Building a cab from scratch!!

[jlampc]

Long Message

I have been planning to build a custom cab for months. I have slowly purchased everything I think I am going to need. My plan is for a system with 2 screens. A 15 inch SVGA monitor on top of a 19inch TV. I purchased the TV from Ebay before I considered the svideo question. Anyway, I have purchased all the buttons and joysticks from Happ. I have t molding and a working coin door(ebay). I built a system with a P3 850 and a geforce MX card(i know ATI- but  I need to be able to play other things). I even received my order of black formica for the sides. My big problem is the actual construction. I need to figure out how to round all of the corners to allow the t molding to wrap around. I do not want to eye ball it in fear that it will be uneven. HELP. The system once its done should be nice. I have an altec lancing speaker sub waiting.  

[jelloslug]

T-molding will wrap around fairly tight corners if you cut the gripper part off the back where the corner is.  As for laying out the rounded corners you can do this a few ways:  1) Buy a compass and draw the corners first, then cut with a jigsaw  (you must know how to constuct tangent circles to do this.  PM me if you need help).  2) Buy a circle template from an art supply store or drafting supply store, you can just line up the template with the edges and mark the corner but you are limited to sizes that are on the template.  3) (The cheapest way)  Make your own template with a soup can, drink can, ect.  Or make your own compass with a string pencle and a nail.  4) Some jigsaws have circle cutting attachments that work like the pencle, sting, and nail method.  This would give you the best corner if you are not good with a jigsaw but you must line up the corner perfectly for it to work right.  I would make a test piece and try out whatever method you deside to use first.

[1UP]

No need for anything so complex!  What I did was cut out the side panels with square corners, then went back with a plane and a sanding block to round it all off.  You can draw curves with a compass, but I managed pretty well by eye.  It sounds like a lot of work, but it actually didn't take long.  The plane shaves off a lot of wood pretty fast, so you just rough it in then finish it with sandpaper.  Looks like a professional job to me!  Just make sure when you cut the inside corners, you don't go all the way into the corner with your saw--you need a little excess so you can round it off!

[ddebuss]

You can but rounding templates from a woodworking store (Sears may have them as well).  You simply clamp the templates to your project and hit the corners with a router.  I
made my own large template for the entire side of my countertop from hardboard.  I laid out my profile on hardboard, cut it (on the template hardboard) with a rotozip, sanded until it looked like I wanted it to.  When I got the look I was after I clamped to my sides and cut it with my router with a template bit.  Made 8 very curvy sides (enough for 4 cabinets) and all are identical.  I can make as many more identical as I like.  It worked great.  Minor sanding was all that was required to finish it up.

[jlampc]

Thannks for all the suggestions.!!!

[1UP]

BTW, one more good way (I did this today): one of my corners got badly damaged after I had installed and trimmed my laminate, then dropped it!  OUCH.    So I decided to make it a rounded corner.    I traced the curve with a circle template, and hit it with a cheap power sheet sander.  That sucker shaved it down FAAAST and I just stopped once the pencil line disappeared.  You can't tell if it was done by hand or with industrial machinery.

Word of advice: go ahead and round all your bottom corners slightly, and put on your t-mold as soon at you've trimmed the laminate.  It'll help keep down the damage!