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To route or not to route: trackball mounting plate

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juggle50:

What do you guys think.  I'm going to put a black trackball mounting plate on a desktop controllor that is going to be stained wood.  I'm not using lexian or plexi glass to hide the trackball mounting plate.

At first I was dead set on routing out the 1/16th of an inch for the trackball mounting plate to fall flush with the wood but after doing my mock up (wish I had pictures but someone is borrowing my camera,) I actually think it looks really good raised slightly as it matches the highth of the dust washers and screw-caps on the joysticks right next to it, and may look funny inset.

What do you think, should I route or not?

HaRuMaN:

Yeah, I would go with not routed for your case.  Keep it uniform.  :)

SirPeale:

Why are the dust washers on the top?

Oh yeah...wood.  Stained wood.

Hm...no easy way to get them where they're supposed to be, is there.

markrvp:

The one thing I can't stand on a control panel (and this has cause me to not vote for cabinets for MAMEY awards) is an exposed trackball mounting plate.

HOWEVER - I understand why you are leaving yours exposed.  In your case I WOULD NOT recess the plate because if you don't recess the outside lines perfectly straight, you will have to use a wood filler to fix the gaps and that will look crappy when the stain is applied.

Have you thought about not using a mounting plate?  There are a couple of projects similar to yours where the trackball was mounted with brackets under the panel.  All you see on top is 1/8" of wood leading up to the trackball Hi-lip which is flush with the wood.

juggle50:

Thank you for the feedback guys.  This makes me think that I will  not recess the wood.  Mark MVP, do you have any links to projects or tutorials with the mounting methods that you described.  I will probably be making cuts tomorrow so any immediate help would be appreciated.

This is specifically for a lapbox/desktop controller project not a proper control panel for a cabinet therefore I don't mind it looking a bit unique.  I'm actually a fan of dust washers on top when used with wood or metal panels where the hole does not look as aesthetically appealing as when used with an art/lexian/plexi control panel.

I use black screw caps instead of flat machine screws for the joy stick mounting screws, and I think the black accents the wood rather nicely and therefore do not mind the black mounting plate highlighting that theme.

However, on a lexian control panel on an upright cabinet I would probably find the mounting plate hideous.

thanks again guys

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