What order to make cuts/drill holes/use router...?

[lharles]

I'm finally going to try and make the top for my control panel today.  I've got a couple days off in the middle of the week here, (due to working the last 4 weeks straight, and having to do so for the next 2 weeks after this), and want to finish this thing so it plagues me no longer. 

What I'm wondering is whether I should drill/cut all of the holes for the buttons, joysticks, spinners, and trackballs first OR do the routing first...?

Any thoughts?

Thanks!

[buks]

It probably doesnt make a huge amount of difference but if theres something likely to go wrong then do that first. If you haven't done much routing before then I'd do that first - that way if you make a really bad mistake you don't have to start everything again. Drilling holes shouldn't be a problem as long as you "measure twice and cut once"TM.

[lharles]

Okay. 

That answers my question, I think.

So, really, I should do the routing for the joysticks first then.

I'll be measuring probably somewhere in the neighborhood of 10 times for each drill/cut...because I'm horrible at this stuff. 

I just didn't know if I should be concerned about drilling the hole for the joystick with the depth of the wood being decreased due to already being routed prior to drilling it.

It's just my naivete' when it comes to this stuff. 

Thanks...

[juggle50]

If it makes you feel more comfortable, you can drill the holes for the joystics, route then drill the rest of the holes.  I'm not great at that kind of stuff either so just do it slow to your comfort level.  Just don't rush it and you'll be fine.

[KillerArcades]

One thing that I learned when making my first cabinet is that it can be (at least for me) harder to get your artwork to line up with your holes if you drill all your holes first, so... if you're going to be doing CP artwork, and depending on the artwork, you might want to consider getting your artwork done and applied first and then just drilling through the artwork and wood at once to make sure your buttons holes and such are lined up perfectly.

Again, if you have a CAD program (which I didn't/don't), then this might not be worth mentioning. I always seem to hear how a good CAD program (and knowledge of how to use it decently ), can make things like this precise and a non-issue, but for me, it was an issue.

[shardian]

Again, if you have a CAD program (which I didn't/don't), then this might not be worth mentioning. I always seem to hear how a good CAD program (and knowledge of how to use it decently ), can make things like this precise and a non-issue, but for me, it was an issue.

You can get a 30 day trial of AutoCAD from their website. It is not too hard to learn AutoCAD (other versions of CAD can be more difficult). All you would be doing is drawing lines and circles to scale. Things can get tricky when plotting, but then there is help/tutorials in AutoCAD to walk you thru that in a pinch.
http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/index?siteID=123112&id=5603704

The only thing about the trial is that they will watermark anything you plot out. No big deal, really.

[lharles]

Well, the preliminary cutting, routing, and drilling of the panel is complete.  I did find out some interesting things...

1.  Cutting MDF outside and with the wind blowing away minimizes inhalation...however, you can still get sunburned.  Yeah.  Really.

2.  The urge to immediately place the control panel top on the 'box' that it will eventually sit upon, in order to use all of the controls immediately is almost irresistable.  If you don't have anything wired you'll find, as I did, that this is really very ineffective.

3.  You really can lose yourself in your work.  I seem to be missing the hours between 8am and 5pm today.

4.  You can rely upon the folks here at BYOAC to be helpful...usually after a little ribbing and the such. 

I'm hoping to have everything wired up and ready for testing by tomorrow morning, (time to burn that midnight oil - not the Australian music group - just a figure of speech).

Thanks for the suggestions and direction so far...I'll be back to pester you all again soon. 

[Timoe]

Did you take any pictures at least?

[miles2912]

Did you take any pictures at least?

Yea..  we showed you ours!

D-

[lharles]

In relation to the pictures...no. 

I wanted to.  In fact, I've gotten sort of good at documenting the process visually up until this point, both for posts here and for the blog documenting the building process...unfortunately the digital camera has stopped functioning and I've spent all of my disposable income on the beast that is...

'The Control Panel Of Doom!'

So, no pictures...yet. 

I'll try and take a bunch of pics as soon as I can get my hands on a digital camera...or can afford to get film developed, have time to scan the pics, crop them, remove the red eye, and so on.

By the way, sunburn is hurty.

[PCtech]

2.  The urge to immediately place the control panel top on the 'box' that it will eventually sit upon, in order to use all of the controls immediately is almost irresistable.  If you don't have anything wired you'll find, as I did, that this is really very ineffective.

3.  You really can lose yourself in your work.  I seem to be missing the hours between 8am and 5pm today.

Yep, I've heard that finishing the CP before the cab, can be one of the biggest mistakes you can make...becuase most will spend time playing the games with the CP, and never finish the rest of the cab.

And, it is easy to lose tons of time, when constructing the thing...time flies when having fun

Good luck!