Control Panel wood thickness?

[megashock5]

Starting to plan my control panel and I haven't decided whether to go with all wood (with some sort of thin covering) or to make a graphic CPO that sits under lexan or plexi.

My question is, what are the thicknesses that are used for each of these? I remember seeing either 3/4" or 5/8" mentioned for the wood ones, but I haven't seen anything about the other. I supposed it would depend on the thickness of the lexan or plexi, but what would be the overall thickness to shoot for?

thanks!

[photorock]

        I think, but don't quote me on this, most go with 5/8" wood (mdf or plywood) 1/8" or 1/4" (lexan or plexi), depending on wheather you want a little bit of a lip when you apply the 3/4" t-molding and artwork between.

         There should be lots of threads here on this, becouse it's been debated a number of times. Do a search you should find lots of usefull info.

         Personally, I used 3/4" Plywood (for strenth, mine is a desktop unit attached to my computer dest), 1/8" Lexan and 1" t-molding with artwork between.

[zaphod]

I do not top mine with lexan and I use 3/4".  

[sofakng]

I'm in the process of building my control panel.  I've used 3/4" MDF for entire cabinet EXCEPT the control panel.

For that I'm using 5/8" MDF and 1/8" plexiglass.  5/8 + 1/8 = 3/4" = the size of my t-molding.

So, that's what I would suggest anyways...

[megashock5]

^ sounds great - thanks for the info!

Still trying to decide which way to go, but this is exactly what I was looking for.

[Sylentwulf]

Yes, it basically all depends on wether or not you're using plexi on top, AND if you can even FIND any 5/8" MDF (I went to 2 home depots and one lumber yard, and none of them had any 5/8")

So for me, it was easy, all 3/4" no plexi.

[NoOne=NBA=]

I use 1x solid poplar for mine, with no plexi over the top.
The actual thickness is 3/4", and you don't have the laminated edge showing like you do with plywood.
For graphics, I am using back-printed 0.010 lexan, which is what was used on most of the classic cabs.

I don't like MDF at all.
It is not anywhere near as strong as solid wood or plywood.
It is easier to form though.