foolish enough to try it.
>:D

If you look closely enough at the cabinet picture above you can see the line up the inside where I want the bezel to rest so I added battens along those marks to make for the base to build this thing.
The whole bezel frame sits on top of the battens that carry the control panel also.

To start I cut the entire square for the outer bezel frame, 1/8" narrower than the inside width of the cabinet and tall enough to be pinned in place by the marquee above and control panel below when everything is in place.
From there I measured the outer dimensions of the monitor tube, added 1/8" to that for the total cutout, and used a dime to trace for the corner radius.
Plunge cut with a circular saw to get straight lines for most of it and then finish with the jig saw.

I'm using 1/8" melamine backed MDF again. Thin and light enough to be easy to work with, thick enough to be stable as you work with it, the melamine adds a bit of substance to make it more durable too, and it's a material that can be painted, glassed or whatever you like for a finish.

The headache part of this has always been trying to get the damn tube face curves good.
After agonizing for an hour with various methods (again) I tried this.
Stick a piece of material along the side of the tube, perpendicular to the tube face and then trace it, taking care to keep the pencil on the same plane against the tube face as you trace.

Easy, right?
Well it works.
If you cut your frame the same way that I did then you are only putting the rather small panels that meet the tube at a pretty shallow angle really and it doesn't ruin the ability of that curve you traced to work for you.
When I was confident that could work I went and traced the side curve and then cut out pieces and duplicated them.
Having a contour gauge handy to check your work as you go along doesn't hurt.

At this point since the frame is sitting where it will actually live in the machine then all you need to do is rest the curved bits in place and trace the flat edge on the backside along the outer frame piece to cut them for proper depth.
You can then also trace the lines where the pieces overlap in the corners to get them to meet properly.
There is a bit of back and forth to do it like this but you wind up with something that sits quite well.

Once the pieces are cut to proper back dimension then pinning them in place relative to each other on the frame with some tape is not hard to do because you have the tube to brace them for you.
You can go overboard with the tape if you want to because this is all getting glued in place from the backside to begin with anyway.
It doesn't need to be perfect at this point either because you can always fill any trouble spots later but the closer you can get it here the better.

After it is stabilized then just pull it out and lay it on its face on a table.
This is where I make my favorite marshmallow consistency epoxy and microballoon mixture and baste the crap out of all the seams on the backside of the thing.
Once that has kicked then turn it back over, peel off your now unnecessary tape and put a nice fillet of epoxy filler in the corners and fill any joints where the panels meet on the face.

Sand it out after that side has kicked and then it is ready for paint, fiberglass, vinyl, etc.

I may not live long enough to decide on what to do for color or artwork on this piece.
Maybe once I actually have the cabinet painted something will come to me.

Zebidee:
That certainly is some impressive bezel work. Stronger than a cardboard bezel. Not really more complicated either, if you have the right stuff.

Also good that the goats can't eat it!

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